Chapter Twelve
Like they’d done on the ship, Maisy was the first to move up to her toes to press her lips to his. It wasn’t a conscious thought to do so, more a compulsion she could not refuse. She needed to kiss him.
The rush of excitement returned as he placed kisses everywhere he could reach and then he slowly lifted her nightgown. She felt the chill of the room touch her feet and calves and then her knees as he seemed to wind her shift up like a sail on his ship.
When the air touched the place she wanted him most, she gasped and pulled back looking into his green eyes.
He remained there, looking her in the eye as his fingers caressed up her hip and then changed course to caress her where she ached.
A loud moan escaped her and for a second she worried someone might come in thinking she’d been wounded, but the thought drifted to nothing when he touched her there again and again.
She hadn’t even noticed that while the bottom of her nightdress was coming up, the top had been tugged down, exposing more of her neck and chest. And then her nipple was out in the open and his lips were on it.
Another gasp as her whole body seemed to be twitching and trembling with each touch. And she knew from Caroline’s improper tutelage, that there was much more to come.
Rather than fight around her shift, she grasped it and pulled it over her head so it was out of the way and she could experience every one of her husband’s touches unincumbered.
Fortunately, he was already naked so it was easy enough for her to trail her fingers down over his chest and abdomen, through the nest of hair until she touched his hot cock. It twitched in her hand, startling her.
“It does that on its own,” he told her in a whisper as he claimed that delicious place on her neck right under her ear. How could this get better. Once again Maisy found herself doubting her friend. But so far, she’d been right about everything.
This large part of him was supposed to fit inside her. And while she may not have believed it. She was promised it would all work the way it should.
Maisy wanted to find out. Right now.
She squeezed him slightly and Iain was quick to pull her hand away from him.
“Did I do it wrong?”
“No. But if you keep touching me, it will be over before we’ve begun.”
“Oh, yes. The climax. You will fall asleep afterward.” Maisy nodded wondering how she would ever sleep at all this night. Her heart was pounding with excitement.
Iain chuckled.
“Not immediately after, and I’ll make sure you’re not wanting before I do.”
“Can we put you inside me now?”
He laughed, but in amusement rather than at her expense.
“I have some other things I’d like to do first. If you don’t mind.”
She squirmed. There was definitely something inside her core that needed him, but she would be patient. If they only had this one night, she wanted to experience everything.
For as much as they’d spoken about finding release elsewhere, she would only want this man’s touch, and she didn’t want him to lie with anyone but her. Was that just her need? Would she feel differently years from now when she’d grown lonely and could no longer remember what this felt like?
That would be for another time. Right now, she wanted this man to show her everything she might one day come to miss.
When he lay her back on his bed, she scooted back to make room for him, but he grasped her ankle and pulled her back to the edge of the mattress where he knelt down.
Setting her feet on his shoulders, she didn’t realize what he was about to do until she felt his warm tongue touch her most sensitive area. She cried out in surprise before settling into the very desirable feeling.
As she felt that need for more, his finger moved into her body, stroking and searching until he found what he was looking for. A place that had escaped Maisy’s own touch for all these years.
Stars took up her vision as all the air left her lungs. She seemed to hover for a moment, and then another before everything focused in on that one place of her body.
His tongue continued to tease the feeling on from the outside as she floated and pulsed.
“Beautiful,” Iain said. She couldn’t imagine what she must look like, her hair seemed to be everywhere and her head was thrown back. No doubt she was splotched and sweaty, but she couldn’t think to care at the moment.
“Are you ready, Madalene?” Iain kissed across her stomach and breasts, taking a moment to stop and offer attention to both before returning finally to her lips.
“I am.”
“You know what is to happen?”
“Yes. A bit of pain first, but it will be better after the sting fades.”
He kissed her chin and then the bottom of her jaw as she felt his hardness lurch once more against her thigh. That was not where it was supposed to be so she reached down to take him in hand and guide him, but he pulled away breathing very had.
“I’m sorry.”
“I just need a moment to get myself under control.”
“Was I supposed to have remained in control? I don’t think I even tried to be honest.”
He smiled.
“No. You were perfect. I only want to hold enough control so you might do that again, before I do.”
“Oh. That is most generous of you.”
He shook his head and chuckled.
“Nay. It is not generous at all. If I were not exhausted, I might have you do that several more times through the night. But it has been a long day and I want you too badly.”
He seemed to be sorry for it, but wanting her so badly was something that thrilled her through and through. It made that longing in her body return.
“Then you should not be made to wait.”
He settled between her legs and she let him line his body with hers instead of helping. He moved it back and forth as if testing the area where she was slick with need. Then he pushed and kept pushing until he was completely inside her.
As she’d expected there had been a twinge of discomfort as he’d filled her, but after a few heavy breaths she wanted him to move.
By the third thrust of his body into hers, all pain was gone and forgotten as if it had never existed at all. She raised her hips in time with his movements so he could land deeper and deeper with each rush.
And then the throbbing feeling crested yet again.
She might have called out his name, she knew she grasped him tight with her legs so he’d not move from that spot, and then just as the sensation waned the smallest degree, she felt his own throbbing and warmth filling her as he gasped and crushed her to him just as tightly.
And then they slumped back to the mattress, each of them gasping for breath. His fingers of one hand twined in her hair as the other splayed over her stomach.
She was forever changed. She’d wanted this experience so she might know what it was like. But now that she knew, however was she supposed to go the rest of her life without it. How would he?
Perhaps it was not the same for him. She wanted to ask, but despite his plans not to fall asleep immediately after the act concluded, when she turned to him his eyes were closed and his breathing had slowed into a calming cadence.
She smiled up at the shadows across the ceiling and thought of all the questions she had for him. The most important being…
When could they do that again?
At the sound of a door opening and heavy footsteps, Iain started awake and put his hand out to protect Maisy, but she was not there. The intruder was only Hodge.
“I’m surprised to find you still in bed, Capt’n. You usually can’t sleep while we’re on land.”
Hodge wasn’t wrong. But last night after making love to his wife, he’d pulled her close and drifted peacefully. However, he wasn’t about to tell Hodge that.
Iain had planned to have her again in the morning, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen now.
“I must have been tired,” he offered instead. It was true enough. After little sleep the night before and getting in late last night, all his physical activities caught up with him.
“Well, I must get you downstairs for breakfast before Mrs. Sutherland comes up after ye. She’s ordered the kitchen to impress. You better bring your appetite.”
He was famished, but not just for eggs and ham. He would have loved to take his wife back to bed and devour her with the sun in her reddish-brown hair.
He frowned when he remembered the amendment to their agreement. Just one night. So their marriage was real.
It wouldn’t be right to continue on in that way with a lass who had once wanted love. Not when he planned to leave as soon as things with the castle were in order.
Which meant getting out of bed and going down to the morning meal.
“Before we go, there is another matter I need your assistance with.”