Sparks of ecstasy shot through her as he pulled her nipples deep into his warm, wet mouth. She arched her and locked her legs around him, pulling his hardened body against her. A moan shuddered from the depths of her pleasure. A delicious ache peaked and exploded as she knotted fingers in his hair andclenched him to her breasts. It wasn’t fair. He shouldn’t be able to make her come so fast when he wasn’t even inside her.
Inside her.Her mind whirled faster than the tingling orgasm rippling through her flesh. Was she really going to have unprotected sex with a man she hardly knew? Her body thrummed, pulsing with the luscious echo of the fading orgasm while at the same time heating up for the next round. Her sex-starved libido roared in protest.He is perfectly healthy!Her pent-up inner beast shoved her logical conscience against the brittle bars of her celibacy and tightened a chokehold around its throat.You’ve been on the pill nearly half your life and hell’s bells, when was the last time we felt this damn good?
Emma shifted her hips, sucking in a hitching breath as her thighs clenched around the hard, muscular heat of Torin’s flexing torso. A seductive thrust of his hips pushed her over the edge. To hell with it. She would get some condoms tomorrow.
Torin met her gaze with a knowing smile, then lowered his head and resumed licking slow teasing circles down the planes of her stomach. He yanked apart her jeans and pulled them down her hips, oblivious to the zipper holding them together. He ran his tongue along the sensitive skin of her inner thigh as he slid her pants the rest of the way off and tossed them to the floor.
“You are kind of rough on clothes, aren’t you?” Emma gasped as he stepped between her bare, quivering thighs.
“Do ye mind?” Torin asked, tracing a teasing finger along the creamy white skin just above the curly nest of reddish hair hiding the treasure he sought.
She swallowed hard, barely able to answer as he slowly lowered his head. “Not a bit,” she choked out as he claimed her body with his mouth and dipped into her with an exploring tongue. Arching back, she laced both hands tighter in his hair, silently urging him to dive deeper, suckle her flesh harder. As he slid a finger into her depths, she shrieked when her bodyshattered into a series of blissful, mind-numbing spasms. Were those stars in the darkness behind her eyelids? Her pounding heartbeat roared like the drumming waves of the ocean in her ears. Emma stiffened. An unreasonable fear surged through her. She hated the sound of that damn water.
“Forget,” he whispered as he covered her body and pressed his forehead against hers. “I willna ever let the water take ye, little Emma. I swear I will always keep ye safe.”
She shuddered beneath his touch. Eyes still shut; she searched for the rasp of his deep voice beyond the sound of roaring water rushing through her mind. She raked her nails down his back and pulled him deeper into her. She needed him to make her forget. She just needed to feel.
“Forget,” he repeated as he shoved into her depths. With purposeful care, he settled deep inside her, easing the length of his swollen shaft into her eager embrace as though she were an inexperienced virgin.
“Make me forget,” she rasped, arching her into him. “Please.” She pulled him harder against her body. She wanted him to pound the memories from her, needed him to hammer the fear out of her soul.
Reading her need, Torin slid out, then drove back in, clutching her legs tensed against his chest. With a victorious groan, he increased the momentum and hammered into the task. Emma welcomed the glorious oblivion promised in every slamming thrust.
She clutched his body, crying out his name as she exploded. Shuddering beneath him, her flesh thrummed with satisfaction as Torin roared his release in an ancient tongue. Pressing her face against his shoulder, Emma smiled as she closed her eyes. She had no any idea what he had just said, but she bet it meant something good.
Chapter
Twenty
The muffled growl of her empty stomach rumbled up between them. “Sorry,” Emma giggled. “But I am absolutely starving.” Painfully starving. She hadn’t had anything but coffee the entire day. As if to punctuate the truth of this statement, her stomach gurgled another even louder protest as she struggled to rise from the bed.
Torin pulled her back against him. “So, ye are saying I am not enough to sate ye?”
“Believe me. There are parts of my body that are so sated, they think they have died and gone to heaven.” Emma turned and kissed the end of his nose before slipping out from under his arm. She avoided the emotions simmering in his gaze. A sudden shyness butterflied through her body. “Really…I’m hungry. Don’t you want something to eat too?”
