Page 46 of Taken By the Highland Villain
When Jude had begun again, everything had been all the more intense, and she had been all the more desperate. When he’d stopped for the second time, she’d realized he was teasing her.
She’d wanted to hit him, but to her mortification, all she could do was beg him to continue, not to leave her aching and burning and needing, her body empty and begging for his touch, for release.
His hands fell on her thighs, his thumbs touching the lips of her sex and opening her most secret place to his gaze and his touch. Valerie shivered, the cool air and the heat of his breath and the warmth of his hands all combining to drive her nearly mindless.
Then, the roughness of his tongue slid across her inner folds, stroking her as he lapped at her arousal. Valerie barely managed to suppress a shriek of surprise and pleasure as the sensation shot from her thighs to her belly, a wave of heat like lightning. Her back arched, pressing her hips into his mouth as he licked her again, before sliding his tongue deep into her channel.
“Please… dinnae stop,” she begged.
His tongue slid into her core, and she writhed, her hips bucking as she tried to close her legs around his shoulders to get some sort of purchase or escape the overwhelming sensation. Jude’s hands pinned her in place as his tongue lapped at her, tasting her and mapping every inch of her sex, and sent waves of pleasurable heat through her body.
His tongue slid upward, found her nub, and swirled around it. Valerie cried out, her body shaking as he licked her nub again and again.
She was burning. The fire was all-consuming, her pleasure like a tsunami of desire and heat and sensation that were going to burn her to ashes.
Jude dipped his head, his tongue sliding into her channel, before he withdrew and sucked gently on her sensitive nub. The sensation shot through her like a bolt of lightning wrapped around a ball of sparks, then crashed over her in a wave of pleasure so intense that her vision went white.
The heat and sensation swept her away, her mind going blank for a moment. Her body tensed, her release flooding out of her as her channel pulsed in time with the waves of warmth crashing through her.
She was vaguely aware of Jude’s tongue lapping up her release and the reverberations as he moaned against her. Then, his tongue stroked her nub again, and the stimulation of the already sensitive flesh sent another wave of pleasure through her.
Valerie fell back, her whole body singing as waves of ecstasy and enjoyment such as she had never known or guessed were possible washed over her and carried her mind into blissful unawareness.
CHAPTER 20
Jude gruntedas he rose from where he’d been leaning against the table, breathless, boneless, and spent. Valerie’s climax had prompted his own, and it had been all he could do to ensure that his release spilled on the floor, rather than staining his new kilt. The new kilt Valerie had made for him.
Fortunately, he had a strip of cloth he used for wiping away sweat during training or ink from too many hours spent writing. He fished it from the pouch at his belt and cleaned up the mess, then heaved himself to his feet. His knee throbbed from the prolonged contact with the rough stone, but he’d endured worse, and the ache was easily ignored.
He helped Valerie sit up. He itched to tend to her, but she took the cloth from his hand and began to clean herself before he could touch her, her face flushed.
Jude sighed and stepped back while she cleaned herself up and fixed her dress, realizing that her independent nature was reasserting itself.
He had been wondering, ever since hearing the news from Moira, what he would say, how he would respond to her bold declaration. After hearing her confession and feeling once again the passion they so clearly shared, his response came easily.
“I’ll write to yer braither-in-law. Or yer elder sister, if ye think she’d be the better one to approach.”
Valerie blinked, her expression puzzled. “Why would ye? Ye dinnae have to marry me. I already told ye, it was something I said in haste and foolishness. There’s nay point in writing to Conall, unless ye’ve changed yer mind about marrying me. And ye shouldnae do that unless ye truly mean it.”
Jude swallowed hard. He wanted to say that he did mean it, that he had every intention of marrying her. But he couldn’t lie to her. “I cannae.”
Valerie’s eyes darkened, her expression becoming grave. “Why? Will ye nae tell me that much, at least? Why ye willnae even consider… I dinnae wish to marry either, but ye…”
“I cannae. It isnae a matter of whether I wish to or nae—I simply cannae.” Jude shook his head again. “Valerie… if I wed ye, if I chose ye and ye came to harm in my care, I’d nae be able to endure it. I cannae risk it. And I ken all too well that I cannaeprotect ye either. I’ve failed too many of those I cared for; I cannae fail ye too.”
Her jaw clenched. “What do ye mean, ye cannae risk it? That ye ken ye cannae defend me? Need I remind ye that ye’ve already saved me multiple times?” Her gaze flicked downward, then back up. “Moira hinted that somethin’ had happened—somethin’ that made ye retreat to the dark and gloom. Is it for the same reason?”
“Connected to it, aye.”
Jude would rather swallow rocks than speak ofthatnight, but Valerie’s expression indicated that she wouldn’t leave without an answer. And she deserved to know the reasons for his refusal. She deserved to know that it was not because she was undesirable that he would not marry her, but because of his failings.
Jude took a deep breath. “Just over a year ago, the clan was attacked at night. Raiders, I dinnae ken from where. I never saw any clan colors or crests. We fought them—Ifought them, but I failed. They kidnapped my sister, and my maither died of grief and shock at the loss. I was left with naught but empty rooms, grief, and the scar on my knee, where one of the attackers slashed me nearly to the bone and crippled me.”
“And yer sister…”
“We never found her. For all I ken, she’s dead and buried in an unmarked grave, or driftin’ in the sea, or ashes on the wind. She’s one of the many lasses who were kidnapped that night.”
Jude swallowed past the lump in his throat and the tightness in his gut.