Chapter 17
William’s mind was wild with lust. The battle earlier that day had left him restless, especially when coupled with the slow burn of wanting Kinsey for so long.
She regarded him from where she sat on the bed. Even as much as he longed for her, he couldn’t help but stop and stare.
Her curls were tousled, her cheeks flushed, eyes sparkling with excitement, her focus drifting toward his cock. Her breasts were even more exquisite than he’d imagined, round and firm, tipped with small pink nipples. They were perfect. She was perfect.
More than perfect; she was his.
His.
In the haze of his desire, the word rang out in the purest note.
“Ye can touch me if ye like,” he said hoarsely.
She glanced up at him, as though gauging his sincerity, then reached for him. Her slender fingers closed around his hard shaft, and a delicious thrill tingled through his body. He grunted at the potency of his enjoyment.
“Do ye like that?” She fluttered her lashes coquettishly up at him, employing the words he’d once used with her.
“Aye.” He wrapped his hand around hers and guided her movements to slide up to the tip, then back down the shaft.
He removed his touch from hers, and she continued with the action, pumping her fist over his cock, her breasts jiggling slightly with the action. His ballocks drew tight.
He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. All his senses focused on the sweet stroke of her hand.
Air fanned over him. Before he could identify what had caused it, something warm and wet dragged across the swollen, sensitive head. His eyes flew open, and he looked down to discover Kinsey parting her lips to draw his prick into her mouth.
“Do ye like that too?” The heat of her breath caressed him.
He groaned and gave a stiff nod.
She licked him once more, this time on the underside. Her mouth brushed against the tip, circling it before suckling lightly.
He ground out a low curse. There would be time for showing her more of that in the future. For now, he had to have her, or he wouldn’t be able to last much longer.
“I want ye,” he said between gritted teeth.
She gave him another little suck at the head of his cock and hummed her response. The vibrations shivered down his shaft and reverberated through him.
Jesu. He was so close already.
“Ye’ll no’ have much more of me if ye keep up with that.” He smoothed his hand over her cheek.
She slid her mouth off him, and he crawled over her, slowly urging her back onto the mattress.
He skimmed his palms over her silky skin, pausing at her breasts where he drew first one nipple into his mouth, then moved on to the other.
His tongue flicked over each nub in turn until it peaked into a hard tip.
His cock pressed to her lower stomach, straining.
Kinsey angled her hips in an attempt to get beneath him. It would be so easy to thrust into her, to take her hard and fast until his release overtook him. But he knew she was a maiden.
In all the experience he’d had with women, he’d never deflowered a virgin. His hand balled into a fist in the bedsheets as he hesitated.
He shouldn’t take her now.
Kinsey spread her legs beneath him and wriggled, so their pelvises were fitted together.
“Ye’re a maiden,” he said with ragged determination.
“Not after tonight.” She squirmed, nudging the tip of him against her entrance.
She was hot and swollen, so wet that the head of his cock eased inside her.
Still, he held back. “I canna—”
“’Tis mine to do with as I choose.” Her body moved with a sensual rhythm, encouraging him with every roll of her hips. “I want ye and have for a while. I made this choice.”
His hips flexed against her, in time with the pace she’d set, his arousal slipping slightly deeper with every rock of their bodies against one another. Her entrance squeezed around him. So damn tight.
She leaned her head back and arched her breasts, moaning with enjoyment as she did so. One thrust. That would be all it would take.
Only he had to ensure she understood.
“I canna marry ye,” he said.
Her lips curled upward in a coy smile. “I’m not asking.”
“I dinna want ye to regret this if ye wed.” He braced his body over her as she continued to coax him more deeply within her.
“Any man that weds me will know what he’s getting.”
It was true. Kinsey wasn’t the type to allow herself to be married off. She would choose him, and he would know her thoroughly.
A spike of jealousy stabbed into William for whomever that man would be. For it would be her husband who would cradle her as she slept. The way William had done. The man she married would take her in bed night after night. He would know her and respect her. And she would love him.
William knew in an instant he wanted that man to be him. He wanted Kinsey for himself. Not just now, but later as well.
Damn it.
He caught her hand with his free one and braced himself with the other. He took her then, possessive and desperate, in one hard thrust. Her sheath was beyond tight, her grip almost painful.
But it was not his discomfort that concerned him. “Did I hurt ye?”
“Don’t stop,” she breathed.
He gritted his teeth against the squeeze of her core and moved carefully, slowly, as he drew out then back into her. Her brows tensed, but she continued to rock her body in time with his.
Slowly, her expression melted into one of enjoyment, and the grip around him loosened into one of pleasure. He quickened his pace, stroking into her until they were both panting.
The friction between them built with delicious sensitivity. He was close to his own release but refused to come until she did. He shifted his position, so he rubbed over the nub of her sex and pumped hard into her.
She wrapped her legs around him, drawing him deeper into her.
The euphoric grip on him tightened as her cries pitched.
Suddenly her core spasmed around his cock, enticing him toward his own orgasm.
A low groan tore from his chest as it crashed over him, taking him to a place where stars flashed before his eyes.
Hot and cold all at once. Tingles dancing over his skin. And through it all, that incredible clench squeezing him as Kinsey experienced the same pleasure.
Finally, the world came back to him, starting first with Kinsey gazing up at him with a languid smile. Never had he seen anything more beautiful.
Never had he cared for a woman more.
The revelation was terrifying. They could never be, especially when he knew his obligation.
Even if she did possess his heart.
Lying with William had been a mistake. Mayhap the greatest, most exquisite one of Kinsey’s whole life, but a mistake, nonetheless.