Torin shrugged as he rolled to his side. “Since theCailleachawakened me from my sleep, food hasna seemed verra important.” Stretching across the bed, he nabbed the belt loop of the jeans she’d just slid up her hips and pulled her back down beside him. He brushed the back of his fingers along the curve of her cheek. A sad but thoughtful look stole across his face.“At long last, I think I may have finally found everything I ever needed right here.”
How could he say that? A chaotic storm of emotions filled her as she felt herself drowning in the depths of his watchful gaze. She hadn’t anticipated a confession of heartfelt sentiment after just one mind-boggling, body-melding encounter. They knew very little about each other and what she did know about Torin scared the living hell out of her. Pressing a silencing finger across his lips, she stammered a whispered plea, “P-please, Torin. Please slow down. We’re just getting started.”
He closed his eyes and brushed a light kiss across the tips of her fingers. “It is all right, Emma. I’ll do my best to never ask more than ye are prepared to give.”
In a quiet voice that sounded much calmer than she felt, she kissed the tip of his nose again and mumbled a heartfelt, “Thank you.” Gently pulling away, she scooted off the edge of the bed. She couldn’t face the emotions churning in the depths of his steel gray gaze. Even the cloudiness tainting his injured eye seemed somehow less severe, giving her a startling glimpse into the man Torin was. His quiet determination sparked with fiery glints of emotion. Come to think of it, Torin reminded her of the dark obelisks where she had found him—steadfast, strong, and mysterious.
She cleared her throat as she fidgeted with smoothing a shirt across her still rumbling belly. “I’m going to heat up some of Moira’s leftover stew and maybe microwave some hot dogs. Will that be okay?”
Torin froze in mid-stretch. His lips curled back with a sneer of disgust. “Dogs? Are circumstances so harsh in this time that ye’ve taken to eating dogs?”
Emma bit her lip and held her breath. She didn’t dare allow herself the pleasure of releasing the nervous giggles threatening to bubble to the surface. It was kind of funny that she hadthe capability to shock him just as much as he shocked her. “I promise, Torin, the meat doesn’t come from dogs. It’s bits of beef and pork rolled into a tube. Sometimes, they are even filled with turkey or chicken. I’m not sure why they’re calledhot dogs. It’s what they’ve always been called.”
His pained expression relaxed into one of dubious agreement as he slid from the bed. “Hmpf. I’m still none too certain about this form of meat. But I’ll build up the fire inside yer stove so ye can cook these hot dogs and the stew.”
Emma scrubbed a hand across her face and clamped her mouth shut against another fit of giggles. Poor Torin. The man certainly had some catching up to do. “I really appreciate your wanting to help; but the stove is gas. All I have to do is turn a knob and I’ll have a fire. I can heat the food with it or with the microwave.” She struggled to keep her mind on the food. Torin’s long, muscular flank reminded her of the delightful use they had found for the kitchen counter. A use that proved much more enjoyable than food preparation. “Why don’t you get dressed while I go…uhm…get the kitchen sorted out.” That is, if she could walk and her thighs would stop quivering as if they consisted of heated jelly.
Torin fixed her with a wicked grin, rolling his shoulders as he flexed his perfectly sculpted buttocks. “I can help ye in that kitchen, lass.”
“No! You stay here and get dressed. Or if you want to take a shower, the bathroom is over there.” Emma nodded toward a small room adjoining the bedroom as she backed toward the door. The heat in her body was nearing the point of spontaneous combustion. She had to get away from the temptation moving toward her. “Don’t you dare come into the kitchen like that or we’ll never get anything to eat.”
Scooting out the door, she pulled it closed behind her. She couldn’t resist smiling at the deep rumbling burst of amusementechoing from the other side. Torin’s laugh warmed through her like a sip of robust brandy. With a sharp intake of breath, she shook herself free of the mesmerizing sound. It was just one night between two desperate souls. He’d move on soon and so would she.
