25. Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
This time, there was no blindfold between us, no dungeon surrounding us, and no approaching footsteps forcing either of us to stop.
Only a few inches remained between his mouth and mine.
He leaned closer, slowly enough that I could have moved away.
But I didn’t.
His eyes lifted to mine and held there.
I released his hand and slid mine up around the back of his neck, drawing him the rest of the way to me.
His mouth met mine.
The first touch was surprisingly gentle.
Warm lips. Rough beard against my skin. His large hand closed around my jaw, holding me exactly where he wanted me while the last of his restraint still held.
So I opened my mouth beneath his.
“Good girl,” he murmured against my lips.
Those two words went straight between my legs.
Then the last of his restraint disappeared.
His fingers slid into my hair and tightened, angling my head as his tongue swept over mine.
Sweet Jesus, the man could kiss. I’d spent far too much time wondering what it would feel like to have Lachlan take my mouth, and I’d seriously underestimated the experience.
Heat tore through me so fast it melted my bones, settling into a deep ache between my legs.
I fisted his hair and kissed him back with everything I had.
His other hand found my waist.
The instant his palm touched bare skin beneath my shirt, my entire body seemed to come alive under his hand.
God.
I had imagined those hands on me while he was kneeling at my feet only minutes ago. The reality was much worse for my ability to think.
Lachlan stepped between my knees, bringing his body closer. I slid toward the edge of the boulder until his hips were nearly against my center.
His mouth left mine only long enough to drag along my jaw.
“You sure know how to complicate a morning, Mouse.”
I smiled against his cheek. “You were doing a perfectly good job of that before I got involved.”
“Aye. Then you decided to help.”
“You make that sound unwise.”
“At the moment? Extremely.”
I laughed softly, but the sound disappeared when his mouth found the sensitive place beneath my ear.
My head tipped, giving him more access.
His teeth grazed my skin, and shiver ran down my spine.
“That,” he murmured against my throat, “I’m going to remember.”
“Why?”
“Because you liked it.”
The quiet confidence in his voice heated me almost as much as his mouth.
“You seem very certain of yourself.”
“When it comes to women?”
He lifted his head just enough to meet my eyes.
“Aye.”
At least I knew one thing about this man with absolute certainty: confidence would never be in short supply.
I caught the back of his neck, pulled his mouth back to mine, and kissed him hard.
His hand tightened at my waist, pulling me forward until the hard length of him pressed unmistakably against me.
My pulse jumped.
I’d already felt him this morning, but this was different. He was awake now. Kissing me. Wanting me.
And he was making absolutely no effort to hide it.
A rush of satisfaction went through me.
I slid both hands over his shoulders, then down the hard muscles of his back. Lachlan groaned into my mouth when my nails lightly scraped his skin.
Oh, I liked that.
I wanted to make him to make that sound again.
His hands moved to my hips, and he seated me firmly against him.
The pressure landed exactly where I wanted it.
Lachlan stilled for half a heartbeat.
Then his mouth came down harder.
I tightened my legs around him. His hands moved from my hips, sliding upward beneath my shirt.
When one palm closed over my breast, a moan escaped before I could stop it.
Lachlan swallowed it with his mouth.
His thumb brushed over my nipple, and another moan followed.
He pulled back just enough to look at me.
His eyes had gone dark.
“Fuck.”
“What?” I asked.
“That sound.”
Heat burned across my face.
“I’m sure you’ve made women moan before.”
“Aye.” He pinched my nipple between his fingers. “But I haven’t heard you.”
The sharp little jolt made me rock my hips against him, grinding myself over the hard length pressed between my thighs. My panties had to be soaked by now, and I didn’t particularly care if he knew it.
Lachlan pulled my mouth back to his.
For the next few moments, there was nothing careful about either of us.
I twisted my fingers into his hair. His hand tightened around my breast, his thumb teasing the nipple he’d just pinched, while his mouth moved over mine until breathing became something we did only when absolutely necessary.
Then I shifted against his cock again.
Lachlan tore his mouth from mine and stepped back so abruptly that I stayed leaning toward him for a second, lips parted and body aching for contact that was no longer there.
“Goddammit,” he shouted. His hands went to the back of his head, elbows wide, as he stared up through the trees.
I blinked at him.
My lips tingled. My shirt was crooked, and every nerve in my body seemed to be waiting for him to come back.
He didn’t.
