Page 6 of To Wed a Highlander
She’d done this before, shared her passions with a man, taken his sex, his essence, to feed her power, but never with a manthispotent. Never with one this lethal.
The skin of her back felt shredded and swollen and it protested movement, but as the beast in front of her peeled his armor from his body, the pain faded beneath a surge of heat.
His light hair, darkened with rain, streamed glittering rivulets of water into the deep tracks of muscle he uncovered. He hissed great lung-fulls of air through his bared teeth, his abysmal gaze devouring the sight of her bared, chilly flesh. His long, water-spiked lashes lowered, those midnight eyes snagging on her nipples, puckered tight with the cold.
His muscles were not only large, but long, stretching over his bones as though holding together a frame as big and potent as his took a great deal of strength.
Unable to help herself, Kenna reached for him, enjoying the way his pectoral jumped and flinched beneath her hand as though even the lightest touch caused him pleasure. His skin was warm, burning, despite the chilly water, and the heat drew her forward. His armor hit the floor with a loud noise as she pressed her body against his hardness. The tension radiating from his body was hungry, predatory.
He bent to drag his mouth against the curve of her neck, drinking in the salt and rainwater he found there. The noise he made could have come from the throat of a wolf. A growl of need. A gentle threat.
Hurry, it warned,I’ll not be leashed for long.
Right, Kenna thought.To business.
Butthiswasn’t business, this wasn’t just duty and magick and the cost of regaining her druid power. In the past, she’d been able to separate the fire of her passions from those few men she’d shared it with. Her emotions remained locked behind cold stone, and only her flesh and theirs were used as a conduit of pleasure, heat, and magick.
That would be nigh impossible tonight. Not only was her flesh raw and bruised, but her soul seemed to be, as well. And the fact that this big and lethal warrior—a deities’ instrument of death—was now lavishing her skin with his tongue instead of spilling her blood was beginning to mean more with each passing moment they spent alone. She felt… exceptional, cherished somehow, by this man whose name and intent remained unknown. Indeed, his sense of honor was very much in question.
And she was about to take him into her body.
Kenna drew in a deep breath as excitement and lust flared beneath her misgivings. She’d just need to make sure to keep himoutof her heart.
The delectable movement of his lips against her throat became more insistent, demanding, his teeth finding places to nip and gnaw that left her breathless. His hands bypassed her back to find her ass, pulling her in tighter against him to thrust the incomprehensibly sized erection burning from behind his trews against her belly.
The sound he made this time was no longer a gentle threat, but a savage one. And then his trews were gone, and Kenna knew they weren’t going to make it to her small bed.
Suddenly she had difficulty breathing, the air in her cramped, spare room turned so hot, it scorched her lungs. To say he was magnificent would be as ridiculous as calling the Highland seascape beautiful. It applied, of course, but any of the descriptions she tried to conjure sounded trite and inadequate.
The effect was eerily similar. That rare moment a vision overwhelmed the eyes with its incredible, almostimpossibleperfection. When beauty stole the breath and quieted the mind, making one wish they could experience the sight with all the senses they possessed.
Laying both her hands on his powerful shoulders, she pressed him down. The thought of this hard, lethal beast on his knees before her caused a rush of desire to expel from between her thighs. She was slick and ready for him.
And well he knew it.
Allowing the gentle pressure of her hands to guide him down, he trailed his hot mouth over her rain-soaked skin, pausing to fill his hands with her breasts, to press a hot lick and a gentle tug against her nipple before leaving them with obvious reluctance. Before he could nuzzle at her sex, as it looked as though he wanted to do, Kenna sank down with him, splitting her legs over his hips and pushing him to the floor.
The heat radiating from him was alternately incredible and unbearable. His hips scalded her thighs. His chest burned her hands. His cock branded her belly as she slid it between their bodies.
Kenna almost felt sorry for what she was about to do to him. She felt guilty for taking power from a man so indescribably powerful.
But what choice had he left her?
Above that, how could she pass a man like this, with a body like his, without sampling the pleasure he could give her, and the bliss she could give him back?
They needed each other. The refugee and the marauder. The future held something for them, something they had to attain together. Kenna knew this with the certainty that she knew all things. And the exhilaration of the knowledge drove her to the brink of sanity.
“Lie still, Berserker,” she rasped, lust lowering her voice by entire octaves. “Do not thrust.” She had to control this, to make sure she knew exactly how much power she siphoned from him. Not too little, and not too much. The former would be useless, the latter, dangerous.
To them both.
His cold eyes speared her, reminding her he was not one to take orders, and yet he complied.
“You, who are so used to taking from others will know what it is to be taken,” she drawled, caressing the heat of his flesh with the slickness of hers. “And you will be a willing victim of the flames. I will use what I take from you to save you and your men.”
His lips parted as he began to pant, his big hands curled against her thighs in silent but insistent demand. She didn’t think he heard her, or maybe he didn’t mark her words, so intent was he on her breasts. Long, rough fingers ventured higher, seeking intimate flesh, but Kenna didn’t wait long enough to let him find her sex.
Her back ached and stung as she rose above him. So to block out the pain, she focused on the feel of his hot, blunt sex stretching her slick passage as she impaled herself inch by agonizing inch on his cock.
