Chapter Seventeen #2
“No regrets,” he murmured.
How did he read her so well? She blew out a long breath—an attempt to release the doubt twisting inside her. If all went well on the morrow and they were victorious, she would not have any regrets, but if it went badly...
Logan stroked his hands over her bodice and up to cup her face.
Coarse warmth encased her cheeks offering protection and reassurance.
He lifted his head and dropped his thumb to press against her bottom lip.
She parted her lips instinctively and saw shadows darken his gaze.
Her breaths quickened and her pulse tried to outrace them.
Molten lust stirred in her veins. How was it possible such a small touch could erase her fears and turn her brain to mush?
Heat licked through her veins, centring low in her belly. “Logan...”
He groaned. She wasn’t sure she’d communicated her need with that one word until he grasped her bottom and pressed her back against the crenellation.
Cold stone met her back but it did nothing to cool the desire that made her want to crawl out of her skin and fling herself into the nearest loch.
Though, if she did that, she would not be here, in Logan’s arms. For though the need drove her to lunacy, to be without him was worse. She knew that much to be true.
Logan put his lips to her ear, sending a bolt of sensation down one side of her. He pulled her lobe between his teeth and nipped lightly.
“Logan, I need...”
“I know.” The words puffed in her ear, made the tingles increase. “Ye’ll have it all, Lorna. Patience.”
Patience, he said! On the eve of the battle, when her body felt as though it might explode if he did not end her torment, he asked for patience?
“I have none!” she declared.
“That I well know.” But his admission didn’t speed up his movements. He seemed determined to kiss every part of her, slowly, surely, deliberately.
She glanced around the empty rooftop. Did he intend to take her here, under the stars?
Or torture her until she could bear no more, then drag her to their chamber?
Either way, she was boneless and out of control.
She had done the one thing she could never bring herself to do before—and had offered it all to Logan.
Her decisions, her will, they were all in his palm now.
A kiss just behind her ear. Then to the pulse flickering in her neck.
Lower, lower, bristle and warm lips skimmed her neck and she drew in a shuddering breath.
Logan peppered kisses along her jaw. He even nipped her chin and licked the corner of her mouth.
Lorna leaned her head back against the stone and gazed up at the inky sky as he continued his leisurely journey down the arch of her neck.
Hair bunched in his hand, he lifted it away to lean around and lay his mouth on the other side of her neck.
Every part of her responded to him, from her toes which curled into her slippers to the hair on her head which made her feel as though she were in the middle of a tempest being buffeted by wind and surrounded by bolts of lightning.
She pressed her nails into his back like talons, needing to hold onto something. How had she managed to resist him for so many years? It had been hard but if she’d ever known it would be like this, she would never have had the strength of will.
“Logan,” she begged again, her voice lost to night air, any strength in her plea sapped by a particularly hot, open-mouthed kiss to her collarbone.
He moved too slowly, too gently. It was delicious and divine but it would drive her to the edge of madness if he continued. She arched, rubbed her chest against him in a bid to ease the ache of her hard nipples and in the hopes of persuading him to lose the tenderness and take her as she needed.
Hard and fast.
Mayhap he longed to savour this, mayhap he had the right idea, but the knowledge they had only this night together before battle forged impatience in her heart.
The distant sound of male laughter broke through and ramped up her eagerness.
She moved against him and felt the hard ridge of his arousal.
If the size and hardness of it was anything to go by, he could not keep this up much longer.
“Take me, Logan.”
“I will,” he assured her and kissed the top of a breast that peeked out above her gown.
“Now,” she demanded and reached down to cradle his shaft through the fabric of his garments.
He groaned. With his damaged voice, it came out an urgent, animalistic sound. “Can ye no’ see I’m trying to seduce ye here?”
“Ye dinnae need to seduce me. I’m yers. Just take me.”
He eyed her, his lips twisting into a smirk. Once that smirk might have annoyed her but now it only made her want to trace the line with her fingers and feel the heat of his tongue against her fingertips.
“I thought ye might...”
“What? Want ye to torture me until I explode?”
He chuckled. “Nay, I was trying to be...” He blew out a breath. “The way I handled ye angered ye many times, if ye remember?”
Ah. His words sank in. He was trying to prove to her he could be gentle. But she didn’t need proof. Any doubts she had about who this man was had been erased the moment she saw him holding their son.
“I dinnae know what the future holds for us, Logan. I dinnae know if yer memory will ever return, but I know yer a good man.”
