Chapter 25 Arro #2
I raised an eyebrow at her churlishness. “I’m sorry. I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Mac’s date.”
“Uh, I don’t care who you are. We were talking, and you rudely interrupted. Do you not know who I am?”
I chuckled at the cliché arrogance. Sometimes it was hard to believe people like her existed, but I’d witnessed outrageous superiority complexes at university when I met a particularly entitled son of a British lord.
While many of Lachlan’s club members seemed nice enough, there were the odd few who thought themselves God’s gift to mankind. “Sweetheart, I don’t care who you are.”
The girl dragged her gaze down my body and back up again. “Does Lachlan know someone let the riffraff in?”
Mac tensed against me. “Ms. Benning, your continued membership to this club is contingent upon your good manners. You do not insult Ms. Adair, period, never mind inside her ancestral home.”
Ms. Benning. Ah, now I recognized her. Iris Benning.
Och, damn it. I’d liked her in her last movie too. See, this was the problem with Lachlan running a club for Hollywood people. Sometimes it ruined the illusion. This was why the old saying “Never meet your hero” was often true.
Her chin snapped back, but that disdain never left her face. “Oh, right. Sorry. I didn’t know you were, like, Lachlan’s sister.”
It annoyed me she kept calling my brother by his first name. She hadn’t earned that intimacy as far as I was aware.
“Well, now you do. Enjoy your evening.” I offered a saccharine smile.
“Yeah, whatever. I’ll catch you later, Mac.” She winked before stalking off.
Fucking winked.
Like it was a code I couldn’t decipher!
Hearing his beleaguered sigh, I reluctantly released him. His fingers curled into my hip as if to stop me, but then he caught the gesture and let me go.
“What the hell?” I scowled up at him. “What is she? Twelve?”
Mac glowered. “Twenty. And a pain in the arse. I don’t see her lasting long. We’ve already had one staff complaint about her poor attitude.”
“Is she harassing you?”
He shook his head, staring down at me with such tenderness, such—
Want.
Mackennon Galbraith didn’t just love me … he wanted me.
Suddenly, it was difficult to draw in a full breath.
My dress, bra, even the straps of my sandals felt too tight.
“So … Grayson Evans?”
Thankfully, there was no judgment in his tone, or I might have killed him. But the twitch in his jaw told me he hated the idea of me and Grayson.
I could’ve been a right cow and gone down the revenge route by allowing him to think I’d had sex with the actor.
But I wasn’t the tormenting kind. “Nothing happened. In fact, that night I burst into tears in his room, and he held me until I fell asleep.”
Mac’s eyes filled with regret. “Darlin’, I’m so sorry.”
I knew that.
I believed it down to the depths of my soul, and while a lingering voice in my head warned me to be careful, a bigger part of me who had loved Mac for so long wanted to ease his pain and remorse.
Seconds from throwing myself at him, I drew in a sharp breath. “I need some air,” I muttered, hurrying away before I did something I hadn’t thought through.
The room was packed with so many guests, I had to push my way among them to reach the corridor that led into the staff area. It was off-limits to guests, but not to me.
Hurrying down the carpeted hallways, desperate for the breezy sea air, I pushed out of the emergency side exit and stepped onto the gravel driveway that surrounded the entire castle.
My stiletto heels hated the stuff, but I got across it without falling.
It was only as I moved onto the forked path that I could enjoy taking in a cleansing breath.
A soft wind ruffled my hair and whispered cooling kisses across my skin.
Unbuckling my sandals, I carried them as I took the path leading to Loch Evelyn. It wouldn’t surprise me if people were celebrating at Loch Ardnoch, since it was larger and occupied by some of our staff. I’d more than likely find privacy to gather my thoughts down at the smaller loch.
It took me ten minutes to walk there, and by the time I reached the loch—black in the night, except for the moon glow glinting across it—my skin had cooled.
