“Knew what?Who ye are?”He shook his head.“The heart feels what it feels, whether ye’re a queen or a milkmaid…”
“But I’m not—”
“An archer from Rouen or Malisio…”
“But—”
“Or the most notorious outlaw in all o’ Scotland.”
He lowered his gaze to her half-open mouth.He could resist her no more.Those were the lips he’d been dreaming of for weeks.
And when he closed the distance, she didn’t resist.Instead, she lifted her face and closed her eyes in anticipation.
Chapter 17
The kiss was even more stirring than Adam expected.Their mouths met at first with tender restraint, then with ardent enthusiasm, and finally with starved passion.
He lifted his hands to caress her jaw.
She pressed her fingertips into the fabric of his gambeson.
She moaned against his mouth, and the sound sang through his veins.Igniting desire.Filling him with desperate longing.
He wanted her.Now.
And he could tell she wanted him as well.
The hidden entrance to the castle was a few yards away.The gate would be locked, but there was enough of a recess in the rock to afford the privacy of shadows.
He broke away from the kiss and swept her off her feet.
She gasped and cleaved to him.Her eyes were smoky.Her lips were wet with yearning.
He ducked into the hidden break in the rock, carrying her into the dim passage.Then he set her gently down.
He meant to woo her sweetly.Slowly.Patiently.He’d frightened her off before.He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
But patient she was not.
She flung away her cap and kicked off her boots.She shoved down her trews under her leine, dropping them to pool at her feet.Then she tried to tear off his gambeson with her bare hands.
Her eagerness drove his own.He wrenched down his trews, tossing them aside with his boots.
Unable to delay longer, he turned and hefted her up against the iron bars of the gate.Cushioning her back with one arm, he used the other to lift her hips.
She clung to him, wrapping her legs around his buttocks.Scarcely did he find the hot, wet center of her desire than she thrust forward, sheathing him in a heavenly warmth that took his breath away.
He wanted it to last for hours.Not only because the divine friction of her flesh upon his was thrilling.Not only because trysting with a woman who loved you was more intoxicating than mere physical sensation.But because he wished to leave no question this time that they belonged together.He wanted to leave his scent so indelibly upon her she’d never want to leave him again.
But after only a few dozen thrusts, she began to gasp out his name, tensing in growing agitation.It was all he could do to hold them both upright as his cock drove inside her and his ballocks tightened with need.
Then she cried out and arched against him, bucking like a wild colt, and he could no longer contain his fervor.
He tried to withdraw from her.It was the honorable thing to do.The safe thing.But she clung to him too tightly.With a final desperate hope that she knew what she was doing—that she wanted this—he let out a helpless bellow and pumped his seed into her.
Their gasps mingled with the soughing of the sea as they slowly descended from the lofty heights of ecstasy.He gradually withdrew from her and set her gently on her feet on the sandy rock.
He meant to apologize for his haste.But she reached up to grasp his face in her hands, entreating him with a look to tell her the truth.
