Chapter 41
Was the innocent look shining in her eyes up at him as she declared her feelings like anything he had ever beheld before?
No. The moment was upon them. Their moment – she had made her choice.
A decision he would not force, only respect.
However, even if a flood washed over him the effect could not have been greater when his desire hit him all at once.
Had he been lying to himself to preserve his sanity about how much he wanted her, all of her? Aye. Every last delicious speck of her.
Deepening their kiss, somewhere in the far corners of his mind he expected to open his eyes and find himself back in Stirling upon his empty pallet in the guard’s chambers awaiting Sir James’s next sour order for him to fulfill.
There was simply no way this was real. To have won a lady’s affections or desire or love such as he now held in his arms wasn’t possible.
The tenderness she’d shown at gathering the belongings into their tent in his absence had been enough to grant a rich joy, but the emotions she bestowed…
was it real? His palms lowered, cupping her backside, raising her feet from the soil.
Soft and warm and his. A tiny groan from her caressed his mouth at his forbidden touch.
She was real, all of her, and he would take his time indulging her every passion.
Stepping closer toward the pallet, he set her back onto her soles as his lips left hers to explore more.
His palms went for the gown’s hem while his lips brushed over the gentle line belonging to her jaw all the way up toward her lobe, where he playfully captured the tiny morsel in his teeth.
A gasp of pleasure filled the air, with her fingers tightening on his neck.
“Aonghus?” she murmured. Her palms stroked down the notches of his spine in an erotic way.
As he lifted the gown over her head, followed by the chemise, he paused. “Aye, my Cluaran?”
“My cries of passion,” she advised, leaning closer; her bare breasts rubbing his torso caused a growl to emanate from his lips.
“You must capture them as in the stables, or we will wake the entire encampment.” He leaned forward, grinning against the flesh on her neck when he began nibbling – his practical lass.
“Aye.”
He lowered her onto the pallet while her fingers with his yanked at the ties on his braies and chausse, which met her garments, forgotten onto the ground.
Her fingers went seeking his arousal, but his hand on her wrist paused the action. Meeting his gaze, a curiosity lining her expression, he declared in a throaty tone, “Nae, my lady, this eve is for you.”
In care he laid her back onto the pallet then took onto his knees, admiring the sight before him.
Skin flushed by desire. Enchanting. It mattered not that her instinct in sense was soon to be cast into the winds – she was enchanting, not the element unto her grasp.
Her. It was always her, from the first time he held her close in the yew tree and every moment since.
As he lifted her wounded leg carefully, his lips grazed over her inner ankle then higher toward the covered wound.
Softly he pressed a kiss there. The course fibers in the linen scratched his nose.
If he could take her pain, make it his, he would sell his soul to hell’s gatekeeper in declaring it so.
Softly he brushed his cheek against the nubby textured cloth.
Her hand rose to cup his jaw at the action.
“My Scottish knight.”
***
Keirah’s emotions tugged at his heartfelt gesture.
Spread wide before him, the cool air tickled her skin, blazing after his touch.
Why was this pose, which would normally cause a shying from her, suddenly okay?
The deliberate way he rained her with affection showed what he spoke about their first eve at the inn the time he had described – ‘preparing a lass.’
He was doing this; her maidenhead had become damp as dew in a summer meadow awaiting the thick arousal at his thigh’s juncture.
Would he claim her next? Curiously, he placed her wounded leg’s thigh onto his shoulder then carefully grasped her other long limb, the dagger still strapped on, then set this thigh onto his opposite shoulder.
She propped herself up on her elbows, looking at him. To mount her he must have their upper bodies level; why was he putting her in such an odd position? Did he mean to kiss her thighs as in the stables?
He paused, his eyes looking over her intimate curls while stating, “I shall capture your cries when we are joined, but for this moment you’d best clasp your hands over your mouth or bite your lip to stifle the urge as I continue to prepare you, my lady.”
“Urge?” She questioned the term; he gave a dark grin as his answer, which made her toes curl by anticipation. Was he planning more than at the stables?
All grew dark when she shuttered her lashes after his lips began a fresh trail of kisses from her inner knee, then thigh, then…
“Aonghus!” she gasped in a shocked whisper when he found her dewy meadow, but this time with both his lips and fingers. Oh. My. Lover.
Her head fell back against the pallet with a loud clap when both her palms slapped over her mouth after he unleashed pleasure over her whole body emanating from her one most tender spot.
If it were any other time, she would have blazed red by embarrassment, but here she only blazed wanting more…
His name became a muffled scream against her palms when her body shook in release at his skilled ministrations.
“Remarkable,” she heard him murmur from somewhere beyond her euphoric state before his mouth continued the journey up her tummy, taking a full sweep with his tongue upon her breasts, which were fully peaked by pleasure.
Her fingers wove his salted tresses. The closer he came, the more his scent covered her: ocean, pine, and a hint of spice uniquely him.
Her knees sought his hips when he reached her neck’s curve. “I ache for you,” she begged. “Claim me, mark me as yours, my Scotsman.”
Raising above her, his fingers lowered in aiding at pressing his tip to her meadow’s edge. “Keirah” – his brow furrowed with his expression troubled by guilt – “the pain there…”
“My first,” she soothed. “’Twill pass; hold nae fear, nae remorse.”
He held steady even as his sheen-covered body trembled, most likely by the instinct wanting to thrust forward. Her giant Highland bull was afraid of hurting her. In a bold move she raised her hips as a gasp tore her lips after her maidenhead was given.
Aonghus released a low growl at the action then arched his back slightly, entering her more.
Aye, it hurt, pass…it would pass. Tenderly he eased in and out slightly; each stroke the sting held less.
There it is…ohhhhh, pleasure. Her knees pressed his taut backside as he gave a low rumble from his torso after she wrapped about him more.
“Tell me,” he half groaned. “The pain?”
She panted her words as he kept a slow rhythm for her even as his face appeared marked by pain in wanting more. “Gone; I feel…” The words faded as he thrust forward again then paused a breath.
“Feel?” he asked in wonderment. “What does it bring to you, my Cluaran?”
He pulled back then rotated his hips forward again.
“Free,” she sighed, her palms gripping his shoulders.
“Free we are together at last.” The pads on her fingertips dug his back as she declared, her voice laden with awe, “Loved. Loved with the way you look upon me as if we would both perish if you turn away…and terrified.”
He halted. “Terrified?”
Her hand caressed up his sheen-covered arm to cup his jaw. “Terrified it shall end.”
He grinned down at her. “Nae, lass, this is only the beginning, for now comes the cries in pleasure I shall capture.” His lips took hers as his pace moved briskly. It was not only their rhythm but the instinctual tension which built through her whole self at all he unleashed.
His kiss was somehow strong enough to drown both their groans and cries and moans born by euphoria as he thrust harder, then faster, then all at once she called out for him as her body quivered about him, contracting in a release.
He roared her name in her honor as his seed surged before both collapsed against each other after nature’s helm.
When he leaned back slightly, admiring her, she smiled then reflected the word back at him. “Remarkable, my Scotsman.” He gave a low chuckle which caused his member to quake slightly in her as they were still joined. She gave a low groan of delight before her lips took his with another kiss.
Aye, it had been a long wait, but…Her hands lowered, cupping his backside boldly as he was the one to give a low groan in return at her action. Ahh, remarkable.