by Anna Durand
"Please," I moaned. "Please, now."
"Cannae let my woman suffer." He grasped my ankles and lifted them, settling my knees on his shoulders. "Donnae want to hurt ye, so tell me if —"
"Now, Aidan. Take me now."
He drove into me with one long, smooth stroke, his cock penetrating deep until it felt as if he filled every space within me. I let out a sharp cry, part gasp, part yelp.
Aidan froze, buried within my body. "Did I hurt you?"
"No," I said, breathless. "Don't stop."
Motionless, unblinking, he looked at me as if he were seeing me for the first time. As if I'd transformed into a glowing, ethereal angel right before his eyes. As if he might change his mind and leave me aching for him.
"Please," I whispered, clasping his wrists. "Please don't stop."
"Won't." He slipped free of my hands and shifted my legs off his shoulders. My soles fell to the mattress, though my knees stayed bent at either side of him. Still buried inside me to the hilt, he settled his big body on top of mine, braced on his elbows with his hands at either side of my head so he could stroke my face with his fingers. "I would never leave you wanting."
It was almost like he'd read my thoughts, knew I'd worried he might give up on this. My throat constricted at the fondness in his expression as he lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me with all the sweetness of a man worshiping his true love.
He couldn't love me, not yet. He'd said he didn't. But the way he gazed at me, I could only describe it as… adoring.
The brush of his lips on mine became a sweet, exquisitely tender kiss, with our lips caressing each other in a questing exploration. Then he began to move inside me, easing out of me until only the tip of his penis touched my opening and plunging back in with a long, lazy glide that awakened every inch of sensitized flesh within my body. I arched my hips up to meet his thrusts, my hands gripping his upper arms. With his full weight on me, I felt connected with him in a way I had no words to describe. The whole time — while his cock glided in and out, consuming me with lush strokes only to abandon me once again — he kept kissing me, savoring my lips with tiny licks but never delving inside. The sweet torment of it intensified my arousal, even as his gentle mouth eased the knife-sharp need just enough to keep me from tipping over the edge.
This man was driving me out of my mind with tenderness.
I hadn't known it was possible for him to ease me toward climax with such deliciously sweet seduction. My sex grew wetter, hotter, pulsating from my clit down to my opening and straight into my core, where he teased my swollen flesh into ever-increasing passion.
"Oh God, Aidan," I moaned against his lips. "Please."
"Tell me what you want." His words groaned out of him, as he dived into me with another sure, measured thrust. "Tell me."
"More. I want more."
He seemed to know what I meant, though I wasn't sure what I needed. This hunger simmering inside me, rising toward a full-on boil, scattered my wits. But he understood what I couldn't voice. Mashing his mouth to mine, he withdrew his cock and plunged his tongue deep at the same instant he plowed into me with one swift, powerful thrust.
Everything inside me exploded.
Not an orgasm, not yet. My nerves erupted in a torrid cascade that crashed through me from the inside out.
He tore his mouth from mine to growl, "More?"
"Oh yes, Aidan, more." I lunged my hips up as he drove into me again. "Yes-yes, oh God, yes."
Pushing up onto his straight arms, hands braced at either side of my shoulders, he pistoned his cock into me again and again, hips undulating, muscles rippling all over his body with the effort of pleasuring me. I clutched at his arms while little cries of joy burst out of me one after another and my body tightened with an oncoming climax. He grunted with every devouring thrust, bouncing me on the bed, and I clamped my legs around him, my heels digging into his ass. I had no idea what I was doing, only that I craved more of him, all of him, every ounce of pleasure he could feed into me.
My sex clenched around his shaft.
The orgasm seized my body, shocking in its intensity, wrenching a hoarse scream from me. My sex clenched around his shaft again and again, milking every last ounce of pleasure from the climax. I screamed again as the last burst of mind-altering ecstasy roared through me and faded into a lovely afterglow.
Aidan's entire body went rigid, his features contorted with a desperate need.
I felt his release pulse inside me as he drove into me once, twice more.
