Page 20 of Saved by the Cruel Highlander (Lairds of the Loch Alliance #1)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

E lias leaned forward and grabbed the back of Holly’s head. He held her firmly and pressed his lips to hers, pulling back a second later. He lunged forward and took her bottom lip between his teeth, biting just hard enough for her to moan.

“Have ye had too much?” he asked. “Can ye nae take any more?”

Holly shook her head quickly. “Aye—I mean, nay. I can take more.” Everything he did to her made her feel alive. “Please kiss me.”

Elias smirked and ran his fingers through her hair, gripping tight to claim her. He moved forward again, pressing his lips firmly to hers once more. He held the kiss a second longer and nipped her lip, but he didn’t take it between his teeth this time.

Holly gasped and smiled nervously.

“How about that?” Elias challenged.

It felt like they were the only people in the world. The breeze shifted around them, and the horses shuffled, but everything else was still.

“Aye, I want…” Holly trailed off.

“Ye cannae even talk, can ye? Ye’ve forgotten all about him, have ye nae?” Elias asked.

“About who?” Holly breathed.

“Aye, who,” Elias replied with a smirk. “Ye willnae think of him again.”

“Wait,” Holly begged. “Dinnae stop yet. Please, ye need to make me learn how to forget everythin’.”

“Aye? Are ye in need of a lesson so ye only think of me from now on?” Elias asked sternly.

“Aye, I am,” Holly admitted. “I am to be yer wife, and I must only think of ye. That is how it should be, is it nae?”

“Then how about this?”

Elias didn’t lean in this time. He pulled Holly toward him, pressing his lips against hers, but he didn’t stop there. He pushed out his tongue, parting her lips with ease and delving into her mouth. Before she could even move, he licked at her tongue and then tussled with it.

She tasted the ale he had recently drunk and the sweetness of fruit. He tilted his head to the side, constantly holding her by the head. He widened his mouth, forcing hers open more.

His musk tickled her nostrils, and she drank him in. The warmth of his lips and tongue, his masculine scent, the breeze touching her cheek like a silken napkin, the taste of his intimacy, and the firmness of his hand on her head, claiming her as his. If he asked her who she belonged to, she would tell him readily.

I belong to ye.

Then, the kiss was broken, and Holly took a shaky, deep breath after forgetting her basic functions while his lips had been mauling hers. She let it out, trying and failing to remain quiet. Her body quivered after the kiss. She looked at Elias before her, his hand still warm on the back of her head.

“How about now?” he asked.

His brown eyes were narrowed. The corners squeezed a little, elongating them and making them more almond-shaped. And in them, the golden flecks glowed brighter, dancing in the morning breeze.

I cannae think of anythin’ but ye.

“I beg ye nae to stop,” Holly said. “Ye cannae stop now when ye make me feel like this.”

Elias raised an eyebrow. “I can do whatever I like.”

“Please,” Holly begged.

The corner of Elias’s mouth twitched. “Ye’re darin’ me, and I hope ye’re ready for what comes next.”

His hand remained on the back of her head, and he lowered her onto the blanket below. Then, he removed his hand from beneath her head and placed it on the middle of her chest, just above her breasts, pinning her to the ground.

He lowered his lips to hers this time like the first snowflake falling to the ground in winter. Yet, there was no coldness. Warmth invaded her, starting with her lips and running down to her stomach. Holly expected him to be rough with her, but he was tender and gentle, and it only made the passion inside her flare further. She wanted release, and he teased her by not giving it.

He gave her a soft peck on her lips before he rose again, a towering figure hunched over her. He blocked out most of the sky above—not that she noticed. She only had eyes for his eyes, staring into them as they swallowed her up.

He moved down again, and she slightly lifted her head to welcome his lips. They came tantalizingly close, his warm breath tickling her lips, but he didn’t kiss her. He held himself there for a second before diverting and kissing her cheek, then the lobe of her ear, where he also hovered, his warm breath tickling her skin.

“Ye will be mine,” he whispered.

“Aye,” Holly uttered to the sky.

His lips moved to the column of her neck, and as he kissed the side, she turned her head to give him better access. He cupped her cheek in his hand, turning her head back to kiss her lips, then kissed the other side of her neck, sending a tremor through her body.

He leaned back to look at her, and then quickly claimed her lips again, this time forcing them open and probing with his tongue. He pressed his tongue to hers, but before she could tangle with his tongue, he removed it, and his lips moved elsewhere again.

Holly moaned in frustration. She wanted to taste him, to clamp her lips down on his tongue, to bite his lip. Her passion manifested as frustration—he had done something to her, locked her in place so she could not move.

No, he hadn’t locked her. He kissed her collarbone, his supple lips pressing against the hardness just below her skin, and her back arched off the blanket.

Her body could move, but only when he commanded it.

As if her body needed to respond to that notion, her arms moved up above her head, reaching out to the silken blades of grass beyond the edge of the blanket. She pressed her hands to the ground, feeling the chill in the earth.

But there was no chill in her body. It pulsed like embers of a fire, ready to be stoked.

He kissed her neck again, then his hands moved over her body. First to her cheek and neck, then down to her breasts—perfect mounds contained by the thin fabric of her blouse.

A sudden clarity overwhelmed Holly. “I want… this, but…”

The Laird came up for air, removing his lips from her bare skin. “We arenae wed yet. I can make ye feel things in other ways.” He paused, hovering above her, their gazes locked, before adding, “Only if ye want me to.”

Holly found herself nodding. She couldn’t speak fully, but she managed to breathe out, “Aye.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the response. She hadn’t wanted to come out and tell him that they could not lie together until they were wed, but he had been the one to say it. He might be a beast to others, but he was a gentleman to her. It only stoked her passion more.

