Page 58 of In Bed with her Highland Foe

“It’s a power, aye.” He waited, watching as she settled on her knees before he went on. “It’s every part of the experience. The kisses, the way ye explore one another, hands wandering, eliciting feelings with the briefest of touches.” He paused, watching as her breath quickened, her chest rising and falling faster now. “It is nae all about the ultimate moment of pleasure, though that is wonderous in itself.”

“Ye said there are ways for a man tae bring a woman pleasure before the pain. What did ye mean by that?”

Oh, Kyven. Yer innocence will be the death of me.

It was plain she knew nothing about oral pleasure, or even how to pleasure with hands alone. He tilted his head to the side, having to hold himself back, as he gazed at her, from reaching forward to show her.

“A man can show a woman pleasure with his tongue, Kyven.”

“In kisses?” she murmured, biting her lip again.

“Kisses, aye, but tae a particular… area of yer body.” He just looked down at her skirts.

“Oh.” She gasped loudly this time. “Is that… I mean… I didnae ken…” She fumbled for the right words.

“Many dae it,” he assured her. “Ye can explore such things yerself, ye ken?”

“W-what?” she stammered, her eyebrows shooting high. She steadied herself on her knees, reaching to take hold of the arm of his chair. He reached for her, just tracing the back of her hand with his fingers.

“With this,” he said. “If ye are ever curious tae ken what it feels like, Kyven, take yer fingers and let them wander. Reach beneath yer skirt, tae yer very center, and explore.”

She didn’t even blink as she stared up at him.

“It will show ye a world ye long tae ken.”

He pulled back his hand, worried he had maybe gone too far. He sat back in his seat and rested his hands on the arms of the seat, his fingers inches from hers.

She knelt up higher, as if she didn’t want him to pull back so far. His stomach quivered, wanting her to climb into his lap so he could kiss her and finish with all this talk.

“Ye have done all of this with another?” she said.

The sudden words shifted the air. The tension was still there, yes, the curiosity too, but there was a grain of sadness too.

“A long time ago,” he whispered. “She is a world away now, and whatever we felt fer each other at one time, is gone.”

“Can I ask ye what happened?”

How can I refuse ye anything?

“We thought we were tae marry, our families had agreed” he explained to her. “Then I was threatened away from her by another. He wanted her hand and I wasnae tae pursue her. They threatened her life, and those of me brothers.”

“Brothers?” She practically stood in alarm, but he leaned forward, not wanting her to go just yet. She sank down again to her knees, staying close to him. “Ye have never mentioned having brothers.”

“Tae keep them safe,” he said softly. “Two of the greatest men ye could ever ken, Kyven. Believe me in that. I would dae anything tae keep them safe, so I left. Me one-time love married another just two months later.”

“So quickly?”

“Aye.” It was something that had always grated on him. If Elisa had cared for him as he had for her, would she not have grieved him longer before consenting to Shay? “I was young, as was she. I guess as I left, we both realized who we really were. She became the wife of the other, and then died during childbirth, and I…” He leaned toward Kyven, taking her cheek as he had done that morning when he had bathed. She leaned into his touch, her lips dangerously near to his palm. “I became yer captain. I dinnae regret a single one of the decisions in me life, and I certainly would live nay other place than here.”

She turned her head a little more. The edge of her lips brushed the side of his hand and they both inhaled sharply.

This was it, surely? Now of all moments he could tell her how he felt, he could kiss her, to show it. Had they not crossed so many boundaries, as Aaden had told him they had to do? Was this not the air of freedom and sexuality he had been longing for?

“I am glad ye’re here,” she murmured. “Though I’m sorry that she is nae longer and fer the path that brought ye tae me.”

“Dinnae be,” he pleaded with her, bending his head toward hers. They were inches apart now. “I told ye, I dinnae regret it. I would dae it all again.”

“Tae keep them safe? Or… tae be here?” She titled her head a little with the words.