He molded her breasts with delicate mastery, suckling and nibbling until he had her writhing beneath him. “Ye taste fine.” Closing his lips around her sensitive crest, he sucked and brushed his tongue hard across her nipple.
Kate tunneled her fingers through his hair and held him to her. She wanted him never to stop, but the heated ache in her loins demanded to be satisfied. When he laved his tongue down her belly, Kate pushed herself up on her elbows to see just what he was going to do. His tongue fluttered over her skin, revealing his intentions. She had the urge to pull away, but the thought of his mouth there was too arousing to deny. Just when she thought she might swoon if she didn’t feel him soon, he looked up at her from beneath his dark brows and the sexual fire blazing his eyes was enough to make Kate’s legs spread wider. He dipped his face. Kate held her breath. His kiss was like a flame that spread out of control through her blood. He took his time laving, feasting on her fully. Then, taking both her ankles, he lifted her legs and opened her wider, exposing her fully to his hungry mouth.
Kate groaned and licked her lips as searing jolts of ecstasy wracked her body. She felt wicked clutching fistfuls of his hair while he pleasured her beyond endurance. Craving release, she cried out his name and watched him rise up on his knees, still holding her legs apart. Her vision drank in the full glory of him above her, so powerful, so acutely male.
She watched him enter her slowly, sensually. She was sleek enough from his mouth and her passion for him to glide halfway into her, despite her body’s tight resistance. His thighs flexed on the verge of burying him into her fully. He was going to take her, and she was helpless to stop him.
She lifted her arms over her head and undulated her hips, snapping his control. The initial pain was naught in comparison to the sizzling friction of his powerful shaft dipping in and then out of her. He grew still and asked her not to move, not to speak. The muscles along his arms shuddered as passion’s talons gripped him and he resisted. He released her legs and bent his head to kiss her, then lowered his weight to hers. He angled his hips and surged against her hard, hot crux.
He made love to her slowly, and with such tenderness, Kate felt as if time slowed just for them, so they could both relish every moment, every touch. Taking her fill, she slid her fingertips across the breadth of his scarred shoulders, down the dip of his spine. She looked at him to find his eyes already on her face, taking her in as if the very sight of her gave him breath. She basked in him, as he did in her with every long, deep thrust.
Her sheath tight around his length, she spread her palms over his tense thighs to feel each plunge. Pleasure heightened to its pinnacle; her muscles convulsed beneath him. He answered by driving into her with slow, deliberate strokes until her fingers clenched his buttocks and rapture engulfed her. She watched, as if in some erotic, clandestine dream, his sensuous mouth curl into the wickedest of smiles before he lifted his head and erupted inside her.
Later, she lay nestled in the place that had become more familiar to her than her home. Callum’s arms would always be here to hold her, to protect her. She was certain of it, as certain as any young woman in love could be. She kissed his chest, then ran her fingers over the rippling planes of his abdomen.
He captured her hand in his and brought it to his lips. But he remained silent for so long Kate raised her head to look at him.
“What troubles you? Tell me, please.”
In the amber glow of firelight, his gaze was open and his heart exposed. Would she ever get used to the way his eyes tried to speak to her from beyond the darkness that plagued him? She ran her fingers over the shadowy dimple in his chin.
“What is it, Callum?”
“The world,” he told her, “suddenly seems perfect.” She nodded, but an instant later he exhaled a great, deep sigh. “But ’tis no’ perfect, Kate. Mayhap Ennis has it aright. I dinna know anymore.”
“Ennis Stewart?”
“MacGregor. Ennis MacGregor. He changed his name.”
Kate bolted upright. Callum had to smile at the beauty of her sitting there all pale and ready for a battle, her dark tresses tumbling down her bare shoulders. She was his, and it made him happier than he could ever remember being. Being here with her like this—why, it could make him forget everything else in the world.
“Callum, you would even consider such a thing?”
He dragged his gaze away from her breasts and grinned into her storming ebony eyes. “No’ until that day I was sealin’ yer wound and ye called me Clalum MacKreglor.”
“I would never allow you to do it!” she admonished him. “I would never allow you to deny what you love.”
He reached up and cupped her cheek in his palm. “Even if it meant yer life?”
Kate choked back a sob. She had become another responsibility to him. Dear God, she wanted to give him rest. She wanted to reassure him that no matter what happened, no matter what became of her, it was her choice. “I would give my life for you.”
Callum closed his eyes, unable and unwilling to bear the thought. “Kate,” he said, looking at her again, his voice a warm caress. “D’ye think lovin’ someone makes dyin’ fer them easier?”
She nodded. “Aye. Aye, I do, Callum.” When he shook his head and turned away from her, she touched his jaw, bringing his gaze back to her. “Or do you think you are the only one worthy to be willing to give your life for something you love?”
Callum’s heart pounded in his ears. Of course, he understood that any true MacGregor would be willing to die for his name. But he would not let her die for it.
He wanted her, needed her in his life. Every time she looked at him, every word she spoke to him, all worked at making him forget the injustices he and his clan suffered. How could he be angry at the world, when the world had given him Kate Campbell?
But she could be taken from him.
The thought chilled his soul and stirred the beast. She already loved him. She already declared herself a MacGregor. He’d made love to her, spilled his seed into her. But all hope was not lost. Nae, mayhap if he kept his heart silent, if faced with a choice for her life, she would choose to live. “I willna let ye die fer me, Kate.”
Well, it wasn’t a declaration of love, but he cared for her. She knew he did. She would worry him about it no more. She gave him a sympathetic pat on the hand and rose to gather her clothes. “I do not intend to die. When I return to my brother, I will—”
He snatched her wrist and pulled her back until she was sprawled over his chest. “Ye’re no’ returnin’ to him.”
“I’m not?” she asked.
