“There’s no need, Kieran. I am the one who owes you my thanks. You saved my life, risking yours in the process. It was foolish of me to enter the forest alone. You are my hero, through and through,” Vivien smiled, feeling that it may not have shown any joy on her face at all.
“It’s my duty as a warrior tae protect those who cannae protect themselves. I dae it with pleasure.” Kieran winked at Vivien again, setting the butterflies in her stomach off to a massive fluttering mess. “But I must insist on thanking you,” he said, his eyes drifting back to her lips.
Before Vivien could even think, Kieran’s lips were against hers.
It was not a simple kiss. It was far from simple.
It set Vivien on fire.
Every nerve ending in her lips caught ablaze, the pressure of Kieran’s lips against hers the only thing she could feel or think of.
His lips were magnetic; there was no way she could pull away.
Kieran’s kiss was gentle at first, his mouth soft and yielding as she leaned into him, a small moan escaping her lips. Vivien couldn’t deny she wanted more; she needed more.
As she kissed back, the kiss hardened, desperation flowing through Vivien’s veins as the intensity increased. Kieran gripped her tightly around her waist, pulling her so close to him that their chests were touching, his breath quickening, as his fingers squeezed and released her sides intermittently, as though he was trying to restrain himself from touching her anywhere else.
His tongue darted out, lightly flicking against her lips, causing Vivien to gasp in shock. The static current between them was trailing its way through her entire body, enflaming the heat that had constantly been building within her, setting her alight.
Kieran seemed to search her lips for permission to part them as his tongue pushed lightly against them. Vivien yielded, opening her mouth to dance one of the oldest dances known to man, her tongue swirling with his. The fire in her body kept building, reaching a ferocious temperature as their kiss deepened.
Vivien forgot who she was at that moment.
The only thing she knew was that Kieran’s lips tasted like heaven, and she wanted nothing more than for this kiss to last for eternity.
She had no recollection of ever feeling such a magnetic, powerful pull towards another human being. She had never expected that her body could be set on fire by something as ordinary as a kiss.
It wasn’t an ordinary kiss.
Fire coursed through Vivien’s veins as she moaned against Kieran’s lips, her hands coming up to tangle themselves in his wild hair. He pulled her closer to him so that they were chest to chest, heart to heart. For that brief moment, Vivien knew she belonged in his arms.
And with that thought, Vivien snapped back to who she was – what she was. Lady Stone. Lord Stone’s wife.
She pulled away from Kieran instantly, hating herself for having to do so. She hated nothing more than being Lady Stone at that moment.
“You heathen,” she gasped, knowing that she needed to cover up her horror with something plausible to him. She couldn’t very well admit that she wanted to keep kissing him when she was a married woman. “Do you always take advantage of a lone woman’s kiss? How dare you!”
She stood up quickly, pulling herself away from Kieran. Her body fought against her, wanting nothing more than to stay exactly where it had been. But Vivien knew she couldn’t allow that – she had to overcome the flames burning throughout her body. This was dangerous territory.
Kieran’s look of shock changed to one of humor as he smiled broadly at her.
“Ye cannae say ye didnae enjoy tha’, my lady.” His eyes twinkled.
“Of course I can,” she tried to sound as angry as she possibly could, knowing she failed miserably. The look of amusement on Kieran’s face only intensified with her attempts at feigning shock.
“Aye, o’ course. Even if I may ken better, ye can say otherwise.”
“You’re a rogue, taking advantage of a woman like that,” Vivien exclaimed, as she forced her feet to move beneath her.
She needed to run and run quickly. If she didn’t, there was no telling what she would let Kieran do to her – what she would allow herself to do to him.
In a blind panic, she ran over to her horse, forcing herself not to look over her shoulder. She couldn’t bear the thought of looking back at him, knowing her legs would give out under her if she saw so much as a hint of desire in his eyes.
Vivien clambered up her horse, throwing grace and dignity to the wind as she mounted. Fear and desire warred inside her; she had never known a passion this powerful, and it caused her no end of worry. She knew she would spend the next few weeks thinking of nothing else but Kieran’s lips against hers.
She had to return to the torture and waking nightmare that was her everyday life. This was nothing more than a mistake.
And even if she couldn’t be with him, even if she could never see him again, Vivien would always have the idea of Kieran taking her through a dark night. Her days would forever be darker now that she knew what it felt like to be kissed passionately. She had been kissed in such a way that her knees would have buckled beneath her if they had been standing, and there was no changing what that had done to her.
