Wedded to the Twisted Highlander (Taming the Kilmartins #3)

Chapter 24

24

L ittle tingles rushed from the top of Astrid’s head to her toes. She knew what the Laird wanted. It was the same thing she wanted. Yet, how could she give herself over to him?

Sure, his touch was gentle and kind. He never raised his voice to her or cursed her. So, what specter from her past haunted her present?

She pulled up her skirts, revealing Thomas on his knees, his piercing eyes wild with want.

“Aye,” she whispered.

Her answer drifted through the air like the last sweet breeze of fall before the bitterness stole it.

Thomas’s arms wrapped around her body like two anacondas trapping their prey. She didn’t resist him but allowed herself to swoon into his welcoming embrace. Her heart fluttered and skipped like a dried leave on the breeze, uncertain which way it wanted to go.

“Ye have nay idea how long I’ve wanted ye,” he purred.

The hunger flickered in his eyes as if he were a vicious animal starved and deprived of the very substance needed to survive.

“I’m here,” she said.

She closed her eyes, forgetting completely that they weren’t outside but in the confines of the atrium.

It was Thomas’s weight that surprised her more than anything. He hovered over her and rested far too much of his body on hers to be comfortable. The moment her face contorted with discomfort, he shifted.

“Ye’re such a small thing,” he murmured apologetically as he shifted and settled between her legs.

Astrid kept her eyes on him as he reached between them. She waited for his fingers to slide into her again, to fill her up and complete her. Her lips parted, as did her body. It wasn’t his fingers penetrating her but something that filled her and completed her. Astrid’s mouth parted as Thomas’ hips moved and shifted pushing and pulling his manhood in and out of her. With each push of his body, Astrid found herself opening wider for him. It was as if he held the key that unlocked the darkest recesses of her being.

The pressure between her legs was unexpected as Thomas eased into her. “I’m nae hurtin’ ye, am I?” Thomas asked, his hot breath caressing around her neck. The heat was a welcome reprieve from the frigid air encircling them.

“Nay,” she managed to scrape off her dried tongue. Despite the initial push, her body accepted him as if he was made to be there. She curled her arms around his neck and drew him closer to her. “Yer nae hurtin’ me. But can ye slow down?”

“Is this better?” Thomas asked as he stopped the intensity. Astrid found the air coming in deeper as her body adjusted to him. He was everywhere, his scent, his heat, it was all encompassing.

“

Confusion rippled through her. Was there supposed to be so much pressure? Was Thomas taking up too much of her?

She curled her leg higher around his hip, trying to ease the pain a bit. It was only when Thomas began to shift and move that her body adjusted to the feeling of fullness.

The dull pain subsided as her body molded to his in every way.

“Ye’re so warm,” Thomas purred as he rocked into her.

Astrid’s fingernails raked down his back as he consumed her. It was as if she were giving everything she could to him in exchange for everything that he was. Her heart felt as if it were going to burst with joy and satisfaction.

“Ye’re me home now, lass, and I’ll never give ye up. May the world fall down around us. As long as I have ye, I have everything I need.”

Astrid’s grip on him tightened. She didn’t want the moment to end, or to separate from him again. Now that she understood what it felt like to be bound to him, she refused to let it stop.

“No,” she whimpered as he eased out of her, leaving nothing but the tip of his manhood. “Dinnae go anywhere.”

“I wasnae plannin’ on it,” he answered and nuzzled her ear.

Little goosebumps rose all over her skin the moment his teeth grazed her earlobe. It was such a strange sensation, knowing that he wasn’t going to bite too hard, and yet it ignited a wildfire within her.

“I just wanted to feel ye like this.”

“I want all of ye,” Astrid moaned, surprised by her boldness.

Her need was all-consuming. She bucked her hips until he slipped into her again. Thomas mirrored her movements with the same fierceness, as if he could never get enough of her.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if she’d ever get tired of feeling him inside her. The way he fit her body like a glove shattered the illusion that had wrapped around her existence since her sister died.

