Then he kissed her.
There.
Lightly at first. His humid breath teasing.
He slid an arm beneath her thigh, splayed his fingers over her buttocks and, with the other hand he parted her moist flesh, exerting a gentle pressure. She whimpered at the first touch of his mouth.
Unprepared for the shock of that contact and the first stroke of his tongue. The impact on her senses was acute and pervasive.
He gently plundered her with his lips and his tongue. He drew on her flesh. Lapped it. Suckled it. Her fingers left the nest of the eiderdown and curled in his thick hair. Loosing herself to sensation, she cried out, arching her pelvis so he could take more of her into his mouth. Quivering beneath him, she had ceased caring what anyone saw or heard. When she came, she shattered.
She gasped for want of breathing, boneless as he rose to his knees above her, and steadied her with gentle kissesand softly uttered words. She did not notice the cover slide to his waist. Only that his features were set.
Braced on his elbow, he took himself in hand and guided himself easily inside her. She wrapped her thighs around his hips and held herself to him as he settled firmly between her legs.
“Aye,” he said against her lips, his voice heavy with inflection, his unruly hair brushing her forehead. “You are well and truly wed this night, my love.”
Then he raised himself against his palms, his gaze veiled and remote in firelight, his every thought focused as he rocked against her. Again and again and again. The powerful flux and flow of his lower body guiding her.
And she momentarily disliked that he could so easily own her body.
That he knew how to pleasure a woman so thoroughly. That she was more his than he was hers.
For at the back of her mind, niggling like splinters in her thoughts, were all the reasons he had wed her, none that would ever include love.
She was valuable and courageous. She could wield a sword and a dirk with skill, but she could not wield her own future in her hands.
And while he’d etched his touch on her body and mind, he had also reminded her of her place in his life.
Reminded her ... that she should not want this. Or him.
Yet, fulfillment came again when she did not think it could.
Then his mouth came down hard on hers. This time when she shattered, he was with her all the way.
Chapter 16
The knock on the chamber door came too early for Ruark. He stirred the coals in the brazier. He had dressed hurriedly and his shirt hung loosely out of his leather breeches. His long hair was unbound and he was unshaven. His crimson-and-green plaid was draped over one shoulder, and he held his sword belt in his hand.
Rose stirred, but did not awaken completely until he bent and kissed her. Not even the brush of his morning stubble on her soft skin drew a protest when he kissed her again.
“Anaya will be here in a moment,” he said, leaning over her pliant form. “You have a long trip ahead of you.”
As if still drugged by last night’s passion, she opened her eyes and looked into his. He waded through a whorl of his own hazy thoughts as he watched her stretch and look around her. Though he was not one given to fancy, he thought she smiled as she turned her cheek into his arm and sleepily murmured something.
Anaya arrived in the room. Two of Ruark’s clansmen stood behind her. Rose saw them as Ruark brushed the hair from her cheek. “I have to go now, love.”
She wrapped her fingers around his wrist. Their gazes locked. Emotions passed between them just as last nighthad come, then gone. A flash in the darkness. “Wait.”
The bed ropes creaked with her movement. He patiently remained on the edge of the mattress as she sat up, her hands clutching the eiderdown to her breast. Her tousled red-gold hair tumbled over her shoulders but did not cloak the swell of her breasts. She couldn’t wriggle out of the bed with him in the way, and he wanted it that way.
“You should not have allowed me to sleep.”
He brought her hand to his lips as if her worries were inconsequential, when in fact they mattered more than she could know. “Now, why would I have been so cruel as to awaken you?” He unfurled to his full height before she could speak. “Colum and McBain will be escorting you to Stonehaven, Rose.”
She flung her legs over the mattress. Dragging the eiderdown with her and working to clutch it around her bosoms, she followed him barefooted into the other room. “Ruark!”
She grabbed his hand, but it was not the strength in her grip that stopped him. It was the desperation in her voice.
