Chapter 19 ALL OF HIM
HAZEL YANKED UP Craeg’s lèine, her fingers sliding over the hot skin underneath. And all the while, his mouth devoured hers. The taste of him overwhelmed her. The feel of his tongue and teeth, teasing and grazing. Nipping and sucking.
Dizziness swept over her once more, and she clung to him. Her anchor in a tumultuous sea.
Their clothing came off, in breathless gasps, linen and wool fluttering to the floor.
Craeg heeled off his boots and kicked them aside.
His belt fell onto the wooden planks with a thud.
Meanwhile, Hazel wriggled out of her kirtle and lèine, excitement clenching in her belly yet again as warm air feathered across her naked skin.
She expected Craeg to fly at her then, to kiss her again. But instead, he drew back, his gaze raking over her. From the crown of her head, down past where her hair hung over her shoulders, to the twin peaks of her small breasts. Her nipples were hard, swollen, and tingling. Aching for his touch.
Yet still he looked, his gaze sliding down her torso, past the nest of soft dark hair between her thighs. His attention then traveled down her long legs.
His lips parted. “Ye are exquisite.”
Swallowing, she drank him in too. His broad shoulders. The crisp whorls of dark hair that covered his hard-muscled chest. Her gaze traveled down to his narrow hips—to the erection that thrust up against his flat belly.
A breathy gasp escaped her. His shaft was long and proud, its crown swollen.
She reached out then, her fingertips stroking its quivering length. So hard. So hot. Yet the skin was so smooth and soft.
Need curled tight in her womb. She wanted to worship it. The urge to drop to her knees before him, to take him deep into her mouth, barreled into her then.
And she was about to succumb to it when he stepped into her once more.
His mouth crashed down on hers, his kiss wilder now.
His strong body trembled; she could feel his barely leashed restraint.
His passion untethered something within her.
Hooking her leg around his, she slid it up, thrilling at how different his skin felt to hers.
Rougher. She then tugged him closer, eager to feel his arousal pressed up against her belly.
Murmuring an oath against her mouth, Craeg then traced kisses along her jaw, neck, and collarbone.
And then he scooped her breasts high in his calloused palms and began to feast upon her peaked nipples.
The moment he sucked hard, pleasure pulsed between her thighs.
Biting her bottom lip to stop herself from crying out, she closed her eyes, giving herself up to sensation.
He licked and sucked before grazing each nipple with his teeth. Again and again, until she was panting, writhing against him. Tangling her fingers in Craeg’s hair, she held him against her.
Aye. More.
She was making noise now. Soft mewing, lusty sounds.
And then something cold nudged against her hip, breaking the spell.
Opening her eyes, Hazel looked down into worried brown eyes. Faolan had roused himself from before the fire and padded over. The sounds she’d been making had concerned him.
“Don’t fash yerself, lad,” she said, untangling her fingers from Craeg’s hair and stroking the hound’s head. “He’s not harming me.”
Craeg muttered something under his breath and stepped back. “Aye, well … I’m not going any further with Faolan judging me,” he said, his lips quirking in that boyish way of his that made her chest tighten.
With that, he took hold of her hand, drew her away from the wall, and led her toward the door to their left—not the one that led out onto the landing, but to his private bedchamber.
Hazel’s pulse fluttered as she followed him.
She’d launched herself from shore and was now swimming in open seas. It wasn’t too late to turn and claw her way back to land.
Craeg would respect her wishes. She knew that.
But she didn’t want to climb back to safety.
No, she didn’t slow her pace, didn’t protest as he pushed open the door and drew her into his bedchamber after him.
The door thudded shut behind them, leaving Faolan in the solar.
She was briefly aware of the grand bedchamber with its deerskin rug by the hearth, a carven wooden chest against one wall, and the massive canopied bed draped in sheepskins—a laird’s bed. But she couldn’t concentrate on anything but Craeg.
She threw herself at him. Mouth greedy. Hands feverish. He hauled her hard against him, his hand cupping the back of her head as he took control of the kiss.
And then he was pulling her toward the bed.
The bed ropes creaked beneath the straw-stuffed mattress, and they fell onto it.
On her back, with Craeg’s weight pressing onto her, she felt all of him, including his rock-hard shaft that burned between them.
Desperate now, Hazel lifted her hips off the mattress and ground herself against him.
Craeg groaned low in his throat, the sensual sound rumbling between them. “Hades,” he whispered as he braced himself on his arms and started to kiss his way down her throat once more. “Are ye trying to kill me?”
A soft laugh escaped her, even as excitement clenched in her belly. “No … but ye are intent on torturing me.”
He looked up, and their gazes met. A slow smile then tugged at his lips. His warm brown eyes were hooded now, and the look on his face made her breathing catch. “I haven’t even started yet,” he murmured.
Hazel’s pulse kicked into a gallop.