It was the first thought that came to her the following morning when sunlight framed the shutters, when the blaze of lust had long since cooled. He was behind her still, a wall of heat and strength, his arm protectively thrown around her.
It wasn’t the act she regretted, for the pleasure she experienced was worth every brilliant moment. Nor was it the loss of her maidenhead, which had always been of little consequence to her. Nay, it was the effect the act had on her heart.
She’d meant for the intimacy to be something without meaning. The way men discussed it, the act was supposed to simply sate lust.
But as she lay in the cradle of his embrace, the intimacy between them made a place within her glow with unexpected warmth.
He shifted at her back and nuzzled her with his unshaven jaw, sprinkling kisses over her sensitive shoulder and neck. She shivered with pleasure.
“Did ye sleep well?” His voice was gravelly with sleep.
Too well.
Everything in her ached to arch back against him. “Aye.”
His hand brushed down her naked shoulder. “Ye’re no’ too sore?”
She squeezed her thighs together, where there was a hint of soreness, though it was nearly drowned out by the thrum of desire.
How could she want more of him when she’d been so thoroughly sated the night before? And if her heart were already falling into his palms, wouldn’t it only hasten the path if she gave in to her need?
His hand slipped beneath the blanket and caressed her hip.
The pulse of desire quickened, and she found herself questioning if they would have time to couple once more, rather than mulling over reasons why she ought not to. “When must we depart?”
“Soon.” He gave a low, sensual chuckle in her ear. “No’ enough time to do everything I want.” His hand left her hip and went to her face instead, turning her toward him. “Especially watching ye when ye climax.”
Self-consciousness flooded her. Knowing he had observed her in such an uncontrolled moment scalded her cheeks with heat. “Why?”
“’Tis as though I can feel yer pleasure as ye experience it.
” He propped himself on his elbow and gazed down at her, taking his time, as if they had scores of it.
“The way yer cheeks flush, how yer lips part around yer cries. That time ye came for me, I couldna clear it from my mind. I would harden at the mere thought of ye.”
She recalled his solid arousal and a quiver of anticipation squeezed through her. She had done that.
“The men will be waiting for us.” He brushed a kiss across her lips and pushed up from the bed. She’d enjoyed the front of his nakedness before. Now, she sat up to better follow his finely sculpted backside as he padded over the wooden floor to the ewer.
His broad back rippled with muscles at every small movement and tapered to a narrow waist and hips with a firm arse. A light sprinkling of dark hair covered his thighs and calves.
Aye, he was indeed a handsome, well-built man.
He tugged on his trews. “I’ll return to my room and ready to leave from there."
His statement was a reminder of the ugly truth sitting between them: that their passion had to be kept a secret, and he would need to marry for his clan.
Not that Kinsey wanted marriage. It sounded like more rules and structure than she cared for, especially being a laird’s wife, which was not a role she’d ever wanted. She craved freedom, adventure, the life she was living now. A man would only impede such liberties.
Or so she told herself.
William approached the bed with his gambeson untied, and his leine untucked and gave her a lopsided smile. “Dinna be late, my warrior.” He lowered toward her and swept his mouth over hers.
With an affectionate wink, he snuck out into the hall and was gone. It wasn’t until the door closed behind him and she was left alone that she longed for nothing more than to have him back at her side.
She roused herself from the bed they’d shared and washed as best she could.
The Englishmen’s packs they’d stolen had some clothing in them that had been passed between the men.
There had even been one with trews and a tunic small enough to fit her.
She dressed in the English clothes now, marveling at how costly they were. A squire’s attire, no doubt.
William was already downstairs by the time she finished readying herself.
Duff slapped him on the shoulder as she approached. “I saw ye creeping back to yer room no’ an hour ago. Where were ye at, pray tell?”
William smirked in response.
“Ach, then ye were with a lass.” Duff nudged him. “He always gets closed up when he’s spent the night with a wench.”
Something gripped Kinsey’s heart. Dread. Humiliation. Shame.
What would they all think of her to know she’d been with him? Would they presume she would receive different treatment?
“Was it the blonde with the…” Duff cupped his hands in front of his chest and waggled his brows. “Or the brunette with the wide arse?” His hands expanded to frame an imaginary bottom. “I personally had my eyes on that backside for the better part of the—”
Alec nudged him hard in the ribs. Duff shot him a dirty look before taking a second glance at Kinsey. His hands fell, and he gave her a sheepish smile. “Eh…did ye want some ale before we go?”
The men tried to refrain from talking about their sexual exploits in front of her. But now Duff’s swiftness to cover it told her they didn’t realize the woman William had been with was her.
Kinsey scoffed to cover up her surprise.
They didn’t know. It was almost too good to be true.
William speared him with a glance. “Ye know better than to talk like that in front of a lass, Duff.”
“’Tis nothing I’ve not heard before with this lot.” Kinsey reached for a slice of bread and bit into it as casually as she could with her pulse racing like a warhorse.
The men laughed in reply, and Duff’s cheeks grew red even as he joined in their laughter.
“Enough out of ye.” William waved his hand at his army. “We’d best get to it before the rain starts.”
The men left the inn with Kinsey following behind them. Only then did William’s gaze catch hers. Aside from the brief moment they locked eyes, nothing on his face or stance suggested anything that had transpired between them.
The flip of her stomach, however, did.
Right along with the crash as she realized it might have been only the one time for him. Mayhap he wanted nothing more to do with her now that he’d had her. He hadn’t mentioned seeing her again that night or any other night.
Despite the hard knot of dread, she knew if that were the case, it would be for the best.
For how else could she possibly guard her heart against the likes of Sir William?