His hands were on her shoulders, ready to set her away from him as he had at the pub. As he had last night. She’d have none of it. There was nobility, then there was idiocy.
Sliding her hands up his chest, she tangled them in the hair curling at his nape. With gentle insistence, she guided his mouth to hers. His breath hitched, heart beat accelerated, and something akin to a kitten’s purr rumbled within her.
Connor stiffened and unhooked her arms from around his neck. “Bugger it, lass, I dinnae need yer gratitude.”
Despite the distance he’d put between them, his lips were mere inches from her forehead. She wished he’d close the distance. Or better yet, draw her back into his embrace. His arms had offered such comfort moments ago, yet she sought something far removed from consolation now. She was madly aware of the other sensations they roused.
“You think this is gratitude?” Piper leaned her head back, her eyes warm and soft. “No. That was expressed in my words moments ago.”
* * *
Connor cupped her face in his hands, his thumb touching the corner of her mouth. She was satin beneath his caress, temptation he wasn’t certain he could resist. “Then what is this?”
A shadow of a smile passed over her full lips. “This.” Her tongue darted out to wet her bottom lip and he felt a kick to the gut. “This is what I’ve been thinking about since last night.”
“Only since then?”
She shrugged. “A bit longer, perhaps.”
“No’ that it’s a competition, but I’ve been wanting to kiss ye silly since the day we met,” he confessed huskily.
“Then do it.”
Her dare didn’t help his precarious restraint.Och, his bonny, innocent lass. Aye, for all her sinful curves and passionate kisses, she was an innocent. It hadn’t taken more than a few minutes into his ride into Aylesbury to set his imprudent suspicions of a lover from his mind and recall the virtue in Piper’s guileless kiss. He’d swear on his life, she didn’t have a lover. Now or ever.
His groin clenched at the thought of being the first and only. To share those moments of discovery with her, to show her the power of passion. As she tutored him on that very subject now, rousing him fully with little more than a kiss.
“Piper,” he pleaded against her lips.
They brushed his from side to side in an erotic caress as she shook her head in denial. “Connor.”
“Bugger it, lass.” He tried to lift his head, nevertheless she held on like a prickly briar. She nipped on his lower lip and drew him closer. He held her tight, control slipping. Scare her he might, however, he couldn’t deny the need to savor her for one unbridled moment more.
To hell with it.
Connor grasped her around the waist and tossed her up onto a saddle slung over a nearby sawhorse. Nudging her legs apart, he clasped her bottom in his hands and slid between her thighs. Even through layers of petticoats and skirts, she enticed him. He pulled her to him hard and let her taste the full force of his desire.
Her soft cry held no alarm but rather, the sweetest ring of rapture. Music to his ears. He repeated the motion with even more satisfying results. A shaft of unfettered lust tore through him. This was madness. Piper met him with passion to counter his every move, just as he’d expected and dreamed she might. She kissed him again, fervent and giving, each panting breath tantalizing bliss on his lips. Drowning in the exhilaration, he ground against her with a gasp that was equal parts pleasure and sexual frustration.
Her low keening filled him and finally she tore her mouth away. “Connor, I…I…”
“What, lass?” he whispered.
“I…you make me ache.”
A desperate ache of his own rose from the center of his chest, spiraling upward to emerge in a desperate groan. God he wanted her, wanted to possess her. Knowing she shared that desire—without knowing what it was she experienced—was too much to bear.
“I’ll stop.”
He would, even if it killed him. It might. With her hair mussed, cheeks flushed and lips swollen by his kisses, she was ripe for a good tumbling.
Steeling himself, he stepped back. Piper caught his hand, holding him in place. Her gaze slid down, her tongue darting out to wet her lips. Reaching out, she grazed her fingertips down the bulge of his trousers. Connor hissed and jumped at the touch.
“You do, too,” the words were barely above a whisper.
A harsh laugh tore through him and he wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders, brushing his lips across her temple to her ear. “Aye, lass.” He nipped her earlobe then swirled his tongue around it. “I ache wi’ wanting ye.”
“Then do something about it.”
