CHAPTER TWELVE
Gregor dropped Emily’s discarded chemise over the side of the bed onto the floor, holding her close, glorying in the sensual slide of skin against skin. “Ach, lass. You feel good in my arms.”
“I like being in your arms.” She chuckled and rose over him.
Their gazes met, lingered. Mutual desire acknowledged without words.
He kissed her lips, her face, the hollow of her throat.
She licked the contour of his ear, blew into it. Made him shiver with delight. She nibbled the lobe. Drove him near to the edge of endurance. Heat pulsed through his blood. He growled and rolled her beneath him. He wanted to devour every bit of her.
Gregor laved a rosy nipple. Blew on the tip.
Made her flesh pucker and tighten into a hard bud.
He sucked it into his mouth, swirled his tongue around the taut tip, and savored the moans escaping her throat.
Needing more, needing all of her, he tended to her other breast with the same thorough devotion.
She grabbed fistfuls of his hair. “Please, Gregor,” she said, urging him onward.
“Everything for you.” He used his teeth, a gentle bite. She panted and bucked against him. “Easy.” He didn’t know if he murmured the word for her benefit or his. His arousal had hardened to near pain. Pleasure-pain. He was breathing hard. He needed to slow down or he would spend his seed too soon.
He untangled her hands from his hair and yanked his head from her grasp, ignoring the sting to his scalp. He resumed worshiping her pert breasts.
She panted and gripped the bed covering. “Gregor, you’re driving me insane.”
A smile teased his lips, and he released the nipple from his mouth. “We have only just begun.”
He splayed his hands on the curve of her hips, holding her in place, using his lips to leisurely wander over her flat belly, cherishing her with soft kisses.
When he reached the curls of her mons, he inhaled sharply, taking in her scent.
He drew the womanly fragrance deep into his nostrils, and his erection kicked.
His pleasure must wait. He would see Emily satisfied first.
She rose onto her elbows, her hair disheveled, her brown eyes glazed with passion. “I want you inside me. Now.”
“Soon, sweetling.” Holding her gaze, he stuck a finger into his mouth, wet it, and ever so slowly withdrew it, popping it out. Her eyes flared.
He bowed his head and teased the folds at the entrance to her sex with the moisture on his finger. Emily dropped back to the mattress, allowing him to delve deeper. When he stroked the nub within, she undulated and cried out. She would scream his name in ecstasy before they were through.
He replaced his finger with his tongue and worked her without mercy, her taut body open to him. She came into his mouth with a roar, and he swallowed her flavor, relishing the lingering taste on his lips.
“Holy crap, Gregor.” She went limp. “You are amazing.”
“We are not done.” He could wait no longer.
He stalked up her length and cradled his cock between her thighs.
With a swift thrust, his stiff erection was sheathed to the hilt within her heat.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and rocked.
Their gazes met and held. Sensation tingled along his length.
He withdrew from her warmth and thrust again.
They fell into a rhythm. Emily giving, him taking.
He giving, she taking. The pressure built, the pleasure burned, and united as one they exploded in a burst of vibrant color. She screamed his name. He yelled hers.
As the euphoria ebbed, Gregor held Emily snug within loving arms. They fit perfectly together. He felt the cadence of her heart as if it belonged to him. Two hearts thundering as one. He would never let her go.
Emily luxuriated within a haze of pleasure.
Warm air wafted through the open window, teasing her bare skin.
At some point during the night, Gregor had risen to check on the horses and opened the shutter before returning to bed and making love to her for the third or fourth time.
Who was counting? She raised her arms over her head in a languid stretch.
Gregor’s ragged intake of breath made her smile.
“You steal my breath, lass.”
She rolled onto her side and ran a finger along the length of his thigh. His cock jerked. She smiled and moistened her lips.
“If you gaze at me like that for much longer, the sun will be high in the sky before we break our fast.”
“And just how am I gazing at you?”
“Like you want to eat me alive.”
“So I do.” She grasped the length of his erection and caressed him from tip to hilt. Emily liked the feel of him—akin to stroking a soft chamois cloth over a hard steel rod.
His head dropped to the pillow on a heavy exhale. “Grrrrrh!”
She giggled. She couldn’t help it. It was so much fun to play with him.
In a swift move, she replaced her hand with her mouth.
She sucked his cock, using her tongue to circle the tip, especially the spot she somehow knew to be especially sensitive.
His groin rose off the bed, and he fisted the sheeting at his sides.
He said something, the words nothing more than gibberish.
She continued to work him. Licking. Sucking. Drawing him deep. The muscles in his neck went taut. His face reddened and sweat bloomed across his forehead. She didn’t let up until his cum surged into her mouth. She swallowed. Sucked him dry. Then ran her tongue over her lips, loving his taste.
“Come here. Let me hold you.” Several minutes passed before he managed to utter those coherent words.
Emily slid into the crook of his arm, pillowed her head on his pec. And so they stayed in comfortable silence until her stomach growled.
Gregor chuckled. “We must feed you.”
He handed her the chemise from the floor then grabbed a plaid from the bed and wrapped it about his waist. Damn. He looked good dressed like a Highlander—as if he’d jumped off the cover of a romance novel. Calves firm. Long hair draping drool-worthy muscles covering his broad chest and strong arms.
Lowering her gaze before he caught her ogling his assets, she slipped on the chemise and donned the skirt and tunic Isobell had so thoughtfully provided.
