Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
Adeline couldn’t have resisted him, even if she wanted to. And she didn’t. Logan was everything warm and real and distracting, and all of her worries in the bath had left ice in her veins that needed thawing. In fact, just hearing “You’re not alone” was like a trigger being pulled, blowing up all of the logic and warnings she’d given to herself.
She kissed him back, running her hands up his hard chest. It was meditation, in and of itself, to feel the flesh and bone solidity of him. Like an anchor, almost, to stop her from spiraling.
“Hold me,” she whispered against his lips. “Make it stop.”
He paused their kiss for a moment. “Ye want me to stop?”
“No, I want you to make it stop,” she urged. “Make the thinking stop. I don’t want to think for a while.”
He caught her lips with his, murmuring, “I can do that.”
And while a lot of men talked a big talk, she believed him.
He pushed her up against the edge of the tub, an echo of what he’d done before. She sat on the lip of the bath, her breath catching in the back of her throat as he nudged her thighs apart with his.
Being as tall as he was, he had to bend down to keep his mouth on hers, kissing her with a vengeance that shoved away any lingering doubts about this not being the best idea. She’d had a long day, she was tired, she was emotional, she was missing home, and she certainly wasn’t thinking straight. But who needed to think straight when there was a man like him kissing her like that? A man who could take control, making everything else fade into the background.
With one arm around her waist, his other hand braced against the edge of the tub, he kissed her as if she might vanish within the hour. He kissed her as if this was their last chance. And she kissed him back just as fiercely, needing him in a way she hadn’t needed anyone before.
“I daenae think that blanket will serve ye anymore,” he growled, drawing his kisses away from her lips and down the curve of her neck. His mouth was rough and soft all at once, grazing her still-damp skin.
She gripped his shoulders. “I’m not dry yet.”
“Nor do I want ye to be,” he murmured, his tongue flicking against her throat.
Her eyes widened at his words, her fingernails digging into the hard muscles of his back. She liked the sound of that, but before she could tell him, her voice was snatched away by a sudden gasp.
His hand slid between her thighs, the friction of his work-roughened palm like striking a matchbox, and she was the match. The flame erupted inside her, burning passion racing through her veins like wildfire.
She needed more. Wanted more. Even if she did vanish in the morning, she wanted a night to remember.
“Tell me what ye like,” he said in a husky voice, as if the smoke of her desire had caught in his throat, too.
His fingertips stroked along the trembling flesh of her inner thighs, moving closer to a point of no return. Kissing was one thing, but what he was about to do was crossing a line that she’d done her best to draw in the sand.
The trouble was, she no longer cared where the line was. She couldn’t even remember why she’d asked him to forget that they’d ever kissed. This wasn’t something to be forgotten. This was like lucid dreaming, and she was eager to find out where the dream would lead her next.
She gasped as his hand cupped her, so confident that she almost melted there and then. She’d been right, this was a man who knew what he was doing, and how to do it well.
“Yes,” she breathed, tilting her hips forward.
“Aye? Ye like that?”
She nodded, her desire-addled brain no longer able to form words.
He smirked a little against her collarbone, tracing his tongue along the ridge. “I havenae even done anythin’ yet.”
She grasped him tighter as his thumb pressed against that sweetest of spots, holding her breath in anticipation. He didn’t keep her waiting for long, as he began to circle that small nub of pleasure, slowly at first, firing off rippling sparks that exploded in her belly like fireworks.
All the while, his lips explored her, savoring every inch of bare skin that he could reach. He kissed her neck, her throat, her temples, her shoulders, her upper arms, always keeping her guessing. It was like he was making a map of her, and only he knew the coordinates.
“I need ye closer,” he growled, his free hand settling on the swell of her behind.
He gave her butt a sly squeeze before pulling her nearer, until she almost slipped off the edge of the tub. She might have, if his hips weren’t between her thighs, and his hand was on her ass, pinning her exactly where she wanted to be.
And as he pulled her closer, a cry slipped from her lips as his fingers slid inside her. A move so smooth that it took her brain a moment to catch up, though her body was already racing ahead. Her hips tilted, curving his fingers to that sensitive spot inside her. Though it seemed he already knew about it.
Applying delicious pressure, he slid his fingers in and out slowly, while his thumb continued to strum the nub of her pleasure—of every woman’s pleasure. Two rhythms working together in harmony, building up to an ecstasy so powerful that she was already wondering if it would be okay to scream. After all, there might still be customers downstairs.
“Yes,” she moaned. “Oh, yes. Yes, keep doing that.”
