Page 34 of The Highlander’s Auctioned Hellion (Auctioned Highland Brides #4)

She was too shy to take off her petticoat, but with the way the fabric was clinging to her body, it did not leave much to the imagination.

Stepping into the water, she sucked in a sharp breath.

“You are a liar,” she said, about to step back out again, when Callum, in all his glorious nudity, stood up and grabbed her, pulling her into the depths with him.

She squealed as the cold water covered her body, but the discomfort only lasted for a minute as his arms went round her like bands of fire.

“Where dae ye think ye are goin’ without me?” he asked, nuzzling at her neck with his nose.

“Am I not permitted to leave your side from now on?” she asked, enjoying the buoyancy his body afforded her. She felt as if she could float away and never have to return to dry land again.

“I would have ye close to me at all times so that I can keep an eye on ye, yes.”

Lydia laughed. “And that is because you do not trust that I can make my own way?”

“I think ye can dae whatever ye set yer mind to. Ye just have to dae it with me,” he said with a smirk, and Lydia chuckled as he lifted her, and her legs went around his body.

“Ye see?” Callum continued. “The water is warm once you’re in it. And look, the stars are out.”

Lydia leaned back, his big hands supporting her as she stared up at the sky. The gray, silvery wisps of clouds were dissipating, and the dark, deep blackness behind the stars was making itself known.

The rain had made way for a very clear night, and she inhaled deeply.

“It is so beautiful here. I never wish to be in a city again and miss the stars every night.”

“Well, that is good to hear, because I willnae allow ye to go to the city again.”

“Is that so?”

“Aye,” he growled, holding her close again. “Ye are mine, and I will keep ye with me.”

She looped one arm around his shoulders, leaning against him gently as she pointed upward.

“That is Venus,” she said. “The brightest star in the sky. Many believe it is a symbol of love.”

Lydia looked down at Callum, and the stars reflected in his deep blue eyes.

“Is that so? I can see why with a view like this,” he said gently, and allowed her body to slide down over his as he captured her lips with his own.

Lydia pulled back, laughing as he waggled his eyebrows at her, as her feet brushed against his bare backside.

“I cannot believe that you dragged me into this loch, Callum. The water is freezing.”

“Oh, I dinnae ken, it seems rather warm to me,” he said, hitching her up onto his body and walking up toward the bank.

It was warmer on the bank than she had expected, mainly because Callum lay down on top of her.

His big body was slick from the loch, and her hands moved over his skin, remembering every bump and crease as he lay down beside her. He leaned over, giving her a gentle kiss, his hand skimming over her stomach.

“Ye ken I love ye,” he murmured. “I would kill any man who ever tried to take ye away from me.”

“I know.” She lay back, looking up at him. “What happened with Moira?”

“I told her faither the truth. She has lied to her faither all her life, just like she has lied to everyone else. He kenned nothin’ of what Angus did to me, or her part in it. Once he read the letters she had written to me, he finally kenned the truth.”

Lydia’s stomach dropped. “You kept the letters?”

Callum’s eyes glinted down at her. “Nay, lass. I asked Alexander to see if me braither had kept them. They were in a drawer in his desk—I think Angus kenned that he would have to prove who she really was sooner or later.”

“But you don’t have them now?”

“Nay. I never want to see them, or her, again. Her faither is goin’ to burn them.”

Callum’s hands were wandering now, and Lydia giggled as they skimmed over her body.

“We cannot do this out here in the open. I have just got the mud off my skin.”

Callum grinned down at her, rising onto his knees as he pulled his sodden kilt across the shoreline and laid it out for her.

“There. Luxury.”

“You are not serious,” she said, as he moved above her, laying her unceremoniously on top of the fabric and straddling her body.

“I am, lass. I have never been more serious. I have been tellin’ meself since the weddin’ that I couldnae have ye. But now I am goin’ to make sure there can be nae annulment of this marriage. They’ll have to break down me door to separate us.”

Lydia laughed breathlessly as he pushed her down onto the soft fabric of the kilt. There was sand in her hair, and a cool breeze chilling her skin, but as Callum’s big body lowered over her, she couldn’t help but sigh in relief at the heat of him.

“Will ye let me, lass? I will worship ye like I should have on our weddin’ night.”

“Did you think about it?” she asked.

He chuckled. “It has consumed me thoughts,” he said. “But nay for the reasons ye may think. I love this body, just as much as I love ye, but it was more sleepin’ alone I didnae like. I want to have ye with me, for us to be connected in ways we have never been with anyone else.”

Lydia brushed a hand over his face, tracing the line of the scars with her fingers. Callum remained still, not pulling away as she gave a sigh of relief.

