Page 23 of Savage Kilted Highlander (Temptation in Tartan #9)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“ M mm, I swear this roast hog is the most delicious thing I think I have ever eaten,” she said, licking her greasy fingers with relish when they took a break and loaded their platters with the succulent meat.

“Aye, it makes a nice change from dried goat meat, I’ll nae deny that,” he joked. “I see ye dinnae mind eatin’ with yer fingers now.”

“I have discovered that things can taste a whole lot better when eaten with one’s fingers,” she said in her primmest English accent, her eyes full of mirth. “I suppose that is another thing I must thank you for teaching me.” She popped another chunk of meat into her mouth and grinned at him as she chewed. After they had finished eating, she said, “I still have a little money left from my crowns, and I would like to buy something to remember our time here. Can we take a walk into the market and look at the stalls?”

“Aye, if that is what ye’d like, why nae?” He offered her his arm and she took it. They walked down to the market and began wandering among the stalls, looking at the colorful merchandise. Bane’s eye was caught by a stall selling trinkets, amulets for good luck, charms, and other bits of folk jewelry.

“Let’s go over here,” he said, steering her towards it.

“Oh, yes, such pretty things,” she cooed, seemingly entranced by the colorful array of wares, picking up various pieces and inspecting them. Bane had a strong urge to buy her something to remember him by. While she was engaged looking through a selection of rings, his eye fell upon a tray of silver pendants. One in particular drew his attention. He picked it up to look at it more closely. The pendant was of a minutely sculpted wolf’s head hanging on a delicate chain. He decided it was perfect, and after inquiring from the seller as to the cost, handed over his money.

“Constance, I have a wee present fer ye,” he said, getting her attention. He held up the pendant, and she gasped and smiled, taking it gently between her fingers. “Why, it is a wolf,” she observed.

“Aye, a lone wolf.”

Her smile widened, and her eyes softened as she looked up at him. “It is you,” she said. “My lone wolf.”

His heart thumped in his chest, deeply touched that she had immediately recognized the meaning of his gift. “Aye, a lone wolf. Until I met ye.”

She blushed with obvious delight. “That is a very thoughtful gift,” she murmured, turning around and bending her head to reveal her slender, white neck. “Will you put it on for me?”

“I was hopin’ ye’d say that,” he admitted, placing the chain around her neck and fastening it so that the wolf’s head hung between her breasts. He could not resist placing his lips against her birthmark, to seal the gift of his heart. She smiled and held the wolf in her hand as she turned back to him and said with utter sincerity. “Thank you, Bane. I shall treasure it forever, along with my mother’s locket.” Then she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, setting it tingling.

She surprised him then by holding out her other hand. “And I have a gift for you.”

“A gift for me?” he was truly taken aback. “Och, what is it?” He bent to see what she held in her palm. It was a thin silver chain, and dangling from it was a tiny wildflower, delicately-wrought in silver. “Why, that’s awful pretty.”

“I hope you do not think it too pretty, for I want you to wear it around your neck, so you can always think of me.”

“I see why ye chose it,” he told her, instantly grasping the meaning of the flower. “’Tis a delicate bloom but wild.”

“Exactly. Now, if you would bend down a bit, I shall put it on for you.” He did so, and when she had hung it around his neck, she kissed him again and whispered, “Now, whatever happens, we have these in remembrance of each other for the rest of our lives.”

At that moment, Bane’s heart literally ached with love for her. “Thank ye, Constance, fer yer thoughtful gift.” For once in his life oblivious of anyone watching, he took her in his arms and kissed her on the lips, right in the middle of the market.

They wandered among the stalls for a little while longer until Constance stopped and said, “It is getting late, and I am growing tired. Shall we go and find somewhere to make camp for the night?”

“Nay, nae tonight,” he said, already having decided where they were to stay.

She looked puzzled. “Oh, why not? Where shall we sleep then?”

“At the inn. I figure it’ll be far safer than travellin’ in the dark.”

