Chapter Eighteen
Flaherty waited for the lass to fully relax.
Little by little, his nips and kisses elicited a delightful chorus of moans and groans from his wife—interspersed with her gasps of surprise as he slowly added kindling to the fire he planned to stoke inside of her.
His goal was but one: to have the lass mindless to all but the pleasure his mouth, his teeth, and his tongue gave her.
“You taste of springtime. ’Tis like making love in a field of flowers.” He gathered her to his heart and rose from the edge of the bed. “I’m trying to hold on, lass, but I’m not sure how much longer I can wait.”
“Wait? For what?”
The confusion in her pleasure-dazed expression touched a part of him that he’d walled off years ago.
He’d never planned to marry. The lass was messing with his concentration.
He had a task to see to…to consummate their marriage for it to be legal.
Had she forgotten that part of their vows?
Cleaving unto one another? Her innocence was bone deep. ’Twas time to wake that up.
He spun around and placed her in the middle of the bed and stepped back, just to look at her.
The longer he looked, the more he wanted.
His desire for her eclipsed what he’d felt for any other woman.
Was this what his brothers had felt? Unsure if it was simply desire for the woman who would bear his children, he shook his head.
“What’s wrong?” The tremor in her voice grated over the questions in his mind.
The raw need to bury himself inside of the curvaceous beauty that was his bride had him by the throat.
But an unfamiliar emotion sweeping up from the soles of his feet had him clamping down hard on the need to take what lay before him.
Flaherty bit back the coarse words he had used with other women. They would cheapen what was between himself and Pippa. He refused to do that, but could not keep the grit from his voice when he answered, “There’s more to what happens in the marriage bed, lass.”
“I know, Millie said that there would be.”
“Aye, ye told me that earlier when ye gave me yer trust. I’m thinking I’ll start at the bottom and work me way up.” The thought of skimming his hands and mouth from the tips of her toes to her woman’s core had a tight grip on his bollocks. “I’m thinking we need to remove yer shift.”
Flaherty leaned over her and brushed a featherlight kiss to her lips.
Her chin. The base of her throat. Inhaling her scent, he groaned.
“Ye bounteous beauty is a feast fit for a king.” He lifted his head and stared into the blue-gray eyes that had darkened to the color of a storm cloud in the early spring. “But I’m no king, lass.”
She reached up to touch his face. “And I have no title,” she murmured as she traced the rugged shape of his cheek, the strong line of his jaw. “Unless you pen a missive to me, but I am far from honorable.”
Flaherty stiffened and reared back. “By all that’s holy, lass, ye’re more honorable than most of the men I know—save me family and the men we serve.
” Seduction could wait. The need to help her understand how much he revered her strength as a protector of those weaker than herself roared to the surface.
“Ye stood yer ground when I approached.” Before she could disagree, he reminded her, “Though I offered me assistance, ye were right not to trust easily. Ye did not know me then, lass.”
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “But I shot—”
“We both agreed ’twas an accident, lass. One ye need to forget.”
She slid her hands to his sides and watched him closely. He didn’t flinch. Truth be told, he barely remembered it, nor felt it. “Ye’re the one who took a blade to the back… If it had been any lower, it could have skewered yer lung! And all to protect the babe of yer childhood friend.”
He almost let it slip that there was a chance Millie’s husband was reported as dead because of the mission he had been on when he went missing.
But Flaherty had given his word to Tremayne along with the others.
None of them would tell, but would be there when and if the man returned from the dead like Lazarus.
She slid her hands up his sides, around to his back, and onto his shoulders.
“You are physically as strong as the heroes of old, Dillon. But it’s not just your physical strength that I depend upon; it’s the strength of your heart in your loyalty to the duke and his family—and your own.
I know you will honor your pledge and protect Millie, Roarke, and me. ”
Her words smashed his youthful determination not to marry or give his heart to another.
He relinquished it one inhale at a time as he drew the essence of her into him.
In return, he would give her his strength and essence and prayed that it would plant the seeds of their love this night and bear fruit nine months from now.
