Maude sensed someone followed her, but she couldn’t hear the sound of any footsteps. She increased her pace, but she failed to shake the intuition that someone was approaching. She prepared to run when she heard her name.
“Lady Maude,” a man’s voice called. “I bear a missive from the MacLeod.”
Maude spun around and recognized the messenger. She placed her hand over her chest, her heart racing. She ran her clammy hands over her gown as the man approached.
“You startled me, John. I didn’t realize it was you.”
“I didna want to call out and draw attention to ye. Ma laird instructed me to tell ye he sends good news.” John handed the parchment over before bowing and leaving her alone with her letter.
Maude rushed to her chamber, uncaring that she was supposed to make her way to the gardens for the ladies’ morning walk. She pried the seal off and unfolded the letter. She sat on her bed as she read the distinct handwriting she would now recognize anywhere. She covered her mouth to keep from crying out when she read Kieran was on his way. Receiving the missive meant he would already be halfway to Stirling if all went to plan. She had only two more days to wait. Happy tears trailed down her cheeks as she lay back on her bed with the missive resting over her heart. She wished she might fall asleep and wake up two days later since it would be even harder to pass the next couple of days, remembering he was so close but not yet there.
* * *
Kieran dried his face and put on a fresh leine but kept his breacan feile on rather than take the extra few minutes to don breeks. The sun was already setting, and he didn’t like picturing Maude wandering the courtyard and storage buildings alone in the dark. He made his way toward the spense and rounded the last corner as a small figure walked toward him. He recognized Maude immediately, and it seemed she recognized him too because she ran toward him. His longer stride brought him to her as she launched herself into his arms. He clasped his arms around her waist and twirled her around.
“You’re back!” Maude burbled. She couldn’t think of anything else to say, so she grasped his face and kissed him. She poured all her excitement and frustration into that kiss. Kieran groaned and hoisted her higher, encouraging her to wrap her legs around his waist. He pushed the door open to the nearest storeroom before kicking it shut. Maude’s back bumped into the wooden portal as his tongue dove into the silky recesses of her mouth. Their hands were everywhere as they explored one another. As Kieran’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, he scanned the room and found a table off to the side. He carried Maude to it and eased her to lie back, his body covering hers as his lips trailed fire and ice over her neck and chest.
“I’ve waited months to taste you, Maude, and I won’t wait any longer.” Kieran’s fingers danced a path from the inside of her ankles to her knees. His hands stopped on her thighs in the same place as the last time they were alone like this; now, he bent and placed kisses there. He pushed her long skirts higher as his mouth nipped and licked until it met the juncture of her leg and hip. He trailed his tongue along the joint’s crease before repeating the same rapturous exploration on the other side. His thumbs inched closer to her sheath, drifting with a slow glide to give Maude time to adjust to the new sensations. Her fingers fisted the shoulders of his leine as his mouth returned to her chest. “I anticipate you shall taste like rich honey that I shall want to lick over and over. I’ve fantasized aboot bringing you to release with my tongue, and I shall live out that fantasy now.”
Kieran’s thumbs pulled her nether lips apart before the flat breadth of his tongue swept from bottom to top, his lips furling around her nub. He flicked it twice before drawing hard on the cluster of nerves that made her hips lift from the table. He pressed her back down as his tongue made another pass, this time the tip delved into her sheath. She writhed and moaned as one new sensation after another ricocheted from her core outward.
“Kier?”
“Yes, mo ghaol. I’ll make it better. Wheest and let me feast upon you, so I can bring you the relief you seek.”
Kieran continued to tease the heated flesh until Maude’s moans turned to whimpers. He realized he was pushing her to her untried limits. He ran his finger along her seam, following then leading his tongue. He slipped a finger into her and groaned at how smooth and tight she felt. His cock strained to reach her, insisting that it should be within her rather than his finger. He wished to toss his plaid over his shoulder and ease the ache in his bollocks, but he admitted he would be inside Maude before either of them considered the consequences. Instead, he worked her with his tongue and fingers while stroking himself. He was careful not to pierce her maidenhead when he thrust a second finger into her, but when she guided a third finger to her sheath, his essence shot from him, pooling on the floor between his feet. His groan of satisfaction rumbled through Maude’s core and set off her own reaction. Her inner muscles clamped around Kieran’s fingers as he continued to work the sensitive flesh. Maude cried out her pleasure as the last jets of seed spurted from his cock.