“What happened?”
He drew a long breath, then scrubbed a hand over his face and let it out. “Nothing.”
“Then perhaps you should explain why you were kissing me as though you planned to swallow me whole one second, and then suddenly decided I should be sitting over here by myself.”
“I almost didn’t stop, Mouse,” he frowned. “And that’s a problem.”
I slid off the boulder, mindful of my ankle, and straightened my shirt while he put another few feet between us.
“You’ve been free for what? A few hours?
” he said as his hands cut through the air.
“And you’re not even properly free yet. Rafael died yesterday.
You found out he was your father while he was bleeding in your arms. You nearly went over a cliff.
You’ve spent your entire life living in that fucking compound, and now you’re halfway down a mountain depending on me to keep you safe.
” His gaze dropped to my feet before returning to my face. “And look what I was doing.”
I folded my arms.
“I’m quite aware of what you were doing. I was there.”
“That isn’t what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“I’m trying not to take advantage of you.”
My folded arms loosened slightly. That wasn’t the answer I’d expected.
“I don’t know what your life was like with men there,” he continued. “I don’t know what chances you had to figure out what you wanted or whether you had any chance at all. Christ, for all I know, you could be a virgin.”
For one long second, I simply looked at him.
“You’re worried I’m a virgin?” I huffed.
“I said I don’t know.”
“No, obviously you don’t. And instead of asking, you decided I was possibly too inexperienced and emotionally damaged for you to continue kissing.”
His brows drew together. “I didn’t say emotionally damaged.”
“You didn’t need to.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“It’s exactly what you meant.”
I snatched the backpack from the boulder and shoved my arms through the straps.
“Where are you going?”
“Down the mountain.”
“Isabella.”
I started walking.
My ankle protested immediately.
Lachlan caught up within seconds.
“Would you stop for a minute?”
“No.”
“Mouse.”
“Apparently, I need some distance from a dangerous man before my grief causes me to make an irrational sexual decision.”
“For fuck’s sake, that’s not what I said.”
“It certainly was what you implied.”
He came alongside me, matching my pace while I picked my way through the brush.
“I was trying to make sure I didn’t become another man who used the fact that you depend on him.”
I kept my eyes ahead.
“I kissed you,” I reminded him. “I pulled you closer. I practically climbed on top of you because I wanted you.” I kept picking my way downhill. “At what point did I appear confused?”
“You didn’t.”
“Yet you still decided I needed protecting from a choice I was making for myself.”
He went quiet beside me.
Good.
I continued another several yards before stopping and turning on him.
“I am twenty-five years old, Lachlan. I’ve spent most of those years with other people deciding what I could see, where I could go, which doors I was allowed to open, what I was permitted to know, and who I was allowed to become.
I’m not escaping all of that so another man can start deciding which parts of my freedom I’m ready to experience. ”
His jaw tightened. “I’m not trying to control you.”
“I understand why you stopped.” My anger softened a fraction, but not enough to let him off the hook. “That doesn’t change what you did. You tried to protect my right to choose by making the choice for me—thus giving me no choice.”
The defensiveness disappeared from his face.
He glanced away, dragged a hand over his chin, then looked back at me.
“You’re right. I did.”
There was no excuse attached to it.
That helped.
I turned and started downhill again. Lachlan fell into step beside me.
“I want to be treated like a woman,” I said. “Not an obligation everyone has to manage. I’m finally allowed to make my own choices, and I intend to make them. Some of them may be brilliant. Some may be spectacularly stupid. I may even regret a few, but they’ll still be mine.”
“I understand—I fucked up.”
“And since you are apparently concerned about it, I’m not a virgin.”
His eyes cut toward me.
I kept walking.
“There was someone when I was younger. He lived at the compound. He spent time with me, listened to me, made me believe I mattered to him. I was young enough to think that meant I loved him. Perhaps I did. Or perhaps I loved having someone pay attention to me when almost every relationship in my life was controlled by Ciro.”
Lachlan remained silent beside me.
“He wanted sex. I told him no.” I stepped carefully over a root. “He decided my answer didn’t matter.”
He stopped walking.
I took one more step before turning back to find him standing rigidly with his hands clenched into fists.
“What happened to him?”
“Rafael found me afterward, really torn up. Then he found the man who did it, slit his throat from ear to ear, and left his body in the courtyard as a warning.”
“Good.”
The answer came without hesitation.