She beamed at him happily. “Wonderful. We shall be warm and cozy. Lead on, my darling Scottish savage.”

They were lucky to find rooms still available at the inn. It seemed that most of the people attending the festival were locals and would eventually find their way home to their beds.

“Well, this is very comfortable indeed. Not at all what I am used to,” Constance announced a half an hour later as they settled in a pleasant chamber, with a fire roaring in the grate and a large poster bed with thick curtains for keeping out the draft. She threw off her cloak, heeled off her boots, and collapsed on the bed with a contented sigh. “I am full of ale and roasted hog. Can any woman claim to be more contented than I?”

Bane smiled as he divested himself of his boots and sword belt, then hung his jerkin on the hook on the back of the door. “I can maybe think of somethin’ tae make ye even more content,” he said, quirking his brows suggestively. “That is, unless ye intend tae roll up the quilt and lay it between us again, like ye did last time.”

She leaned up on her elbow and smiled at him in a way that made his groin twitch.

“Do you not think we are a little beyond that now? You have ruined me already, so there’s seems little point in pretending otherwise.”

He grinned as he knelt on the bed next to her and leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. “Well, I didnae want tae take it fer granted, ye bein’ such a fine lady and all. But seein’ as ye brought it up, why d’ye nae let me help ye out of that dress?”

Her giggle inflamed his lustful inclinations, especially when she replied boldly, “I have no objection to that, but only on condition that I can help you out of your clothing as well.”

“I have no objection to that either,” he said, playfully mimicking her precise pronunciation.

“How dare you make fun of me!” she replied with mock indignation before throwing herself at him and entering into a race, with a great deal of laughing a tickling involved, for each of them to remove the other’s clothing as fast as possible.

When they lay naked before each other, devouring each other with their eyes, they slowed and began a sensual dance of exploration, filled with stroking hands and long, lingering kisses that turned into soft, teasing trails blazing across expanses of skin.

“I want tae feast me eyes upon ye, Constance,” he told her, leaning above her and cupping her breasts in his hands, squeezing them and teasing her nipples with his tongue until they stood out as proudly as his already throbbing erection

“I want to know every inch of you,” she said. He shivered as her soft hands cupped his buttocks and ran over his thighs before she lay her head across them, then groaned when she took his swollen manhood in her hand and wrapped her fingers around it, a wondering expression on her face.

“Last night, you tasted me and showed me such pleasure as I never imagined existed,” she murmured, looking up into his eyes. “And tonight, I shall taste you, and perhaps I shall do the same for you. Show me what pleasures you.”

“Jaysus, have I died and gone to heaven?” he muttered, placing his hand over hers and guiding her movements. “Like this, grip tightly but nae to tight, and move yer hand up and down like this.” He showed her, his breath becoming ragged as she quickly caught on. When she flicked the tip of her tongue over the head of his erection, back and forth, he buried his hands in her hair, unable to prevent the groan that fell from his lips, the pleasure was so exquisite.

“Oh, I see you like that,” she whispered, her eyes glinting with mischief in the flickering glow of the fire and the candles on the nightstand. She moved her hand rhythmically up and down as he had shown her, while at the same time, she ran her tongue up and down his shaft teasingly, then took the head between her lips and sucked gently upon it. He thought he would explode, for he had never felt anything like it in his life before. No one had ever paid such close attention to his pleasure.

“That’s beautiful, Constance, what ye’re doin’ tae me,” he gasped out, clutching her long auburn tresses convulsively as she took him further into her mouth and caressed him with her tongue and lips, watching him closely to see his reaction. He cupped her behind with one hand, relishing the tight, plumpness of it, then slipped the other had between her legs, prizing her thighs apart and letting his fingertips carve a trail through the soft, moist lips of her sex, hearing her catch her breath as he caressed her there and rubbed her rosebud gently in circles.

