Page 45 of The Wrong Highlander (Highland Brides 7)

“Thank ye.” Conran leaned forward as he murmured the words, his breath brushing her lips, and Evina was just letting her eyes droop closed in anticipation of his kissing her when she felt his hand at her breast. Giving a start, she pushed her eyes open again even as his lips covered hers.

Sighing, Evina leaned into him, her mouth opening before he even requested entrance. Conran accepted the invitation, his tongue sweeping into her mouth as he palmed, squeezed and then caressed her breast.

Evina wasn’t really aware of either of them moving or his urging her back to lie on the furs; she was just suddenly there, her arms wrapped around his neck as he leaned over her, kissing and caressing her. This time it was his fingers that traveled her body rather than his mouth, and in some ways, Evi enjoyed this more, because it meant he never stopped kissing her. She didn’t protest when she felt him tugging her tunic open to free her breast to his touch, Instead, Evina sighed into his mouth and arched her back, lifting her breast upward in an invitation he accepted at once. She moaned as his rough hand covered her breast and he began to toy with the erect nipple.

Her eyes opened when Conran broke their kiss to lean up though, and Evina watched through droopy eyes as he peered down at her. His face was a mixture of shadow and the dancing light from the fire, and she caught her breath at how beautiful he was even as Conran murmured, “Beautiful,” in a raspy voice.

The word made her glance down at herself to see that his body was casting her in shadow from the dim light creeping through her open shutters, while the fire was painting her with the same dancing light on his face.

He shifted slightly then, moving lower to claim her eager nipple with his lips, and she let her head fall back to the floor and moaned as he laved and suckled at it. When his hand moved down to her leg, she stiffened, but he immediately released her nipple to murmur reassuringly, “Just touching.”

Evina bit her lip, but then forced herself to relax, and he rewarded her with another kiss, this one demanding all of her attention as he thrust his tongue between her lips and reignited her briefly dampened passions. When his hand began to move up her outer leg, she simply enjoyed it, secure in the promise that it would be just touching.

She had enjoyed his touching her in the field, but that had been nothing next to his touching now. His hand moved up her outer leg, around to her behind and squeezed briefly, before continuing up her back and then around to slide across her stomach, pushing her tunic before it as he’d done while “kissing” her earlier. Evina sighed and moaned by turn as his hand moved over her, and then cried out into his mouth when it slid back down, not stopping until it was between her legs.

Conran caught the sound and deepened his kisses as he began to caress her there, his fingers dancing across her damp flesh with a deft skill that soon had her raising her knees and shifting her hips into the touch. When his finger slid into her, she stiffened, and waited for the pain, but there was none. Still, she remained frozen for a moment, just experiencing his touch as his finger remained in her and he continued to caress the center of her excitement with his thumb, and then she couldn’t bear it anymore and began to shift her hips again, pushing back as he stoked her fire.

When her pleasure overtook her, Evina cried out into Conran’s mouth, but as before he didn’t stop. He continued to caress her, driving her back to the pinnacle again until she was crying out once more, her body shuddering with another release, and then another, and yet another, until she was sobbing her pleasure and clinging to him as if he were the only safe haven in a storm-tossed sea.

Chapter 10

“A bath?” Tildy asked with surprise. “Ye do no’ need a bath.”

“I bathe once a week every week, Tildy, and wish to have one now. Just order a bath for me, please.”

“But ye’ve done naught but lay abed since ye were injured. Ye’re no’ dirty.”

Evina scowled at her. “Me hair feels dirty and limp and I should like to clean it.”

“Aye, well, ’tis a bit limp and sad-looking,” Tildy admitted, and then heaved a sigh. “Fine. I’ll order ye a bath . . . but only if Rory Buchanan says ’tis all right.”

Evina glowered at the servant’s back as she bustled out of the room. She was used to having her orders obeyed at once, not questioned and considered subordinate to someone else’s opinions. Besides, Rory Buchanan had not even seen her wound. Evina had refused Conran’s repeated efforts to get her to let his brother check the injury, instead having Tildy tend to cleaning it and changing the bandages. Now she suspected she’d have to allow him to see it to get Tildy to agree to her taking a bath. Unless he decided she shouldn’t either. In which case, Evina suspected she could shout the order until she was blue in the face and would not get her bath. And she desperately wanted one.

Tildy was wrong. She hadn’t merely been lying about. She’d been writhing and moaning and sweating up a storm here in her room as Conran showed her some of the pleasure that could be had in a marriage bed. Last night especially, between the fire and the way he heated her blood, Evina had been soaking wet when Conran had finally gathered her in his arms, laid her in her bed and covered her up before slipping from the room.

He’d done it without saying a word, and she’d been too wrung out from what he’d done to her for her to protest or say anything to him. Now she was feeling a bit unsure of herself. His leave-taking had been rather abrupt to her mind. In fact, it had seemed as if he couldn’t wait to get away from her quickly enough, and she was worrying over the reason why. Had she displeased him? Responded too eagerly to him? Should she have refused to let him kiss and touch her? Was he disgusted by her eager behavior?

The kissing and touching business had been his idea, but perhaps it had been a test to see if she would allow it again and she had failed the test. Evina didn’t want to wait until later in the morning when he usually came to see her. She wanted to see him earlier than that. She planned to try to go below to break her fast, and she wanted to be clean, and as pretty as she could be, when she did. Purely for her pride’s sake, Evina assured herself. What other reason could there be?

“Where do ye think ye’re going?”

Conran stopped walking abruptly, and blinked at his little brother when Rory suddenly stopped following Tildy and whirled to ask him that question. Frowning, he glanced ahead to where Tildy had reached the door to Evina’s bedchamber and was entering. “With you,” he answered.

“Nay.”

“Nay?” he echoed, jerking his gaze back to his brother with surprise.

“Nay,” Rory repeated firmly, glancing over his shoulder briefly at the sound of another door opening farther up the hall. When it proved to just be Aulay leaving his room, Rory turned back to add, “Ye’ll wait below.”

“The hell I will,” Conran said at once. “She is me betrothed.”

“Aye, which is why ye’ve no business being in there,” Rory said firmly. “Evina has repeatedly refused to allow me to check her wound. She’s obviously no’ comfortable with the idea, and yer presence will no’ help. Go wait below.”

Conran opened his mouth to refuse, and then grunted in surprise when Aulay caught his arm as he drew even with them, and turned him around.

“Come along, brother,” Aulay said, tugging him down the hall. “Let Rory do what he does best.”

“But she—” he began.

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