Chapter 20 #3
“Lick, suck, kiss, bite. Whatever you want,” he agreed. Then added, “But bite gently.”
Ellie’s laugh was soft and so erotic. “Very gently, I promise. Lay back.”
He did, and then she put her mouth on him again, tasting and teasing at a languid pace.
She really didn’t know what to do, so she did a little of everything, and God he loved it so much.
She kept asking if he liked this, or liked that, and laughed that maddening silken laugh when he admitted each time that yes he liked it.
“Are men just not particular?” she wondered at some point.
“Not very. Not always. I’m particularly obsessed with you, though, if it matters.” It would be crude to tell her that seeing her gorgeously pink lips circling his cock would make him hard every time he remembered it, but it was the truth.
“I do like to make you feel good,” she said softly. “Could I finish you with my mouth? Would you mind doing it that way? I’d like to try.”
“Christ, you’ve got a way with words.”
“Is that not a thing men want?”
“Oh, we want it.” He hesitated. “It’s usually something done by a woman who’s being paid.”
She looked even more intrigued. “Why is that?”
“Because ladies don’t… Look, it’s messy if you don’t swallow, and expecting you to swallow is…”
“Treating me like a whore?” she asked with that bluntness that she sometimes displayed.
He winced. “Yes.”
“Nonsense,” she declared. “I want to please you. And if I can, why shouldn’t I? It will save the cost of a whore anyway.”
He nearly choked on a laugh. “Ellie!”
“What?” she asked. “I do pride myself on my frugality.”
And then she proceeded to drive him to a point of desperate need, her tongue swirling over flesh so primed for her touch that he had to keep back a howl of pleasure.
He wanted to enjoy this feeling a little more, but within minutes, he was at the edge.
Struan gasped out her name, intending to warn her, but then he was over the edge, and his whole body convulsed as he came.
Bliss followed, interrupted only by the aftershocks caused by his wife’s wicked little tongue.
Ellie continued to lick and suck, until he couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Enough,” he moaned. “It’s so good, but you’re killing me. ”
She released him and moved upward so that she could lie beside him, putting her head on his chest. He reached his hand up to stroke her hair, loving the silkiness of the curls against his skin.
“Did I do it correctly?” she asked with a trace of nervousness.
“Perfectly. Beautifully.”
“You’d let me do it again?”
“Any time, love.” As if he’d ever say no to her.
“Good. I like it when you look like you’re enjoying yourself.”
That was one way to put it. “You know, I never dreamed frugality would be the last word I’d hear before coming,” he said, laughter bubbling up in his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt so happy.
And it wasn’t what Ellie just did to him—well, that helped.
It was what she was doing now, curling up against him in the light of the afternoon, her soft curves molding to his body without any restraint at all.
“Why not? We are Scottish after all.” Ellie giggled into his chest. “Oh, I’m terrible, aren’t I?”
“You’re wonderful. I’ve been terrible,” he said. “I don’t know what I was thinking, staying hidden from you. I didn’t want you to… I don’t know. I didn’t want to frighten you.”
“You mean you didn’t want to disgust me. You were the one who was afraid, Struan. Afraid that I’d not like what I saw. Which is silly. You’re a fine man, every inch of you.”
“Stop it. You don’t have to be nice about it. I know what I look like.”
“You know what you look like to you,” she said with a heat that silenced him.
“You can never know what you look like to another. Nor do I, though I consider myself adequate most mornings. I’ve seen beautiful girls stare at a mirror and cry because they believe they’re hideous.
Nose too big, they say. Hair too dull. But it’s not true at all.
I think sometimes it would be better if all mirrors got broken. People are poor judges of themselves.”
“My little Ellie, dispenser of wisdom.”
“No charge,” she told him, and then dissolved into giggles again.
* * * *
Ellie never wanted to leave Struan’s bed. It was so comfortable to lay with him, skin to skin, and see him at last.
He’d been angry when she first confronted him in the bath, and she almost fled. But her need to see him transcended her fear. And once she looked, she refused to stop looking.
She’d been appalled by the extent of the damage, because it drove home how close to death Struan had been.
Half his torso was covered in strangely smooth, shiny, reddish skin, devoid of the hairs sprinkled over the other half of his chest and then narrowing down his stomach to his groin.
