He plungedhis tongue into her entrance, teasing her with wicked strokes, then laved upward again in a ruthless rhythm that coiled heat low in her belly. Slick sounds mingled with his hungry growls and her broken moans, filling the high-ceilinged chamber with the raw evidence of her pleasure.
“Elijah…”His name tore free as her legs shook.“Please, I need…”She didn’t finish, couldn’t articulate how large the need had grown.
He pulled back slowly,chin glistening with her arousal, eyes feral in the candlelight.“Tell me, lass. Tell me what ye need.”
“Ye,”she rasped, fingers clutching the hem of his kilt.“Just ye.”
He puthis mouth between her legs again and resumed the rhythm.
“Let go for me,lass. Just let it go.”
As if thatwas all the permission she needed to hear. She let herself pour out her juice, her legs shaking and her eyes rolling back.
She lookedat Elijah and saw the smirk on his face as he took her in.
He straightened,the belt clinking open. The wool fell away from his narrow hips; his shirt followed, ripped over his head and tossed aside. Bronze skin stretched over sculpted muscle, a scatter of dark hair tapering to the thick jut of his cock.
Pulse leaping,Piper knelt and reached out, palm sliding up the veined heat, thumb swiping the bead of moisture crowning the flushed head.
Elijah hissed through his teeth,hands clamping on the table at either side of her head. She guided him to her mouth, nudging that broad tip through her tongue. He held her gaze for one weighted heartbeat, then held her head and started moving.
She took him all in.Sucking him one moment and teasing him with her tongue the other moment.
She started going fasterand faster, her breasts bouncing beneath the linen with each movement.
Primal urgency flared,overriding courtly restraint. He got harder, and she could feel him coming to the edge.
Pressure coiled tighter and tighter.She urged him without words. Elijah shifted his angle, his hips tilting, and every plunge slammed into a secret place that sent white sparks behind her eyes.
He snarled something wordless.
Elijah drove deep and stilled,his spine bowed, then pulled out. He let out a guttural growl as hot spurts painted the table, pulse after pulse of his seed.
Their ragged breathsmingled in the sudden quiet. The portraits kept their stern counsel, candle shadows stretching long across marble. Slowly, Elijah eased back, arms sliding beneath her to draw her upright against his sweat-slick chest.
He buriedhis face in her tangled hair, voice gravel and velvet.“Ye’re beautiful, Piper. Never doubt it.”
She sagged into him,spent, her skin humming, her heart pounding against his ribs. In the shelter of his arms, with the Highland night pressing cold stone against their backs and the taste of him lingering on her tongue, all thought of leaving—of anywhere else—faded like morning mist.
17
“Did ye hear that, Paisley?”
Findlay Armstrong lookedup from his cards—a losing hand, as usual—to see his wife hurrying toward him with unusual energy in her step.
The tavern was half-emptyat this hour, just a few desperate souls like himself trying to win back what they’d already lost.
“Hear what?”he muttered, tossing his cards down in disgust. Another loss. Another debt.
“About our darlin’daughter.” Paisley’s gray eyes—so like Piper’s, though far colder—gleamed with something that made Findlay sit up straighter. “Seems she’s landed herself quite the position.”
“What are ye talkin’about? Last we heard, she was bein’ taken away by those men to pay our debt.”
“Aye, well.”Paisley slid into the seat across from him, lowering her voice. “Seems there was some sort of raid on that operation. The whole thing got shut down. And our Piper? She got herself rescued by none other than Laird McMahon himself.”
Findlay’s eyebrows rose.“McMahon? That’s?—”
“One of thewealthiest clans in the Highlands, aye.” Paisley’s smile was sharp. “And accordin’ to Mrs. MacLeish, who heard it from her cousin who works in the McMahon kitchens, our daughter is now employed there as the governess to the Laird’s own children. Can ye imagine? Our Piper, livin’ in a castle, earnin’ a proper wage.”