Craeg didn’t explain himself. He merely slid down her body with a slowness that made her want to scream, kissing, nipping, licking as he went. Tasting. Her breasts had never felt so full, so tight. Her nipples throbbed as he drew each one into his mouth and sucked.
But then he released her breasts, sliding down further, his tongue swirling into the indentation of her navel before he reached her loins.
There, he gently spread her wide and then sat back on his heel to admire her.
By the Saints. The look on his face. Even under his deep tan, she marked the flush upon his cheekbones. His eyes glittered as he gazed down at what lay between her thighs, his lips parting. His chest rose and fell sharply.
He seemed … entranced.
Hazel’s own breathing hitched, excitement pulsing in her womb. If he didn’t start touching her soon, she’d crawl out of her skin.
She’d enjoyed the frenzied heat of her encounters with Ewan. The woodcutter had been lusty, usually hiking up her skirts and taking her up against the nearest tree. But this was different.
The desire that Craeg stirred in her turned her into a wild thing.
Spreading her wider still, he then lowered himself between her thighs.
Two things happened then.
His tongue speared inside her, and her ragged curse ripped through the chamber.
Panting, she pushed herself up onto her elbows, watching as his tongue thrust into her again, and she quivered against him. And then, as sweat beaded on her forehead, he dragged that wicked tongue up and down her slit.
She couldn’t help it; she gasped out a series of oaths that would have made a harlot blush.
Craeg glanced up, his cheek dimpling as she grinned. “Like that do ye?”
“Aye,” she growled. “Don’t ye dare stop!”
His dark eyes glinted, and then he ducked his head between her thighs once more and resumed licking her.
Pleasure knotted in her womb, tightening with each stroke. Her thighs started to tremble. Heat washed through her loins.
She couldn’t look away. And as when he’d lavished attention on her breasts, he took his time now too. He let the tension wind tighter as she shuddered and gasped. His hands slid under her, and he clasped each buttock, lifting her to meet his questing mouth and tongue.
Heat ignited in the cradle of her hips. She was melting. Burning. But still he continued.
The tip of his tongue found the hard bud of flesh nestled above her entrance then, flicking over it gently. Her legs started to quiver and jerk.
Sweat gleamed off her breasts now. She was having trouble drawing breath. The tension was unbearable. She was so close, so—
Craeg drew back.
A cry of disappointment tore from her. “I told ye not to stop!”
The soft rumble of his laugh echoed through the chamber as he rose up between her thighs. “I’m not, lass.”
With that, he pushed her legs back, folding her almost double. Opening her, exposing her even more fully than before.
He moved closer on his knees, and her gaze went to his prick.
It was even harder and bigger than earlier. And it was leaking now, wetness sliding down its swollen length.
Hazel whimpered, desperately. She needed him. Now.
But still he made her wait, teasing her by rubbing the tip of himself between her slick thighs.
Her breathing caught. She was drenched down there. The sounds that now filtered through the bedchamber were lewd, carnal, but they just excited her further.
He pushed her thighs back further, holding her pinned open with his hands just beneath the underside of her knees.
And then he slid into her.
Slowly.
A guttural sound tore from Hazel.
Meanwhile, a nerve jumped on Craeg’s cheek, and he ground out a low curse of his own.
Inch by inch, he sank into her.
He met no resistance. This wasn’t her first time, and fleetingly, she worried if he’d care. But then he was buried to the hilt inside her and rolling his hips in sensual circles—and all rational thought fled.
Her stomach muscles clenched. “Oh, cods!”
This position brought him deep and allowed her to feel every hard inch of him. He was touching her in places that made her clench around him.
His face had gone rigid with concentration now, sweat sliding down his temples, as he slowly withdrew and then slid deep once more, rolling his hips again.
It was too much.
The tension that had been winding tighter and tighter snapped. Pleasure twisted and pulsed through her loins. Her core clutched at him.
Hazel arched back, her eyes fluttering shut as wave after wave crashed over her.
A melting sensation followed deep in her womb, and a gush of wetness. She cried out, her eyes snapping open. “Oh, God. Craeg!”
He didn’t hear her, for he now gripped her legs tightly and began to thrust wildly.
He was no longer taking his time, no longer savoring her.
Instead, he plowed her. And she loved it. She couldn’t get enough of it. The wet slap of their bodies colliding filled the chamber, and the throbbing pleasure that had just started to subside crested once more.
She stared between them now at where his shaft, slick from them both, penetrated her.
In the back of Hazel’s mind, a warning whispered that if she let him find his release inside her, there could be consequences, but she ignored it. The excitement of this wild coupling made her reckless.
She didn’t want him to withdraw and spill on her belly or on the sheepskin covering the bed. No. She wanted him to lose control. She wanted all of him.
And so, when Craeg thrust into her once more, a hoarse cry ripping from his throat, she arched up hard against him, bringing him deeper still, welcoming the heat of his seed filling her.