A heart-stopping moment later and she felt herself drifting down, down, even as he collapsed on top of her, though not for long.
With another groan he rolled to one side and drew her against him, sheltering her within the crook of his arm.
No blanket needed for the warmth that seemed to envelop them, Lisette closing her eyes and curling her hands against his sweat-slicked chest.
The manly scent of him and the heat of his body lulling her into a sated sleep even as Conall pressed a kiss to the top of her head…his fingers entwining in her damp hair.
“God help me…”
Conall’s voice no more than a whisper, he gazed down at the woman he had just claimed as his wife…not feeling at all like he would have imagined.
His lower body still throbbed for the seed that he’d spilled into her, his climax more intense than anything he had known since Lorna—
“No, you willna think of her!”he muttered even as he drew Lisette closer, her flushed cheek pressed to his chest, her soft, sweet breath fanning him.
Aye, soft and sweet, for so it seemed was everything about her…this woman that he had wed against his will.Their marriage decreed by a king, so how could Conall have refused?
He had done his part.Wedded and bedded her—och, how he had bedded her!He had not meant to take her so swiftly and fiercely, but his desire for her had overcome him, overtaken him.
In truth, he had never seen a woman fashioned so exquisitely as Lisette standing naked in front of him fresh from her bath.
Her creamy skin flushed pink from the steamy water.
Her wet body glistening with moisture in the glow of firelight like a golden sheen upon her.
Her breasts high and taunting, her swollen nipples framed by rosy aureoles that he ached to touch, even now.
With a groan, Conall felt himself growing hard again, so hard it hurt, but he would not wake her.The lass needed a good night’s sleep after the rampant pace of the last two days.
Two days!That was all he had known her, and yet he was hard-pressed to imagine life without her…which made him groan.
He did not want to feel himself so drawn to this woman—nor to any woman!From the first moment he had seen her, she had not acted at all like he had imagined.
Aye, she had struggled at the convent…a bit.
She had tried to escape into the woods, but not so far that he hadn’t been able to find her, as if she had made only a half-hearted attempt.
She had seemed joyous upon their wedding—aye,joyous!—which amazed him still.Her hearty appetite in the great hall not that of a woman mourning the loss of a life she had dreamed of—her marriage arranged or no.
The revelations she had made to him in so short a time just as astounding.Her words spoken with such sincerity and, with what he was certain, blunt honesty.
She didn’t love Euan MacCulloch.
She didn’t hatehim, Conall Campbell.
Lisette showing such concern for him after he’d saved her from the wolves, and her soft, heartfelt apology when she had reached out to touch the bruises on his chest—
“Enough!”Conall whispered fiercely, but mayhap still too loud not to disturb Lisette’s slumber when she stirred against him.
Her lovely hands curled into balls like a child’s, she snuggled closer, which made him groan again.
He did not want to feel such emotion, such confusion, such bewilderment for any woman, least of all the bride that had been thrust upon him!
Cursing under his breath, Conall carefully disengaged himself from her so as not to wake her and rolled upon his back to stare at the ceiling.
Yet in the next instant when she sighed so sweetly in her sleep, he rolled back over, pulling the heather-sprinkled spread with him to cover them both.
Lisette once again nestled in his arms, her cheek pressed against his heart, which seemed to beat faster with her so near…God help him.