“Oh, that feels so…” Her words trailed off into a moan. Still gripping his manhood and tantalizing him with her mouth, she opened her legs wider to encourage his tender explorations, pressing her hot flesh against his hand. He pushed his fingers into her, savoring her cries, one, then two, then three, working them back and forth, his senses aflame with a sensuality he had never before encountered and was finding bewitchingly moreish. She curled her tongue around his manhood and then plunged his throbbing shaft all the way to her throat.

“Och, Christ, Constance, ye havetae stop that fer a minute,” he told her, pulling back and gently disengaging himself from her mouth.

“Why?” she asked, sounding disappointed. “Are you not enjoying it?” She was panting as she spoke, closing her eyes and sinking onto his probing fingers with a gratifying look of ecstasy on her beautiful face.

“I’m enjoyin’ it too much, that’s the problem.” He smiled. “My, ye’ve changed. Tae think ye used tae be so proper. Look at ye now, a wonton hussy.”

She writhed against him, moving up and down slowly, her breasts bouncing temptingly close to his mouth. “If I am, it is you who make me so.”

“And ye me. Which is why I need ye tae stop. If I come too quick, it’ll all be over, fer a while at least, until I recover.”

“How long will that take?”

“With ye, about five minutes, I should reckon,” he said, laughing, increasing the pace of his fingers as he pushed in and out of her, relishing her warmth and enjoying seeing how she liked it so much. “I cannae believe we’re havin’ this conversation.”

“Is it unusual then to have such conversations?”

“Aye, very unusual. But then, ye’re an unusual woman, eh?” Unable to hold off any longer, he took away his hand from between her thighs and rolled on top of her, propping himself above her on his forearms. To his delight, she wrapped her legs around his waist and held onto his shoulders as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

She lay looking up at him, her eyes deep and dark. “But if people do not have such conversations, then how do they know how to please each other?”

“Mostly, they dinnae bother about that. They’re only concerned with pleasurin’ themselves.”

“So, we are unusual then.” It was statement, not a question. “Well, I am glad if we are different. You make me feel like… like a harpsichord being played by a master musician.”

He burst out laughing. “That is only because ye are such a fine instrument, Constance.”

“And why should I not wish to learn everything that makes you groan like that and your eyes roll back in your head?”

He laughed some more. Despite the subject matter, her thirst to know how to pleasure him was more than simply endearing, it was intoxicating. “I truly appreciate yer quest fer knowledge when it comes tae givin’ me pleasure. I’m nae used tae it, but I’m available fer lessons whenever ye feel like it.”

“Good,” she said, smiling up at him in a beguiling way. “Because I need you. I want you inside me, Bane.”

His lust flaring, he crushed her mouth with his in a passionate kiss as he slid his length into her welcoming warmth, groaning deep in his throat to feel her muscles tensing around him, holding him with exquisite tightness, suffusing his whole body with intense pleasure.

They clung to each other as they rocked together on the bed, one body, each of his thrusts met by one from her hips. They rode each other with frantic abandon, panting, kissing, their movements growing inexorably faster. Bane held on, determined that Constance should have her pleasure first. Finally, she came, gasping, moaning his name in his ear, the sound of it on her tongue spurring him to join her in ecstasy a few moments later, releasing a flood of hot moisture between her legs as he reached his peak.

Afterwards, they lay as one, lip to lip, their skins slick with mingled sweat and the juices of their lovemaking. When they had cooled down, Bane snuffed out the candles then tucked Constance under his arm and pulled the covers over them, luxuriating in the feel of her warm, slender little body next to his and her glorious hair spread across his chest and shoulders.

How did this happen? Did I dae something good in me life sometime tae deserve this wee angel’s love?

It seemed preposterous that a little over a week ago he had abducted her, tied her up, and forced her to trek through the rain and snow and endure hardships that challenged even him. After all that, he had tried to give her back her freedom, and she had refused it. And now, by some miracle, here she was, lying naked next to him, this trusting, courageous little English beauty, with her innate honesty and goodness that had cracked him open like a nut.

She’s the best thing that’s ever happened tae me. How am I ever gonnae let her go?