Her sad smile worried him even more, but then she barely shook her head and touched his cheek.“No.I do not regret it.But it is a change.A ginormous change.And I have never handled change well.”
He wasn’t familiar with the wordginormous, but he caught the gist of all it encompassed.“I dinna wish ye to change yer mind or regret choosing me over everything ye have ever known.”He wiped at a smudge of soot high on her cheek and made it worse with grime from his thumb.“Know that I am aware of yer sacrifice, m’love.Know that I am not only honored but touched beyond words and will spend the rest of my days showing ye.”
“I know it,” she barely whispered, then patted him on the chest.“Now let me go so I can shed the rest of these smelly layers.”
He leaned closer and nibbled at the salty sweetness of her throat.“I could always kiss ye out of them.”
A humming purr escaped her as she unbuckled his belt and let it drop.His kilt followed.“As long as we don’t get too carried away before we wash.We can’t get in bed like this.”
“More room on the floor, anyway,” he said as he slipped a hand down the front of her chemise and palmed the bountiful fullness of her breast.
“I smell like a smoked ham.”She ripped away what was left of his tattered shirt and tossed it aside.
“I love smoked ham.”He took hold of her chemise by the neckline, rent it in two, and threw it down.
“Grant!”
“Ye tore mine off—lore a’mighty, lass.”The lusciousness of her curves robbed him of the ability to speak.All he could think of, all he could fathom, was sinking into her and never leaving again.Her skin shone like cream, freckled as if the gods had dusted her with sweet spices to lead his gaze from her face to her dusky pink nipples and lower still to the delicate vee of reddish curls at the juncture of her thighs.He wet his lips, starving for the taste of her, but when he reached to pull her close, she shook a finger and backed away.
“We should wash first.You don’t want to get soot and mud all over your nice rug, the bed, or any of your cushions, do you?We’re filthy.”
“I’m filthy with need, woman.I dinna give a rat’s arse about the furnishings.”
And the way she kept trying to cover herself with her hands and arms as she backed away from him inflamed him even more.
“I can bear this no longer.”He closed in on her, backed her to the wall, then lifted her and pinned her against it.With her wrists in one hand above her head, he cupped her fine round arse in the other and set to the task of sampling her wondrous breasts.With the tip of his tongue, he teased a trail around her nipple before suckling it deep and hard.Easily keeping her pinned between him and the wall and keeping her wrists held firmly above her head, he adjusted his cupping of her delectable arse so his fingertips grazed back and forth across the sweet wetness awaiting him between her thighs.
He knew he should take his time and meant to do so—truly, he did.But a greediness took him over.Silently, he swore he would worship her body all the rest of his days as he shifted his hold to her legs and buried himself inside her with a shuddering groan.
“Yes,” she hissed through clenched teeth, digging her nails into his shoulders.
“Forgive me, love, but I had to have ye.”He drew out, then rammed in again, her wet heat daring him to pound into her until they both were senseless.Another shudder rippled through him as he struggled for control.Heaven help him.He didn’t want to spill himself like a lad with his first woman.His precious Jessa would find her pleasure first, or he would die in the trying.
“Give it to me,” she ordered, tightening her legs around him.“We’ll take our time next time.I’m on the edge.Just push me over it before I die.”
Grant had heard the stories about the intensity of the claiming.He’d laughed and dismissed it as a myth or exaggeration on the part of the Defenders, hoping to find their fated mates.This was no feckin’ myth or an exaggeration.This was an all-consuming hunger, an insatiable need to hear her delighted cries in harmony with his roars as they reached inexplicable bliss.He pounded harder, rocking into her with the primeval urgency of an ancient being marking his mate as his own.
She screamed and arched against him, her ecstasy clenching around him, pulling him in deeper to join her.
He gladly joined, unleashing a tremendous growl as he buried himself and held fast, exploding with a power that shook through him with even more strength than the tremor of the earth during the earlier attack.
Still pinned between him and the wall, Jessa let her head fall back while gasping to catch her breath.“I have never…”
He kissed the curve of her shoulder and nibbled his way up the side of her neck.“Have never what, m’love?”
Combing her fingers into his hair and guiding his kisses along her neck, she hummed a purring sigh.“No word comes to mind to describe what I just felt.”
“Good.”
She giggled, making the ripple of her hot wetness encourage his cock to harden again as soon as possible.“Now we smell like microwaved smoked ham.”
“What ismicrowaved?”
“Reheated.”
He rocked into her, flexing as he quickly recovered and was ready to go again.“I like that word.Reheated.”
“Me too,” she said, then pulled him in for a slow, deep kiss.When she gently freed him of it, she delighted him with a loving smile.“This is—perfect.”
