“And they willnae find her for she willnae be skipping through town again nor at the nearest convent nor anywhere else they might look.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled at him. “I wouldnae have done it at all if I had had any other choice. MacBean and Old Bega didnae ken what I needed, where to ask for it, or even which would be the best to select, and I couldnae ignore Elen’s sore throat. True, it now appears that it wasnae of much importance, but it could have been a sign of something more, of something deadly.”
“I ken it.” Simon found it difficult to speak while she was kissing his neck. The warmth of her lips was rushing straight down to his groin. “Ilsabeth, ye should stop. I am nay at my strongest just now.”
“Oh, good.” Ilsabeth nipped at his chin as she watched his face and nearly grinned when his eyes widened.
“Honor demands...” “Bugger honor.”
Simon laughed briefly at her crudity but quickly grew serious again. “Ye are a maid.”
“Aye, I am. A maid of one and twenty years. A maid who was betrothed. A maid who suddenly is verra, verra tired of being a maid.”
He groaned softly as she unlaced his shirt and kissed the hollow at the base of his throat. Simon ached to grab what she offered, to wallow mindlessly in the passion he knew they could share, but a few shredded tatters of good sense remained. It was enough to keep him from immediately hurling her to the bed, tearing off the thin linen nightgown she wore, and burying himself deep inside her. If he was going to become her lover, he was going to attempt to do so with some finesse. He may have lost the control to refuse what she offered, but he was determined to find enough control to make her first time with a man something she would recall with fondness and pleasure.
“Are ye thinking of running away again?” she whispered by his ear before lightly biting his ear-lobe.
“I should. Ye can ne’er return to being a maid.” “I should pray not.”
Simon pushed her away. The disappointment and hurt upon her face decided him. He might not understand why she wanted him, but she did, and his running each time desire flared between them was hurting her. That he could not do. It shamed him to realize how little thought he had given to her feelings each time he had fled the desire she stirred within him. He started to shed his clothes and the way her eyes brightened with interest stroked his vanity. He just hoped the beautiful eyes considered to view him with favor when she saw his back.
“No running this time?”
Ilsabeth was not surprised to hear how husky her voice had grown, for the sight of Simon’s body had her panting like a hard-run hound. His shoulders and chest were broad enough to please any woman. The rest of his tall, lean body was all smooth skin and taut muscle. There was only a small patch of hair on his chest. Her gaze moved down his body until she saw the dark arrow of hair that began below his navel and thickened slightly around his groin. The long, hard jut of his manhood told her that he was more than ready to become her lover. He stood with his legs apart, the hair-roughened strength of those limbs making her palms itch with the urge to touch them.
“Nay, no more running,” he said, and nearly grinned at the way her gaze settled on his groin. “Are ye about to run?”
“Of course not.”
“Good.” His voice came out as almost a growl as he leapt onto the bed and pushed her down until she was sprawled beneath him. “I think I might just chase ye if ye did.”
Simon kissed her, savoring the taste of her as he unlaced her nightgown. As soon as he undid the last tie, he pulled it off her and tossed it aside. Her body was far more lushly built than he had imagined during too many sleepless nights, her breast full and high, dark rose nipples hard and inviting. Her hips bowed out nicely from her small waist and her legs looked surprisingly long and well muscled. The sight of the tidy wedge of black curls between her pale thighs had him fighting the urge to bury his face in there. He placed his hands just beneath her breasts and slowly moved them upward until he held the soft flesh in both hands. Ilsabeth gasped and he kissed her again.
Ilsabeth wrapped her arms around him as she lost herself in his hungry kiss. She stroked his broad muscular back and could not halt the way her body briefly tensed in shock. Simon’s back was covered in scars. Before she could hide her reaction to them, she felt Simon’s body tense as well.
“Can ye abide it?” he asked as he nuzzled her throat and tried to sound as if her answer did not matter to him.
“Aye, of course I can, but, Jesu, Simon, what happened?”
“I will tell ye later. Now that I have ye naked and beneath me, the verra last thing I wish to do is to speak about an old misery.”
He kissed his way down to her breasts. The way he was caressing them with his lightly calloused hands, stroking the hard tips with his long fingers until they ached, had her passion running hot. When he took one taut end deep into his mouth, suckling and lashing it with his tongue, Ilsabeth was surprised she did not swoon from the force of the desire that swamped her.
She was just caressing his taut backside when he slipped his hand between her legs. The way he stroked her heated flesh and slipped his finger inside her in imitation of the intimacy they both craved, had her crying out in demand. Ilsabeth was not precisely sure how well they would fit together, but she wanted him inside her. Now.
“Need to go slowly,” Simon said, nearly groaning the words against her silken breasts. He slipped another finger inside her and trembled at the way her wet heat closed tight around his fingers. “Need to ready ye.”
“I have been ready for days.”
Simon choked out a laugh and then began to slowly join their bodies. When he reached the barrier of her maidenhead he took a deep breath, pulled back, and then rammed his way through it until he was fully seated within her. Ilsabeth’s soft shriek did not startle him but the sting of her small sharp teeth digging into his shoulder did. It also made his passion soar until he was a hairsbreadth from a complete loss of control. She clung to him with her whole body as he pounded into her, cursing himself as a brute but unable to stop. Her release hit hard and, reveling in her soft cries and the hot, wet clasp of her body, he swiftly joined her in that sweet, rapid tumble.
It took Simon several moments before he could catch his breath enough to ask, “Are ye hurt?”
Ilsabeth thought on her answer for a moment and then said, “Nay. Why? Are ye ready to run again?” She lazily caressed his body everywhere she could reach.
“Nay, and once I regain my breath and my strength, I will show ye that I can do this slowly, too.”
“I eagerly await the lesson.”
He smiled against her skin. Simon did not think he had ever experienced such passion before. It astonished him that he had held back for so long. A little voice in his head told him that this had been a mistake, that he should not have given in to his desire for a woman who had been put under his protection, but he ruthlessly silenced it. That was a problem to sort out later, after he proved her innocence.
