Chapter 15
For one long, terrifying heartbeat, Elodie wished she could snatch those words back. Not because they weren’t true, but because they were. That terrified her more than anything.
For his part, Ronan looked like he was carved from stone. He didn’t move. He didn’t even seem to be breathing.
“Ronan? For God’s sake, say something.”
He swallowed. “I confess,” he said in a choked whisper, “I’m finding it rather difficult to frame a coherent thought right now, let alone words.”
She looked into those impossibly blue eyes and felt every carefully built wall she’d constructed crumble into dust. “Honestly? You’re not the only one.”
He looked down at their joined hands. “Dear God, lass. Is this real? I needed hope. And ye’ve just given it to me.” His thumb stroked slowly across the back of her hand and his smile faded into something deeper. “I’ve been trying not to feel this.”
“Why?”
“Because I feared ye would leave.” He snorted softly. “Never did I dream that ye’d be leaving me for the future.”
The words sliced her like a knife, their harsh reality enough to make her gasp. Hadn’t she wanted to go home since the moment she arrived here? But was that still the case?
Ronan took a long breath. “But damn it all, lass, I’ve learned that the future isnae certain. None of us are promised a tomorrow. This is all we have.” He squeezed her hands. “Now is all we have.” His eyes searched hers. “I love ye too, Elodie.”
The words settled over her like a thick warm cloak and Elodie forgot to breathe.
“Oh,” she said.
It seemed a highly inadequate word, but it was all she could come up with. Her thoughts were suddenly racing, her stomach tying itself into a knot. “I suddenly seem unable to form a coherent thought.”
He laughed lightly at that. “I think I began loving ye the day ye marched into my smithy demanding answers.”
“I prefer the term ‘politely persistent.’”
“Aye, we’ll go with that then.” Ronan reached up and gently tucked a loose strand of brown hair behind her ear. His fingers lingered against her cheek.
“So,” he murmured.
“So,” she agreed. “Where do we go from here?”
“Well, how about this?”
He leaned forward slowly, giving her every opportunity to pull away.
Instead, she met him halfway. Their lips touched softly and Elodie slid her arms around his neck as he drew her gently against him.
Something uncurled inside her, a rush of euphoria stronger than any drug. Ronan loved her. He loved her!
His lips moved insistently against hers and the kiss deepened naturally, unhurried.
But it sent a spark racing right through her.
It began deep in her belly like a match being lit, but quickly spread, becoming first a candle flame and then a bonfire, burning through her blood and sending heat roaring down to the spot between her legs.
A low, helpless moan escaped her and she tightened her grip on Ronan, pulling him down on top of her.
He obliged, following her down, his hands on her body, his tongue in her mouth. Oh God.
All the pent-up tangled emotions she’d been feeling over the last few weeks suddenly overwhelmed her.
Her restraint snapped. She wanted him. She wanted him like she’d never wanted anyone.
Everything beyond their tiny oasis suddenly seemed distant, unimportant.
But Ronan was right here, solid flesh and hard muscle.
She could barely think for the want of him.
Ronan leaned over her, one of his big hands sweeping across her belly even as his lips found her neck, laying kisses down to the crease where her neck met her shoulder. She gasped and turned her head, catching his lips with hers, bringing up one arm to run her hand down his back.
His hand on her stomach traveled upwards, cupping one of her breasts beneath the rough material of her dress and caressing with his thumb until she arched under him, her nipple hardening almost painfully. She gasped again, moaning against his lips and an answering moan came from him.
“Elodie,” he groaned. “Dear God, lass, what are ye doing to me?”
She had no answer. Whatever he was feeling, she suspected she was feeling it fivefold. All the hairs along her arms and on the back of her neck were standing on end.
So instead of answering, she brushed her hand across the contours of his belly and down to the hard bulge between his legs.
As her fingers swept lightly across his erection he jerked and gasped, his eyes going wide.
She delighted in the power she had over him.
Here he was, bigger than her, stronger than her, all muscle and sinew honed through long years working in his smithy, but the slightest touch of her hand and he was helpless.
She caressed him gently back and forth and he flung his head back, screwing his eyes tight shut. “If ye keep doing that,” he gasped. “Then I willnae be able to stop myself from taking ye.”
“Who says I want you to?”