I threw my sandals down by the edge and considered pulling my dress up to dip my feet in.
Lowering myself to do so, the snapping of a branch behind me drew me to a startled stop.
Fear froze me.
And then melted away in an instant as Mac appeared on the path, marching toward me, kilt flipping upward with his powerful stride.
“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” he lectured, the moon illuminating the determined hardness in his expression.
I opened my mouth to protest, but suddenly Mac was upon me. He hauled me against his body as his lips crashed down over mine.
Gasping in shock, more than a little aroused by his hungry kiss, I allowed myself barely a few seconds to decide whether to kiss him back or push him away.
But then his hand slid down over my arse, pulling me deeper against him, and just like that, my desire overcame rational thinking.
I moaned into Mac’s kiss, licking at his tongue with mine. His other hand tightened around my nape as he groaned with a need that rumbled down my throat and made my nipples harden behind my bra.
I wanted nothing between us.
Years of pent-up longing burst forth, and I pushed at his jacket. Mac broke his hold on me to shrug out of it and then I started on his waistcoat.
“No time,” he panted against my mouth as he took me to the ground.
Cool grass prickled my upper back, the scent of soil and salt air mingling with Mac’s aftershave as he bracketed my head with his hands, covering my body with his.
His lips moved from my mouth, his stubble scratching my skin as he kissed a trail down my throat to the rise of my breasts.
I stared up at the evening sky in a daze, the stars watching as my body hummed and throbbed with a need unlike anything I’d ever felt.
Every inch of me experienced his touch, his scent, his taste, heightened in a way I’d never encountered. There was a surrealism to it.
Years.
Years I’d dreamed of this moment.
“Fuck,” Mac bit out, and I brought my gaze down to his head as he scattered reverent kisses across my cleavage. His eyes flew to mine, a savage edge glinting in their darkness.
Damn if that didn’t excite me.
“Mackennon,” I whispered, arching my hips into him.
Something triumphant flickered in his expression, and he tugged the front of my dress down, taking the bra with it.
His breaths grew shallow as he tugged a little harder until both breasts were free.
My nipples peaked in the cool coastal air.
“Beautiful,” Mac murmured hoarsely, cupping me in his large hands.
I whimpered, arching my back, and he squeezed, brushing his thumbs across my nipples.
“Yes,” I said, pressing his hands firmly to me.
Mac squeezed harder until a pleasure pain shot through me and I moaned. He grunted and seconds later covered my right nipple with his hot mouth.
Streaks of arousal darted through my body, centering between my thighs as Mac sucked my nipple, licked and laved and tormented it while he caressed and fondled my other.
Wet heat dampened my underwear.
Just from him touching my breasts.
“Fuck me,” I murmured thickly. “Mackennon. Please.”
His head jerked up in surprise.
I panted beneath him, even as I pressed my hands to his stomach, wishing he were naked but too impatient to have him do anything about it. “Fuck me. I’m empty. I’m so empty without you.”
Those words broke something in him. The control he’d been holding on to by a thread snapped.
He sat up on his heels and slipped his hands beneath the slit of my dress to grab my thighs, forcefully spreading me.
My body responded viscerally, my arousal increasing tenfold.
I was more than ready for him as he ripped off my underwear, and I gripped my inner thighs to his sides as he came down over me.
Our lips brushed in tingling butterfly kisses as he held my gaze and fumbled beneath his kilt, shoving his underwear down to free himself.
Then he was hot and throbbing at my center.
“I love you,” Mac said against my lips, and I saw all that love in his expression.
Before my fears and confusion could yank me from the moment, Mac thrust into me, and I cried out as his thick, hard heat stretched me.
It took me a second to adjust.
Then he slid back out, the friction sending lightning bolts of sensation to the coiling tension deep in my womb.
Oh my God. I gasped, throwing my head back as he consumed me.