Perhaps things didn’t have to always be so black and white. Maybe there was a sliver of gray that would give her the freedom she longed for and the security she needed.

“Ye have me, woman,” Thomas growled.

He sounded as if he wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Declared to the whole world that she was his in every sense of the word. Yet, they remained silent as the flames of their passion grew ever more intense.

“All of me. I’ll do anything for ye, be anything for ye. Just say the word, and I’ll give up the lairdship and live in the wilderness wit’ ye. Just never leave me.”

His words were like a balm to her soul.

Astrid wanted nothing more than to give him everything she had. As their bodies joined, it was their souls that fused like molten rock. He would be the strength she needed, and she would be his fire.

“Thomas,” Astrid gasped when she felt as if her body would burst into uncontrollable flames.

Thomas held her tighter, refusing to let her go. He was after all the only support she had keeping her upright.

In a flash, it wasn’t gravity that anchored Astrid to the earth, but Thomas’s will and strength. It was his willingness to cover her and pin her to the earth before she had a chance to fly away. Arching her back, she swooned into the pleasure as it seeped through every fiber of her being. It was as if she had been born anew. Not in the flesh, but in the euphoria of life.

“That’s it,” Thomas purred as he brushed his fingers delicately over her cheekbones.

Astrid’s lips parted as she gulped in the air. How long had she been like this? The colors around her were far brighter and crisper than before. As she opened her eyes, it was like she was doing it for the first time.

“Is it always like this?” she asked as Thomas eased off her.

She hated the cold his absence left. But instinctively, she knew they couldn’t stay like that forever.

“I couldnae say,” Thomas said as he brushed a strand of hair from her forehead.

“Why do I nae believe ye?” she asked, arching her eyebrow as she studied him intently.

“That is on ye,” Thomas answered.

Astrid snuggled into the crook of his arm and threw her leg over his waist. She didn’t care that her dress was stained with dirt, nor did she care that she had lost all track of time.

For the first time since she had arrived at McFair Castle, Astrid felt at peace.

“I cannae tell ye what ye should believe,” Thomas continued, a devilish smirk playing on his lips. “That is something ye’ll have to figure out for yerself.”

“Ye ken what I mean,” Astrid protested as she swatted his chest.

Thomas made a mock grimace but then let out a hearty chuckle as she rested her head on his chest.

“I suppose, then, that ye’d believe that I have never lain wit’ a lass before?” he whispered. His voice was so low that Astrid thought she had imagined the words.

“Come again?”

Thomas let out a heavy sigh as he extricated himself from her arms and rose to his feet, pulling his breeches up as he went.

Astrid didn’t understand the sudden cold shoulder. It was as if he had somehow turned off all the warmth in the world and left her stranded in the freezing room. She reached out to him, hoping to find some way to coax him back into her embrace.

“Ye heard me,” Thomas said over his shoulder. “But it’s as I thought—ye wouldnae believe me.”

Astrid took a moment to let his words sink in. Why had she thought all this time that he was experienced? Was it because of the way his hands roamed over her body? Or maybe it was the way he managed to play her like a fiddle that made her think he had done this before.

Astrid jumped to her feet and fixed her bodice as she moved over to him.

“Are ye sayin’ that ye’ve never done it? Nae even wit’ a whore?”

“Ye would think, aye? But nay. Ye… ye have been worth the wait, if I may say.”

Astrid didn’t know what to think. All her life, she had thought that men were secretly taken by their fathers to brothels to become ‘men’. Yet, as she looked at Thomas, she was shocked to see the boy shining through his rough, battle-hardened exterior.

“As were ye,” she whispered as she took his hand and cupped it to her face. She loved the way it made her feel, knowing that he was there, sharing this moment with her. “But tell me truthfully…”

“I speak the truth. Ye are me first. And now that I’ve had me fill of ye, I find meself starvin’ once again. Will this craving ever go away?” Thomas asked as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

“Astrid? Thomas? Where are ye? Are we still playin’?” Melody’s voice rang through the atrium, pulling them up short.

