She could hear his chuckle as he pulled his shirt over his head. “I can guarantee it right now, lass, ye’ll find yer release far more often than I during the course of this marriage. I wouldnae consider myself much of a man or a lover if it were any other way.”
Shivering at the promise in his voice, she relented as she worked the buttons of his trousers. “Fine, but not tonight. Tonight, I want to share everything with you.”
“Aye, then. Tonight it will be as ye like.” He finished toeing off his shoes and lifted her high against him until she wrapped her legs around his waist. He carried her to the bed and lowered them both down, but his fingers had already found her once more, circling and circling once more before his fingers plunged deep within her. Helplessly, she arched against his hand with a tortured moan. He retreated then and his fingers rubbed once more, now slick and wet. Hero cried out in rapture. Almost, her body strained.
“Now?”
“Now.” Hero moaned and urged him forward until he was pressed against her. The turgid length of him probed, then slid within her slowly. He stretched her, filled her with tormenting languor until she was sobbing with the intensity of her arousal. She trembled with need. Almost. So close. “Now, Ian, please.”
He drove forward then until she could feel him throbbing against her womb. “Yer so hot, my love. Wet. Tight,” he murmured in her ear as he withdrew and slowly, wickedly, plunged once more, drawing a low groan from her. She kicked her heels against his thighs, urging him on. “Am I going too slow for ye, lass?”
There was humor in his voice, but she was beyond caring. She wanted him. This fire might make her a wanton who begged for release, but it was a fire he had built. “Yes.”
“Don’t ye want me to make slow love to ye?” Hero shook her head and locked her legs more tightly around his waist. “Tell me then. Tell me what you want.”
She bit her lip but Ian continued with his slow thrusts, keeping her hovering just on the edge of her release. It was there waiting for her. An abyss that her body cried out for. She needed him to take her there. Needed him with her. “Please, Ian. Faster.”
And he obeyed, thrusting deeply, almost savagely, as if the dam had broken on his control. She lifted her hips against him until they met in perfect rhythm. Heat flooded her core and spiraled outward within seconds, and she cried out as her climax came hard. “Now.”
Ian pumped against her with a guttural moan and his hot seed flowed into her, but he thrust again. Again. His body shook, his muscles taut. “Never enough. It will never be enough.”
Hero wrapped her body around his and held him. “I know.”
And she did.
A thousand times. A million.
She would want him just as desperately still.
Chapter Thirty-One
Asound woke Ian and he tensed, prepared to fight if need be. Fight against the specter that lingered in his mind. A dream where Hero was taken from him by force and Ian was left searching, constantly searching for her with a soul left as empty and barren as the deserts of the east. Reaching out for her, he found the bed next to him warm but empty, and fear reared its head again.
A low grating sound broke the silence, and he turned to find her standing in front of the empty fireplace in her dressing gown with her back to him. She held a single candle in its small dish-like holder aloft, the wispy flame scarcely cleaving the darkness beyond her.
“What are you doing?”
Turning with a smile, she came to his side and sat on the edge of the bed, the candleholder in one hand, her other tightly fisted. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I’m sorry.”
“What have you there?” He nodded to her fisted hand and she opened it sheepishly to expose the ring within. The wedding ring he’d put on her finger just hours before. It had been his mother’s and his grandmother’s as well before that bonny old lady had given it to his father on his wedding day. His mother had given it to him before she died to give to the woman he loved one day. It was a beautiful ring with a large central sapphire flanked on each side by two long, diamond baguettes. “Ye dinnae like it?”
“Oh, I do,” she said instantly. “I love it, but it’s a wee bit too big and I almost lost it in the bed linens when it worked its way off my finger.”
“I’m sorry I dinnae ha’ time to ha’ it sized for ye.”
“I’m not worried about that,” she assured him. “I just didn’t want to lose it.”
“So ye were throwing it in the fireplace?”
Her smile was broad. “Of course not. I was putting it in the safe.”
He frowned. “What safe?”
“I have one in here, just like you do in your room,” she answered, then frowned as well. “I guess you were never told about it, were you? No one else knows about them. Not even Mandy or Biggs, Robert’s old valet. Come here, I’ll show you.”
Pushing aside the sheets, Ian rose and followed her back to the fireplace.
“Aren’t you going to put anything on?” She dipped her candle down and up again and gave him a lingering once over. “I wouldn’t want you to catch a cold.”
