Chapter 14 #2
She did not know when he had pulled aside the collar and neckline of her garments, but he had freed a plump breast from the bindings of the stays beneath.
His warm, wet mouth surrounded her eager nipple, sucking on it with a force that threatened to buckle her at the knees.
Pleasure exploded inside her abdomen, rippling down into her thighs and up into her chest, where her lungs ceased to function.
Breath stuck in her throat as the beat of her thunderous heart pounded in her ears, matching the shivering pulse that flickered in the very core of her being. She had never known her body could feel such things. Such bliss. Why had no one ever told her?
“Are ye well?” Owen whispered, bringing his mouth to her neck once more, just beneath her ear.
She could do nothing but nod: her body shocked by the wondrous onslaught of sensations it had never known it could create.
“Ye can tell me to stop,” he told her. “I only want to please ye, Lass. I wouldn’ae ever want to hurt ye.”
She dipped her chin to kiss his cheek. “I do not believe you could ever hurt me, nor do I think I will ever tell you to stop.”
His tongue tasted her throat, while his hands grasped hold of her dress.
Slowly, he edged the garment up to her chest, where he paused to guide her arms upward.
The garment followed until she was free of it altogether.
She did not even see where he had thrown it, for she was too captivated by the ferocity of his kiss, as he pressed his lips back to hers.
Utterly immersed in him, she felt no shame or fear in being half naked. Instead, she longed to be entirely unburdened of her earthly constraints.
As she kissed him harder, exploring his mouth with her tongue, she tugged the separate sleeves away from her arms and let them drop. At the same moment, Owen unfastened the ties of her drawers: the flimsy material pooling at her feet.
She did not hesitate to step out of them. “You have changed everything, Owen,” she whispered, staring deeply into his eyes for a moment.
“As ye’ve changed everythin’ for me, Lass,” he replied: his tone husky. It was not quite “I love you,” but to Heather, it did not feel any different. Her heart and mind and body responded to him as though he had said those three words.
With a melting smile, he turned her around, one protective arm moving diagonally across her chest. Her fingertips curled around the powerful forearm that rested across her bosom: his hand grasping her shoulder.
Only a small gap separated her back from his abdomen, but his deft fingertips worked swiftly upon the ribbons of her stays. Soon enough, she shed the last part of her old life and stood naked before him. Safe with his arm around her, she had never felt so brave, so free, so secure.
“Ye’re beautiful, Lass,” Owen purred, kissing his way from the nape of her neck to the first dip of her spine, before his fingertips took their cue.
His tender touch contrasted the roughness of his battle-worn fingertips, crafting a delicious friction that made Heather tingle all over as he caressed down the length of her spine.
“Yer skin is softer than silk, and the shape of ye is makin’ me want to do things I cannae,” he confessed, close to her ear.
Reaching the swell of her backside, his palm stole a sneaky squeeze, bringing an amused smile to her lips.
“It will not be soft if you grab it so,” she scolded playfully, secretly reveling in the boldness of him.
“Och, then I’ll have to divert me attentions elsewhere.” She felt him smile against her shoulder as he placed a kiss there, but any witty retort she might have had disappeared as his roughened palm smoothed over the peak of her hip.
He pulled her closer to his abdomen, while his hand caressed the slight rise of her stomach. She panted in delicious torment as he edged his touch downward, but nothing could have prepared her for the bliss that was about to be unleashed.
“Tell me what ye like,” he urged. “Tell me what feels good.”
Still oblivious, a strangled cry abandoned her throat as his fingertips found a hidden place, entirely unknown to her, and began to rub slow, tantalizing circles. Every touch lit her up from the inside, igniting blast after blast of forbidden ecstasy.
“That… my goodness, that,” she gasped, arcing against him as he continued those exquisite motions. “What is that?”
His tongue flicked against her neck. “The center of yer pleasure, Lass.”
“Oh my—” Her eyes closed, sinking deeper into the bliss of it all.
Suddenly, Owen swept her up into his arms and carried her over to the bed, leaving her bereft of the powerful pulsing ripples that coursed through her.
She could never have suspected that a man’s fingertips could conjure such delirium, and now that she had experienced it, she did not wish to be without it.
She need not have worried, for Owen had other notions to please her.
“Lie back, Lass,” he said softly, as he set her down on the edge of the bed. “Tell me how it feels.”
Obedient in her curiosity, Heather lay back on the soft, feather-stuffed mattress. She waited for Owen to join her there, in some capacity, but he did not. Puzzled, she glanced down, just as he scooped his arms beneath her thighs, lifting them onto his shoulders.
She was about to ask what he was doing, when she felt it for herself. His tongue, lashing lightly against that same, exquisite center of her pleasure. The most wondrous kiss she had ever experienced.
“Oh… Owen!” she panted, grasping at the blankets beneath her.
His tongue moved in steady, intense strokes, igniting wave after wave of molten fire that seared delectably through her entire being.
