He stood and his wife did the same, though she wasn’t successful at hiding her surprise. William may be hard of hearing, but Darragh had the impression he knew exactly what was happening beneath the table.
“I’ll see to these things in the morning.” Gwen offered apologetically before disappearing within the sleeping area to the right.
“Ye two stay up as long as ye like,” William said, looking back at them. “Ye’ll not bother us. We sleep like the dead.”
Darragh would swear the man winked. He turned to hide his smirk, but when he turned back, he was met by Brighit’s urgent kiss. With a hand on either side of his face, she pulled his lips to hers, shifting restlessly on the bench beside him. Her raspy breathing told him she shared his need. She was simply better at hiding it.
He pulled her onto his lap without breaking the kiss and slid the material of her gown high.
“Well, aren’t ye the sly little fox?” Darragh whispered. “Asking all those questions while ye had only this on yer mind.”
He rubbed against her without hindrance since she wore nothing beneath. She moaned into his mouth, rocking her hips in rhythm with the insistent movement of his fingers stroking her.
Breaking the kiss, she seemed to purr in his ear. “I have wanted ye something fierce.”
His arousal came on him so fast, it was almost painful. Even though he’d prefer to take her without people a few feet away, his cock had no such qualms. “And I would like to give ye what ye want.”
Sliding her gown to her waist, he guided her legs to either side of him so that she was straddling him. He closed his eyes in ecstasy when he pushed his solid bulge along her most intimate area.
“How is this?”
“More.”
Her voice was so husky, he had to see her expression. Darragh stilled. Her eyes were closed, a slight frown knit between her brows as if her complete attention was devoted to rocking her hips against him. Like a slap to the face, he realized ithadto be the tea making her act this way. Disappointment overwhelmed him. He wanted her willingly, not like this.
“Brighit?”
It took her a moment to focus on him when she opened her eyes. “Nice.”
Well, that was a yank on his prick, but he needed to protect her from herself. “The tincture ye had in the tea? D'ye remember?”
She nodded, rubbing her breasts against him until he cupped one solid globe in his firm grip, thumbing the nipple into a firm peak even through the course material. “It may be causing ye to feel this way.”
“I always feel this way with ye.”
Those words knocked the breath right out of him. He searched her expression, feeling an odd sense that she was speaking the truth to him. Mayhap he should stop and wait until the herbs were out of her system, but his need for her was only growing stronger. God knew she was doing nothing to help him quench his desire.
“I want my husband,” she whispered huskily. Her need was killing him, and he didn’t doubt that she wanted fulfillment, but it seemed he was taking advantage of her. “Now,” she urged.
Suddenly desperate, he slid his hands beneath her dress, trailing them up her flat stomach to grip a firm breast, his nose slipping along her neck before nipping it. Shifting closer without the slightest impediment to his pleasant grasping of the underside of her breast, she moved nose to nose so her face was a blur, and said, “And we shouldn’t wait.”
He hesitated for as much time as it took her insistent hand to find the bulge and run her fingers along his length.
Guilt washed over him. “I am—”
She squeezed his length through the thin material.
“—not certain ye would want this had ye not been giv—”
Her insistent stroking and pulling was doing him in.
“—en the tea.”
Her hand worked its way into his trews so that they were skin to skin, and he stilled at the tremendously pleasant sensation nearly sending him over the edge.
“Ye’re wanting this, too.” She whispered against his lips, rubbing his nose, and looking at him with eyes hooded with desire even as she stroked him mercilessly.
With a groan, he loosened the waist of his trews until his cock was presented, stiff and proud. With not even a pause, she sheathed him to the hilt in her womanly depths and gave a deep-throated groan of satisfaction.
