“What my brothers mean,” Callum spoke up, “is welcome to our family, Elene.”
Liam the Older unbound the couple’s hands and embraced them both. The newlyweds accepted embraces and well wishes from the adults, smirks from the older cousins, and quick hugs from the youngest members of the family. Liam swept Elene into his arms and marched to the door, where his brother Hamish stood waiting to open it. Before they crossed the threshold, Liam paused. He twisted to look back at his family.
“Mama, Da, please look after Katryne and Johan. As family tradition dictates, don’t disturb us for a sennight. Food and baths are all I’ll open the door to.” Liam pressed a smacking kiss to Elene’s cheek before she buried her face against his chest, but he felt her laughter. She didn’t disagree, and he knew she was as eager to be alone as he was. He took the stairs two at a time as he headed to the chamber he’d used since he was a child and during his fosterage. They fell into each other’s arms once Liam locked the door, and Elene stood before him. They were finally married and finally alone.
CHAPTER15
Liam skimmed his hands up Elene’s arms, then grazed one hand over her chest as the other tugged at her laces. The swells of her breasts rose and fell with each shallow breath, tempting then withdrawing. He pressed scorching kisses from her collarbone up the right side of her throat until he nipped at her jaw. With a moan, she turned her head to meet his kisses. She’d never appreciated being tall until she met Liam. Wrapping her arms around his neck with ease, she held onto him as he pulled the laces from her gown’s first few eyelets. When he released her with a frustrated growl, she watched him draw a dirk from his belt. She froze as she felt the blade saw through the ribbons. She felt warm air across her back as Liam exposed her skin. She lowered her arms to let him pull the sleeves down her shoulders. Her husband’s impatience made her feel more alluring than she ever had before.
Liam’s kisses followed the gown, feathering over her breasts, stopping to suckle each nipple through her linen chemise until Elene moaned, then down her belly before he let the gown fall to the floor. He pushed her chemise up to her waist, and she didn’t hesitate to whip it over her head. Kneeling before his bride, he nudged her legs apart as he rolled down her stockings, kissing her inner thighs as each inch of bare skin tempted him. Once he’d steadied her, and her shoes and stockings were in the heap beside her gown and chemise, he turned his singular focus to the thatch of blonde curls at the apex of her thighs.
He kept his hold on her waist light as his tongue flicked out and caught the tip of her bud. Pleasure rippled through her, making her sway. Liam tightened his grip as she rested her hands on his shoulders. He looked up from the feast he intended to enjoy and found Elene watching him. Curiosity and desire filled her gaze. He drew the flat of his tongue along her seam, dipping the tip into her entrance just before he reached her bud once more. A gasp sent heat straight to Liam’s throbbing manhood.
Take yer time. Ye have all night. Dinna end this before ye’ve begun. If ye dinna slow down, ye’ll be spilling yer seed on the rushes rather than in yer wife. Wife? By God, that sounds good. All I want is to taste her. Drive maself into her. Feel her wanting me as much as I want her. I’ve never felt aught like this. Now I ken what Da meant when he said it’s different with a woman ye love, and that it’s worth waiting for. I’m glad I ken enough to make her moan. God, those sounds. Mayhap I can fist maself and ease this bluidy ache.
“Liam,” Elene whispered.
“Mmm,” Liam responded as his teeth grazed the sensitive bundle of nerves.
“I want to do that.” At the tentative tone, Liam looked up once more and found Elene watching him as he stroked himself. She jutted her chin toward him, heat suffusing her cheeks. He realized she’d been as brave as she could be for now. She hadn’t hesitated to tell him what she wanted in the past, but he understood much had passed between them that night and with his family. He rose to his feet, then kissed the skin behind her ear.
“Do you wish to touch me, my bonnie bride?” Liam murmured beside her ear.
“Very much,” Elene responded, her voice just as soft. He removed the brooch from his shoulder as Elene unbuckled his belt. He caught the heavy leather band, placing it on the floor as he pulled his plaid loose. Elene watched every movement, eagerness and shyness warring within. She took the yards of wool from him and turned to set it on the end of the bed. When she turned back, Liam was bare.