Indeed, her body did not seem able to contain the ferocity of her pleasure, for her limbs were trembling, her breath had turned shallow and harsh, and her heart was threatening to burst from her chest; it was beating so powerfully.
But Owen was not done.
“Tell me if ye feel any pain,” he murmured, in a fleeting pause between the caresses of his tongue.
Heather was not even sure she had heard him, as she writhed upon the bed in a state of absolute bliss, relishing in every stroke. However, she was aware of his fingertips sliding along a part of her she had never explored at any length.
He paused at the very moment she felt a pressure against her most secret place: his fingertips held at the gateway to untold pleasures. Not once did he stop lavishing his attentions upon her swollen bud, but he seemed to be waiting for her permission.
“That… that feels… good,” she rasped, gripping the blankets tighter in case it hurt. Still, as of yet, he had done nothing to cause her pain.
Her muscles seized as he slowly slipped a finger inside her. There was no pain, just the discomfort of adjusting to an entirely new feeling. No doubt sensing her hesitation, Owen did not move his finger, letting her grow accustomed to it.
“Are ye well?” he asked, placing a kiss upon her hip.
She nodded. “I am not hurt.”
“Let me ken if it’s too much,” he insisted, meeting her gaze as he slid another finger inside her.
It proved to be the perfect remedy to the strangeness of the first. The considerable width triggered a pulse of pleasure that relaxed her back into the mattress, adding another layer of delight to the ones his tongue had conjured.
“Yes… I like that… very much,” she cried out, close to screaming with ecstasy as his tongue resumed its fond attention upon her.
Her hips bucked, her legs shook, her fingers clenched the blankets, her breath seared in her lungs, and her back arced, almost involuntarily, as a feeling of pressure gathered within her.
Was that what he meant about it being too much?
She did not know, but she did know that she did not want this to end.
She could tremble away into nothing, and she would still desire more.
What other secrets have been hidden from me, all the two-and-twenty years of my life?
Perhaps, this was why her father had kept her locked away whenever there were young, handsome gentlemen at the castle.
Perhaps, this was why women were told not to ride astride horses, so it would not alert them to the bud that sparked pleasure when rubbed against. Had she known, she might have explored the possibilities of her body, alone in the comfort of her own chambers.
“Yes, my darling… yes!” she urged, moaning at the slow, successive withdraw and plunge of his fingers.
With her eyes closed, her mind filled in the gaps of her knowledge.
Those drawings she had seen in the gaoler’s room were only a hint of what happened when a man and woman joined together.
They could not possibly capture the sensations she was reveling in, at that moment.
However, it did inspire her imagination to wonder how much more exquisite it could become, if it were not his fingers within her, but the protrusion that forever strained to be closer to her.
When we are married, will I find out? Delirious as she was, she had not forgotten the importance of her integrity. What they were doing did not seem improper, since she knew his intentions were good, but she would not go further than this until they were bound before God.
“Oh, Owen!” Her thoughts dissipated as the pressure inside her built up to breaking point.
A moment later, his tongue, his touch, his skill, tipped her over the edge. The perpetual, delicious bursts of ecstasy she had relished throughout this discovery of herself were nothing compared to what came next.
An almighty explosion erupted in the depths of her abdomen, sending powerful currents of pure pleasure through her veins. Wherever her blood rushed, the bliss followed, until she was a shaking, gasping, breathless shell of an utterly satisfied woman.
She collapsed into the mattress, not realizing her back had arced against the power of her conclusion. There, she lay, staring up at the rafters, watching the decorations sway in the warm draft that swelled up from the fireplace. It was as if she were not even in her own body, but in paradise.
“Did that please ye?” Owen kissed along her thighs and across the space between her hips, before letting his mouth trail up her stomach. His body shadowed his lips, clambering up onto the bed so he could lavish more of his attention upon her feverish skin.
At her pert breasts, he paused to steal a gentle suck, smiling as a gasp slipped from her lips.
It was almost too intense to bear, now her body had gone through the wonders of her conclusion.
Seeming to know that, Owen rolled over onto his side and pulled her into his chest, wrapping her up in a tight embrace.
“That was only yer first lesson,” he said with a chuckle. “Actually, it was more a promise of what’s to come when we’re wed.”
She peered up at him. “You still wish to marry me?”
“I would like nothin’ more,” he replied, bending his head to kiss her. “But it’ll be ye who decides, in the end.”
Pulling back so she could look into his eyes, she frowned. “What do you mean?”
“We daenae have to speak of that just yet.” He kissed her again, robbing her of her will to press him.
In the back of her mind, however, she already knew what he meant.
Residing in a new castle in a new country, courting this handsome man, stripping bare in front of him and relishing in his touch, she had thought she had already left her old life behind her.
But if it did follow her to this place, she knew she would have to choose.
Perhaps, it was not so easy to shed a former life, especially if there was someone out there who would not allow her to.