He smiled against her cheek, bringing his lips back to hers. There, he kissed her with a ferocity that she’d only seen in movies. And she kissed him right back, clinging to him like her life depended on it.
“And you had the… audacity to call me a witch,” she whispered, arching her neck as she rocked against his fingers. “You’re the one… conjuring magic here, Logan.”
Logan laughed softly, kissing her harder.
It was a matter of minutes before she felt the switch inside her, every strum and pulse of his fingers spurring her on toward the ecstasy she craved. It hit her like an unexpected wave at the beach—not exactly coming out of nowhere, but giving her no time to prepare. In fact, nothing could have prepared her for the orgasm of a lifetime.
She leaned forward abruptly, burying her face in his neck as the wave knocked her off her figurative feet. Her thighs began to shake, the vibrations shuddering through her. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, pleasure squeezing her lungs. Her eyes scrunched shut, her head filling with the throbbing pressure of raw euphoria that left her mind spinning.
“Oh… oh, yes!” she gasped against his skin, sinking her teeth into his shoulder to stop herself from crying out. “Yes, Logan!”
He didn’t quicken his pace, he didn’t change a thing about what he was doing, other than applying a little more pressure to that sweet spot inside her. And as he let her ride the wave at her own speed, he caught her mouth with his, kissing her slowly, sensually, until it was almost too much to bear.
This couldn’t be real. This didn’t happen in real life.
Yet, it was. Her body felt every delicious second.
But good things always had to come to an end, and it wasn’t long before she felt the tide of ecstasy recede, leaving behind little flutters of bliss. Short, intense pulses that danced across her abdomen and up into her chest.
The grip of pleasure loosened, and she could breathe again. Or rather gasp and suck in air as if she’d been drowning. In a way, she had, and she’d have done it again in a heartbeat.
Logan gently withdrew his fingers, and the loss of that intimate touch was like a heartbreak to Adeline. She wanted to feel him inside her again, even if it was just his skilled fingers. She wasn’t done figuring out just how talented this 18 th -century Scottish Laird was.
Apparently reading her mind, Logan suddenly hoisted her up into his arms. She yelped in surprise, her legs locking around his waist in fear of being dropped. A second surprise made her eyes widen, as she felt him for the first time, straining to reach her.
For a second or two, she thought she was mistaken. It couldn’t possibly be what she thought it was.
Testing the theory, she sat a little lower… and had her suspicions confirmed.
Okay. That’s something to consider.
Her heart raced as he carried her over to the bed, her recovering brain beginning to overthink again. There was a lot to contemplate.
Reaching the bed, Logan seemed to have taken Adeline’s request to the letter. He clearly didn’t want her to think too much, and he was prepared to do whatever it took to keep her worries from creeping back in.
He leaned forward, taking her with him, pressing her into the surprisingly soft mattress. And as he climbed further onto the bed, he maneuvered her as if she was part of him, until her head was resting on a pillow.
There, he gazed down at her, his hand slipping between them to loosen the twisted knot she’d made in the makeshift towel. Propped up on one arm, he unwrapped her like a present. And with it not being too long since Christmas and all…
“Ye’re beautiful,” he murmured, taking his time to savor the sight of her naked body.
And where his eyes wandered, his lips soon followed. He kissed down her throat, drawing his tongue from the hollow at the base to the dip between her breasts. She didn’t call it a valley, since she’d never been that well-endowed, but the way he worshiped every part of her chased away any self-consciousness or inhibitions that she’d been carrying around with her since she was a teenager.
He kissed up each curve of her breasts, teasing her pert nipples with his tongue, only to kiss away again. Frustrated, she arched her back, and with a smile that she felt against her skin, he drew a nipple into his warm mouth.
She grazed her teeth across her lower lip as he sucked, pulling fresh pleasure from the very core of her. It shivered upwards in electric currents, branching out into her limbs. Her thighs shook violently, her breaths turning shallow again. As if she already knew, or hoped, what he might have in store for her next.
With a teasing brush of his tongue, he resumed his intense worship of her body. He kissed her, tasted her, caressed her, until she was pretty sure there wasn’t a single part of her he hadn’t touched. And like the strumming of his fingertips before, it seemed to be building toward something. The sparks that began to burst into life within her couldn’t be wrong, his kisses and caresses almost as powerful as his earlier display of talent.
He moved downward, his mouth guiding him. As he reached the flat of her stomach, he lowered himself to the bed and wrapped his arms around her thighs, his hands gripping her soft flesh.
“Oh… oh, yes,” she panted as his tongue tasted the only place it hadn’t yet savored.
If she’d thought his fingers were skilled, she realized she was in for a whole new world of pleasure.
