Reaching for the plaid, he hooked his fingers into its warmth and stared down at her, his blood alive and his heart thundering. His entire body burned and he craved every sweet inch of her, ached to run his hands all over her naked skin, kissing and licking her everywhere.
“Well?” She wet her lips again.
“Ach, lass,” he almost snarled, “I’m more of a mind to show than tell you.”
With one swift flick of his wrists, he jerked the tartan off her and tossed it aside. “Do you know what it’s done to me, watching you prance about the room, naked in my colors?”
“So it’s my own good self in your plaid that brought you around?” She twirled in a deliciously bare circle, her eyes lighting with delight. “And here I thought it would be my golden hip-belt and siren bauble that would sway you.”
“You swayed me! And if you think otherwise, then you know naught of a Highlander’s passion!” He grabbed her by the shoulders, yanking her close for a hot, demanding kiss.
“I burn for you,” he vowed, speaking the words against her cheek. “I have done since that first day I saw you — in mist on a slender sickle of shingled strand!”
“Ronan . . .” She spoke his name like a benediction, her soul breaking on his need for her.
She was falling into him, spiraling ever deeper into her love for him, losing herself while gaining so much. Her heart trembled and sweet belonging rippled through her, sealing their bond.
“Lass.” The endearment made her shiver.
He thrust his hands into her hair and kissed her again, deeper this time, all the desire in him plundering and devouring her lips. She cried out and opened her mouth beneath his, her tongue tangling wildly with his. Leaning into him, she melted with her sighs, let him drink his fill of her breath and intoxicate himself on the taste of her.
“You have no need of adornments,” he panted, breaking away to drop to his knees before her on the discarded plaid. “Leave such gee-gaws for a man unable to appreciate a woman’s sleek, hot flesh and all her lively allures. It is you, lass, and you alone, who stirs me.”
He slid his hands around her hips, digging his fingers into her curves and drawing her close. “Your siren bauble is fine,” he assured her, rubbing his face against the softness of her belly, “but it is this I couldn’t resist!” He looked up at her, his gaze smoldering as he pressed his lips to her naked skin then dragged his mouth lower, raining kisses across her fragrant female curls.
“Sweet lass — forgive me, but I canna resist you.” He tightened his grip on her, grinding his face against her heat. “I tried, I swear, but —”
“ No-o-o!” Gelis twined her fingers in his hair, pressing him to her. “ ’Tis right and good, I say you! Everything between us.”
“Then dinna deny me . . .” He ran his hands up and down her legs, kissed and nipped the inside of her thighs, circling ever higher until his tongue teased round her most sensitive spot, that one heated swirl splitting her.
“Ach, gods!” she cried, her back arching when he continued to flick his tongue there. “What are you doing?”
“Naught that I willna be enjoying the whole night through!” He licked her then, a long-broad-tongued sweep the full tingling length of her.
Looking up at her, he held her gaze, his own smoldering. “All that I’d heard of you did you no justice,” he breathed, the words warm silk against her flesh. “I dinna think I’ll e’er be able to sate myself on you.”
“Then . . .” Gelis couldn’t speak. Just seeing his face poised so close to her feminine ache sent threads of delicious golden warmth spinning through her.
Desire thrummed the air and he leaned closer again, his mouth less than a whisper away, but she could feel his tongue on her even without touching, the sensation making her heart beat faster.
“You taste like molten honey.” He eased her thighs wider apart, licked her more fully. “I canna breathe for wanting you, need your taste on the back of my tongue, your scent branded into my skin.”
“ Then — achdia!” She jumped when his tongue parted her, its hot velvety tip slipping inside her.
He swept his hands up her sides to knead and plump her breasts, his thumbs sliding back and forth over her nipples as he licked her center again, once more swirling his tongue over and around that sweet wee place that made such intense pleasure pulse between her legs.
“Then what, lass?”
His voice a deep, sensual growl, he pulled back to peer up at her, his hand replacing his tongue, caressing and rubbing her intimately. “I’ve told you — I am lost. Tell me your desire, and it is yours, I swear it.”
“Then make me yours.” She rushed the words, blurting them before his stroking fingers made her burst and shatter into thousands of tiny, mind-numbing pieces.
Already she was spinning, the whole of her world whirling tighter and tighter until nothing remained but that bright, hot-throbbing pulse at her core.
But her heart beat just as fiercely, and even through such blinding pleasure, she wanted more.
“Take me now, this night.” She pushed to her feet while she still could. “Unless” — she reached for his hand, the gesture pleading — “unless you fear sealing our handfast?”