“Then take me, my Laird, and make me yours.”

Callum’s happy smile shone brightly beneath the stars above his head, and he moved down to take her mouth as his hand lowered over her body.

His fingers skimmed over her flesh, massaging her hip bones and pushing against her skin until she was gasping.

Lydia widened her legs, allowing his fingers to pull her wet petticoat up around her hips and delve deeper.

Shuddering, she felt the tip of his finger push into her, just the softest touch, until she shivered and he pushed home inside her.

Lydia gasped as he crooked his finger, circling and thrusting in and out as his tongue matched the rhythm against her own.

She thought she would be cold lying there against the loch, but in reality, she was hot and flustered by his movements.

It was impossible to believe that only an hour or so before, she had been leaving him forever, and now they were finally making love under the stars.

Lydia groaned as a second finger joined the first and he began to push into her in earnest. His tongue danced with hers, his other hand cradling the back of her head as she felt the evidence of his arousal against her leg.

“Are ye ready, lass? I will be gentle. Ye tell me if ye need me to stop.”

Lydia nodded as Callum moved down her body, placing kisses over her flesh as he did so.

He held himself in hand as he moved down between her legs, the wide head touching the entrance of her body as she watched.

“Breathe with me,” he said softly, as he pushed into her. Lydia threw her head back as he paused, allowing her body to adjust for what felt like an age before he slowly began to push further inside.

“Breathe, Lydia, breathe with me,” he said as she matched the rhythm of his breathing, her body trembling. He was so big, like everything else about him, and the moment when they were finally connected came all too soon.

Callum was still above her, his hands braced on either side of her body as she sighed and opened her eyes.

“All right?” he asked.

She nodded. “Take me.”

And slowly, painstakingly so, he drew back, and then, when she gave him another nod of approval, he thrust inside.

Lydia writhed beneath him, the pain and the pleasure mixing together as he began to thrust. He was so long and thick, much more so than his fingers, that she felt she might break in two. But he was with her, through it all, stroking her body, murmuring into her ear.

As he rocked into her, he lowered his head, taking her mouth in a sweet and sensual kiss as the pleasure began to build inside her.

The ache between her legs intensified with every thrust, and she closed her eyes, a moan breaking free each time he pushed against her.

“I dreamed of this,” he whispered, “taking ye under the stars, and now I have.”

Lydia moaned as he began to snap his hips forward, leaning back, taking hold of her thighs as he pushed into her again and again.

Her cries grew in volume, her back arching from the wet ground beneath as he began to grunt with every exertion.

Lydia grasped the sand at her side, beginning to scream with every thrust as he bent over her, almost bending her in half as he whispered urgently in her ear.

“I want ye to find yer pleasure with me inside ye, I want to feel ye squeezin’ me so tightly.”

That was all it took. With a final thrust, she felt her pleasure peak as a white-hot wall of desire erupted inside her, and she was frozen, arched above the bank as she found her release.

Callum thrust for only a minute or so more before she watched as he shuddered above her. He closed his eyes, a happy smile on his face as he sighed his release, and she felt the flood of it inside her, the pulsing ebb as it faded away.

“Ye are exquisite,” Callum said, stroking a hand through her hair. “I dinnae ken why I waited so long.”

He lowered over her body, hugging her tightly to him as he gently pulled free from inside her.

Lydia wrapped her arms around him, and then, as the wind picked up, she began to laugh.

“What is it, lass?”

“You have sent the carriage back to the castle, and it is cold, and we are both soaking wet.”

Callum chuckled. “I will keep ye warm, and Seamus is a big beast. He will get us back much faster than a carriage. I would bet we will be back before it.”

“And that’s a bet, is it?” Lydia asked teasingly. “And what will you bet?”

Callum smirked mischievously. “How about if we beat him home, I get to dae that all over again.”

“And if I win?”

“I’ll draw ye a nice hot bath and bring the water up meself.”

Lydia moaned at that thought. “I would adore a hot bath.”

“Hm, maybe I’ll dae that for ye anyway, but dinnae count on it.”

Slowly, he pulled himself up, helping her rise to her feet and with loving and tender care helped her to get into her clothes.

Callum did not dress himself until she was in her gown again, even with the damp clothes; she was far warmer now.

He retrieved his léine and kilt and pulled a jacket from the pack on Seamus’s back. But instead of putting it around his own shoulders, he covered hers with it.

Smiling with happy contentment, Lydia stepped up beside the horse as Callum mounted, pulling her up in front of him and wrapping one arm around her waist.

“Tell me ye’ll stay, when we are home. That ye willnae leave me again.”

Lydia looked back at him and nodded. “I’ll stay with you forever.”