His tongue rolled against her sweet spot, slow and tormenting in the best possible way. And just when she thought he was going to taste her again, he turned his head and kissed her inner thigh instead. Keeping her guessing, once more.
She was about to tell him that she’d really liked the other thing when his tongue moved against her again. Her hips bucked a little, pleasantly surprised, while her hands gripped the blankets beneath them.
He eased into a sensual rhythm that quickly had her writhing, her body taking on a mind of its own as it responded to every potent stroke of his tongue. She was shaking, shivering, gasping, bucking her hips, her mind completely fogged with desire. Her breaths came in short, sharp pants, her heart thundering in her chest. And she’d never felt better.
Nothing else mattered, as long as he kept doing what he was doing.
“Oh, Logan!” she cried out as he let his fingertips pause at her entrance. “Yes, Logan! Yes!”
He pushed his fingers inside her, his tongue not breaking its rhythm for even a moment. And as she felt him fill her, though it wasn’t exactly what she wanted, she could already feel herself tipping over the edge into another mind-blowing, earth-shattering orgasm.
His tongue quickened slightly, curving now and then to suck, as his fingers applied that delirious pressure that he was so very good at. It was too much, and yet not enough, and Adeline couldn’t understand how any of this was happening, but she was grateful to be given such a breathtaking gift.
After all, she hadn’t received anything that Christmas. Emma probably would’ve brought gifts around, but… Adeline concentrated on the motion of Logan’s tongue, refusing to let her mind dwell on reality—her reality, far in the future—while she had him in her bed.
All other thoughts swiftly evaporated again, replaced with that building, almost-sneezing sensation that made her want to scream Logan’s name at the top of her lungs.
He was a master of his craft, and it would’ve been rude not to give him her full attention.
Her back arched up off the mattress as she felt it coming, every cell in her body on fire with the euphoria that he was pouring into her. Her thighs trembled, her knuckles whitened as she gripped the blankets tighter, her skull pulsing with that incredible rush of bliss once more, and as her stomach tensed, her body finally released what it had been building toward.
Ecstasy pummeled through her veins, more powerful than the last time. Every muscle seized and strained, her breath caught in her throat. Her legs shook, right down to her feet, while her mouth opened… but no sound came out, like it was lodged in her chest somewhere.
A moment later, she cried out, writhing as the pleasure swept through her. It was beyond anything she’d ever experienced, and though her experience wasn’t vast in the slightest, she knew that this was something special. That he was something special.
How am I supposed to go back to 2023, knowing that he is here in 1705?
It seemed like a shallow thought, but she couldn’t help it. Her mind had joined her body in doing whatever it pleased, driven by pleasure instead of sense.
Gradually, the intensity faded, and she collapsed back into the mattress. Staring up at the ceiling, she tried to steady her breathing, her entire being so relaxed that it was like she’d had fifty baths in the best oils and herbal soaks that money could buy.
Logan withdrew his fingers, turning his head to kiss his way down her inner thighs before retracing his steps across the top of her thigh. He kissed every inch of her skin, making his slow way back to her lips.
There, he kissed her gently. Tenderly. His eyes were bright as he gazed down at her, gleaming with a passion that was undoubtedly reflected in her own eyes.
But with the fading of her euphoria, her mind began to clear. The lusty fog lifted, bringing back that question—how was she supposed to return to 2023, knowing that he was here in 1705? She’d drawn that line in the sand for a reason, and she was only just remembering what it was. Too late.
“Ye’re going to ask me to forget that this ever happened, are ye nae?” he asked, almost sadly.
Adeline gave a small nod. “I think we’re in dangerous territory, and I think you’ve realized it, too.”
“Aye, though I daenae regret it,” he said, tucking a lock of sweat and bath-dampened hair behind her ear. “I would’ve regretted it if I hadnae done that.”
Adeline exhaled shakily. “No more touching. No more kissing. No more being alone together, if we can help it.”
“Aye,” he replied as he rolled onto his side and carefully pulled the blanket back over her bare skin.
Had they been in her time, this could’ve been the beginning of something, but it felt a lot like an ending as she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself. She wasn’t worried about him making a move in the middle of the night. Clearly, she was the one who couldn’t be trusted not to give in to temptation.
But he can stay in the bed. He’s a laird—I wouldn’t dream of making him sleep on the floor .
An exhilarating reel of everything that had just happened was already playing in her mind, and she had no doubt that it would be playing in her dreams when she fell asleep, too. This time, they really had gotten carried away, and that question kept gnawing at the back of her mind, no matter how hard she tried to shove it down.
How am I supposed to go back, now?