Tucking her hand firmly in the crook of his arm, Ian led his lady through the castle and out between the ramparts. Hero went in front of him, skimming her fingers across the top of the wall and skipping over the spaces just as she had the night they first met. Just as she did each time they came out here to their favorite spot. Four…five…six. She stopped and he pressed in behind her, snuggling her slim body against his. She leaned her head back against his chest with a sigh, tempting him to place a contented kiss on the top of her head.
As a boy, he’d always been reclusive, interested more in books and individual activities than in those pastimes typically undertaken by the rowdy lads at school. Still, he’d had companions aplenty, whether he sought them out or not. It seemed that his disinterest in garnering the approval of others only served to make his friendship that much more desirable. Among his classmates, he would participate in random amusements. In those moments, he enjoyed sports and pranks with the others and was quick to laugh, but there was a true camaraderie and absolute friendship lacking there that made him relish those times. Never had Ian preferred the company of another over solitary privacy until Hero had come to him.
Now he wondered if he could ever live life that way again. If something were to happen to her, he wondered if he would experience true loneliness for the first time.
No, there was no question; he knew he would.
At least he wouldn’t have to face such an event any time soon. They had been freed of their nemesis. In just a few more days, Daphne would face the magistrate and head off to prison.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
The sun dipped below the horizon, casting the sky in red and purple that reflected on the waters of the firth below. Turning his attention to more pleasant thoughts, he joined her in watching the sunset. Striking as it was, it didn’t hold a candle to her bonny face, and he told her so.
Though he couldn’t see her face, he felt her smile. “No regrets, then?”
Bending his head, he nuzzled her neck and whispered in her ear, “My only regret is that I did not find you before Robert did.”
“You wouldn’t have liked me then. I was woefully prim.”
“And you aren’t now?” He chuckled when she slapped his hands playfully. “No? How about proving me wrong?”
Her hands reached back, slid down his hips and grasped his buttocks as she wiggled her backside against his groin. “Haven’t I already?”
The rush of lust that always gripped him at her slightest touch hit him at full impact. Always it was the same. Even if they’d just found paradise but moments before, she could arouse him as easily as a man deprived for years. He didn’t need to hope that it would be that way for the rest of their lives. He knew it would be. “Little minx. Are you trying to provoke me into taking you right here?”
“It was one of your promises, wasn’t it?” She turned in his embrace and looped her arms around his neck. “I believe you said something about me and that wall? How would that work, exactly?”
A shudder ripped through him at the thought. Fantasies of just how it would be done were no stranger to him. His body tensed with need, urging him to do it, but Ian pushed the idea away. For all the carnality, their interludes were not purely sexual. When he made love to his wife, he took immense pleasure in watching her, in seeing the rapture of her expression when she found her release. “I was jesting, my love.”
“So we’ll never make love here?”
She smoothed her palm over his chest as she leaned into him. Her vibrant eyes danced and tempted to scratch his recent thoughts then and there. By God but she was intoxicating.
“Would you really want to?” Clasping his hands around her waist, he lifted her onto the lower section of the rampart. He gathered her skirts and lifted them. Hero shivered as chilly winds off the firth whipped about her bare legs. “See? Hardly comfortable.”
To his surprise, she pulled him between her thighs until he was pressed snug against her welcoming heat. “With you so close, I’ll warm up quickly.
Ian bent his head and met her expectant lips in a searing kiss. Her lips parted immediately, urging him to continue, but he restrained himself, keeping the moment light. Savoring the tension between them, building the anticipation. Hero knew him well by now and kicked her heels against his calves impatiently, drawing a low chuckle from him. “Ye’re ever impatient, my love.”
“And you are ever tormenting,” she whispered into his neck, nipping at him playfully. “Will you make love to me right here, Ian? The staff has all gone to the summer solstice festival in Ayr. We are very alone.”
“But for Boyle, your father, Simms, and the security staff who remain.”
“Yes, see?” She laughed softly, the puffs of her breath tickling the side of his neck, arousing Ian even further. “Very alone.”
“Och, my love,” he responded with a low moan, running his hands up her thighs. “I never imagined ye’d be one to find a thrill in the danger of discovery.” His thumbs found the slit in her pantalets and brushed against her damp curls. She tensed and held her breath. Parting her, he circled his thumb around her sensitive nub, and her breath released with a shaky sigh that that nearly drove him over the edge.
“It is rather exciting,” she said breathlessly, adding with a laugh, “That breeze is quite shocking though.”
“Yet ye asked for it, aye?”
She nodded, rocking her hips forward, and he grinned. “Mm, my fair Hero likes it outside, does she?”
“Oh, yes.”
Kissing her again, Ian savored the delicious gasps as his thumbs teased and swirled until she panted desperately, clinging to his shoulders to keep from falling over the edge. A keening moan was lost to the wind as her head fell back, leaving his damp lips to cool in the evening breeze. He bent his head, sucking lightly on a sensitive spot just below her ear. Her skin was hot beneath his open mouth despite the breeze. “Come for me, my love,” he urged and she did, the dam breaking on her passions as she cried out in rapture. “Aye, my love, my God but I love watching ye. So bonny, so lovely.”
“Ian, please,” she begged, a blush overriding the passionate flush of her cheeks at his words. “Come with me.”
