Nay, her own honour demanded that she reveal the truth and protect these people who protected her.
How long they’d stood in the shadows off the path, she kenned not. But one moment she was lost in her thoughts and plans and then the next found her wrapped in Alan’s arms, held tightly against his muscular chest once more.
‘I was wondering if you’d notice.’
‘Notice?’ she asked, inhaling the scent of him as he gathered her even closer.
‘That I have taken you into the forest to have my way with you, lass.’
His mouth curved into an enticing smile that both promised and teased her. He leaned down and kissed the sensitive place just below her ear, sending ripples of pleasure and awareness through her body as he whispered against her neck.
‘May I, Saraid? May I have my way with you?’
No!her mind screamed.Not him!her reason said.Not now!Every bit of sense and restraint cried out to stop him and to stop him now. But it was her heart that answered.
‘Aye.’
He pulled back to search her face for the truth of it and she smiled at him. The kiss was fast and hard and demanding as he touched their lips and laid his claim. Sorcha reached up and slid her hands into his hair, holding his head close to hers as he opened his mouth and beckoned her tongue inside.
At some moment, he lifted her into his arms and carried her further away from the path and into the shadows. She was breathless and aching by the time he put her back on her feet and lifted his mouth from hers. Gasping for breath, she looked around and kenned they were far enough away that no one would see or hear anything that happened now.
Instead of worrying her, she felt safe with him. Sorcha did not doubt that he would have his way, as he’d said, but she also kenned to a certainty that he would stop if she told him so.
Right or wrong, in this moment now, she did not wish him to stop. She wanted a full measure of what she would be giving up once she left him here to go to Skye. She wanted him to be the first man and the only one to whom she gave herself. Sorcha reached up and tugged the laces of her cloak loose, allowing it to fall around her on the leaf-covered ground at her feet.
Then, offering him her heart and her trust, Sorcha held out her hand to him and waited for him to accept.
* * *
She gazed at him with such faith and trust that Alan lost his breath. As though this was more than a simple bout of pleasure between a man and a willing woman. As though she offered him more than just her body. Yet he kenned she planned to leave him and the rest of the world behind soon. Whether manly confidence or simple hope, Alan wanted to be the one to change her mind on that matter.
Pulling his belt free, he lifted off his plaid and added it to her cloak on the ground, making a place for them there. Taking her proffered hand, he brought her back to him, embracing her as he took her mouth. The innocence was still there, on her tongue, in her movements, in the way she waited for him to begin.
With an arm around her, he guided them to their knees and then to lie on the bed of cloaks. Holding her close, he used his free hand to ease open the laces of her gown and then her shift, kissing a path from her mouth to her ear and then on to her neck. The sighs she uttered spurred him on, lower and lower. When he kissed and bit the slope of her breast gently, she arched against him. Her legs grew restless, sliding against his own until he caught them between his.
Easing his arm from beneath her, he leaned up on his elbow and watched her eyes when he slid his hand inside her shift and on her naked skin. With each inch his fingers moved closer to the tip of her breast, her eyes widened and her mouth opened. Her breaths were now shallow as he touched the now turgid nipple. Gasping with each movement he made, Saraid closed her eyes as her body pressed into his grasp.
‘Lovely, Saraid. You are lovely,’ he whispered.
He cupped her full breast and lifted it free of the cloth that yet covered it. With his gaze still on her face, he licked the dark-pink flesh and then drew it into his mouth as he had her tongue. Her eyes opened on a loud gasp as she looked at him. Slowly, teasingly, he released the tip and did it again as she watched. And again, enjoying the way her body shuddered under his touch and the way her eyes filled with pleasure at each kiss.
Tugging the laces, he pulled her gown and shift open, exposing her to his sight. Her breasts filled his hands—pert and plump and perfect for him. Now caressing both, he slid his rough thumbs over the nipples until she gifted him with those gasps. He teased and licked and suckled one and then the other, readying her for him even as his flesh grew harder.
Lifting his leg, he released his hold on her legs so that he could touch her there. With his mouth still on her breast, he slid his hand down and gathered the length of her garments in his palm. Easing them up, he pushed them out of his way and touched her thighs. Clenched together tightly, he caressed them until they trembled under his touch. Alan lifted his head and kissed her on the mouth.
‘Open for me, lass,’ he whispered against her lips. When her mouth opened, he felt her legs relax just a bit. He moved his hand between them and kissed her again.
‘Your legs, lass. Open your legs.’ A momentary hesitation and then she opened for him. Smiling, he kissed her again as he let his fingers slide into the place he wanted most to touch. She was wet and hot there. Wet for him. But her body remained tense. When he met her gaze he recognised that there was fear there.
‘Kiss me, Saraid. I pray you, kiss me.’
Whatever he had expected, her reaction was not it. If he had thought her reticent or fearful, the way she took hold of his face and kissed him now destroyed that notion. She claimed his mouth, tasting him as he’d tasted her, thrusting her tongue deep into him and swirling it. When his tongue met hers, she suckled it as he had her nipple. His cock grew harder against her hip as he thought of how her tongue would feel on his hardened flesh.
Alan flexed his fingers then, sliding between her legs and deeper into the cleft of her woman’s flesh. Rubbing his finger along it, he brought the moisture to the tight bud hidden there. She arched and bucked against him at his touch. A little pressure on that raised flesh of hers and she gasped against his mouth. Sliding one finger inside her, the tightness there surprised him. Her kiss became frantic now, her tongue more forceful, with each caress between her legs.
At first, Alan thought it arousal, but soon he noticed the way her body tensed as though she was fighting for control. He stilled his hand and lifted his head from her.
Fear.
