Page 17 of The Highlander’s Hunted Wife (Legacy of Highland Lairds #2)

17

N ay other man will have ye.

Hector couldn’t chase away the thought as he kissed Katie with all the passion that had been building within him since they ventured into the forest. All of that delicious, agonizing friction, every shift of her hips in the saddle, every accidental brush against his loins, had culminated into this moment.

It pleased him that she’d been the one to pull him to her, giving her permission with the hunger of her mouth and the yearning press of her body. He meant to enjoy what she’d offered freely, keen to show her what pleasure a woman could have without any mark on her supposed virtue.

Rest can wait…

There was no such thing as pain when there was such pleasure to be had, and the eager ebb and flow of her lips, the glide of her tongue against his, the slide of her fingertips through his hair and over his shoulders proved to be a soothing balm to the throbbing in his thigh.

“I shouldnae…” she murmured, kissing him harder.

He resisted the urge to smile against her mouth. “Och, but ye should.”

He didn’t intend to let her regret it.

Letting his hands wander over the exquisite contours of her body, smoothing over the dip of her waist, the swell of her hips, and up a taut stomach to her pert breasts, her breathy gasps weaved through him like magic. With just the power of her gasps and moans, she stoked an inferno within him, hotter than any he’d ever experienced. A madness, as if he might lose his mind if he didn’t have her immediately.

Ye made yer promise, he reminded himself, cursing the very idea of ‘virtue.’

Unsatisfied with the brush of fabric against his skin instead of the soft warmth of bare skin, he seized her shift by the seams at her hips, ready to rip the wretched thing to pieces.

Just as he was about to, a better thought came to him.

Suppressing a smile, he kissed her hard on the mouth and drew back, leaving her breathless. She gazed up at him in confusion, her pretty, bluebell eyes glassy with desire, like she’d imbibed a whole bottle of it.

“Take it off,” he commanded in a quiet voice, taking a half step back. “Take it off, so I can watch. So I can watch ye bare yerself to me, bit by wonderful bit.”

Her throat bobbed. “Undress… in front of ye?”

“Aye. Do it slowly.”

At first, he thought she might refuse, might shun the entire idea of letting him so close, might tell him she was going downstairs and wouldn’t be returning. So, it was the most intoxicating surprise when her slender hands skimmed over the paths he had already explored, pausing at her hips.

Gazing at him, her eyes burning with renewed fervor, she began to tease the shift upward. She moved slowly, just as he’d instructed, torturing him in the most exquisite way.

His gaze fell to her ankles, watching intently as she bared herself to him inch by inch. He savored the lean curve of her lower legs, rising to the taut muscle of thighs that his waist knew intimately. She hesitated for a moment, then lifted her shift higher, the flimsy fabric gliding over the peak between those thighs, the flat of her stomach, unveiling her small, ripe breasts.

The moment the shift was over her head and tossed to the floor, watching was no longer enough. Hector closed the gap between them, his mouth tracing a searing graze to hers, taking a second before he began to explore the new territory that had just been revealed. And he was determined to savor every inch.

Katie couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t care.

Hector’s lips were burning embers, leaving a scorching trail down the side of her neck, while his rough hands teased her skin as they slid over the swell of her buttocks, pulling her closer to the part of him that remained covered. She gasped at the hard press of it, not quite bold enough—or careless enough—to untie the knot and let the bath linen slip.

Still thinking of that not-so-secret part of him, she arched her back as his mouth moved lower, kissing across the ridge of her collarbone. The cold stone at her back shocked a breath out of her, though it was nothing compared to the gasp that shuddered past her lips as his tongue flicked, tasting her erect nipple.

“Oh… oh, M’Laird…” she panted, her head swimming in the best possible way.

All of a sudden, his lips closed over that pink peak, drawing it into the warmth of his mouth. She froze, not expecting the rush of pleasure that sparked through her chest, shivering down into the core of her being. A moment later, with the teasing suck of his mouth, she came alive in the most explosive way, crying out as the pull of his lips seemed to tug on a crackling cord of pleasure that ran through the very center of her.

“Oh… Aye, M’Laird… Oh!”

She slid her hands through his silky hair, dizzy with the intensity of so many new sensations at once, uncertain of what came next. This wasn’t at all like it had been last night, and she had lost her bearings, but she wasn’t afraid. Rather, she was brimming with anticipation, eager to discover every new thing he could reveal to her.

He released her nipple and kissed his way back up the column of her throat, while his hand smoothed upward to cover the absent pull of his lips. He cupped her breast as he pushed her harder against the wall, his other hand slipping around the back of her thigh to lift it. As he held her leg around his hip, he eased backward, bending her diagonal to the wall.

And as his mouth found hers again, he tilted his hips upward, letting her feel the hard manhood straining against the flimsy linen. He ground against her heat, each pulse applying a pressure that made her head spin, a ricochet of bliss splintering through her abdomen. But he didn’t pull aside his covering, didn’t go against her wishes, merely tormenting her with what they could do if she but said the word.

Just then, with one powerful arm curved beneath her backside, he hoisted her up. Instinctively, her legs wrapped around his waist, her breath hitching as she felt his hard manhood beneath her once more.

I cannae relent . I cannae. It would ruin me.

Yet, the temptation lingered, rising and falling as Hector carried her over to the bed and set her down on the edge. Was this the moment where she had to decide what would happen next? Was one night of potential bliss worth destroying her future security?

She gazed into his eyes as he kneeled before her, the gleam of hunger and desire brightening the usual, stony gray.

With a dark smile, his hands gripped her thighs, each hand so large that they almost went the entire way around.

“Yer virtue is safe, lass,” he told her, though she didn’t quite believe him. “Enjoy the chase.”

