Page 46 of The Highlander's Captured Bride
His tone still had not lost the resentment only this time it was laced with cold acceptance, “So I did what I needed to dae, give up on winning her, finish me course at the school and come back home with me heart somewhere in the center of the iced peak of the Beinn Nibheis mountain.”
It was too much. She stood and tugged the door open and saw Ethan flail a little before he sat up and stood. She searched to see if Mister MacTyre was there but the hallway was empty. “Please,” she swallowed, “Come in.”
“I…” his chest heaved. “I shouldnae.”
But he stepped in any way and she went right into his arms, and pressed her face on his chest, “I was wrong, forgive me.”
His palm was smoothing up and down her back, and his hair tickled her left ear, “I ken, ye just took me off-kilter for a while. I ken ye never wanted to hurt me. It’s just…old memories flared up and I—” he breathed out, “—I dinnae handle it well.”
A long-fingered hand slid into her hair, and she trembled at its light grip, a soft push pressing her against his chest. His clothes smelled like river water and soap, but his warmth was the most prominent to her.
“I had been a lad and blinded by her beauty. I kent I had fallen in love with her but that was all. In the two years I kent I loved her, we, kissed only twice.”
She felt a spark of hope. “Ye never…”
His laugh was somewhat humored, “Bed her, nay.”
Violet could now relax in his arms. He had kissed the other woman only twice over two years. Ethan had kissedhermore than twice in less than amonth.
“Doesnae matter really,” he added as his lips traced her hairline. “All I saw then was her beauty. She was cold and followed every rule laid out for her. She had none of the appeal ye dae. To her, I was simply a means to an end.”
His tone had Violet twisting her head with a question, just in time for his lips to descend on hers. His kiss was tender but had an underlying spark of heat that grew when she allowed him in. Pressed on his chest, his hand slipped to the middle of her back and splayed there, while the other cradled her neck to twist it just so, for his kiss to deepen.
He only pulled away so that she could breathe and then his mouth was back on hers. With her arms looped around his shoulders and she wondered where this was coming from, if all this courage was spurred on by alcohol, but she did not taste anything on his tongue. His lips slid from her to nip and suckle at her earlobe and instantly, she was squirming under him.
From there, he trailed kisses down her throat, pausing to catch her skin in teeth and suckle at her pulse point. Violet’s knees buckled and in an easy motion, as if he had expected it, he swept her into his arms, carried her to the nearby bed, to gently lay her down on it.
Her breath caught when he joined her and before he laid next to her, he perched over her, with both elbows bracketing her head and his eyes inches away from hers. It was dim but his eyes glittered like jewels and his look was intense.
Reaching up, she cupped his face, “Ethan? What’s this?”
“Too many times, I’ve stopped meself from telling ye how I feel about ye. Ye make mefeelagain, and I want ye to feel how I dae,” he kissed her cheek. “Stop me at any time if ye want,” he said lowering himself onto her with a kiss.
He nibbled at her lips before sliding his tongue in and her thoughts began to blur. His firm lips moved against hers in a measured tone, but she could feel that he was holding something back. She wondered who he could be holding onto his control as hers was loosening and a feverish heat was growing under her skin.
Her hands slid into flaxen hair as he sucked on her tongue, making sparks dance up and down her spine, igniting, for the first time, a pebbling of her breasts. Pressed between him and the bed, she knew he had to feel it through her thin gown.
His mouth was consuming her, branding her as much as a hot iron to a calf’s hide, because dear God, she was burning up. When he cupped her breast, and his thumb swiped across the taut peak, her gasp was silent and her eyes grew dazed.
Sensations she had never imagined she would feel, were setting her nerve endings on fire. Ethan’s breath was skittering over her skin and while she was reeling from his touch when her body nearly jackknifed from the bed. His mouth was over her nipple, sucking at her through the dress.
Her skin felt itchy, desperate for something, but had not the first idea what that was. Ethan’s kiss, his warm touch, his body bracketing hers, one or the other…all three?
His mouth moved to her other puckered nipple and while his lips were sending her head in circles, his hand slid from her knee, pushing her dress up. The feel of his roughened hand on her smooth thigh was nearly unbearable. His touch was light but he felt every part deep into her core.
Ethan pulled away and at the moment she had to suck in a deep breath—rationality kicked in.
What am I doing? I can’t dae this—my god—
He had pulled down her bodice exposing her breasts in the air. She forgot all about the same when Ethan’s lips were suckling on a nipple while his hand played with another.
“Please, daenae stop,” she moaned, cupping his head to her chest. “Please.”
The kitten licks, flicking across the tight bud, went right to her center where heat was growing. His mouth around her was hot and slick and her mind was about to submerge in a pool of lust. His mouth pulled away and kissed back up to her neck before sliding to her mouth.
His kisses turned calmer and soothing and the fire under her skin began to ebb. When his hand slid through her hair and he dropped kisses on the edge of her mouth and cheek, she sighed. He slipped to her side and cuddle her close while she put her bodice back in place.
She breathed, “Why did ye stop?”
