“I am right where I belong, m’love.With ye.Inside ye.Beside ye.”He kept his thrusts slow and steady while holding her gaze with his.“Always and forever.”
“Always and forever,” she repeated softly while closing her eyes.
He increased his pace, moving faster, harder.“Lore a’mighty—I may knock this wall down this time.”
She flexed her hands, then dug her fingers into his shoulders again.“Do it, now.I dare you.”
He hooked her legs over his arms and pounded, careening them both toward rapture once again.His muscles knotted with the fervor, burning with excitement and expectancy.He hammered harder, melding their bodies into one.
She cried out even louder than the first time, clutching two handfuls of what was left of his singed hair and pulling as she rocked with wave after wave of pleasure.
“Mine!”he bellowed with a last thrust that emptied him.With her legs still hooked over his arms, he locked his knees to keep from collapsing and rested his forehead against the wall above her shoulder.“Griselda is right,” he said between gasps to catch his breath.
“About what?”Jessa asked, her voice hoarse from her shouts of delight.
“Ye are a goddess.”
She hummed a lazy chuckle, vibrating with amusement.“We really do need to convince her otherwise.”
“A problem for another time.”He kissed her shoulder, pushed them both away from the wall, then carried her over to the long dresser and set her on it beside the basins.“But for now, I shall wash ye and worship ye for the goddess that ye are.”
She leaned back, barely propped herself upright, then cast a glance back over her shoulder.“Grant.”
“Aye?”He wet a cloth and rubbed a fresh bar of Mrs.Robeson’s best rose petal soap until the suds boiled over his hands.But when he went to lather his lady love, her scowl stopped him.“What is it?”
“This window is open.”
“Aye.Fresh air is good for a body.”
She narrowed her eyes at him.“There are quite a few people gathered down there.All smiles and staring up at the window.”
“Good.That means there must be little damage to the keep, and no one injured.”
“It also means they probably heard us.You were loud.”
He couldn’t resist a grin.“Ye were nay too quiet yerself, m’love.”
“You know what I mean.”
With a slow, seductive walking of his fingers down her leg, he lifted her foot and started washing her toes.“A clan is most happy when their laird is happy.Would ye deny them that pleasure?”He ran the sudsy cloth up her calf, massaging her fine, thick legs that weren’t the spindly sticks of a prim woman afraid to enjoy a stroll through the glen.Nay, Jessa was perfect, and she was his.
“I can’t carry on a logical argument when you’re doing that.”She shifted in place as he rinsed the cloth in the basin and wiped the suds from her silky leg.
“Good.I shall store that for future reference.And now for the other leg.”After washing her arms and legs, he changed out the water, dumping the old water into a bucket beside the dresser and filling the basin with fresh.He wet another cloth and ever so gently washed her face, moving in close and standing between her knees to pepper a trail of kisses along her jawline and throat as he washed her.“They say ye can tell when a fair woman has enjoyed her loving by the richness of her blush.”
“Then I should be fire engine red.”She rested her arms on his shoulders and cradled him, leaning forward and purring like a happy wee beastie as he embraced her and washed her back.
He would try to remember to ask what a fire engine was later.“And now I shall place ye on the bed and wash the best of ye that I saved for last.”
“But I haven’t washed you yet.You’re still all sooty.”
“I’ll not be getting on the bed with ye, m’love.I intend to worship my goddess fully and then tend to my own washing afterward.”He pulled her into his arms, thrilled when she wrapped her legs around his waist and locked her heels at the small of his back.Moving over to the bed, he gently lowered her onto it, placing her crossways of the large, overstuffed tick made up with fresh linens.After fetching the basin and a pitcher of water, he stood there at the side of the bed and stared.“Ye are a goddess, Jessa,” he said.“Not just because of yer loveliness but because of the way ye’ve touched my heart.”
She swiped a hand across her eyes as tears overflowed.“You’ve done the same for me,” she whispered, then reached for him.“I don’t care about the sheets.Come here.”
“Nay, my love.Not until I’ve worshiped ye as ye deserve.”Not that he didn’t long to lower himself into her embrace and never rise again—but he wished to do this for her, to worship her.
The brilliance of her red hair was splayed across the bedclothes, and her eyes were even greener with her tears.Her fair skin was flushed with a mouth-watering rosiness that renewed his hunger.With a cloth in each hand, he washed her breasts until they gleamed with a tempting slipperiness.After wiping them clean of suds, he tasted her nipples, laving them with his tongue and treating them to sucking pulls until she squirmed and arched beneath him.
