Page 49 of The Heart of a Highlander
“What if I do this?” He rubbed that same spot in slow circles, which grew faster with each pass.
“Aye. I want ye more,” she panted, sliding her hands daringly over his tight buttocks. Her fingers moved over muscles that were tensed with his control of his body. She wanted to make him lose control as he did her. “What ifIdo this?” she said, her voice shocking her with how husky it sounded as she moved her hands to his shaft jutting hard against her belly. She circled the tip of his cock, and he hissed. “Does that make ye want me more?” she asked, mimicking his words from moment ago.
“Aye,” he grunted. “Careful, lass, or I’ll be spent before we begin.”
She curled her fingers firmly around his shaft, reveling in the warmth of him, the slickness, the raw masculinity. “Then we will just,” she said, running her hand up and down his shaft as he groaned, “have to begin again.”
“God’s blood,” he muttered, claiming her mouth once more in a savage kiss. When they broke apart, he said, “ye are most definitely my Eve.”
“Who?” she asked, stilling as fear and shock surfaced.
“Eve,” he repeated, his voice thick with need and what sounded like amusement. “Ye are like Eve in the Garden of Eden. Ye offer to me, and I kinnae turn away.”
“Oh!” She began to stroke him again. She rather liked that analogy and the feeling of power it gave her. “Could I make ye spend yerself as ye made me before?”
“Aye,” he said. “Most assuredly.” A heady, very new sense of control consumed her, and recalling how his mouth had brought her so much pleasure, she released her hold on his staff to scramble to her knees so she could bend over him.
“Are ye certain—”
His words died when she took the tip of him in her mouth. Guided by his grunts and the way his hands fisted in her hair, she offered him the pleasure he had given her. As she did, her own need built and built, and when he finally found his release, shuddering against her and pulling away at the last moment to spill his seed, she felt as if she had been tied into a thousand knots. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling the cold. Her body vibrated and hummed with the wish for him to take her, but she was too embarrassed to say anything, and honestly, she did not know how soon a man could do such a thing again.
“Will ye return to yer own shelter now?” she asked, her voice small in the quiet.
“Lass,” he said, sitting up beside her, “there is nae a force on Earth that could drag me away from ye at this moment, including my good senses.” With those words, he gently undid her arms and encircled her ankles with his hands to slide her legs down from her chest. When she gave a shiver at the cold, he said, “Straddle my lap.”
She frowned. “What for?”
With a chuckle, he jumped to his feet, then swiftly leaned down and hoisted her up with a tug to catch her under her bottom. Her thighs spread automatically, and he brought his face close to her, his whiskers tickling her cheek. “Put yer legs around my waist,mo bhean mhaiseach.”
She sucked in a sharp breath at his calling her his beautiful wife. It wasn’t even that she cared if he found her beautiful, though it was nice. It was hearing him call her his wife in that rough voice of his that made her heart race and her body flush. She wrapped her legs around his waist, as he instructed.
“There are many ways to join, Ada. And this way,” he said, lowering himself to the ground while still holding her, “will keep ye as warm as possible.” When he was sitting on the ground, he scooped up the blanket that had fallen when they stood, and he draped it over her shoulders before he lay back. “Now…” He slid a hand over her belly, which quivered at his touch, and then up to glide his fingers between her breasts, where he splayed them. He brought his other hand to her hip. “Straddle me.”
She did not hesitate to comply. “Now what?” she asked, her body tingling with awareness of him. He smelled of smoke from the fire, and the tension in his body radiated toward her. He was like a coiled snake waiting to strike, and she was his willing victim.
His other hand came to her left hip, and he lifted her bottom slightly until she was hovering above his hard staff. “Now ye take me in as ye wish. At yer pace. At yer pleasure.”
Her eyes widened at what he suggested, but she set her hands on his chest, surprised and thrilled to feel his heart thundering under her touch, and then slowly, she inched her way down over his hardness. He filled her completely as she took all of him in. Her heart even felt as if it stretched, too. It thundered with the need to give and receive more—more than just this physical joining, which was wonderful, but she needed a foundation of hope.
She settled fully on him, his hands beginning to rock her hips. “I want—”
Her words stuttered to a halt as she discovered the rhythm he set for them, and as they moved together, passion pounded the blood through her body and straight to her heart. Tension built, which she recognized from their first joining and there was an ache deep within her that she knew only he could fulfill. Her body started to tighten around him, and she felt him grow rigid, as well. As waves of ecstasy crashed through her, he clutched her, groaning with his own release.
“Is this what ye wanted?” he growled, pumping into her one more time.
“Aye,” she said, near mindless, but then she added, “Nay,” thinking of what she had intended to say.
He stilled immediately, and his hands came to cup her face. “What did ye want? Tell me and I’ll give it to ye.”
“I want…” She swallowed, fear of revealing her heart to him almost keeping her silent, but she knew there could be no keeping silent if there was to be any hope for them. She cupped his face now as he was cupping hers. The shadow of stubble on his cheeks was scratchy against her fingers. How long did it take for him to grow a beard? The thought was an errant one, but it was exactly the kind of intimate detail a wife should know about her husband that Ada wished to discover.
All her hopes spilled out of her in a rush. “I want to ken ye. Come to love ye. Have lots of bairns with ye. I want yer heart, and in turn, to give ye mine.”
Ada’s words, her offer, was the best and worst thing he’d heard in his life. He was filled with pleasure and horror at once, the emotions colliding like a violent storm inside him. To become so entangled with her… The temptation was strong, the fear stronger. He released his hold on her lovely face, glad he could not see how his refusal might hurt her. He gently pushed her hands from him and set her off him and onto the ground.
He did not miss her sharp intake of breath, likely from hurt as well as her arse meeting the freezing grass. His heart thumped wildly as he stood, his blood rushing through his veins as if he’d just fought a great battle. He suspected the greatest battle of his life was about to come, and he’d be battling himself. His need for her. His desire for her. His weakness, so great already that it was a frightening thing.
Reaching down, he grabbed his braies and pulled them on as he spoke. The need to put distance between them was as urgent now as his desire was moments ago. “I kinnae give ye what ye ask for.”
