Page 12 of The Story of his Highland Bride (Dancing Through Time #4)

12

J ackson had never seen any woman look more beautiful than Eloise had done when she entered the Feasting Hall in that gown of dark, tempting red. He had struggled all the way through dinner to avoid staring at the plump flesh of her bosom, or the line of her slender neck, or the dark shade of her full, inviting lips, or the curls of her hair, begging for his hands to slide through the soft, shiny locks.

He could have endured it until the end, until she had announced that she would be leaving tomorrow. It had snapped something inside of him, stoking the flames of a fire he had been desperately trying to douse. In truth, it was very simple: he could not allow her to leave until he had doused those flames with her. The only way to destroy temptation was to destroy the object of it, or to revel in the temptation until it lost its novelty, and as he would never hurt her, that left only one option.

“You think I’m a danger to you,” Eloise continued, her breathing shallow and frantic, stirring up the heat in his loins until he could not bear it. He wanted to hear her gasp and pant like that in a different place—a more private place, where he could join his passionate moans with hers.

“You think of me as a nuisance and source of chaos, nothing else,” she murmured. “You want me gone, so let me be gone. I wasn’t lying when I said there was a lot I had to do, and you keeping me here is going to get me in a lot of trouble, where I’m from. So, just—”

He refused to hear another word about her leaving. He could not allow it, though he knew that her remaining in his castle would be the greatest risk of his life, and not just for his clan. For what if the temptation did not fade? What if it grew and grew, until the prospect of her ever leaving became a torture he could not endure?

Those questions swept out of his head as he caught her mouth with his, crushing his lips against hers, if only to silence her. He had not expected her to kiss him back.

There was a brief pause that allowed a surprised breath to escape from Eloise’s lips, but as she drew a breath back in, her lips met his with equal fervor. She kissed him in a way that he had never been kissed, with more passion and longing than he had ever experienced. Her mouth even began to guide the kiss, her lips undulating in a slow, fierce rhythm that made his entire body burn with need.

As her tongue slipped into his mouth, dancing with his, he realized once again that this was no ordinary woman. Nor did he want her to be.

“Is this what you really want?” she gasped, her hands running up the contours of his chest, following a path up the sides of his neck and into his hair. Her fingertips smoothed through his locks, her body pressing flush against him as she pulled his head further down, kissing him with a wildness that left him reeling.

Yet, like the wolf she had accused him of being, it released something equally wild in him. His arm encircled her waist, pulling her even closer, while his hand skimmed over the rise of her breasts. It shocked him to feel the softness beneath his palm, for he had anticipated the hard lines of stays. Instead, it felt as if she was wearing no undergarments at all beneath her dress, to restrain her bosom.

A moan slipped from his lips as he tugged down the neckline of her dress and, hooking his finger under a strange, gauzy black fabric, he pulled aside her peculiar undergarment and freed her breast. His head dipped to draw a pert nipple into his mouth, sucking gently, satisfying his desire to taste her. And she was far sweeter than he ever could have imagined.

She clawed at his back, her neck arching as a soft cry shuddered out of her, spurring him on. His hands wandered wherever they pleased, caressing the curves of her, gripping the swell of her buttocks, resting upon her hips to urge them closer to his. Indeed, he was so carried away by the enchantment of her, that he forgot they were in a very public hallway, though hidden in something of a recess.

A moment later, she grabbed his face and pulled it back up; her lips descending on his, devouring him with a ferocious kiss that sent him into a frenzy. He had to have her. He had to know what she felt like, and what other mysterious wonders she could reveal to him, even if it was all just an enchantment. He had to know how beyond the ordinary she was.

Touched with the madness she sparked within him, he grasped for her skirts, gathering them up to the middle of her thighs. As he kissed her with a desperation that terrified him, he slid his hand further up the soft, smoothness of her thighs, reveling in the silky sensation. He had anticipated a barrier of drawers, but as he continued to caress her secret skin, he found nothing in his way… not until he reached something very peculiar indeed.

Thin fabric greeted his touch, so high up her thigh that he was practically at her hips, and a caress to the left would have brought his fingertips to the hidden source of her pleasure. Puzzled, he glanced down, discovering a manner of undergarment he had never seen before. They were black and lacy and utterly overwhelming, for they left nothing to the imagination.

“Is something wrong?” Eloise panted, as he slid his hand underneath the unusual fabric, his fingertips stealing a mischievous squeeze of her pert backside. Her skin intoxicated him, and not just because of that unbearably delicious scent that followed her around.

He shook his head. “There’s nothin’ wrong, but—”

He trailed off, thinking of everything she had told him. There were too many strange things about her, strange things that he could not explain, and though it was utterly impossible, he had to begin to consider the notion that she had been telling him the truth about where she hailed from. After all, undergarments like hers would never have passed the judgment of the likes of Father Hepburn, yet she did not seem to think there was anything the matter with such things at all.

Cradling his neck, she kissed him again, drawing him back under her spell. He kissed her back, reveling in the ease with which he could touch her, enjoying the slight roughness of her undergarments against his skin as he explored, bringing his fingertips back to the spot that would surely make her cry out in pleasure.

Before he could, however, he heard footsteps approaching. Still at a distance but nearing quickly.

It took every speck of willpower he possessed to pull away from Eloise, and remember to drop her skirts back down to cover her legs. Breathing hard, he glanced up the hallway, but whoever had been walking there must have taken a different turn, heading down another hallway. Still, the moment had been interrupted, and likely not a second too soon.

“Ye need to return to yer chamber,” he growled, bending his head to kiss her neck one more time. “Stay there until I send for ye, or Kaitlyn says ye can emerge. If ye daenae—”

“If I don’t, you’ll what? Come on, please say we’re not back to that again?” She narrowed her eyes at him as she adjusted her neckline, her breath just as ragged and passionate as his own.

He shook his head. “If ye daenae stay in yer chamber, I cannae trust meself to leave ye alone. Stay there for yer own sake, and for mine.” He pulled her out of the recess and gave her a light push down the hallway. “Go, or we’ll both regret it.”

For a moment, she did not move; she just stared at him, as if she was peeling away every layer of his clothing to get to the man beneath. Beneath her gaze, he had never felt so naked, though it was not the kind of naked he had pictured a short while ago. It was more like she was assessing him, judging him, trying to figure out what manner of man he was.

“I’ll leave, but I won’t be locked up again,” she told him, at last. “You keep that key out of my keyhole, and if you’re so afraid of what might happen, I suggest you stay far away from my wing of the castle.”

Ye could be on the other side of the country, and it wouldn’ae stop me mind from comin’ to ye, his thoughts whispered, his loins still ablaze.

“Ye willnae be locked in,” he promised, his voice thick.

With a slight dip of her head, she turned and walked away. He watched her the entire time, until she took a right-hand turn and disappeared from his view. Only then did he allow himself to breathe, though a dip in an ice cold loch would have been far better, to temper the heat of his desire. The temptation had not faded after satisfaction. If anything, he wanted her more, prompting him to dig his fingernails into his palms to stop himself from following her to her bedchamber, there and then.

Deciding that he would take an evening ride to clear his head and cool his skin, he headed for the stables, telling her silently, I’m nae the wolf ye think I am, but ye’ve surely set a beast loose.

And if he was to save himself, he needed to visit Clava Cairns, for only those ancient stones could hold the answers now.