“We can do it like this?” she asked.
“Have ye never been on top?” What in God’s name had been wrong with her husband?
“What do I do?” she asked.
“Sit up. Aye, like that.” He groaned, and Glynis gasped as she slowly sank down on him. As he held her hips to guide her, he said in a tight voice, “It’s like rocking to the motion of the sea.”
Her ancestors must have been sea nymphs. In no time, she was making him blind with desire. He was mindless of anything except the rhythm of her hips and the feel of her tight around his shaft. Her breathing was already ragged when he ran his hand up her thigh and found her sensitive nub with his thumb. It was too dark to see more than her outline. But over the howling wind, he heard her gasps and whimpers.
Then she fell forward and gripped his shoulders as if she were drowning and he was the only one who could save her. Each sweep of her hair across his chest sent tendrils of sensation to his core.
Lightning struck again, and he felt as if it ran through his body. His every nerve and muscle strained and jangled with mounting tension. When her body clenched around him and she cried out, he was lost in the tempest with her. His heart thundered in his ears as he pulled her hips against him again and again. As if in the distance, he heard his voice calling her name as he exploded inside her.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her so tightly that he knew he was crushing her, but he could not make himself let go. He wanted to stay inside her forever.
How foolish he had been to think that they would not end up like this. From the start, it was inevitable. From that first mindless kiss he gave her on the beach in front of her father and all her clansman. From the night he had her against the wall at Duart Castle, and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Once they met, they were bound to end up lying in each other’s arms like this.
“I didn’t know,” she said against his chest, and he felt the wetness of her tears on his skin. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
Alex hadn’t known, either. In all his experience, he had never felt a need that strong. Never been so completely lost to passion. Glynis MacNeil had caught him completely by surprise.
CHAPTER 15
When Glynis awoke, the sun was shining in a hazy glow through the weave of the blanket that somehow still hung over them. Had last night truly happened? It must have, for Glynis’s imagination was not as good as that. She understood now why women were willing to take Alex Bàn MacDonald into their beds for as long as he was willing to stay.
She risked turning to look at him. Ach, Alex was handsome enough to make the fairies jealous. She let her gaze travel over every perfect, manly feature—the straight nose, high cheekbones, and strong jaw stubbled with golden whiskers. Even in his sleep, his mouth was curved up at the corners, as if he had a wicked secret to tell ye that would make ye laugh.
Her cheeks grew hot as she recalled all the places his mouth had touched her. Three times he had reached for her in the night and made her feel things she’d never felt before.
She had wanted to know passion with a man. Too late, she realized that she might be better off not knowing the pleasures that were possible between a man and a woman. It would certainly be easier to live without them if she were still ignorant. She recalled the bliss she had felt in his arms and sighed.
Nay, she could not regret the night.
* * *
“Tell me about your marriage,” Alex asked.
Glynis turned in his arms, all warm and sleepy-eyed. “Why do ye want to know?”
He shrugged. “I’m curious, that’s all.”
Her eyes, as always, seemed to see right into his lying heart. In truth, he had wanted to ask her about her marriage to Magnus all along. He felt the unfamiliar tug of jealousy over this man who had touched her in all the places he had.
“The two of ye have such animosity toward each other that I figure ye must have cared deeply once.” Alex had learned from his parents how love could turn to hate.
“Hmmph.” She crossed her arms and stared up at the blanket strung above them. “Magnus Clanranald doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”
She hadn’t said that she had not cared for Clanranald.
“Magnus doesn’t like to lose his possessions,” she said. “He thought I was one of them.”
“Why did ye leave him?” Alex asked.
“The marriage took place at my family’s castle on Barra, so I didn’t know what was waiting for me at his home.” Glynis was quiet for a long moment before she spoke again. “His mistress was there to greet him, along with a couple of other verra friendly lasses. Magnus made no effort to hide them—and saw no reason he should. He even let his mistress take my place at the table.”
Ach, it sounded too much like his father. But Alex’s mother fought back just as hard in the bitter war between them.
“Magnus is the worst of chieftains,” she said, her voice hard now. “While my father sometimes makes errors in judgment, he always tries to do what is best for our clan. Magnus puts his own interests before his clan’s, always.”