With a long, deep groan, he collapsed to the bed beside me. He shed the condom and shucked it into the little trash can beside the bed. Breathing hard, he pulled me against him and held me gently in his arms. I nestled my cheek against his chest and listened to the thudding of his heartbeats. Gradually, they slowed along with mine.
He ran his hand up and down my arm. "Sorry about that."
I raised my head to squint at him. "You better not be apologizing for having sex with me."
"No." He sighed, shutting his eyes for a moment. "I meant to take it slow, make it special. This was your first time."
"It was special." I wriggled until I could get in a position to press a kiss to his lips. "What you gave me tonight, it was perfect."
One chestnut brow hiked up. "Perfect? I'm good, but not that good."
"Not actually perfect," I said with a laugh. "But for me, that was the perfect first time. I should be thanking you."
"Are you sure you don't mind having me as your first?"
"Why would I mind?" I studied his face but couldn't puzzle out his mood. "You are sweet, funny, gorgeous, and incredibly sexy. You make me feel… treasured."
"Because you are." A slight smile kinked his mouth as he slid a hand into my hair, massaging my scalp. "I want you for more than sex. I know you think you don't want me for more. You don't love me yet, but you will."
"You can't make me love you by repeatedly telling me I will."
"Can't hurt." He placed a finger on my sealed lips. "You did vow you'd never have sex with me. And look how that worked out."
"Uh-huh." No idea what to say to that, since he was right. I'd broken my first rule.
If I can tempt you to break your first rule, the rest will follow, he'd said a few days ago on the beach. No sex, no love, no marriage. Scratch number one. The rest would not follow, no way, I couldn't risk it. I wasn't falling for him.
I could stop it from happening. I had to.
Aidan pulled me tighter against him.
Without thinking, I snuggled into him with my head in the crook of his neck. He smelled of sweat and sex and pure man. With his arms around me, his warm body beneath mine, I felt safer than I had in years.
Not falling for him.
The pain in my chest disagreed.
Chapter Seventeen
I woke to the steady whisper of breaths from one hunky man and two furry females. Sometime after midnight, the puppies had whined and pawed at the bedroom door and Aidan had gotten up to let them in. This morning, he lay sleeping beside me with one arm holding me against his body. Misty lay stretched across him with her back end between his legs and her head on his tummy. Mandy had curled up by his feet.
The little traitors had abandoned me.
Not that I could blame them. Cuddling with Aidan would make even the toughest woman melt. And my puppies weren't exactly struggling to resist his charms.
Unwilling to move my head from the hollow of his shoulder, I luxuriated in the feel of him pressed against me. I wasn't resisting him anymore either.
Aidan stirred.
I tried to roll onto my back, away from him.
His arm pinned me in place, and when I pushed against it, he tugged me into his hard body in a firmer hold.
"Morning," he murmured in a sleepy voice.
"Good morning." Having never woken up nude with a man — or anyone — before, I endured a twinge of embarrassment and uncertainty.
The discomfort spurred me to say the dumbest thing. "How are you?"
He chuckled. "In rude health. And you?"
Mocking me, he was. But with affection.
I nudged him with my elbow. "Being held prisoner by a presumptuous Scotsman."
"Hm." Aidan clamped both arms around me. "Never had a captive woman before. It has interesting possibilities."
The movement had roused Misty, who gave a loud, high-pitched yawn and rolled onto her belly, her front paws on Aidan's chest. Her tail thumped on the bed, which awakened her sister. Mandy sat up and wagged her tail. Aidan held onto me as both puppies sprang up and hopped around on the bed making excited little growling and snuffing noises, storming over me and Aidan to slaver all over any exposed body part they could reach.
I squealed when Misty jammed her wet doggie nose into my ear and Mandy laid a sloppy kiss smack on my lips. Spluttering, I tried to push the puppies away.
Aidan surged out of bed and hooked an arm around first one puppy, then the other. With one under each arm, he marched out of the room. I heard the dog door flap-flap-flap. A moment later, as I swung my legs over the bed's edge, Aidan strode back into the room and shut the door.
