Page 55 of Taken By the Highland Villain
It was the most natural thing in the world to cup her soft, pillowy mounds, to roll her sensitive nipples between his thumbs and forefingers until she shivered against him. To kiss her, his breath coming in harsh pants as every movement made his erect manhood brush the fabric.
Valerie reached lower to caress his bollocks, and his hips bucked upward, seeking more, wanting her… needing her…
His head thudded against the stone of the cave wall, not hard enough to truly hurt, but certainly enough to get his attention—and to make him bite his tongue in surprise. The pain cleared some of the pleasure-induced stupor from his head.
Jude reached down and caught Valerie’s hand, pulling her back. “We cannae.”
Bright green eyes looked up at him with surprise and a bit of hurt. “Why nae? Ye…”
“That was afore. But this… if we continue, I willnae want to stop. I willnae beableto stop.” Jude shook his head, trying to clear the haze from his mind.
“And if I dinnae want ye to stop?” Valerie continued to look up at him, her full and kiss-swollen lips curled into a pout. “If I… want more as well?”
Jude shook his head again, then carefully tucked himself into his trews. “Nay. I’ll nae compromise ye that way. I was happy to bring ye pleasure afore, and to receive it from ye as well, but what we’ve done is enough. If ye’re nae plannin’ to stay, then I cannae allow this to go further.”
For a moment, he thought she might fight him, might argue further, and he wondered if he’d have the will to truly resist her. But then she sighed and climbed off his lap. She was still wrapped in his cloak, but instead of sitting atop him, she curled into his side.
A part of Jude was grateful for the change in position, but he couldn’t help the pang of disappointment that darted through him as she leaned against his shoulder.
“I suppose ye’re right. Even so…” she trailed off.
Jude waited for a moment, then prodded, “Even so…?”
Valerie sighed again and inched a little closer. “I cannae help but wish that I’d never met Laird MacOlley, that I’d met ye much sooner. Before my first husband. If my faither offered me to a man like ye, rather than a brute like him… well, I wouldnae have had the urge to play tricks on ye, and I certainly wouldnae have gone through with it!” She laughed a little.
Jude blinked, intrigued despite the melancholy that filled him. “What sort of trick did ye play on yer first husband?”
Valerie smirked, a wicked smirk that reminded him, very abruptly, that she was, among other things, a pirate’s daughter and a pirate lass herself.
“I didnae want him to claim me. I was sixteen summers old, and Archibald Firebrand—that was the name he insisted on using, though many of the men called him Archie for short—was a ham-fisted brute with coarse language and coarser ways. I’d seen the way he handled the tavern wenches, the bruises he left sometimes, and I wanted none of that, especially since I kenned he was likely to be drunk and worse mannered than usual after the wedding feast.”
“So ye drugged him?”
“Of course nae. He and Faither were scheduled to take the crew raiding the next day, and Faither wouldnae have held the ship for a drunk or laggardly second-in-command. If I’d drugged him, he might have missed the ship, and then I would have been stuck with him, and his temper would have been all the worse for missin’ the voyage.” Her tone was so matter-of-fact that Jude found himself chuckling along with her.
“So what did ye do?”
“I went to the gardens—my maither and my sister Lily had large gardens—and I searched for my maither’s reddest roses. I took two of the blossoms, cut them up fine, and steeped them in water with a few drops of sheep’s blood for the smell. Then, I spread the mix on the sheets, and when my husband came to bed me, I told him it wasnae possible because I was menstruating. I showed him the sheets as proof, and he left me alone, none the wiser.”
Jude choked, then doubled over, laughing harder than he could remember laughing in seasons. “Ye… ye tricked him… with rose petals? And he never…?”
Valerie shook her head, a wicked grin on her face. “He never guessed. Of course, I made sure to look pale and sickly when I saw them off the next day. And the ruse would have been up when he came home, but as luck would have it, he was killed by a stray musket ball durin’ the raid, and I was a widow afore I had to reveal the truth.”
“And nay one ever guessed?”
Valerie snickered. “Och, nay, my faither guessed soon enough. But instead of punishin’ me, he praised me for bein’ so quick-witted, and when I asked if I could travel with him, he agreed. Said if I could keep my head, then I was a valuable asset—and better served as a member of his crew than a bargaining chip for marriage.”
Jude shook his head, still chuckling. “I’m glad to ken I’m nae the only one ye’ve played yer tricks on—though ye wouldnae have needed to play that one on me.”
“Nay?” Valerie quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Aye. Ye ken… we cannae… I cannae…”
“I ken.” The mirth in Valerie’s expression turned into melancholy. Then, her gaze drifted past him, and she smiled sadly. “Och, the rain is ebbin’. We’ll need to head back now.”
Jude wanted to protest, wanted to pull her closer and tell her there was no reason to go back. But Valerie gave him no chance to do so.
With a single, soft, chaste kiss on his cheek, she rose, untangled herself gracefully from his cloak, and was gone, hurrying back out into the meadow and toward the waiting horses before he could gather his wits or his balance to make a single move.