Astrid stared at Thomas longingly. She wasn’t ready to let the world into their space, but how much time had passed was the question. She had completely forgotten the concept of time. Thomas made it impossible for her to keep track of anything when he was so close.

“I think we’re bein’ summoned,” Thomas whispered, before crushing his lips to hers.

Taken aback by the kiss, Astrid gulped in the air the second he jerked away from her.

“Here we are. I think Astrid is the new seeker.”

Astrid’s head spun as Thomas stepped out of their hiding place among the ferns and citrus trees. The ground wobbled under her feet as she tried to take a step. Without Thomas there to guide her, she felt like a sailor during a storm.

Brushing back a fern, Astrid stepped out of her hiding spot and moved to the doorway.

Melody shook her little head as she scowled at them. “Did ye forget that we were playin’ a game?” she scolded as she folded her arms over her chest. “What were ye doin’ in there?”

“I was lookin’ for Astrid,” Thomas explained.

His cheeks burned a darker red that only stoked Astrid’s embarrassment. She smoothed the wrinkles from her dress and cleared her throat. At least it was Melody who had discovered them instead of Reid—or heaven forbid, Olivia.

Astrid chuckled to herself as she made her way to Thomas and Melody.

“Shall we play another round?” she asked as she took Melody by the hand.

“Laird McFair, yer presence is requested in the hall,” Duncan shouted as he came barreling around the corner.

Astrid’s heart sank. How quickly reality set in, stealing the joy from them.

“It would seem that I have prior engagements,” Thomas said woefully.

Astrid shook her head. He was, after all, the leader of the clan and couldn’t spend his day gallivanting about the castle like a youth.

“Think of me,” she whispered as he took her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

His kiss seemed to slither through her veins and up her arm until it reached her heart and wrapped around it.

“As if I could do anything other than that,” Thomas answered.

Duncan cleared his throat. The sound made it seem as if it were the final note of an opera.

“Aye, I’m comin’. Give me a moment.”

“Will I see ye tonight?” Astrid asked.

Her heart fluttered as the question escaped her lips. She wondered if Thomas could catch the underlying question.

Flashing her a crooked grin, he nodded. “It would be me pleasure to see ye later,” he answered as he took a step away from her. “Or, how about this? I’ll clear me schedule tomorrow and take ye far away from pryin’ eyes and itchin’ ears.”

“Ye mean it?” Astrid asked, astonished by the fact that he was ready to leave the castle for even a moment. For her.

How she longed to see the moors and play in the mist of the valley again. It had been too long since she had let her toes squish in the mud of the bog.

“Before dawn, meet me in the foyer. I will show ye a place that ye’ll nae forget,” Thomas said.

Her anxiety spiked as he took another step back. Astrid felt as if a cord had been attached to the very core of her being and stretched to meet his heart.

“Can I go?” Melody asked as she followed Thomas down the hallway, with Astrid in tow. “I want to see what ye’re goin’ to see.”

“I’ll take ye another time, lass. This time will be just for yer maither,” Thomas said with a smile that could convince a spider to give up its web.

“Will it just be ye and me the next time?” Melody asked as she planted her hands on her hips and glared daggers at him.

The audacity to leave her out of anything seemed to offend more than it should have.

Astrid exchanged a glance at Thomas as they both came to the same conclusion.

“If that’s what ye wish, I can do that,” he answered, as kind and compassionate as ever.

Astrid couldn’t help but see him not as the Laird, but as the young man she had always dreamed of having. Despite the rough edges of his personality, she found it easier and easier to envision a future with him.

“Did ye hear that? The Laird is takin’ me some place special too,” Melody cooed and clapped her little hands together.

“But tomorrow,” Thomas interjected, his eyes flicking to Astrid, the flames of lust kindling and burning within them, “it’ll be just ye and me. And I’m hopin’ that perhaps we’ll have a wee bit more to say, aye?”

“And why is Me Laird doin’ this?” Astrid asked.

Thomas paused at the threshold of his study. He rolled his shoulders back as his gaze darkened. “I thought it might be a good idea to get to ken me wife.”