His erection waved in front of his belly.
The memory of last night, of his body covering mine and his swollen shaft buried deep inside me, had me growing more aroused by the second.
Instead of pouncing on me for another bout of ravishing sex, he strolled to where his clothes lay heaped on the floor and picked up his jeans.
"Hey!" I complained. "You can't get dressed yet."
Fighting to repress a smile, he paused with the jeans dangling from his hand. "Can't I?"
"No." I crossed my arms over my breasts, my own skin raking across my hardening nipples. But I had feigned indignation to uphold. "I was expecting a night of hot, sweaty sex."
He swung the jeans from one strong finger. "We had hot, sweaty sex."
"Only once. You were supposed to have your way with me all night like a proper, wicked sex fiend. I got cheated."
Aidan tossed the jeans aside and lunged to his knees before me, one large hand on each of my knees. With a look of mock shame, he said, "Please forgive me, my darling Calli. How could I have been so remiss in my seducer duties?"
I couldn't help it. Laughter bubbled out of me and I let my arms fall, my hands coming to rest on my thighs. "All joking aside, I was hoping for more than once."
"Didn't want to hurt you." The humor vacated his face and he studied me with real concern. "This was your first time. Are you sore?"
"I'm fine."
He gave me a dubious look. "I, ah… took you rather hard."
"Think I'm lying?"
"No…"
I clasped one of his hands in each of mine and guided them up the insides of my thighs. "Why don't you test me?"
Spreading my legs, I moved his hands to my hips and scooted forward until my behind rested on the edge of the bed. Might as well have worn a flashing neon sign that said, "Do me now, you big, stubborn Scot."
Aidan's gaze dropped to my sex. He sucked in a breath through his nostrils. His eyes drifted partway closed, his lips forming a smile of pure pleasure.
"Bod an Donais," he hissed, nailing his gaze to mine. "You smell like sin, and I want to feast on you."
"Go right ahead."
His focus wandered back down to the hairs between my legs and the slick flesh beneath. His tongue poked out between his lips as his famished gaze devoured me. "Love to, but Lachlan's ringing me in half an hour to talk about Jamie."
"We have time," I said, doing my damnedest to sound sultry and irresistible. "Aidan, I need you inside me. Fucking me like a demon."
He stared at me, wide-eyed. Not shock, I could tell that much. More lustful, delighted surprise.
"Ahmno a demon," he said, as he rose up before me, his erection in my face. "But I can fuck ye like a man who hasnae had a woman in centuries. Will that do?"
"Yes-yes-yes."
He crawled onto the bed, moving behind me on all fours. Sliding his legs around me on either side, he nestled his groin against my behind and his hard cock against my back. When his hands lighted on my thighs, I leaned back into him. He planted his feet on the floor and eased one hand between my thighs. The second his fingers delved between my wet folds, I moaned.
"Thought you wanted to feast on me," I said, as my head lolled against his shoulder.
"Another time." He petted my folds, his touch delicate and maddeningly arousing. "Do ye trust me?"
"Completely." And I did, bizarre as it sounded given how short a time we'd known each other. Maybe I should've worried about what that implied about my feelings toward him, but his touch stripped away all my capacity for thought.
His fingers toyed with my flesh, sliding around my outer folds and into the inner lips of my sex. He stroked slowly up and down, denying me the bliss of his fingers on my clit, where I needed him the most. He sank one finger inside me, then another, pushing them as deep as possible. The heel of his hand covered my mound, but he wriggled it until his rough, bare palm pressed into my clitoris.
"Aidan," I moaned.
"Shh," he whispered into my ear. "Let me take care of everything."
In the most merciless, languid motions, he rubbed his hand into my hardened nub while his fingers withdrew and plunged inside again and again. I grasped his thighs, writhing mindlessly against him, rolling my hips into his palm and his thrusting fingers. The climax swept over me in sweet, lazy waves, scorching and overwhelming but with an underlying tenderness. I whimpered with each pulse of delicious pleasure, still thrusting against his palm even when he slid his fingers out.