Maude held Kieran’s body against hers as she trembled from the aftershock of her release. Each time Kieran brought her to climax, the sensations were more breathtaking and addicting. Her knees shook until she capitulated and allowed them to cave in, bracketing his hips and pressing him against her. She ran lazy circles over his back as her heart slowed enough to draw a deep breath. Kieran stroked her hair and whispered soothing words as her mind drifted back to earth. As her thoughts became ordered once more, she paused and turned her head to look at Kieran, which was difficult with his head tucked against the crook of her neck.
“What aboot you?” she murmured.
Kieran pulled back enough for them to look at one another. “What aboot me?”
“I got to--- but you--- it doesn’t seem fair,” Maude finished flatly, unsure how to verbalize her thoughts.
“Oh, I did, buttercup.” Kieran’s grin was all male pride and made her core clench for his attention all over again.
“But I didn’t touch you.” Maude’s brow furrowed in confusion.
Kieran eased back and kissed the creases on her forehead before moving to her temple, and finally the corner of her mouth. His large hand wrapped around her neck, his thumb caressing her jaw.
“If you had, Maude, we’d be standing before a priest this very moment. I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from making you mine. I won’t take that choice from you. I---I---” Kieran experienced a sudden wave of shyness, unsure how to admit he’d taken the matter into his own hand. He didn’t want Maude ever to experience embarrassment about what they shared, so he swallowed and explained. “I palmed myself. If you touched me, or I moved my plaid aside, I didn’t trust myself not to take your maidenhead. I want to feel your hands on me, to thrust inside you, to feel you climax around me, but I don’t have the right. My release would have come anyway, so I eased the tightness in my bollocks by stroking my cock.”
In the dim light, Kieran saw Maude’s face hardened in the mask of someone who looked like he had robbed them. He realized she was angry that he’d stolen her opportunity to offer him what he was far too eager to offer her. Her jaw set and lips thinned before her eyes drifted closed. She continued to play with the hair at his collar, but when her body went lax, he recognized it wasn’t the last of the tension leaching from her; it was in frustrated resignation.
“Buttercup?”
“Hmmm? It’s naught.”
“It is something. Do you regret me touching you?” Kieran feared his heart would shatter if she answered in the affirmative.
“Of course not. I’m sure I would have combusted if you hadn’t.” Maude tilted her head further back and looked into the darkness, her gaze toward the ceiling. “I haven’t been able to touch you any of the three times. And I’d hope this time—I wanted to be the one—I wanted to be the reason for your climax like you’re the reason for mine.” She choked out her thoughts and stiffened when Kieran chuckled.
“Mo leannan, you have been the reason for my climax every day, at least once if not twice a day, since the night I met you.”
Maude pushed at Kieran’s chest and tried to scramble out from beneath him. He didn’t understand her reaction until he realized that, in her innocence, she had no knowledge of how men and women eased their own lust. He clasped a wrist in each of his hands and drew her arms over her head. Her squirming body arched under his and froze as a new awareness coursed through her. Her breasts strained against his chest, her nipples painful darts beneath the heavy fabric of her kirtle. Kieran shifted both of her hands into one of his before gripping her hip and pulling her down the table. His rod jerked against her entrance as he pressed her against the table. His thumb found her pearl and circled.
“Do you feel that? Feel how my hand makes you come alive?” He continued to draw slow circles as he pressed. Her writhing told him he’d found the correct rhythm. He paused to draw one of her hands down to the juncture of her thighs before guiding it between her legs. He showed her how to work the bundle of nerves as she strained toward him. “You can ease your own ache, mo leannan. You don’t need me.”