The only disconcerting thing was the fact that one nipple on his chest, the right one, seemed to be gone.
Only the new, smooth skin remained. And she could see how the scarring fit on his frame like too-tight clothing, sometimes making him hunch or bend oddly, perhaps because he moved in such a way to avoid pain remembered from recovery.
But even though the burn scars had left a bitter reminder of what he’d gone through, he wasn’t any less a man because of it. Indeed, she thought wryly, no one seeing his naked body could doubt his manhood, especially when she saw his arousal.
Ellie had grown heated herself seeing that, knowing it was a reaction to her presence.
It made her feel powerful, like she could work magic on him.
And she wanted to learn what kind of magic worked best. Happily, he seemed to enjoy her explorations.
She enjoyed them too, though she still felt that ache between her legs.
Stretching and tipping her head up to find his, she kissed him.
“You don’t think it’s wrong of me to want you, is it? I mean, you say you were afraid of scaring me, but you meant disgusting me. But what’s the opposite of disgusted?”
“Gusted?” he offered, sounding more languid and open than she’d ever heard.
“Stop it!” She had to laugh before recalling herself to the topic at hand.
“You thought I would be repelled by your appearance. I’m not.
I’m drawn to you. I like touching you. Learning you.
” She felt shy about admitting this, and kept her eyes on his body as she ran her hands over his skin.
Scars made little ridges and islands. Muscles rose into plateaus.
“I don’t like touching me,” he admitted. “For a long time I felt like I was just a broken-apart shell.”
Ellie shook her head. “But you’re healed now. Scars aside, you’re whole.”
“Maybe.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Struan hesitated before he spoke again, and when he did, his voice was low. “While the most obvious wounds were to my skin and muscles on the right side of my body, there’s a chance that my injuries may have…other effects.”
“Such as?”
“Such as not being able to…” He touched her belly.
It took her a moment to understand exactly what he meant, and just how upset he was about the possibility of not being able to father a child. He couldn’t even say the words. She wanted more than anything to comfort him. But she was hardly an expert.
“Has a doctor told you so?” she asked, carefully stepping around her own ignorance.
He shook his head, his eyes still clouded. “No. In fact, the ones who treated me went out of their way to tell me that it’s not a concern. But the army taught me that when anyone voluntarily tells you not to worry about something, you should definitely worry.”
“They were army doctors?”
“The first one was. I’ve gone to other doctors in Edinburgh since then.”
“Who have no reason to lie to you.”
“They probably didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news.”
“Or there was no bad news to bear. So to speak,” Elspeth added.
He let out a laugh, then looked surprised at his own reaction. “Ellie, this is serious.”
“Unless it’s not. I mean, we’ve not been…
together for long, have we? But if we keep…
um, being together, then I may be carrying a child in a few months.
And you’ll know that there’s nothing to worry about.
Truly. Because I’m not part of the army, and when I say not to worry, I mean not to worry.
And for what it’s worth, I’ve seen no evidence at all that you suffer from any…
lack when it comes to the act of…procreation. ”
Struan said, “My desire was pent up for a long while. I assure you, I’m not typically so randy.”
“I’m not objecting in the least. It was nice to see your desire.”
“I guess you’ve no more need for the blindfold.”
“Well, don’t lose it,” she said. “I enjoyed that too.”
He raised one eyebrow. “That’s useful to know.” He kissed her, hungrily, then said, “We don’t have to wait till dark now.”
“No,” she agreed in a breathless voice. “No.”
He pulled her atop him, and she rose on her knees to allow him access.
“Christ. Are you so wet for me already?” he asked, one knuckle dipping into her folds. “Should I play with you more this way, or do you want my cock?”
“Yes. Don’t make me wait,” she gasped.
“You’re in charge, love.”
She lowered her body onto his stand, moaning as he filled her.
He kept one hand on her hip, guiding her movements. The other hand reached up to tangle in her hair. “Ellie, you feel so good.”
She ran her fingers over his face, lightly skimming his cheek and jaw. “There is something in particular I want.”
“Name it.”
“Make me a mother.”
He groaned and held her tight to him as he began to thrust hard. She reveled in the sensation, and arched her back as the pleasure built. He seemed to feed on her desire, and within moments, they both were lost.