“Ye’re making nae sense, lass. Do ye want this or no’?” The words were thick with desire, nearly intelligible. Restrained lust shook his big body to be shared with hers. Panting breaths caressed her neck. “Losh, ye’re so bloody close to yer release. I can feel it.”
“Aye, and I want it so badly,” she admitted. “But I want it with ye. Take me there, Finn.” His fingers twitched and she shifted to the side. “I mean, take me.”
His lips caught hers with a muffled curse and a prayer of thanks that might have amused her if she weren’t so frantic to have him. He must have shared her eagerness, making quick work of the fall of his breeches. The broad head of his erection teased her. Then he paused.
“Are ye certain, lass?”
“Wheesht!” Aila hissed against his lips.
With a strangled chuckle, Finn grasped her hips and pulled her down to meet his hard thrust with a strangled shout. “Mo Dhia!”
“Oh my God!” She threw back her head, overcome by his possession. It was almost too much to bear. Too much, too fast. Another ragged cry caught in her throat as he withdrew and drove into her again. Fireworks exploded in the darkness and inside of her as well. Bursts of red dancing in the darkness. Electricity enough to set every nerve afire and her heart aflutter crackled between them. She’d always loved the ones that sizzled.
He took her with an animalistic fervor, in seconds compelling her to that pinnacle again. No harps and angels this time but a frenzied cacophony of electric guitars…the wildest rave could not compete. Ecstasy welled with volcanic fury and exploded. Aila couldn’t hold back the scream that tore from her throat any more than she could control the delicious thrumming of her orgasm. She clenched around him in gripping pulses, crying out again as Finn slammed into her one last time with a roar of surrender then withdrew to spill against her thigh.
Aila clung to him, thighs aquiver, refusing to release him. He didn’t seem to mind. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, breaths harsh. His braw body vibrated with life and she savored the moment while she stifled the absurd impulse to cry over the beauty of their wild coupling.
He shifted his weight and she locked her ankles around him as he crossed the room. With a low curse, he found the bed with a shin. Her world tilted on its axis again and Aila sunk into the deep feather mattress. His fingers fumbled at her bodice.
“What are ye doing?”
“I’m no’ done wi’ ye, lass.” He found and pulled the pins that held her bodice to the stomacher one by one. “If that’s acceptable to ye.”
Aila ran her nails along the length of his jaw and lifted her head to kiss him. Even that light contact made her breath catch and she dropped back on the pillow with a sigh.
“Proceed, my lord.”
Chapter 11
Finn woke to a weak beam of sunlight cast on his face. With a groan of denial, he rolled over and the intoxicating scent of citrus and rosemary filled his senses. Aila.
He opened his eyes with the expectation of seeing a river of ginger hair on the pillow next to him only to discover that he was alone. By the position of the sun — or rather the light spot in the clouds that had brought rain through the night and darkened the morning sky — he’d slept well into the morning. That he’d slept at all surprised him. On the best of nights, he managed a few hours.
Last night….
The last thing he’d dreamt of was bedding her. He’d ached to his bones to take her. And by some miracle, she asked him to do just that.Given the hours he’d spent rousing Aila until her sweet cries of release broke the darkness again and again, it was a wonder he’d had any time to rest. His loins stirred at the memory and he marveled at that, as well. He’d found his own release more times than he’d thought himself capable. On the other hand, he hadn’t been lying when he said it had been too long since he’d taken a woman to his bed.
How long, she’d asked.
Years.
She’d had him trembling like a lad. Her tight sheath encased him with shocking heat. She’d come so fast and hard, he’d almost lost control himself. Not that it had taken long. Truth, he’d have been embarrassed by the brevity of their initial bout of lovemaking if they hadn’t made up for it in spades.
Aila was delightfully responsive to the lightest touch. More passionate than any lass he’d ever known, and his body answered in kind. The way she responded with such surprise when her release first struck, Finn knew she had been as overwhelmed by the intensity of their passion as he. He only wished he’d taken the time to light a candle so he could have seen that ardor written on her face. Seen the lush curves of the body he’d caressed through the night.
His groin clenched again and he threw back the bedcovers with a curse, adding another when he realized he should have taken the time to light a fire as well. The chill of the autumn morning pervaded the room that had been well warmed by carnal body heat far into the night. Yanking on clothing enough to achieve basic decency, he returned to his own room to wash and dress for the day. As he shaved, the glare of light off his blade recalled the glint from the banding on Aila’s trunk the night before.
Aye, she was as perilous as the rocky shoals any ship warned by the piercing signal of a lighthouse should be wary of. She was also the bloody siren that lured a sane man to his doom. He wanted to plunder her body again and again. At the same time, he longed to discover what it was about her that engaged him so. Discover what made her tick. He cursed himself for being so easily diverted by a bonny face and nimble tongue. He shouldn’t allow her to distract him further.
With luck, Aila’s claim that she’d be gone by morn would prove true and he could regain the focus that had driven him thus far.
He ignored the pang of regret roused by the thought of her leaving.
Just as he brushed off the surge of gladness that overcame him when he climbed the stairs to the nursery and discovered Aila there.
The clouds parted, allowing a single ray of sunlight to beam through the window and cast its light upon her. As if to draw his eyes, remind him of her beauty…or underscore her outlandish claim from the previous evening of the certain sort of ray of sunshine she considered herself. He needed no such assistance and couldn’t help but admire the way her long ginger locks, freed from their pinnings to hang in a long plait down her back, shone like copper in the light. Or how shorter wisps clung to her temples and traced the curve of her jaw. Or how her eyes caught the light with sapphire brilliance.
She wore a simpler gown today. A light wool overdress printed with umber and periwinkle floral with an underskirt of ivory. Her fichu was securely in place once again. A small blessing for his sanity, though her slim ankles were exposed as she sat cross-legged on the floor with his children reviewing the tricks in her dog’s repertoire.
