Highlanders Collection. Ann Lethbridge
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blood pumping harder through his veins. ‘One true kiss and I will leave with that memory in my heart forever.’
Surely he had enough honour and strength to suffer through a kiss, only one kiss before he would send her away?
He nodded.
With his hands placed firmly at his sides, he would not touch her. If he did that, he was certain that he could control himself, but damn the lass, she had other plans. When he leaned his face down to touch her lips, she placed her fingers there and shook her head.
‘Nay. One kiss. I decide when.’
He was going to die and go to hell, of that he was now certain, but he had resisted her thus far and he would keep his control. He would … he must …
He might have had a chance if she had not reached for the belt holding his plaid in place. If she had not moved around him, stripping him of his weapons, his belt, the plaid and the shirt under it. He could have if she’d not brought over a bucket of steaming water and begun to wash him.
Oh, hell, he never stood a chance and she knew it from the unrepentant gleam in her eyes.
If she was startled to find him as he was, she did not mention it. Worse, her tongue slipped out and touched her lips as she washed him.
‘I have seen you before,’ she whispered as she stroked the warm, wet cloth over his back and lower. ‘At the stream in Dunalastair. You were naked there and I watched.’
Her words undid him and his resolve. He laughed at her admission.
‘You were wicked to do that.’ She laughed softly but did not stop her ministrations. ‘And even more wicked to do this.’
She finished his back and drifted around front again. The virgin that she was showed herself for a moment when she reached for him and then stopped. Tavis took her hand and the cloth and wrapped them around the length of him. The expression on her face and the way she opened her mouth, breathing through it quickly, just enhanced his response and his flesh surged in her grasp. He guided her lower and then tossed the cloth aside and splashed some water over his skin to rinse the soap away as she watched.
It was time to show her that one kiss would not be enough, never be enough, but she stopped him once more by moving away.
Her hands loosened the laces behind her with practised ease. She pulled the gown over her head, giving him a clear view of her naked body beneath the sheer chemise. The flames from the hearth revealed her exquisite curves and the dark triangle of hair hiding the place he longed most to touch … and stroke … and taste. Her nipples tightened—did she even notice?—as he watched her. And as she watched him.
Bold as he knew her to be and braver than he could ever hope to be, she walked to him now and offered herself to him. Oh, aye, he would pleasure her, but he would not cross the line to dishonour another man’s betrothed, idiot that the man was or not and idiot that he himself might be.
‘I will not take that which is not mine,’ he whispered. ‘But I will give you the pleasure you seek, the pleasure that can be between a man and a woman.’
‘The pleasure that can be between you and me, Tavis.’
Innocent and a seductress in every breath, she probably did not realise that pleasure did not mean he had to take her maidenhead. ‘That kiss, Ciara. ’tis time for your kiss.’
He thought her game was over, but she took off the chemise and placed her hands beneath her breasts, offering them to him. Arching her back to lift them higher, she whispered, ‘Kiss me here, Tavis.’
He stared, oh, aye, he did, for this was the vision from his dreams come to life. Her lithe body, her breasts that would fit perfectly in his hands as he kissed them—all of it was straight from his dreams.
He closed his eyes and prayed for the strength to keep his honourable pledge even as he leaned down to take the tip of one of her breasts in his mouth. She gasped and he knew she’d expected a polite kiss and not the hunger-filled taking he gave. When he felt her legs tremble, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to his bed.
He would show her the full measure of a kiss now. Kneeling next to her, he touched her with only his mouth. First he took the other nipple in his mouth and suckled it, rubbing and teasing the tip of it even harder. If he was, she would be, too. Her body arched beneath his mouth and she whispered his name over and over. Kissing and licking his way up her body, Tavis took her mouth next.
He smiled as she opened it for him, but he teased her lips, kissing them gently until she smiled. Then he possessed her there, his tongue tasting hers and then feeling the shards of pleasure shoot through him as she sucked his. Bold lass that she was, he felt her hands in his hair, pulling him closer, holding him, not letting him move away.
And that was fine with him, for he could kiss her for hours and not tire of it. He could tell from her restless, innocent movements that she did not know what pleasure still awaited her.
This had not been part of her plan at all. She’d thought, when she had been able to think, that he would hold her and kiss her. Once he declared that he would not take her virginity, she thought she understood. But nothing, not even the way her body reacted to seeing him naked the other time, prepared her for the tumultuous, rolling waves of pleasure pulsing through her body now. Or for the way she wanted, she craved something more.
His mouth was hot and his tongue rough against hers. Her body wept in that place between her legs and throbbed there with every caress of his tongue as some pulse within her matched his every touch.
He lifted his head in spite of her effort to hold him to her and laughed. ‘Worry not. I am not through kissing you yet.’
She lost her breath at that promise and allowed him leave to move as he would. Ciara could not have imagined the pleasure of the way his beard felt as he kissed back down her body, teasing and rubbing her now-sensitive flesh. She waited and hoped he would kiss her breasts again and when he did, she arched over and over under his mouth, gasping at the feel of such a thing.
His mouth tormented her, soothed her and then tortured her over and over as anticipation built. Towards something, however—she knew not what. When his mouth moved from her breasts and then downwards, downwards towards that aching place, she stopped breathing. He laughed, the beast! He knew what he was doing to her and enjoyed it.
She reached out for his head, grabbing his hair and threading her hands through it, just as he kissed her mound. Ciara thought she might have moaned aloud then, but lost herself completely when he urged her to open to him. Her body and legs understood, spreading as he moved to kneel there.
Then he stopped.
Opening the eyes she didn’t even realise she’d clenched shut, she could see him staring at her. Staring there, between her legs. She tried to bring her legs together, but his body, his hard thighs blocked her. She leaned up on her elbows and tried to cover herself with her hand, but the wicked, wicked grin on his face stopped her.
‘Another place to kiss, Ciara.’
She felt the heat rush into her cheeks then. ‘Surely not?’ she whispered. Lips and mouths were for kissing. That place was for …
‘Ah, aye, lass. ’tis a splendid place to show you the true pleasure of a kiss.’
He kissed the inside of her thighs, tickling them with his beard’s growth and then moved closer and closer to the heated flesh that throbbed already. He smiled at her as he placed his mouth … there.
Her mind retreated from the intensity of the pleasure from it. Her body gave in and she lost control. Lips. Tongue. Teeth. Driving her mad and pushing her body and her soul on to something more. Ciara fell back on the bed and simply felt it all.
Spiralling pleasure, rolling through her body and mixing with tendrils of need and heat and hunger for him and what he did to her. She opened wider to him, allowing him whatever he wanted. Her body arched, pressing against his mouth harder, forcing his tongue deeper into that place.