“Simon, I have missed ye so,” she said as they both began to rapidly unlace each other’s clothing, desperate to feel skin against skin.
The moment she bared his chest, Ilsabeth covered the warm expanse with kisses, shifting her body to help him as he pulled at her clothes. He kissed her again and she could sense the desperate hunger in him, one she shared. When they were both finally naked, she moaned with delight as their skin finally touched. She nearly purred as she rubbed her body against his, savoring the difference in the textures and the way the rough tickle of his body hair made her feel.
He began to caress her with his hands and mouth all over her body. He devoured her breasts as he slid his hand between her legs to drive her wild with need. Ilsabeth struggled to return the pleasure stroke for stroke and kiss for kiss but her need to feel him inside her was growing so strong, so swiftly, she knew the time for slow loving would have to come later.
“Now, Simon,” she said as she grasped him by the hips and rubbed herself against him. “I need to feel ye deep inside me right now. I have been empty for too long.”
With a soft growl of need, he gave her what she wanted, plunging deep inside with a single thrust. Ilsabeth cried out from the force of the pleasure that tore through her. She clung to him as he rode her hard, all the while muttering words of love and sweet flattering nonsense against her skin. When her body tightened and the wave of delight crested, she wrapped herself around him as tightly as she could and cried out her love for him. Through the roar of passion in her ears she heard him cry outmineand nearly laughed with joy at the rough possessiveness behind the word. When he thrust inside her as deep as he could and spilled his seed inside her, her desire soared to the heights yet again and she nearly wept from the joy of it.
Simon slowly rolled onto his back and pulled her on top of him. He did not think he could let her go again for at least a week and then he might go and get them some food. She loved him, he thought, and grinned. She had yelled it out as her body had tightened around him, clenching until she held him tightly inside while he gifted her with his seed.
He felt her move and opened his eyes to catch her looking at him, frowning despite the laughter in her eyes. “Frowning? Did I do it wrong?”
“Nay and weel ye ken it, rogue. Nay, I just thought ye were looking verra smug there for a moment.”
“I probably was.” He kissed her nose. “Ye bellowed out that ye love me.” “Ladies dinnae bellow.”
He laughed and lightly bit her neck. “Ye did and I would wager I could make ye do it again.”
“I told ye, ladies dinnae bellow.”
He rolled her over onto her back and grinned at her. Ilsabeth always made him feel as if he was the most skilled of lovers when he knew full well he did not have the experience to claim that he was. He was going to make her bellow out her love for him again and take full delight in the double pleasure offered. Her passion and her love.
Ilsabeth gritted her teeth as he licked and sucked at her nipples and knew he was going to win the wager. He kissed his way down her body and she was panting with anticipation and desire before he even kissed the inside of her thighs. The moment his tongue touched the heated skin between her thighs she lost what little control she had. He brought her to completion twice before he joined their bodies and took them both to the heights, together, one more time. Ilsabeth knew she had bellowed out her love for him more than once, but such rich pleasure deserved such a reward.
“If ye gloat or say ye won, when I have the strength again, I will have to hit ye,” she said as she lay sprawled across his chest, both of them breathing as heavily as if they had run for miles. She smiled when he laughed and she bounced up and down on his chest.
“Marry me, Ilsabeth,” he said, and kissed the top of her head because it was the only place he could reach and he was still too weak to even reach down and tilt her chin up.
It was a struggle, but Ilsabeth lifted her head and looked into his eyes. He spoke calmly and the hand he idly smoothed up and down her back was steady, but there in his eyes she saw that touch of vulnerability. Despite the way she bellowed out her love when passion conquered her, Simon was still not sure she would take him to her side for life. She brushed a kiss over his mouth.
“Aye, Simon, I will marry ye.” She laughed softly when he hugged her so hard she grunted a little. “When do ye want to get married?”
“As soon as possible but I ken that women like to have their celebrations. We could wait a few weeks if ye want to have one.”
The tone of his voice when he spoke of waiting held all the joy of a man saying he wanted a tooth pulled. “Nay, Simon, we can marry as soon as ye wish. There are so many of my family here now and more to come in the next few days that we can have quite a large celebration without much planning. The only thing that needs to be sorted out is the priest and what he may ask.”
“I will see to that.”
She sat up, straddling his hips, and studied him for a moment. It was time to tell him about the baby and yet she was suddenly nervous. That made no sense for they had both declared their love and they had certainly consummated those vows with vigor. When his eyes narrowed and his hands tightened slightly on her hips she knew he had sensed her unease.
“What is wrong, Ilsabeth?” he asked, and brushed a lock of hair back over her shoulder.
“Ye do realize we will be starting this marriage with three children, aye?”
“Aye. Elen, Reid, and Marion. Ye arenae saying that troubles ye, are ye?”
“Nay. I just wondered how ye would feel if we started the marriage with four.” She grimaced even as the words left her mouth for it was a poor way to tell the man the news.
Simon stared at her, watching the blush rise up from the tops of her breasts and into her cheeks. Ittook a full moment for his pleasure-soaked mind to grasp what she was saying. He looked down at her belly, even though he knew it was too soon for her to show, but her long hair was covering it.
“Ye are carrying my child?” he asked, not surprised to hear a faint tremble in his voice for the emotions tearing through him at the thought of her giving him a child were too strong to control. “When did ye ken it?”
“Weel, if ye dinnae count the time I was sure but denying it until my eyes crossed, a few weeks.” She slowly stroked his chest, aware of the strength of his emotions through the faint tremor in his body and the pounding of his heart.
“Were ye going to tell me if I hadnae come to ye?”
“Simon, that is a verra hard question to answer. The way I felt until a wee while ago, I cannae say what I would do. I was still so angry and hurt. Yet, everything in me cried out that ye are the father and whate’er was wrong with us, ye would be a good father. If ye had decided nay to come back to me, I believe I would have told ye eventually, simply because I could ne’er keep a child from his father if that father was as good as ye would be.”
