“Then ye will be my wife?” He touched her cheek, then grazed the heel of his thumb across the curve of her bottom lip.
“Yes,” she said. “Most definitely.” She reached up and touched his face, giving herself over to everything she felt for him, knowing and finally understanding that with his mystical senses, he would feel everything she felt. “I know without a doubt that I love you with all my heart.”
His eyes flared open wider, then blazed with the same insatiable yearning she knew must be burning in hers. He pulled her into his arms.“My precious love.” His hoarse whisper fanned her need for him as he hungrily nuzzled the curve of her neck while sliding his hands across her, stroking and caressing as he trailed kisses along her collarbone.
She guided his head lower and arched her back, closing her eyes as he tickled a path to her nipple with his tongue. “I ache for you,” she said aloud. Or maybe she didn’t. At this point, she didn’t care. All she did wasfeel.
He teased and deliciously tortured her with the tip of his tongue, cupping her breasts and worshipping each of them in turn. With her fingers knotted in his hair, she pulled him harder against her. A shuddering cry worked its way free of her as he sucked her hardened nipple deep into his mouth.
As he slid his hands lower and rucked up her skirts, she clung to him, wrapping a leg around him, and thanking fifteenth-century Scotland for its lack of panties that would only get in the way. He lowered her back onto the plaid while sliding a hand up her inner thigh. It tickled, but, then again, it didn’t. She pressedinto his touch, needing relief, needing him to take her where she so badly needed to go.
After one last hard suckling of her nipple, so hard that it made her shriek, he lifted his mouth from her breast and crushed it to hers as he sank a finger deep inside her. He swallowed her groans and used the heel of his thumb to tease her throbbing nub while sinking another finger in to join the first. She was about to explode. Or die. Or both. She ground herself into his touch while he worked her into a mind-numbing frenzy teetering on the edge of bliss.
Without warning, he spread his fingers and tore through her maidenhead. She flinched at the unexpected sting interrupting the delicious burn of pleasure.
“Forgive me, love,” he told her with a tender, apologetic kiss. “It will be easier now when I take ye.”
The fire was still there. The need. An insatiable ache begging to be quenched. She raked her nails down his back and arched into him. “Take me now. I’ve waited a lifetime for this.”
“Aye, love.” Baring his teeth, he forced himself inside her slowly, stopping partway.
“Are you in pain?” She stared up at him. “Can we not go faster?”
“I am in more pain than ye could ever know, my precious one.” He wet his lips and shoved in farther, then paused and stared down at her.
The muscles of his shoulders knotted beneath her hands and he trembled, making her realize he was struggling to go slowly for her.
“Take me, Ronan—I’m ready. I promise.” She bucked upward and tried to pull him down.
“I can hold no longer,” he groaned and shoved fully into her.
“Damn!” She tensed, trying to relax around the fullness stretching her where no man had been before.
He drew a ragged breath and looked down at her. “Are ye all right, love? Do ye wish me to stop and leave yer body?”
“Leave my body?” She rocked her hips and arched her back, stretching upward to rub her breasts against his chest. “Are youinsane? This is…” She ran her hand down his back and ground her hips upward again. “Carry on—please.”
With a growl that excited her and drove her even closer to the climax dangling just out of reach, Ronan pumped into her, faster and harder until he pounded her straight into the heart of ecstasy and followed her to his own release. They matched perfectly, fit perfectly. Their bodies came together as one and completed the puzzle. His roars and her cries frightened the birds out of the trees.
Still shuddering and breathing hard, he pressed his forehead to hers. “I love ye, my golden-eyed lass from the future. Ye have made me complete.” He rolled and tucked her close to his side, gusting out a heavy sigh as he did so.
Pressed tight against him, she snuggled her face into the crook of his neck and breathed him in. Satisfied male mixed with satisfied female. Did anything smell any better? She smoothed her hand across his chest, unable to remember when she had ever felt so lusciously exhausted. But then a disturbing thought fought its way through her blissful haze.
“Oh no.”
He lifted his head and peered down at her. “What is it, love? Did I hurt ye? Are ye unwell?”
“I forgot the sea sponge.” She closed her eyes and groaned. How could she forget the sea sponge?
His brows drew together as he ran his hand possessively up and down her back. “Forgive me, love, but I forgot what ye wanted the sea sponge for.”
She frowned up at him. “One little sea sponge, oiled with tansy and strategically placed, helps prevent pregnancy.”
His eyes widened, and then he gave her a sheepish grin. “And it appears I failed to keep my promise and find the control to leave yer lovely body when the time came to spill my seed.”
“Well.” She tipped a shrug. “I’m not so sure I would’ve let you leave even if you had tried.”
He suddenly went solemn and caressed her cheek with such tenderness that it threatened to make her weep. “Ilove ye, Harley, and the possibility of yer giving me a bairn only adds more joy to my soul.”
