Page 60 of A Dash of Scot
Just this one indulgence. A kiss. A few touches. Her, rocking against him. All clothes left on.
Her lush breasts were crushed to his chest. He groaned at the softness of her curves surrounding him. Just a touch…he slid a hand over her ribs to cup a plush swell. Even through the fabric, he could feel the warmth of her skin and wanted to feel the weight of her naked, soft breast against his palm. Dougal rubbed a thumb over her nipple, reveling in her gasp, the soft inhale so sensual against his mouth.
Poppy scraped her fingernails along the back of his neck, massaged his shoulders and rocked her hips against his in a rhythm that made him think he’d died and gone to heaven. Her thighs were clenched tight around his hips, making him hard with need.
He had to stop now if he was going to. While he still had a thread of control left. He was very close to coming completely unraveled, shredding their clothes, and taking her on the ground of the walled-in garden. Dougal tried to take his lips from Poppy’s, but she only leaned in closer and clutched harder, making him want to forget all his promises to save making love for their wedding night.
“Please, Dougal, let’s not stop yet,” she murmured, her words an enticing invitation.
How could he deny her? Or himself…
They’d begun this slow seduction in a garden hundreds of miles away a year ago. And he’d craved her ever since. Dougal wanted to give in to their desire, to throw caution to the wind. But he also knew that if he didn’t put a halt to this rapturous encounter, it would end with Poppy pinned beneath him while he buried himself deep inside her hot, wet...
Even the images he conjured in his mind were too much to bear. Just one more little taste. He pulled her in for another heated kiss, feeling his way along her skirts until his hand was underneath. He skimmed his way from her silky calf to her smooth thigh.
Poppy whimpered and hugged him closer. Urged him to continue his exploration as his finger went higher, higher still, through the slit of her drawers and brushed the silky curls of her damp sex. Poppy cried out, and he groaned as he stroked, gentle and slow at first and then with quicker, firmer circles. Beneath his touch, she trembled.
“Dougal,” she whispered.
He knew what she wanted, what she silently pleaded for. It was what he wanted for her too. For her to break apart. He stroked and caressed and kissed until her entire body convulsed, and he swallowed her cry of passion, kissing her until the quaking subsided.
As much as he wanted more, this had to be enough.
For now.
Dougal finally tore himself away. He lifted her from his lap, placed her on the bench and got down on his knees in front of her.
“Lass, I beg of ye, marry me. I canna go another day without knowing your sweet honey is mine.”
“Bring me a priest, and I’ll say, ‘I do’ right now,” she teased, pinching his chin. “Though I think my mother would be disappointed at being left out of the ceremony.”
“Soon then.”
“Yes, very soon.”
19
“Ladies, ladies,” Mama practically yelped as she bustled into the drawing room, whipping off her bonnet, her cheeks pink as if she’d run all the way from her tea in town with a friend rather than taking the curricle.
“What’s happened?” Poppy was immediately on edge. There had to have been some news. There could be no other reason for their mother’s flurry and pitch. A war must have broken out somewhere. Or perhaps Mary had succumbed to a fever.
“The ladies in town are all agog with news from Edinburgh.”
“Do tell us,” Anise said, tossing her book aside in favor of gossip.
“Well, it would seem that a certain young lady who has been plaguing you, Poppy, has eloped, and there are rumors that she is…” Her mother inhaled and looked side to side, then got up and shut the drawing room door as if their servants might take this gossip and spread it wide. “That she is with child,” she whispered.
Poppy’s face colored at having already known this was possibly the case, given what Dougal had told her about Lucia and because what she’d done with him the day before could have nearly put her in the same position if they hadn’t stopped when they did.
She was glad Dougal had the sense to hold back when she’d been willing to give him everything. Because Lucia was proof of what could happen when a man made promises and didn’t keep them. Not that she would compare Dougal to Campbell at all, but one did need to protect themselves until the ring was on the finger.
“Did she elope with Campbell?” Poppy asked.
Her mother looked at her sharply. “How did you know?”
Poppy shrugged. “Lucky guess? I had heard they had an attachment previously.”
“Well, it’s true. They have eloped to Gretna Green and her father is beside himself.”
