“Mmmmm, is that ye, William?” She felt his body jerk slightly as her words shocked him and could not stop herself; she began to giggle and felt a light but sharp slap on her backside.
“Wretched woman,” he grumbled, but had to grin.
She opened her eyes to look at him and grinned. “Sorry, I could not resist. Ye shouldnae be here. My brothers might find ye.”
“Only if they kick in Sigimor’s fine door. Door is locked.”
“I have a lock on the door?”
“Aye. So do I, but ’tis a better one than this.”
“How did ye get here without my brothers seeing ye?”
“Seems there is a hidden door between the bedchambers. Right by the fireplace.” He frowned when he watched her stare at the fireplace, then suddenly blush. “What has ye blushing like that?” He kissed her cheek. “Did ye just wonder if Sigimor’s da had lovers? I did, and then apologized to the mon in my head.”
“Nay, I didnae think that. I just thought that Jolene may have put us in here apurpose, and I found that a little embarrassing for it meant she already thought we were lovers and thinks we have been skipping back and forth all the while we have stayed here.”
He chuckled. “The door there is to escape into here where I believe the opening to a passageway to the dungeons is. ’Tis an escape route. Although, she may have already thought us lovers, but she didnae tell me about the door.”
“Ah. Weel, that is clever if the passageway is here.” She tried to move, thinking about going to look for the door to that passageway.
“Nay, we can look later. I want to look at it anyway for I am thinking it would be a good thing to have in the manor house I mean to build.”
“Ye have a house planned?”
“Aye, Harcourt is giving me some land and I plan to put one between his keep and Nigel MacQueen’s. He gave me the choice of the land between him and the border or the other side. I chose the other side.”
“That was verra kind of him.”
“Aye, but ’tis also a custom amongst my clan. If ye end up with a lot of land ye mark off a place for a brother or cousin to make their place. It has worked verra weel for us. No one expects a lot of land and some pay some money toward it, which I intend to do, but it does mean ye have a strong ally right at hand and that is slowly making us a clan to reckon with.”
“Aye, I can see that. Where e’er one settles ye actually end up with two.”
He let go of her and tugged off her night shift, then pulled her back into his arms. “There. That is much better.”
“Oh, weel, aye,” she muttered when she relaxed against him.
He chuckled. She was still a bit shy when naked, but he suspected she always would be, at least when she was first disrobed. He smoothed his hands up and down her back and felt the tension of shyness leave her.
Gybbon kissed her, letting his hunger for her show in his kiss. She slid her arms around his neck and returned the kiss. He could almost taste her own hunger, which pleased him and quickly heightened his need for her. Kissing his way down to her breasts, he took the hard tip of one deep into his mouth. The soft noises of pleasure she made stoked the fire of his own passion.
Mora tensed a little when he began to kiss his way down her belly. She knew what he was planning to do as he nudged the covers aside as he went. Try as she might, she could not completely hide the tensions of embarrassment. It drove her wild but she just felt it was too much, too deeply personal. Then his mouth was almost there.
“’Tis nay a Saint’s Day,” she murmured, and felt the light touch of his breath as he laughed.
“It must be someone’s,” he said, and licked her.
Mora lost all ability to speak and threaded her hands through his hair. It allowed her to tug on him, trying to bring him back into her arms as she felt that strange but fierce feeling building, which she knew would soon sweep over her. She wanted him inside her when it did.
Instead he turned onto his back and pulled her down his body. “Ride me, love.”
She did not have time to ask what he meant before he had settled her on top of him, and slid into her. He grasped her by the hips and moved her and she finally understood what she had to do. Although she was not sure she was doing it with any skill, she rode him and felt that urge to shatter grow with every stroke. When it came she had to bite her lip to keep from yelling out, then slumped down onto him as she rode that wave of weakening delight. Her eyes widened when she heard herself tell him she loved him.
It was too soon, she thought, panicked by what she had said and only partly comforted by how his hold on her tightened. There were no immediate words of assurance or of a return of that feeling, and his tighter hold could be born of panic as easily as it could be a sign of acceptance. Mora feared she may have just completely ruined what she had with him. She felt how he had hardened against her and she decided to take that as something aside from rejection of her feelings.
“Ah, lass, are ye sure it isnae because we just shared a delight?”
“Nay, it isnae. I suspect I could get that from most men.”
