Slowly, he lowered her onto the waiting plaid. After settling his hips between her lean legs, he eased her open with his fingers, stroking her body from its own sated slumber of exhaustion until her hips rocked against him again.
Tiny whimpers sounded from between her parted lips. Her head tossed back and forth, a look of wild abandon transforming her features. She was close. And so was he. She began to moan, loudly this time, and he covered her mound with his hand, putting even more pressure against the surging violence of her release. He cupped her as she writhed in pleasure against his hand. Right before she crested, he plunged deep inside her, filling her to the hilt in one smooth movement.
Tight, unbelievable heat surrounded him.
He closed his eyes and thrust, urging her sensitive, tingling flesh to crest again. Sweat born of forced control gathered on his chest and brow as he tried to be careful, she was so small.
“I won’t break,” she whispered, reading his mind. “Don’t hold back. I want all of you, Alex.”
Damn her, she didn’t know what she was asking.But her luminous green eyes saw right through him, forcing him to reveal every dark, tortured part of him. The place no one had ever seen before. Something in him broke. He was out of control, raw, exposed. All that was left was his primal need for her. The all-consuming fire that raged inside him that only she could douse.
So he gave it to her, driving in hard and deep. Grinding and thrusting with all the savage emotion that she’d wrung out of him. He gave her everything. Everything but the promise of a future. And she met his dark strokes with a plunder of her own, holding his gaze, raking his soul of its secrets.
She knew just what she meant to him.
He felt the pressure building, knowing that he could not hold on much longer. He looked deep into her eyes, silently seeking…acceptance. Something almost sacred passed between them. A reflection of a love so pure, it dissolved the last shadow between them.
A wave of unbelievable euphoria crashed over him as he came, the sheer force causing him to let out a deep roar. Her own cries met his own. Again and again his body clenched with release, shooting his seed deep inside her as they crashed together in a perfect storm.
Meg thought she must have died. She couldn’t move if her life depended on it. Never had she felt so completely drained and yet so completely fulfilled at the same time.
Alex collapsed next to her. She managed to curl up next to him and rest her head on his chest, listening to the fierce pounding of his heart. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight into the curve of his body.
Neither of them spoke. Words seemed wholly inadequate.
Never could she have believed that her body was capable of expending so much energy and experiencing so much ecstasy. Four times he’d driven her to paradise. She didn’t think she could handle that again.
The horror of the thought stopped her heart. There might never be another time. He’d warned her, but she’d never expected…this. What had just happened between them was cataclysmic, but it hadn’t changed the fact that she would leave on the morrow.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on the powerful beat of his heart. She wanted to savor this moment, make it last forever.
Tomorrow would come soon enough.
Chapter 23
They’d made love again, in the crisp early hours of dawn, as the first rays of light penetrated the darkness of night. Perhaps it was wrong, knowing the uncertainty of their future, but Alex could no longer fight what was between them or his own need for her.
He woke her with a kiss, rousing the slumber from her eyes with the gentle persuasion of his mouth and tongue. The fierce, hungry passion of the night before transformed into the languid, sensual exploration of lovers. Naked, limbs entwined, he caressed her velvety soft skin until she heated under his touch and then stroked her with his fingers until she arched against his hand, her lovely full breasts straining to the sky.
He circled his tongue around her nipple, pulling her with his teeth and lips until she writhed beneath him. She was so damn sweet, her response eager and honest with an intensity that matched his own.
He entered her slowly, watching her face, wanting to remember the pink flush of pleasure that spread across her cheeks as she took him into her body. Gripping him tight, until he dissolved in heat and sensation.
He stilled for a moment, savoring the sensation of being buried deep inside her, of filling her, of being joined together in God’s heavenly embrace. He held her gaze and pushed deeper, shuddering with a wave of pure tenderness. The look in her eyes stripped him to the core. He couldn’t move, wanting to preserve the moment, wanting never to forget how it felt to experience perfection.
He drew out slowly, lengthening his stroke, building the rhythm gently and then with increased urgency. When her eyes closed and she started to come, he let himself go, surging hard against her until he sank into her full hilt and came with a violence that shocked him. It was the most profound climax of his life. Drawn slowly from the deepest part of him, his entire being consumed by the force of his love for this woman.
It was the most beautiful, bittersweet experience of Alex’s life. He cradled her in his arms with all the tenderness of a man who’d been given his heart’s desire, only to realize that he could lose it in the amount of time it took an arrow to fly or a sword to fall. He wished it could have lasted forever, but not even the force of his considerable will could hold back the sun from its determined rise.
Reluctantly, he let her go, sending her back to her pallet before the others woke. Though he doubted they were fooling anyone. Jamie, he was fairly sure, knew exactly where Meg had spent the night. In his old friend’s gaze, Alex read censure, but also reluctant acceptance.
The hours passed quickly. With the battle looming, he and Neil had spent most of the day planning a new strategy of attack. He kept Meg within his view at all times. When occasionally their eyes would meet, he knew she was remembering, just as he was, but there was little time for conversation. What had needed to be said had been said last night. Their future, if any, rested in God’s hands now.
He loved her more deeply than he’d ever thought possible. But something kept him from telling her. Perhaps he thought it would be easier for her to move on if he did not return. Or perhaps it was because when he told her he loved her, he wanted to be free to do so.
When it was time to load thebirlinn,he ordered Robbie and two of his most trusted warriors to accompany the party of Mackinnons. He could not spare them, but neither would he take any chances with Meg’s safety. Meg objected, but he would not be gainsaid.
Finally, it was time.
