Chapter Eleven
In that moment, when he’d turned and begun to leave, Cat knew she must stop him. Whether curiosity or some need to have something she’d never had before, she only knew that she would regret it for every day in her life if she did not. Was this just sinful desire for him? She knew not, she just felt.
And for only the second time that she could remember in her pitiful life, she wanted to reach for something. She wanted to fight for what she wanted.
Her body became a thing unknown to her as soon as he arrived. Her lips burned. Her body ached and grew moist with his every glance. Every word spoken in that deep voice he had caused the growing heat to spill into her veins. Even her breasts swelled and her nipples tightened with each passing moment of trying to resist his call.
She wanted him.
The thought shocked her, but it was the truth.
The feeling of it shocked her.
Cat tried to ignore the ever-present desire she read in his eyes all through their supper and tried to vanquish its effect on her with more of his fine, rich wine, but every second with him stoked a response deep within her.
She wanted him, God and Gowan forgive her.
She’d been honest when she offered her trust. Oh, she had no doubt about how this night would end, but he’d shown her more consideration and more honour than any man had, for he’d not done what he wanted when he wanted whether she said aye or nay. And now that she’d said the words, she waited and watched as he delayed what she now accepted was inevitable, for he had seduced her and she had fallen.
After a scant few breathless moments, he reached for her and dragged her up to him. His mouth was hot against her. This was no mere kiss—he meant to possess her, to bend her to his desires and to take her completely. This kiss foretold it all.
Cat let go and fell into him. She felt his arms wrap around her, holding her up, holding her to him.
He moved around her like a storm then, his mouth on hers, tasting her, his hips grinding against her so she could feel him. Parts of her long dead came alive then, every place on her skin tingling as she let him lead the way to damnation.
He lifted his mouth and traced a path of kisses and touches of his hot tongue along her chin and down on to her neck. Her head fell back, allowing him closer, and he took it with a masculine chuckle that she heard and felt. Cat closed her eyes and waited for the next touch, the next caress, the next.
Then he was gone. But not really, as he moved around behind her. His hands covered her breasts, holding her up against his hard body. She let her head rest back on his chest and he nudged it to one side and found her neck, suckling on it and kissing it as she could only gasp and surrender to his every touch.
When would he join with her? When would he enter her body? Would it hurt as it always did? This pleasure coursing through her, something unknown before, seemed a fair exchange for the pain she knew would come when he took her.
She arched against him then, as his hands slipped inside her gown and shift to her skin and she felt his strong fingers and hands cupping her flesh. When he began to rub the sensitive tips and the underside of her breasts, she might have moaned. When he laughed, she knew she had.
‘Ah, Cat,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘I so like to hear you being pleasured.’ He licked and then bit the edge of her ear, causing her body to arch again. ‘Let me hear your pleasure,’ he urged.
He moved again, one arm across her breast, holding the other, teasing it, rolling the tip between his fingers, making her wetter with each touch. She felt his other hand sliding over her stomach, over her hip, getting closer to the place between her legs. She wanted to open to him, let him touch there, make him touch there. She lost her breath as he rubbed her through her clothing, panting and waiting, always waiting.
He gathered up the length of her gown and shift and took hold of her leg in his hand. The shock of such a caress forced another gasp, but now, the cool air of the room against her naked skin did not make her cold. His hand caressed up and up, sliding between her thighs until he reached the curls there.
Her legs fell open then and, if he’d not still held her up with his arm around her and his hand there, she would have crumpled to the floor. She reached up and grabbed at his shoulders, trying to keep from falling.
‘I have you now, Cat,’ he whispered again in a heated breath against the skin of her neck. ‘Let me have my way as I’ve dreamt of doing. Let me pleasure you, lass.’
Catriona could not have said any word at that point, let alone nay. She craved the next movement of his hands, she wanted them...there. She wanted to feel him there.
When his fingers slipped into the moisture beneath the curls, she screamed. It was too much. Too much. But each touch, each caress, made her want more. By the time he stroked her deep and slid his finger forward, she wanted him to go back. The flesh there swelled as he urged her towards something with hushed, heated words.
He never took his hand from between her thighs, but he moved and she found herself on the floor with him at her side. The candles made the room too bright for such a thing as this for he could now see her, see her flesh exposed, see her breasts and now her legs and that place. So she closed her eyes, afraid of his appraisal after having had so many women before her in this very position.
‘Open your eyes, Cat. Look at me.’ His voice, always so deep and appealing, now grew deeper and huskier as he ordered her. When she did not, he took her mouth again, plundering it with his tongue until she lost her breath and her mind. ‘Look at me while I show you what pleasure can be between us.’
Could she watch this? Could she look upon him as he touched her so intimately? Opening her eyes, she met his gaze. Intense, heated, his amber eyes seemed to glow with arousal as he moved down to kneel between her legs. If she’d forgotten that his fingers remained between the aching folds of flesh there, his caress reminded her. Now, when her body arched, they could both see it. Embarrassed only until she watched how his eyes darkened and his nostrils flared in arousal, she let her legs fall open to him and waited.
His black hair reflected the glow of the candles in the room as he leaned down closer and closer to her legs. What was he doing? As his mouth kissed the skin of her thighs, his gaze never wavered from hers. He would not. He could not. He...
Did.
Her vision dimmed as his mouth claimed the place where his fingers had caressed. Strong and hard, he slipped his tongue along the flesh there until she could not see or breathe or think. Her fingers scratched along the wooden planks of the floor, seeking some hold that would keep her from screaming out.