Gripping my left hip beneath my dress to anchor me, Mac pulled me into him as he thrust inside, harder this time. My breasts bounced with every drive, drawing his attention, and Mac took my nipple in his mouth again, sucking, grunting around it as he fucked me faster, deeper.
I could do nothing but hold on to his upper arms, my nails biting into his shirtsleeves as the pleasure overwhelmed me.
We were primal. Grunting and moaning under the moon, the madness of long-suffering lust possessing us.
“Mackennon,” I huffed out as my orgasm hovered closer.
Mac released my thigh to pin my arms above my head, his upper lip curled in a snarl as he neared his own climax.
His kilt fluttered over my torso as I arched my hips off the ground, tightening my thighs around him to move in perfect rhythm with his thrusts.
“Fuck,” he panted, pleasure tightening his features even more. “Arro, Arro, fuck—”
With one last thrust, that tightening pleasure inside me exploded, and I threw my head back, eyes shut in euphoria as I cried out my release.
Mac kept moving inside me, my climax rippling around him in delicious tugging waves.
His drives stuttered, and then he bellowed my name into the night sky as I felt the heat of his orgasm, his cock throbbing inside me, his hips shuddering between my legs.
Panting, Mac rested his forehead on my breasts and released my wrists, only to caress my arms in soothing strokes. Slowly, I came back to myself staring up at the night sky, body thrumming, heart racing, skin sweat-dampened and slick. And Mac, still inside me.
Finally, he lifted his gaze to meet mine, his features slack with satisfaction, but his expression blazed. “Best sex of my fucking life, and it still wasn’t enough of you.”
Aftershocks of my orgasm pulsed around him at his confession, and he squeezed his eyes closed in pleasure, giving an involuntary thrust inside me. I moaned, pulling him down for a kiss. It was heady and slow, and it delayed the inevitable discussion that needed to be had.
Finally, Mac reluctantly broke the kiss and pushed up as he pulled out of me.
I whimpered at the sensation, and something like dark satisfaction etched his face.
I glimpsed his cock before he tucked himself away, and while it would have been easy to be distracted by his size, I felt the wet on my thighs with a startling jolt.
“We didn’t use a condom.” I gaped up at him.
He frowned. “You’re still on the Pill, right?”
“How do you know that?”
Mac grinned. “I know a lot about you, Arrochar Adair. Including now that you’re a screamer, and it feels like heaven to be inside you.”
Flushing with excitement at his words, I pushed up from the grass, tugging on my bra and the dress straps as I tried not to let his sexiness sway me. “Mac, we should’ve used a condom.”
“I know I’m clean.” The nonquestion hung in the air.
“I’m clean,” I promised. Guy had been my last lover, and I’d had a health check since then.
Mac shrugged before reaching for his jacket and pulling the square handkerchief out of its breast pocket. “Let me.”
Trying desperately to ignore the renewed sizzle of arousal as he wiped the cloth between my legs, I bit my lip against a moan.
Mac’s knowing gaze only made me hotter. Finally, he stood and held out a hand to help me up. “I promise we will use one next time, until we’re ready not to.”
“Next time?”
He stepped into me, wrapping his arms around my waist to cuddle me close. “Aye, next time. Unless …” His grip on me tightened. “You don’t want a next time?”
Before I could answer, bagpipes playing “Flower of Scotland” drew our attention back to the castle, and coordinated, moving lights in purple and green filled the sky over Ardnoch Castle.
“What the …?”
“Drone display. Instead of fireworks,” Mac murmured. The drones came together to make a gigantic three-dimensional thistle in the sky. It was so cool to watch that it took me a minute to realize what time it was. Lachlan always held the finale at midnight.
Wasn’t that when Cinderella’s dress changed back to rags, her carriage to a pumpkin?
Glancing away from the beautiful light show, I studied Mac’s handsome face as he looked up at the thistle. Hearing the searing cry of the pipes, I knew, despite the niggling fear, that I didn’t want what happened between us to just be a memory.