She frowned, uncertain of what he meant, but she had a feeling she was about to find out.

He leaned forward, his lips brushing against hers, beginning a path that led downward. He left no inch of her skin unattended, kissing down her throat, across her collarbone, her shoulders, her arms, retreating to the valley between her breasts. He traced his tongue down that minor gorge, teasing her nipples, kissing along the line that marked the center of her stomach, going lower and lower.

She gasped at the roll of his tongue beneath the ridge of her hip, her whole body trembling as his kisses caressed the tops of her thighs. He was taking his time, increasing the anticipation, and the not-knowing was almost as blissful as the knowing.

“Oh… Oh, my!” she cried out as his fingertips touched that secret bundle of nerves, so secret that she hadn’t known of its existence until last night.

His lips savored the soft skin of her thigh as he began to brush his fingertips back and forth, transporting her back to the tree in the woods and the moment she’d told him to stop. She had no intention of doing so, this time.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat, transforming into a moan as that slow strum became a slow circling, applying just the right amount of pressure to strike a spark into the tinderbox of her ecstasy. That hidden bud was a thing of magic, seizing control of her body, unleashing bursts of crackling pleasure as ferocious as a lightning bolt, and she was the storm.

“Oh, Hector!” she rasped, forgetting formalities. “Oh, my God! Please!”

Wave after rippling wave of pleasure rushed from his fingertips to her core, cresting higher to her lungs, where it submerged her ability to breathe. She grasped fistfuls of the coverlets, anything to keep her anchored to reality, as sawing gasps left her mouth, matching the rhythm of his fingertips.

But he wasn’t done, not at all finished showing her what she had missed last night.

As she began to feel something rise within her, more potent than what she’d experienced the night before, Hector suddenly withdrew his touch. Leaving her panting and bereft, he kissed his way to the shadows of her inner thighs, making her believe that the exquisite, intense bliss had come to an end.

Then, she felt it… and her world erupted into shards of light and raw euphoria, her head dizzy, her eyes closing, her back arching, her fingernails clawing at the bed.

His tongue rolled against her sensitive bundle of nerves, igniting her ecstasy until it was a fearsome blaze, pummeling through her. He tasted her, teased her, lashing his tongue against her until she wasn’t sure how much more she could take. Surely, her body couldn’t bear the intensity of so much feeling. Surely, she would shatter to pieces.

“Hector…” she moaned, transported to another realm entirely, a paradise on Earth. “Oh, Hector!”

His tongue didn’t pause for a second, rolling against that sweet bud, while his fingertips glided between her slick folds, coming to a halt at the entrance to her sex—the very place he’d pushed against, tormenting her with the promise of what she’d vowed not to experience. Not with him. Not with her virtue at stake. Although, she still wasn’t altogether sure what that act entailed, or how the pieces came together.

Her breath shuddered to a halt as he eased a finger inside her, then another, pausing to let her get used to it. Yet, his tongue didn’t cease, pouring fuel on the fire of her euphoria, stoking up that building, unknown feeling within her that couldn’t possibly soar any higher.

She cried out his name, cried out to the heavens, cried out unintelligible things in a language of bliss that only she could understand as he curled his fingers and began to pulse them, revealing a new source of overwhelming pleasure that threatened to tip her over the edge.

Of what, she had no notion.

At that moment, with his tongue, his touch, and his talent working in perfect unison, she made her final discovery. That soaring, swelling, intensifying sensation did have an end, and as he pulsed his fingertips and rolled his tongue over her swollen bud, she flew toward that glorious peak and sailed right over it.

“Oh… oh, Hector!” She swore as her entire being was overtaken by a surging wave of pure ecstasy, her arms collapsing at the elbows, her back arching until her head almost touched the bed, her thighs shaking violently as pleasure coursed through every vein and nerve and limb and muscle, holding her as the most willing hostage to its almighty power.

As she reached her conclusion, Hector slowed the strokes of his tongue and eased up on the pulse of his fingertips, letting her savor the rush of pleasure.

Katie gasped for air, the fierce current finally releasing its hold on her, the wave hitting the shore and now retreating, leaving behind pulsing wavelets that warmed her from head to toe, relaxing her body until she collapsed onto the bed. Hector’s head was still between her thighs.

Panting and staring up at the rafters, her hand on her chest to feel her racing heart, she smiled as she felt him kiss the inside of her thigh. A soft gasp escaped her as he withdrew his fingers, her curiosity now well and truly satisfied.

Slowly, he kissed his way back up her stomach and chest to her lips, where she looped her arms around his neck and brought him closer for a lazy, grateful kiss. A world away from the ravenous, insatiable hunger from earlier.

“Seems ye’re quite the huntress,” he purred, pulling back.

She frowned. “What do ye mean?”

“The chase, lass,” he replied, kissing her again. “A chase of yer own.”

She blinked up at him, realizing what he had meant—that feeling that had built up inside her, taking her to untold heights. Now that she thought about it, it had been rather like a chase, and she could certainly say that she had caught her quarry.

“Now,” he said, scooping his arms beneath her, “let’s move ye over so I can get into bed.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Ye’re sleepin’ with me?”

“I’m nae sleepin’ on the floor,” he replied, lifting her and depositing her in the middle of the bed as if she weighed nothing at all.

She was about to shuffle over to her side, feeling a little dismayed by the sudden dismissal, when he grabbed her roughly and pulled her to him, holding her there.

“Stop wrigglin’,” he mumbled against the back of her neck. “I need me rest.”

And as she stilled in his arms, she was grateful she wasn’t facing him, so he couldn’t see the giddy smile that tugged at the corners of her lips, her dismay vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.