Tee teehee hee.
“Shite! Those blasted pixies are back,” Gregor barked.
Emily joined him at the table. Sure enough, the lavender-winged pixie perched on the rim of a tall cup. Two others flitted about, darting to and fro over the platters of food.
Gregor picked up the mug and held it in front of his face. “What do you want, wee lass?”
The pixie withdrew a fist from behind her back and tossed a white powder into his face. He coughed and dropped the cup to the table. He swiped at his eyes.
The pixie had fallen into the mug. She grasped the edge and shimmied over the side.
“Begone.” Gregor shooed her away with an abrupt wave of his arm.
Tee teehee hee. Tee teehee hee. The other pixies tittered.
The green pixie flew at Emily, hovering inches from her face, peridot wings vigorously fluttering like those of a hummingbird. She held her diminutive hand to her mouth and, palm open, spewed the same fine powder on a wisp of released breath into Emily’s face.
Emily blinked. “Why do they keep doing that?”
The three pixies darted out of the window.
Gregor dropped to the bench and laughed. “To retain their reputation for being pesky.”
Emily joined him in his mirth, laughing until her sides ached.
“Shall we have something to eat?” She sat beside him and wiped tears from her eyes.
“Aye. I find I am quite hungry, wife. You ken I had a busy night.”
She felt a blush stain her cheeks, but didn’t linger on the embarrassment. She’d enjoyed every moment of their busy night.
They shared heather ale and bannocks splattered with honey.
“I thought to go hunting for a wee and set a few snares within the wood. Perhaps we will have rabbit stew for our eve’n meal.
She’d never eaten rabbit, but she was game. “Okay.” she said. “One of these platters is full of vegetables.”
“Isobell foresaw our every need.” He changed into his leathers, strapped a knife to his calf, two others disappeared up his sleeves.
So that is what I’m supposed to do with the knives Isobell forced on me.
Gregor dropped a quick kiss on her forehead and grabbed his bow and arrows. “I will return shortly.”
* * *
Several hours later, Emily paced the small space from the table to the bed, her cheeks hot with thoughts of what they had done on that mattress throughout the night. Gregor turned out to be an amazing lover as she’d suspected after their first kiss. She sighed.
Then her memory flicked to another time, to another lover. Laughing black eyes. Jet black hair. She rubbed suddenly aching temples.
What had she been thinking?
Emily tramped back to the table, confusion wrinkling her forehead. She looked out the unshuttered window, unseeing. A roll of the neck did little to ease the building anxiety. The walls seemed to crowd in on her.
She rushed to the door and stepped outside.
Golden sunshine hit her face, chasing away some of the mind-numbing angst. Emily inhaled the sharp pitch of sun-warmed evergreens.
Took note of the dark green fir trees contrasting beautifully with the pure blue of the sky.
She shook her head, feeling foolish. Her unease was nothing more than being left alone in an unfamiliar place.
She missed Gregor. What should she do until he returned?
Emily strolled around to the side of the cottage to where a rough wooden bench had been placed in the shade.
After she’d sat there for the better part of an hour, her skin prickled with goose bumps.
She jerked her gaze around the clearing trying to see beyond the open space and into the shadowy realm of the trees. Was she being watched?
A flash of white darted through the trees. The rustling of branches followed. Was someone there?
She leapt from the bench and ran for the door of the cottage. Gregor had left behind his sword. She had the leather-bound knives. Certainly, she could use them for protection if there was a threat.
Before she made it through the door, an arm shot out and grabbed her. She shrieked.
“Easy, lass. I did not mean to frighten you.”
“Gregor! You scared the shit out of me.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Your heart is racing, sweetling. Are you unwell?”
“I glimpsed a white flash in the woods.”
“Aye. I saw deer tracks. I imagine the white stag is in the area. The one I was aiming at when the pixie startled my shot and my arrow grazed you.”
“I thought someone was spying on me.” She shrugged a shoulder. “Foolish. I know.”
“Nae. You need to be aware of your surroundings.”
“Did you see any other tracks? Maybe there is another hunter in the woods.”
Gregor rubbed his chin and frowned. “’Tis possible someone else tracks the beast.”
“You seem disappointed.”
“Ach, well.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “Come. Sit with me and I will explain.”
“What is it?” She grasped his hand after they sat together on the outside bench. “Is something wrong?”
“When I fostered at Castle Lachlan in my youth I acted as a reckless lad. Always in trouble. My chief and my father fretted I would never learn the discipline required to take my father’s place when he relinquishes the keepership of Dunadd.”
“Are you the oldest child?”
“Nae. I have two older sisters. But I am the only son. Therefore, my father’s heir.”
“I see.”
“You sound like you disapprove.”
“Things are different in the place from where I come. A female can inherit, same as a male.”
“There have been occurrences within the realm where a woman was placed into leadership, but ’tis uncommon.” Gregor smiled, but sounded skeptical of the merit. “I had hoped this time, during my tenure at Castle Lachlan, I would prove myself worthy to the clan, to my chief, to my father.”
“And to yourself?”
“Aye.”
“You thought to prove your worth by bringing in the white stag.”
He gave an abrupt nod.
“Instead you brought me to their door—a problem.”
“I dinnae regret it.” He squeezed her hand. “I dinnae regret it at all.”