Aidan leaned around me to retrieve a condom from the drawer. He pulled away from my backside a little and I heard the ripping of foil. A few seconds later, he grasped my hips and hoisted me up and onto his lap, impaling me on his shaft.
"Oh," I gasped, surprised by the sudden fullness of his cock buried to the hilt.
He barred one arm over my belly and pitched backward, supported on his other arm. Before I could question his plans, he started thrusting in easy strokes that escalated into a pounding rhythm as he punched into me, inflaming every nerve inside my sex, inside my entire body. My nipples ached, harder than they'd ever been before, and I sensed an orgasm building with fiery intensity. He pounded with so much force my ass bounced up off his cock, and when I slammed back down, his balls slapped into my ass. Each punishing thrust set off another round of wet slapping as our bodies converged, separated, converged again. Our fevered cries echoed around us and the musky scent of sex engulfed us.
I came with an erratic scream, my body still bouncing up and down his cock.
Aidan thrust once more, letting out a hoarse bellow as his own release overtook him. Then he fell backward onto the bed, taking me with him, his softening shaft wedged inside me.
The sound of puppies barking at last penetrated the fog of our sexual fervor.
"Better see what's going on out there," I said between heaving breaths as I climbed off Aidan.
He groaned, sprawled on the bed.
I grinned at him. "That's okay, you stay there."
"Thanks." He gave me a lopsided smile. "Still feeling cheated?"
"Not in the least."
Chapter Eighteen
I emerged from the bathroom after taking a shower and noted the sound of puppies barking outside and human voices in the living room. Voices, plural. Yawning and stretching, I sat up and listened to the two distinct voices, but I couldn't make out the words. Sounded like two men talking. Had Aidan invited someone into the house without asking me?
Hurrying down the hallway in my socked feet, I stopped at the edge of the living room. Aidan slouched into the sofa, his mouth twisted into a half frown, his gaze aimed at the empty space in the general direction of the windows overlooking the backyard. I spotted puppy-shaped blurs racing back and forth across the lawn, slalom
ing around the cedar trees.
"Don't be stubborn, Aidan," said a slightly tinny voice originating from nowhere, as far as I could tell. The stranger had the same sexy brogue as Aidan and their voices sounded somewhat alike, but I would never have confused the two. One of his brothers, maybe?
Aidan pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, glancing down at his lap. "I do not want your money."
Tiptoeing forward, I crept up behind the sofa but halted six feet from Aidan's head when the other voice piped up again.
"You're skint," the other man said, "and we can help. There's no shame in letting your family lend a hand."
"It's not a hand," Aidan groused. "It's charity."
Skulking a teensy bit closer, I raised onto my toes and peeked over Aidan's shoulder. He sat with one ankle lodged on the opposite knee, his phone balanced on the tilted knee. The voice of the other man emerged from the phone's speaker.
"Erica worries about you," the other man said, "and she won't give up until I convince you to take the bloody money."
"Cannae say no to your wife, Lachie?" Aidan shook his head, a teasing lilt in his voice.
"I know what you're doing, Aidan. Calling me Lachie to fash me, hoping I'll give up. But you know how Erica is when she sets her mind to something."
"Aye, I know," Aidan sighed. "But I've got my pride. No money, Lachlan."
Some kind of noise in the background of the call made Lachlan MacTaggart grunt. "Erica says to tell you you're a pigheaded goof and when you're home she's going to — I'm not saying that, love."
The last bit had clearly been aimed at his wife.
"What are you not going to do, Lachie?" Aidan asked, sounding immensely amused.
Lachlan groaned out a sigh. "She says she'll whoop your stubborn erse until it shines bright red like Rudolph's reindeer nose."
"Och," Aidan said, chuckling, "I'm terrified. Never coming home now."
He turned his head the tiniest bit, arching one brow — at me.