She reached forward, her fingers brushing the velvet heat that protruded from between Liam’s muscular thighs. She wrapped her hand around it, sighing as she stroked him. The feel of his wife’s hand around him drove Liam to a frenzy. So much for trying to calm his need. His fingers bit into her backside with each glide of her hand. Their kisses devoured one another, rough and without finesse. Liam spun them and backed Elene to the wall beside the door.
When her back met the bricks, Elene widened her stance before Liam drew her right leg over his hip. She brought the tip of his cock to the moisture dripping along her inner thighs. She coated it as she brushed it along her entrance. Their hips rocked together, and Elene felt her arousal become a burning ache as her nub rubbed against Liam’s pubic bone. She raised up on her tiptoes of her left foot, tilting her hips forward, the invitation clear.
“I’m not making love to you for the first time with you pressed against a door,mo chridhe. Maybe the second, third, and fourth time. But I wish for us to be in bed.”
“What does that mean?” Elene panted, still rocking her hips.
“My heart. You’re everything to me, Elene. I don’t want to make love trying to balance. I want to touch every part I can reach. I want to feel you holding me because you desire me, not because you need help to stay on your foot.”
“Take me to our bed, husband. But I insist you ravish me as much as you make love to me.” Elene’s seductive grin reassured Liam that she was moving past her earlier bout of nerves. He swept her into his arms and carried her to the bed in which he’d slept since he’d left the cradle in his parents’ room. He’d never brought a woman to his chamber at Dunbeath or at home at Varrich. He knew his father regretted doing so before Tristan met Mairghread. He also knew the Sinclair men always saved their bed for only their wives. He was glad he’d done the same.
“It is our bed,” Liam whispered. “Before today, it has only ever been mine. Now it is ours. It will only ever be ours. The very same as it is at Varrich.”
Elene’s eyes widened as she realized what Liam implied. She looked at the pillow beside her head and stretched her hand out to run it over the sheets. She turned her gaze back to Liam’s, and she thought her heart might burst from the love she felt and the devotion she found in his steadfast expression. She knew there would be trials and struggles in their future. But she also knew she would never—not for a minute—have to worry about Liam’s faithfulness.
“I love you,me jarta,” Elene whispered as she pulled him toward her, calling him “my heart” in Norn just like the night they agreed to wed. Their kiss began as a tender melding of their lips, but in a flash, it was back to the tempest it had been as they stood against the wall.
Liam brushed his fingers along her slick entrance, groaning as he felt the proof of her desire. Once more, Elene wrapped her hand around Liam’s manhood. They toyed with one another until they both became restless with need.
“I know there will be pain, and I wish I were the one to bear it,” Liam said as he stroked hair from Elene’s cheek.
“I don’t want to rush us, but let’s be done with that part. I know it’ll get better. I’ve wanted to know what it feels like to couple with you since the first night at the loch. I was so tempted…”
“You and me both. I thought to swim just a wee closer, just try for a little peek. Then when I saw you leave the water…I feared you’d discover I fisted myself while you dressed.”
Elene grinned, making Liam’s eyebrows rise. “I eased my desire, too.”
“You did?” Liam’s grin matched Elene’s.
“Far too often since I met you. Mmm, not often enough.” Elene shifted beneath Liam. He’d been kneading her breast while they talked, and now he once more suckled. She’d never imagined an invisible cord connected behind her breast down to the throbbing center of her core, but each draw on her swollen flesh registered a wave of desire between her thighs. She begged, “Please.”
Liam nudged the tip of his rod into her channel, waiting for Elene to grow accustomed to the feel. When she gripped his buttocks and pressed him toward her, he thrust into her, tearing her maidenhead, and consummating their marriage. He watched her, praying he wasn’t hurting her as he entered her tight sheath. He was proportionate everywhere, his thick manroot matching his broad and thick frame. While he thought being inside his bride was divine, that no woman had ever fit so well, he feared she thought he was tearing her asunder.
