Page 94 of Claimed Highland Brides

“Tell me.”

He shook his head, looking down. “I never meant to end up here,” he said starkly.

“And yet, here ye are.”

He aimed a strained smile her way. “Yes, here I am.”

He moved to sit next to her in the bed, his brow furrowed in thought, leaning slightly forward, staring at his feet. Abruptly, he lifted his head and met her eyes. “I don’t want you to think I don’t want to be here. That could not be further from the truth. As unexpected as this adventure has been, you are, without doubt, the best part.”

Jamesina felt her cheeks warm as she leaned forward unconsciously, drawn to the utter clearness of his compelling blue gaze. She reached up and ran a hand through his inky locks. “I have wanted tae do tha’ for some time,” she admitted in a shy whisper.

He smiled, leaning forward and picking her hand from her lap and returning it to his hair. “Well, we just pledged ourselves to each other, and so you can do that as much as you like.”

The unexpected streak of happiness that jolted through her at those words had her back stiffening, and her eyes brightening as her fingers closed on a clump of hair, squeezing tight. He didn’t flinch, didn’t move his head, his rippling bright blue eyes holding hers in hypnotic steadiness.

She let out a breath in a long sigh, her lips parting. His eyes immediately dropped to them and she licked her lips in reaction. He made a sound somewhere between a groan and a whimper and suddenly his own lips were pressing into hers, his tongue asking permission to explore deeper. Her body relaxed as she submitted to him, her other hand rising to clutch at a second clump of hair.

“Jamie,” he murmured into the side of her mouth before he kissed her unforgivingly, relentlessly, his tongue tangling with hers in a dance as old as time. She arched into him, hands trembling with helplessness and fear, even as she offered her mouth to him, asking for more.

He tore his lips from her, his breath harsh and audible, searching her features for she knew not what. He must have found what he was looking for because he got to his feet and pulled her up. His hands on the laced bindings of her shift made her stiffen but only for a moment.

If they were to consummate their union, her clothes would clearly have to go.

Slowly, tentatively, her fingers inched up his strong muscled arms as light as the wings of a butterfly as his own worked on loosening the binds of her shift so that her breasts were not squeezed together like a voluptuous offering anymore.

He put his hands on her shoulders, pushing her shift off them so that it fell to the floor at her feet in a white puddle. Her lashes swept downward, hiding the shyness in her eyes as she stood naked before him. He gasped audibly and she could feel his eyes on her flesh like a burning brand. Her breath came faster as her hands trembled and she started as his hand closed over hers, raising it up to his lips. His breath ghosted hot on her flesh before the warmth of his lips pressed into her knuckles again and again.

“Won’t you look into my eyes, Jamie?” he whispered, and she trembled in reaction to his deep, rumbling baritone.

Slowly her eyes lifted to his and she let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Tentatively, she smiled at him.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered. “Or should I say, ‘bonny’?”

She let out a giggle, relaxing slightly. “Ye may say wha’e’er ye please.”

“Alright then, I shall say you are as bonny as the highlands of your homeland, your wide doe-eyes and fiery hair, the beguiling hills, and valleys of your body…”

She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her. “Oh are ye a poet the noo?”

“Your body makes me want to compose odes to it, certainly.”

That made her laugh out loud and she finally was able to forget her fear and relax in his gaze. He ran his hand down the sloping curve of her side, from just beneath her armpit to the sharp thrust of her pelvis.

“I want to perform sinful acts upon your person,” he whispered confidingly as he leaned forward and sucked a love bite into her neck. She shuddered, eyes fluttering closed as her hands scrabbled for purchase, not knowing where to land. A warm hand on the cheeks of her bottom had her tensing as he squeezed, hard, pulling her flush against him so that she could feel his arousal, even through his clothes.

“Y-ye have m-me at a disadvantage, sir,” she mumbled, pulling at his sark.

“Oh no my lady, you do.” He stepped back, toeing off his shoes even as he loosed the ties on his breeches, divesting himself of both breeches and stockings in one fell swoop. She gasped as his sark flew off just as efficiently and she was forced to contend with his stark nakedness.

Her eyes could not seem to unglue themselves from his long hard length and she wondered how all of that was supposed to fit inside her. Fiona had assured her that it would fit just fine but having been presented with the size of it, she was skeptical.

He pulled her to him and she stumbled forward with a gasp, blinking up at him apprehensively. He took advantage of her inertia by sucking her bottom lip into his mouth. He worried it for a while, causing disconcerting bolts of electricity to strike through her body as if she’d been struck by lightning. She whimpered and he let her lips go only to latch onto her neck, his hands everywhere on her body.

Deciding that she might as well, she embarked on her own exploration, reveling in the hardness of his muscles, so different from the soft warmth of her own. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist without thinking about it. His mouth took hers again even as he stepped forward and tipped her over onto the bed.