Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
MY TALL, HANDSOME HIGHLANDER
Scarlet
My small travel case bumped along behind me as I rounded the corridor to Inverness airport’s arrival lounge.
I’d lived out of a suitcase for weeks, so it had been on hand in the office, saving me the time of rushing home.
Toby had booked me onto the next flight, and I’d almost broken my neck getting to it in time.
Now I was here and scared out of my skin.
Ally hadn’t replied to my messages, but I knew this wouldn’t be a problem. He wanted me, cared about me. I was reasonably certain I could land on his doorstep any time and he’d welcome me with open arms.
The realisation shook me to my core.
That was why I’d come. The strength of what I felt for him boomed through me, shaking everything I was built of.
I rounded the corner.
Oh God, he was here.
My tall, handsome Highlander stood at the barrier, hands in his pockets and a ray of sunlight setting his blond hair ablaze. In the past couple of months, he’d grown it longer on top. Similar to how he’d had it as a teenager.
My stomach fluttered.
His muscular arms stretched his t-shirt sleeves, and a shyness descended over me, stopping me in my tracks, like I was fourteen and laying eyes on him for the first time.
I’d fallen for him then, in this very same airport, when I’d come on my first visit to the Highlands. This time, the act was complete.
I loved the beautiful, scarred, happy man with my whole soul.
It hurt.
Then his green-eyed gaze locked on me, and the smile on his face had me running.
“Scar!” he called.
I flew through the gate, and he captured me in his arms. We didn’t move in for the kiss straight away. Instead, we both clung to the other, my heart thrumming against his chest, his fast beat an echo of mine.
“You’re here,” he whispered. “I needed ye, and you’re here.”
“You did?”
“Aye, always, lass. Now tell me, what had ye getting on a plane a day early?”
“I couldn’t be anywhere else.” I touched my lips to his.
We both stilled. Ally returned my kiss, delivering a slow, and far too brief, slide of his mouth. There was a need beneath the chaste move. Something dark and basic. We linked gazes, and heat flared, winding through me. I trembled, ready to ignite.
“I’ve had the worst morning, and you, lass, are a gift from the gods.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
He bent to whisper in my ear. “Right now, all I want is to bury myself inside ye for hours on end. I want ye screaming my name, because lord knows I’ll have forgotten it the second we hit the bed.”
“Take me home,” I ordered. There had been too many shocks and uncertainties today.
Ally bit his delicious lower lip then tucked me under his arm, snatching my case and hustling to get us to the car.
We drove, a tension so thick between us, it had me squirming in my seat.
Talk was impossible, the urgency too great.
I barely saw the scenery as Ally invaded my senses.
I breathed in his gorgeous mix of aftershave, woodsmoke, and the outdoors, and twisted in my seat to gaze at him, letting my eyes take their fill.
When we finally arrived, Ally half dragged me to the loch house’s front door but then stopped and held up his hand.
He closed his eyes for a long moment, as if centring himself.
“Ye have a choice. I have an afternoon and evening of dates planned. Each is a surprise, so if ye want, we can start on those now.”
“Are you kidding?”
He peered at me. “I’m behaving like an animal when what I should be doing is treating you right. Ye wanted to date me and slow things down.”
I advanced on him. “You aren’t the only one who had a crappy day.
In fact, I missed you so much this week that every day was a punishment.
I want whatever you want. If it makes you happy to start your amazing dates now then great, or, we can take out our stress in another way and jump to the end of the date before we go back and start all over again. ”
Ally turned the key in the lock and walked backwards into the hall, watching me. His gaze darkened, and he weighed me up.
I loved this, the calm before the storm, the circling of each other.
“Fine,” he decided, lifting his chin. “It’s better that we both get used to this.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Taking our chances when we can. When it’s you, me, and the bairn here, we’ll need to get creative.”
I raised an eyebrow at him and followed him to the kitchen. “Am I around a lot in this vision of the future?”
“Aye, but you’re jumping on to date four’s conversation, so let me put that mouth to better use.” Ally stopped at the newly installed island and pulled me into his body. His lips curved into a dirty smile, and he gazed at me.
Then he ducked his head and brought his mouth to mine.
Finally.
The kiss that had started in the airport took off. I shook my blazer from my shoulders and ran my arms around Ally’s neck, pressing against him and matching his moves. He growled approval, bringing me even closer with a possessive squeeze of my backside.
Instant heat sizzled, and need flooded through me.
