What would he teach her?
She already loved him. She already wanted him. She’d pledged herself and her life to him. And she made him burn hotter than any fire.
What could he teach her?
James stepped closer and touched only his mouth to hers, leaving a few inches between them. Lifting his mouth while staying so close he could feel her breath against his lips, he revealed some of what he wanted to show her this night...and every night of their lives together.
“I want to teach you how good it can be between us.” He kissed the edge of her chin and trailed a path of kisses along the line of her jaw until he reached her ear.
“I will teach you to find the way you like to be touched,” he whispered into her ear. He traced the curves of her ear with his tongue, finally gaining the sigh he wanted to hear. James felt her body tremble and move an infinitesimal amount toward him. He wanted her panting and hot and ready for him and he knew from this morning how to make her so. Her breasts were very sensitive to his kisses and caresses.
“I will teach you how to seek and gain pleasure.” Now he moved to stand behind her, easing the length of her hair to one side and biting the cord between her neck and shoulder gently. The gown she wore was no barrier to what he did, for she did shudder then. His own body reacted now, his flesh ready to join with her. Now.
James unlaced the back of her gown, kissing his way down her spine as he slid the garment off her shoulders, allowing it to fall to her hips. After pulling his shirt off, he touched her from behind, moving his hands along the bottom of her ribs, around until they rested just below her breasts. She leaned against him then, sending shocks into his body. Her hot, smooth skin against his inflamed his desire for her even more.
But, he would control the need that simmered within him and make their first time memorable...and immensely pleasurable for her. James kissed her exposed neck as he cupped her breasts in his hands, pulling her back so that she could feel how much he desired her. She gasped over and over as he rubbed his thumbs across her nipples until they tightened.
“Jamie,” she whispered on a sigh. “You undo me.”
He smiled then, knowing what more was still to happen between them. He had only just begun his seduction of her. When he covered her breasts and massaged them, then teased the tips again, she rolled her head against his shoulder and moaned aloud.
Now, he traced the lovely mounds before moving lower, onto her stomach then lower still, pushing the gown until it slid the rest of the way to the floor. Naked but for her stockings and low boots, she arched against his hands, while pressing her beautiful arse against him. He closed his eyes and imagined her bent over as he plumbed her feminine depths from behind. He thrust then, losing control for only a moment, but she felt his hardness and rubbed that arse against it harder.
He placed his hands on her hips and moved against her. She gifted him with another delicious moan, but the sound he wanted to hear came when he crept his fingers down across her belly and touched the curls covering her mons. Her mouth dropped open and she began to pant. James smiled and moved his fingers lower until he felt the wetness there between her legs. Using both hands, he caressed her there until he felt her allow her body to relax on his. Then he rubbed harder and faster and deeper until he found that tiny bud buried within that would make her scream.
“And I will teach you to scream,” he said as he increased the pressure and pace against that part of her that would give her both pleasure and then release. “Scream for me, my love.”
She did then and his body thrust at her from behind, his erection aching and so ready to take that final step. The lovely, lustful sound of her voice, raised and rough, as her release did happen, almost unmanned him. He nearly lost his grip on her, but he held on and continued to push her body on and on until he’d wrought a full measure of release from her.
He thought she would melt limply against him, so her next action surprised him. She reached up and drew his head down, taking his mouth in a kiss so deep and so hot that it left him breathless. She turned in his embrace and now held onto him. James scooped her up in his arms, their mouths yet touching, their tongues still tasting and stroking deeply, and laid her on the blankets spread there.
Elizabeth reached up and unbuckled his belt, loosening his trews and pushing them down. His cock was freed, and she leaned back and watched him. James moved to kneel between her legs and she shifted to allow him there. He bent over and kissed her, using his hands to make her ready for him. When her hips lifted to meet his caresses, he knew she was.
“Elizabeth. My love,” he whispered as he held onto her hips and brought them up off the blanket. “I will have a care for you in this, lass,” he promised.
The touch of her hand on his and the expression in her gaze surprised him. Not exactly dread, but clearly she was not as fearless as she’d been only moments before. Then, it was gone and she laid her head back and closed her eyes.
It was time to claim her and make her truly his.
Finally.
He leaned down and began to enter her, slowly but without hesitation. He’d not bedded many virgins, only one before her, and the tightness did not surprise him. Her flesh fit around his as he moved deeper within her. James did not pause until he was completely buried inside her. Only as he began to move, sliding out a little then thrusting back in, did he realize that there had been nothing to resist or slow his entry.
But, when she lifted her legs around his hips, bringing him deeper still, he lost the ability to think about anything but making her scream once more. Plunging harder and faster as she urged him on, he felt her body tighten. His release was close. Too close. Reaching between their bodies, he found that sensitive bud and caressed it until her release began. James filled her and eased out, filled her and eased out, over and over until she shuddered and tightened around his cock.
He did not stop until she collapsed, panting and sweating beneath him. His seed exploded from him, dowsing her womb and making him grunt with satisfaction. Only when the last spasm emptied him did he stop, holding himself on his elbows so she could breathe. Then, still within her, James rolled them to their sides and he waited for the exquisite pleasure to ebb before pulling his flesh from hers.
Lying together, neither one spoke. He pushed her hair from her face and kissed her forehead. Instead of meeting his gaze, she tucked her head under his chin in silence. He caressed her, rubbing her back and holding her close as he tried to come up with the words to say.
For what did a man say to his beloved, the woman who would be his wife, when he now knew he had not been the first inside her.
Elizabeth had not been a virgin when he’d claimed her.
Young Dougal paced the yard outside Broch Dubh keep, waiting for some order from the earl. Surely Connor MacLerie would not allow this insult, this kidnapping, to go unanswered. No matter that it had ended well for his friend Tavis and for Ciara—they were married now, only hours ago, as everyone in the clan had always thought they would.
But, the Murrays’ heir had stolen another MacLerie, forcing her, according to the note he’d left, to leave with him. Elizabeth MacLerie would be ruined if James Murray did not take her as wife. Surely Connor would take action against him for this flagrant disrespect?
As Tavis’s second-in-command, young Dougal knew it would fall to him to carry out whatever orders the earl gave and he was ready, armed and packed to leave as soon as Connor gave word. Now, hours after James’s actions were uncovered and hours after Ciara and Tavis had married, no word had come. He had not been called by the earl.