“Ye already have me vow, lass, pledged not an hour ago before God, the vicar, the baron and baroness, me family, and yer friend.” Flaherty eased back, grasped the hem of her chemise in one hand, and slowly slid it past her knee.
Pausing mid-thigh, he bent and kissed her, tasting her, tempting her to want more of him, because he was a hairsbreadth from losing control.
The scent of her, the feel of her beneath his hands, had him craving more—he wanted it all.
He kissed her as if his life depended upon her responding to him.
God help him, it did! She moaned into his mouth, shyly touching his tongue tentatively, then more boldly, as her hips lifted, seeking what she had yet to experience.
In that moment, he felt himself fall the rest of the way in love with her.
There would be no other woman in his life that would be able to reach into him and pull out the feelings the lass did.
No other woman would grow round with his babes.
He prayed to be the one to die first, but if the Lord took her before him, he would dedicate his life to the sons and daughters that the love between them would make.
When he could bring himself to stop kissing her, he whispered, “Let me undress ye. I need to see the beauty no one else ever will.” He slid the chemise up to her hip on one side, waiting for her to acquiesce.
“I need to ready ye to receive me, lass. I’m not bragging when I tell ye that it’ll be a tight fit. ”
Her furrowed brow had him gently taking her hand and pressing it to the hot, hard length and breadth of him beneath the trousers he’d yet to remove. At her gasp, he sighed. “Faith, ’tis a burden to be so well endowed, but ’tis one I’ve accepted.”
Her snort of disbelief irritated him at first, until he realized she had nothing to compare his cock to—and by God, she never would! “Ye’ll have to be taking me word for it, lass, as yer searching for another man to compare me to is out of the question.”
“You are outrageous! I would never even think to comp—”
Flaherty cut off her words with his mouth, climbed on the bed, and settled between her thighs.
Using some of his weight, but not all of it, he pinned her into the mattress.
Two more threads holding his libido in check snapped.
When she shifted to cradle him with her hips, he ended the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers.
“If I’m to ready ye, I need to do what I promised…
starting at yer toes. I’m giving ye fair warning—I’m wanting a deep taste of ye, lass. ”
Confusion mixed with desire in her eyes. “Didn’t you just do that when you kissed me?”
He shook his head and slid down her body until her dainty, stocking-clad feet were within reach.
“Another time, I’ll peel yer stockings off.
” He kissed his way up to her knees and lifted his head, delighted with the dazed look in her eyes.
“I’m wanting to remove yer chemise, lass, but can wait until after I taste yer honey. ”
Her shock had him deciding not to wait for her answer.
He licked and nibbled a path up the inside of her thigh until he could bury his face between her legs.
He gripped her hips with his hands and murmured against her core.
“Ye’re already wet, but I need more of yer essence—yer honey—if ye’re to take all of me. ”
Her garbled reply was music to his ears.
She was mindless to all but his tongue tasting her, delving into her core, testing for the softening he knew would indicate she was nearly ready.
Though it killed him, Flaherty paused, lifted his head, and rested his chin on where his mouth had been.
“I need to stretch yer opening. ’Twill ease yer pain. ”
The feisty lass frowned at him. “How?”
“’Tis easier to show ye.”
She shook her head, and the hint of fear in her eyes undid him. He slid two fingers up over her knee to the top of her thigh. “I’ll be using these.”
Pippa bit her lip. He nuzzled her core, and she moaned. “Dillon. I ache.”
“I’ll be relieving that ache. Watch me eyes, lass, as I test yer core.
” He inserted one finger, and she lifted her hips.
He groaned and put a chokehold on his lust. Flaherty set the rhythm he knew would tempt her to reach for what she did not know was waiting for her.
He added a second finger, urging her toward the release he knew her body ached for.
She stiffened and cried out his name as her orgasm ripped through her.
Flaherty was there to catch her when she fell apart in his arms. His fingers were still buried inside of her when she blinked and stared into his eyes. “What just happened?”
“Well now, I’m thinking ye’ve been to those stars I promised ye.”
“Oh.” She shifted beneath him. “Dillon?”
“Aye, lass, I’m thinking ye need a second trip to the heavens before ye’ll be ready for me. Do ye trust me not to hurt ye?”
“I do.”