Page 36 of The Highlander's Twisted Deal
“Callum, I…” she trailed off.
He pulled back, his disheveled curls framing his head in a halo.
It makes him lookoddly like some sort of dark angel.
“What is it?”
“I dinnae ken whether ye believed me about nae lying with any of the men I’ve met before. It’s true. I didnae. I dinnae… I’ve not…” she trailed off, a little frustrated that the words didn’t come naturally.
Callum lifted a hand, smoothing over her lower lip with the pad of his thumb. “I ken. And for what it’s worth, I always believed ye. Mostly because I could see ye merrily mixing sleeping potions for as many men as ye needed to. I’m nae entirely sureI’mnae drugged.”
She let out a bark of laughter at that. “Ye of little faith. The fact is, I dinnae… dinnae much ken what it is I’m meant to be doing.”
“Aye, but I reckon ye are a quick study. Besides, there’s nay rush. Ye dinnae have a place to be, do ye?”
“Shockingly, nay,” Ava mused, looping her arms around his neck and pulling him down for another kiss.
The kiss turned languid, and Ava found that it was an easy enough thing to get the hang of. When she first felt Callum’s warm fingers on the skin of her knee, she flinched.
“It’s all right, lassie,” he soothed, murmuring low in her ear. “Ye can stop anytime ye like, aye? But ye will like this. I promise.”
A flash of nerves bubbled in Ava’s gut along with her arousal. One thing was clear, however.
“I dinnae want ye to stop,” she whispered.
His hand climbed higher, smoothing over the soft skin of her thigh, up and up until his knuckles brushed the place between her legs, where the ache had settled.
Ava sucked in a sharp breath of surprise.
He chuckled, his lips pressed against the side of her neck so that the reverberations rumbled pleasantly through her body, his hand working as she found herself climbing helplessly up and up tosomething—something spectacular.
She cried out, digging her fingers into his shoulders, squeezing her eyes shut. She heard Callum muttering something against her neck, something quick and harsh and spoken in Gaelic, and she noticed for the first time that his arousal was pressed against her leg, insistent and hard.
When her breathing had gone back to normal, and she had finally realized that she had fisted her hand in his hair and was tugging a little too tight, Callum pulled back, leaning back up to support himself on his elbows.
She let herself sink back into the pillows, lifting her arms above her head.
“What about ye?” she managed, her breath coming quick.
He smiled wryly. “It’s all right, lass. Ye dinnae have to do anything.”
She sat up, leaning close enough that his breath fanned her chin. “Oh, but I want to,” she breathed, and the smile on his face widened.
“Me turn, then?” he asked, his voice raspy. “Let’s see how quick a study ye truly are, eh?”
11
Callum woke up with a jolt, uncomfortably aware that he was not in his own bed, and he had overslept.
It took a moment for the memories of last night to come seeping back, but once they did, he found himself frozen in place.
He’d kissed Ava. He’d gone to bed with Ava. She was sleeping beside him right now, their clothes gone and left crumpled on the ground beside the bed.
What have I done?How could I have been so foolish?
He might think that he’d been drugged if it hadn’t been for the two cups of mint tea he’d poured out last night, abandoned and untouched on the counter across the room.
I shouldnae have done this. I should have kenned better.
