Chapter 18
Finn ran his hand over Aila’s bare hip, her skin like a silken road to paradise. What would that make her luscious bottom then, snuggled up as it was against his groin? A scornful smile curved his lips. Alas, he’d never claimed to be a poet. Or a connoisseur of anything beyond a good whisky and a good book.
He’d never had occasion to give undue consideration to his prowess as a lover — beyond an overall gratification in the knowledge that he’d brought first lovers, then his wife, the same satisfaction in bed that they brought him. These past few days however….
Och, perhaps his reaction to making love with Aila was inflated by years of celibacy. He was so attuned to her every response — spoken and unspoken, sighed and cried out — he knew where to touch her, how to arouse her, and how to move to take her to a fever pitch of rapture. By instinct alone, he played her body with the skill of an aficionado of the sensual arts.
As she played his.
The will of his body had proven victorious over a reasonable mind this night. He feared any further battles between the two of them would end in much the same fashion. Never in his thirty-four years had he been set so atremble by the touch of one winsome lass. It was rather humbling to know she had the power to take him to his knees.
At the height of his passion, he’d begged her to surrender to him. In truth, he’d willingly fall to his knees for another chance to supplicate himself at the lush altar of her body.
She was right. It was a bit of an anomaly, this reaction he had to her presence. To the lightest caress of her hand…the carnal curl of her tongue around his…
Her bottom wriggled against his hardening groin. “Again already?”
Aye, again and again and yet again.
It was madness. Coming inside of her…Losh, it had been so long since he’d done that. It was a moment in Paradise that he should regret. Instead, he couldn’t wait to do it again. To take her with every ounce of the fever that raged inside him and release it in a mindless fury. Mindless? There wasn’t a moment when his mind was at rest. Especially when it came to her. Bugger it,allhe could think about was her. Touching her. Taking her. She’d said much the same earlier. Said that was her only purpose.
Because of her, his focus would be lost to the wind if he didn’t snatch it back soon.
“Ah, there it is.” Was she so attuned to him she could feel the shift in his very mood? “I wager ye’d feel better if ye talked about what’s bothering ye.”
Finn rolled his eyes with a groan. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph no’ again. What is it with ye?”
“It can be cathartic to talk about yer feelings. What troubles ye.”
With a yawn, she snuggled deeper in the circle of his arms. Such trust when he couldn’t offer his completely in return. He was missing something. He just couldn’t place what it was yet.
“I’ll tell ye what troubles me….”
Ye. What ye do to me. What I do to ye. All of it.
He offered none of this aloud. “I shouldnae have spent myself inside of ye.”
“Is that’s what bothering ye?” A huff of laughter shook her shoulders. “Dinnae fash, it’s my fault. I would no’ let ye go.”
As if she could have stopped him had he chosen to do the right thing. “If ye become with child—”
She rolled on to her back and pressed her fingers to his lips. “Dinnae dwell on what willnae happen.”
“If God wills it—”
She pinched his lips closed. “It will no’. Ye’ll have to trust me on that one.”
“Are ye a witch to see the future?”
“If I were, I would no’ dare admit it.” In the darkness, he made out the curve of her lips. “I have nae desire to be burned at the stake.”
“Yet ye torment me as if the fires of hell were at my feet.” His thoughts turned back to the questions he’d entertained before she had…aye, bewitched him. “Ye dinnae answer my queries earlier.”
She stiffened in his arms. “Oh, that. I forgot about that.”
“Aye, I wager ye did.” God knew she wouldn’t have asked the question in the first place if she recalled the subject interrupted by their lovemaking.
“What brought ye to Inveraray, lass? Employment? I cannae imagine what would compel an unattached woman to take up such a position. I ken the Adams brothers from our years at Edinburgh University, but how did a lass from the Orkneys become associated with them?”