If he respects me, then what does he feel about me?

Holly moaned and forgot all about her thoughts as the Laird brought his hand back to her breast. He unbuttoned her riding coat and brushed the lapels aside, moving his hand swiftly over her breasts once more like swallows flying close to the foothills in the Highlands.

She felt her two pink buds stiffen beneath her shirt, and she could not help but think about the member between the Laird’s legs. She had sat on his lap and been pressed against him when his manhood had poked back at her. It was slightly shocking but completely exhilarating. She wanted to see it, touch it, even if she didn’t know completely what she should do.

She didn’t have to think about anything as the Laird ran his hands over her body, kissed her neck and cheeks, nibbled on her ear, and breathed his warmth into her.

He placed his hand on her breast, kneading it slightly and thumbing at her nipple. She shifted on the blanket, unable to keep still. She could see the top of his head as he pleasured her with his lips, and above that, the clear blue sky. She looked up into it and felt like she was flying.

His hands then moved to her sides, her stomach, down over her thighs, impeded by her riding breeches. Then, some freedom as the buttons on her blouse were undone and his hand moved under the cotton to caress her bare skin.

She reached down and held the top of his head, running her fingers through his thick hair. She wondered about his scars. Were there more on his body, or were the wounds contained only to his face?

She didn’t care if he was covered in scars. She wanted to touch him as he touched her. Yet, she still couldn’t fully move and lie under him and his spell as he made good on his promise.

She knew more was coming, and when it did, she would think of only him. She already thought of only him. She wanted more of him— all of him. They hadn’t known each other long, but she understood it now. Perhaps their marriage was not based on love, but it could be based on carnal pleasure, and that would bring its own satisfaction.

Her cavern ached to have him inside, but she would wait for that—it was the only thing she was sure of. She wanted to feel him inside her, to experience what it was like, but she held firm to that one thing, or she oddly had nothing. He could take everything else from her, but not that.

She felt a cool breeze as the button on her riding breeches was unbuttoned, and the breeze wound its way through in an attempt to cool where she felt the most warmth. It was not only warmth but things she had never felt before. She was wet, ready to accept him.

“Aye,” she moaned.

He ran his fingers lightly over the patch of hair above her throbbing sex. “Is this what ye want?”

It felt like a small crack of lightning hit her just below where his fingertips touched. Her core clenched, and her hips jerked up. Her garden pulsed, tingling at the touch to come. She breathed heavily through her nose, looking up into the blue sky above, seeing and feeling nothing else in the world except the sky and the Laird’s touch.

She wanted to beg him to move his fingers downward and touch her special place. The torture went on for far too long, and she was about to open her mouth when he spoke.

“What say ye, lass? Is this what ye want?”

Holly tried to work out what she wanted, but the feeling coursing through her made forming any thoughts impossible, except for one.

“Aye, please,” she begged, her nether region throbbing and beating like a drum. “Please, I need yer touch.”

“Hmm,” Elias said, kissing her neck, squeezing her bare breast, and running his fingers through that small patch of hair. “Perhaps we should wait for another time.”

“Nay!” Holly blurted. “Please, Elias! Please give me what I need!”

The Laird laughed darkly. The sound floated over the loch and back to them. “How can I resist a request like that?”

He paused for another moment before his fingers moved down, skimming over her pink bud, across her wet slit, and then back up a little to plunge inside her. He let out a grunt as he moved his lips back up to hers.

Their kiss was powerful this time, his tongue driving into her mouth as his fingers slid back out, warm and lubricated. Her insides tingled where his fingers had just been, and that tingling sensation rushed up her stomach, into her chest, and then down her tongue. She fought with her supple tongue, slamming it into his like a sword. She pushed his tongue back, trying to gain entry into his mouth, but even his tongue was too strong for her.

And then the sky was lost, gone. He touched his wet fingers to her tender bud, and she lost all control. She knew her tongue was still moving against his, but it didn’t feel like her tongue anymore, or her mouth. Or even her body. She couldn’t feel with any of her senses anymore. A new sense emerged inside her, one of pure pleasure. Her tongue and lips tingled, her breasts and nipples ached, and her bud pulsed.

Everything felt pink—pink and throbbing. She didn’t know whether her eyes were closed or not, only that she could see pink all around her. She reached out her arms and wrapped them around Elias in case he moved away, and the pleasure stopped. She could not let him stop now. Her hands found his back as she kissed him, and she dug her nails into his skin, clawing at him in the throes of passion.

The thrust of her hips surprised her. They jerked upward with force and speed. The feeling of ecstasy flowed through her body in waves, lapping at her, the tide slowly coming in. Then, it came in not so slowly, and she felt like she was drowning, but the feeling was pleasurable.

Her arms were open wide, and she clawed at what must have been the bare earth. Her tongue was numb, but she still felt his in her mouth. She closed her lips around it, sucking on it, then bit his bottom lip and sucked on it, too.

“Mmm.”

The moan escaped her lips and continued for as long as possible before she needed to breathe again. She took a deep breath and moaned again as her body began to shake. She couldn’t feel his fingers anymore, only a pulsing warmth, but they had to be there still to make her feel the way they did.

Then, her body convulsed, and she felt herself floating, looking down on herself. But it was only her on the grass, completely naked, her arms and legs spread out, and a pulsing white light coming from the opening of her sex. She could see the smile on her face. She looked down at herself and smiled.

Something pulled on her, and she crashed back into her body. Pleasure shot through her, making her squirm beneath his touch, and she cried out. The primal sound carried over the loch and hills. And when she could take it no more, she squeezed her thighs together to stop his touch and gasped in amazement at what he had done to her.

At that moment, she couldn’t think of the name of any man in the country other than Elias’s.