He wanted to rip her hands away, but the damned belt had left him at her mercy.
He should have known better. Annie wouldn’t have any mercy. Not when she wanted something.
“Damn it, Annie. I told you it’s not a good idea.” He pulled at the belt again. “Untie me.”
She sat back on his lap, considering him for a moment. “No.” She paused and repeated in a more certain voice. “No, I don’t think I shall. Not until you tell me how to bring you pleasure. I assume there is more than one way?”
Niall swore, cursing himself for a fool. This is what happened when you let a lass be in charge. They took over! Although try as he might, he really didn’t wish it otherwise in this case.
Just the thought of her hand on him. Milking him. Making him come.
He swore again. “I don’t want to scare you.”
She met his gaze. “You won’t. I’ll be in control, right?”
God, yes.He might have said that aloud. Niall’s cool head gave up, and the hot one took over.
He told her exactly what to do. How to free his erection from the tight binds of his trews. How to circle him in her hand. How to stroke him. How to make him come. Which, with the sensuous way she was looking at him as she touched him, took an appallingly few strokes before he couldn’t hold on any longer.
He surprised them both. She pushed back off his lap as if she’d done something wrong. “Did I…? Are you…?”
A fierce wave of protectiveness made his already-hurt ribs tighten even more. She was so damned innocent. Even after what she’d been through.
The spasms of pleasure that had wracked his body were just beginning to ebb when he managed to connect his brain to his mouth again to find the words to answer her. “I’m fine, Annie. Better than fine. That was incredible.”
The expression on her face as she brought him pleasure wasn’t something he would soon forget. He suspected the only thing that would top it would be the expression on her face when he finally made love to her.
Instead of pleasing her, however, his words seemed to bother her. She started to turn away, and he tried to reach out to stop her—forgetting that his hands were still bound. Seeing him struggle, she hesitated a moment. For one long heartbeat, he thought she might leave him like that. But fortunately her gaze fell on the bandage securing his broken ribs, reminding her that he was injured, and she moved around behind him to untie his hands.
The rush of blood that returned to his arms and shoulders as the belt was released was almost painful. It took a minute to shake out the needles and let the feeling return to his hands before he could clean himself up with one of the extra bandages and fasten his trews.
She watched him quietly with a somber expression on her face and only spoke when he reached for his shirt. “I’ll do it,” she said. “You shouldn’t lift your arms.”
Niall sat back down on the stool and allowed her to help him pull the shirt over his head and thread his arms through the openings, all the while replaying in his head what had just happened to try to figure out what he’d done wrong.
He swore. He’d gone too fast. He shouldn’t have let her talk him into pleasuring him. He caught her this time, before she could move away. “I’m sorry.”
She frowned. “What are you apologizing for?”
“I rushed you, and now you are upset.”
She shook her head. “That isn’t why I’m upset.”
He frowned. “Then I don’t understand. What else did I do wrong?”
She looked up at him, clearly frustrated. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Don’t you see? That’s the problem.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t see at all. The lass was talking in riddles. But as she looked close to tears, he didn’t know what to say. “Why is that a problem?”
* * *
Annie could see Niall’s confusion and knew she wasn’t making any sense. But how could she explain the feelings inside her causing such turmoil? He didn’t understand. He would never understand. How could he?
What had just happened had been incredible—miraculous in so many ways. The passion she’d felt the first time they’d kissed in Dunvegan was nothing to the passion that she’d just experienced. She’d never dreamed that those kinds of feelings could come over her. That her body could be capable of reaching such heights of pleasure after the violence that she’d experienced.
It had been nearly perfect.
But that was the problem. That was what had caused the wave of sadness that had hit her when she realized the pleasure she had brought him—and the pleasure he’d so selflessly given her. It made the contrast of what had happened to her that much harder to bear.