Before, we’d had sex knowing we liked each other. Now, I loved him. Everything had changed. Each touch had hidden meaning. It was more, and the ache in my heart increased tenfold.
Fresh urgency had me clashing with him to own the kiss. I dragged in a breath, my chest heaving, and Ally took the opportunity to lift me into his arms.
Then he placed me on the tiled island. “Sit pretty here, will ye?”
I scooted back an inch, my skirt riding up my thighs as I settled on the cool surface. Now, we were closer in height, but Ally’s attention had dropped from my face.
“Oh hell, look at ye.” His fingers trailed up my legs, indenting the skin. Then he reached the hem of my skirt and ran his thumbs underneath.
I needed them higher. Sliding inside my underwear. And his wicked mouth could follow.
“Last time you were here,” he said, “ye confessed to being crazy about me. So crazy that you’d leave work in the middle of the day and get on a plane to find me?”
“Crazier,” I replied, soft and hushed.
Ally’s gaze flared.
“Isn’t this date four conversation?” I asked and raked my fingers into his hair.
His eyes shuttered closed. “Date five,” he mumbled. “Right at the end, before ye fall asleep in my arms.”
“I can’t wait. For each one, I mean.” My voice trembled, but I held his gaze as it fell on me.
Something passed between us. A solemnness that wasn’t typical of either of our personalities.
By now, we should be ripping each other’s clothes off and clawing to get the other closer, deeper, faster.
This new tenderness held a wealth of meaning.
It bloomed in me, taking over my cells and creating a woman made just for Alasdair McRae.
All of a sudden, I couldn’t keep the words in anymore.
I swallowed over a lump in my throat and palmed his beautiful face.
“Crazy about you doesn’t cover half of what I feel.
Not even a tiny percentage. The moment I first saw you, I fell so hard that I’m still seeing stars. Ally, I have to tell you—”
“Oh no.” He shook his head. “Here she goes, jumping the date order again. Hush, woman.” He leaned in once more and took my mouth in a blistering kiss. Except this, too, was overbrimming with emotion.
We explored the rough edge of our connection. I held Ally’s face, and his fingers circled my wrists. Around his waist, I tightened my legs, his hard ridge pressing into my core. My skirt inched up around my middle, and Ally pushed me back on my elbows then drew away, gazing down.
“Holy fuck.” His attention had me squirming. Those hands moved back to my thighs and slipped right to the creases of my legs. He grazed my underwear with his knuckles but stopped. “Tell me what ye need.”
“You to let me speak.”
This earned me a tut and a shake of the head. “No. All in good time. If ye stick with my plan, I swear it’ll be worth it.”
His hands left my thighs and moved to my blouse buttons. One by one, he undid them, groaning as the shirt fell open. “I told ye I lie in my bed thinking about ye.”
His gaze devoured me, and his fingers skated over my ribs before stroking my breasts through the bra. “I decided I needed a favourite part of ye. One I could worship the most and memorise for when you’re not with me.”
He bent and laid a kiss on my belly, then another, higher, between my breasts.
“Mmph,” I agreed, my skin growing heated wherever he touched.
“You get to choose,” he added. “Here, maybe.”
With a deft move, he snagged my bra cup aside and licked my nipple.
“God, yes.” I moaned.
“Or, I could follow this line of freckles because I know it goes somewhere sweet.” His lips found the juncture of my neck and shoulder, and a shiver ran down my whole body. The atmosphere in the kitchen was so heavy with sexual intent, it had me hypersensitive and so needy.
Ally did it again, eliciting another gasp. “Neck kisses work for ye?”
“I had no idea.” My eyes shuttered closed. “Anything you do has me screaming for more.”
“Good to know.”
Ally pulled away, and I cracked an eyelid to see him reach back and drag his shirt over his head.
“You’re so gorgeous,” I mumbled, hazy with the heat and lust.
In a second, his jeans were gone, too, along with his underwear. His heavy cock sprang up, hitting his taut stomach.
“Beautiful,” I added.
Ally’s soft smile nearly broke my heart. “You are the only person who could think that. Which makes me the luckiest man alive.”
He stooped and gave me a kiss before I could answer and, soon, we were lost in it, in deep slides and tantalising licks.
Once more, his hands travelled to my underwear, but this time, he made short work of ridding me of them. “Lie back.”
I did, now with my heels on the counter edge, my lower half indecently on display. He liked me like this.
Ally wasted no more time. He moved in between my thighs and put his mouth directly on my clit. At the same time, his fingers travelled lower and pushed inside my slick heat.