He growled deep in his throat then grabbed the hem of her dress and hiked it up to her knees.
His fingers trailed gently up the inside of her thigh, barely touching her, but the sensation was enough to send those sparks racing through her blood again.
But Ronan didn’t stop there. His fingers slipped beneath her undergarments and found the warm heat between her legs.
Slowly, he began to caress her, his thumb stroking her nub whilst one finger slipped inside her.
It was Elodie’s turn to be helpless. She’d never felt anything like this.
Without needing to be told, Ronan seemed to sense exactly what she needed.
She was distantly aware that she was letting out little mewls of pleasure, writhing as he caressed her, but all of her attention was taken up by the whirl of sensations his touch sent swirling through her.
Ronan was watching her intently, his eyes gone dark with lust. His lips parted, a low exhale escaping him as he brought her closer and closer to her peak. Then suddenly, he stopped.
“I need to be inside ye, lass,” he breathed. “Right now.”
Elodie could only nod. In a few deft movements, he shed his clothes and knelt naked before her. Her eyes roved over him, drinking in every inch, from the dark lust in his eyes, to the hard planes of his chest and stomach, to his manhood standing straight out from his body.
She sat up just enough to begin pulling at her own clothes, suddenly desperate to have them gone, suddenly desperate to have nothing between them but heat and sweat.
Ronan grabbed her dress and helped her wriggle out of it, tossing it away impatiently.
Her shift and undergarments quickly followed until she was as naked as he was, the grass soft beneath her, the breeze gentle on her skin.
Ronan’s gaze drank her in greedily. “Beautiful,” he breathed. “And mine.” His voice was full of hunger.
He pushed her down and placed himself above her, hands propped to either side. His hair fell forward to brush her face as he stared down, his eyes only inches from hers.
“Make love to me, Ronan,” she breathed. “Please.”
It was all the invitation he needed. With a groan he nudged her knees apart, lowering the weight of his hips onto hers. He didn’t stop looking at her, nor break eye contact, as he shifted his hips and eased himself gently inside her.
Elodie gasped as he filled her, feeling herself stretch to accommodate all of him, and only when he was buried fully inside her did he break eye contact, closing his eyes and letting a soft sigh escape him.
Then he began to move. Slowly, with only tiny movements at first, his hips began to rock back and forth.
Elodie moved with him instinctively, panting a little at the delicious pleasure that spiraled from her core with each tiny thrust. She clasped his back, feeling her nails rake across his skin as his tempo increased, and with it the surge of heat bursting through her.
Elodie screwed her eyes shut. Nothing she’d ever experienced felt like this.
Nothing had ever come close. Every nerve felt aflame, alive in a way they never had before.
They moved in time together, Ronan’s breathing becoming as ragged as hers.
He thrust into her again and again, the muscles of his back and buttocks bunching and relaxing with his movements.
It was too much. It could never be enough.
Elodie cried out each time he slammed into her.
She wanted more, more, more. Their movements became wild, furious, Ronan groaning every bit as loud as she was.
His heat filled her. His scent surrounded her.
His weight pinned her. And it was delicious. So delicious.
“Ronan,” she gasped. “Don’t stop. Oh God, don’t stop.”
He was hammering into her hard now, their bodies slapping as they came together over and over. Burning pressure mounted inside her. It was unbearable. It was ecstasy. It built and built and built and Elodie was tearing, tearing, tearing, then exploding into fragments.
She thought she might have cried out. She thought she might have screamed Ronan’s name. She wasn’t sure. As her climax pounded through her, she lost all awareness.
Ronan growled deep in his chest and juddered as he too reached his climax. He collapsed on top of her but Elodie barely noticed. She was floating, floating, and everything else was forgotten. Only slowly did the sensation ebb and she came back to herself a little.
Ronan shifted his weight, lifting himself up onto his hands and staring down at her. He gently kissed her forehead. “I love ye, Elodie MacNeil. I hope I’ve just shown ye how much.”
She smiled lazily up at him. She felt floaty and full of a warm, satisfying lassitude. “Oh, you did. But that doesn’t mean I want you to stop showing me.”
He laughed, a deep rumble that she felt through his chest, then rolled away from her, pulling her into the crook of his arm. She snuggled against him. She wanted to kiss him again. She wanted to pull him on top of her again. She didn’t want to miss a single second of his presence.