“I treated ye—”
She laid a hand to his arm. “I know. But I treated ye abominably for years. I denied ye at every turn. We both made mistakes. Can we no’ forget them?”
His gaze searched hers. What would happen on the morrow still terrified her, and the years after—if they survived—held so much uncertainty, but with Logan at her side she felt stronger than ever. He did not sap her strength and make her vulnerable as she had always feared. He empowered her.
Logan nodded slowly and dropped an even slower kiss to her lips.
She clasped his face as he moved his mouth over hers.
Just as a sound of frustration threatened to break to the surface from her, he deepened the kiss and his tongue met hers.
Fresh need rushed through her and made her knees tremble.
He crushed her back against the stone, propping her up so that she barely needed to worry about the way he turned her to jelly.
She twisted her fingers in his hair so as to hold him as close as possible for fear he might break away again, but he did not.
His tongue explored her mouth and their breaths grew frantic.
Lorna moved mindlessly against him, heat rolling through her body.
The wonderful rub of his hard chest against her aching breasts and his manhood against her tender flesh made her cry out against his mouth.
His kisses drowned the sound but he answered with a moan of his own.
“Hell’s teeth,” he muttered and drew back to heft her skirts up.
A warm hand clasped her thigh and worked higher to grip her rear.
The sensation of his fingers gripping her cool flesh made her head spin and when she glanced at the skies, the stars all seemed to blend into one.
Only Logan’s face commanded her focus. He broke away for a moment but it gave her enough time to imprint his expression in her memory—his eyes hooded and intense, his mouth open slightly to draw in deep breaths, the dark dusting of hair across his jaw and the crease of his scar.
His strong features and the way his brows dipped as if concentrating on marking her in his memory too. It all imprinted in her mind.
When he brought his mouth down on hers in a possessive, passionate kiss, he lifted her leg and hooked it over his hip.
It left her open to him and he slipped his fingers around her thigh to find her sex.
With skilled fingers, he parted her folds and skimmed a thumb over her nub.
Sizzling pleasure made her buck against the confines of his body and she gasped against his mouth.
“So wet,” he murmured. “God’s teeth.”
Without warning, he plunged his fingers into her.
He was right. She was wet. and so ready.
He slammed two fingers into her and her body took them easily, needing them so badly.
She had to be filled, craved that sensation so badly that all she could do was remain pinned against that wall and take whatever he gave her.
He pumped his fingers in and out, and though she tried to work him deeper, the wall of stone behind and the wall of muscle in front constricted her movements. She scrabbled her nails across his back in a silent plea for more.
Logan answered it by withdrawing his hand, gripping her other leg and lifting her clean from the ground.
Her back scraped across the stone until he found the dip in the wall and rested her on it.
The drop behind her might have scared her, the thought of all the men somewhere in the darkness waiting for the moment to strike, should have horrified her, but nothing existed apart from Logan and this night.
One arm around her back, he lifted her skirts again.
A rip sounded as his impatient movements rent one of the layers but all Lorna cared about was having Logan between her thighs.
She urged him forward with her legs around his hips while he bundled the fabric as high as possible.
She reached around to free him from his clothing and his solid heat filled her hand.
They both groaned and the hand on her back pressed up to support the back of her head while the other landed on her hip. He needed no encouragement. As soon as his arousal met her heat, he thrust—a swift, searing thrust that left her unsure where he ended and she began.
“Oh, Lord...”
She dug her heels into his rear and moved against him.
His earlier attentions had left her coiled with need and each slide of him inside her increased the friction until nonsensical sounds slipped from her mouth.
He kissed her urgently, clumsily and she felt the strain of his muscles.
Lorna closed her eyes and concentrated on the pleasure each thrust brought.
Their movements grew erratic and the tightening inside increased.
His beard scuffed her cheek as he gripped her tighter to him.
She muffled a cry against his shoulder and a great shudder wracked her.
The skies above appeared to explode in a scatter of stars, and pulsations rolled through her, over and over.
Sagging in his embrace, Lorna attempted to gather her breath but his desperate movements gave her little chance to relax. She found herself spellbound as she drew back to meet his gaze.
He locked his gaze on hers. His expression crumpled. Vulnerability flew across his face, the cords in his neck stood out, and every part of his powerful body shuddered. She closed her eyes briefly and relished the moment she made this strong warrior fall apart.
“I love ye,” she whispered against his chest when he bundled her into him.
He didn’t respond. She didn’t expect him to. But the kiss to the top of her head was enough for her. Lorna smiled against the rough material of his shirt. The great weight on her shoulders lifted. She was no longer afraid.