He shrugged as he paced the cottage, taking it all in. Not that there was much to absorb. There was a grand total of three rooms; the parlor, kitchen, and bedroom, besides a small lean-to that had been added to serve as a washroom. Most of the original furniture had been exchanged for pieces taken from the Grange. Either from the attic or from rooms rarely used, even when someone was in residence. As a result, the small room, with its plaster walls and dark beams, took on a more elegant flair than most its size.
She was cognizant, as she’d never been before, how small the room was. The close quarters it forced one into. Alas, she’d never had a man like Connor here.
A man she enjoyed being at close quarters with.
“She died shortly after our sister was born.”
The muted sorrow in his voice brought a pang of sympathy to her heart. Closing the distance until she stood just behind him, Piper touched his arm. “I’m so sorry. How old were you?”
Connor carried on as if he hadn’t felt her touch. “I was five. Ten lads but she had to have a lass. Cannae be bitter about it. Our Heather Blossom was a gift to us all.”
She paused as he rounded the settee to peer more closely at the framed drawings hanging on the wall and waited for his judgment.
He raised a brow in question. “Did ye do these?”
“Yes.”
His brow notched higher, and he nodded with approval as he studied them more thoroughly. “Verra fine work. They rival Currier and Ives.”
“I hardly think so, though I thank you for the compliment.” Warmth crept up her cheeks and Piper suddenly found a frayed knot in the braided rug riveting. Recalling their conversation, she said, “I thought your sister’s name was Fiona.”
“Aye.” He moved on, giving the inspection his full attention, studying the furnishings and absorbing small details. He did cast her a smile, though, his eyes sparkling with humor. “We all came to call her Heather Blossom because she is as prickly as any lass could be.”
He spoke with more affection than the words warranted, and she remembered how Connor had revealed about being his sister’s favorite as one of his virtues.
Continuing around the room, he brushed close by and gestured to the small upright piano crowded into the corner. “Do ye play?”
She nodded. “You adore her.”
“Aye. I do. We all do. She’s a rare corker, obstinate, often reckless, and bloody temperamental. She can put the fear of God into ten grown men wi’ a single glance.” He took a second tour of the room. “As I said once before, ye’d like her.”
She wasn’t sure why but Piper felt there was a compliment mixed up in it all. She’d like to meet his sister someday. Should things change, she would. Fiona was her sister-in-law, after all.
“Do ye have any siblings like that?” He circled to find her immediately behind him. His eyes fell to her mouth. “That drive ye to the edge of frustration and madness?”
Each word in his dogged pursuit for mundane conversation fell in volume until they were a near whisper.
“Actually I…” There was no chance she could speak of a sibling when the only frustration and madness she felt were due to his evasive behavior. “I’ll leave my journey to the edge of madness to you.”
A slow, sensual smile touched his lips. “Will ye, now?”
“You do it so well.”
“Do I?” His head bent until his forehead brushed hers.
“Mm-hmm,” she hummed and reached up to loosen his tie. “Did I mention how handsome you look today? I think rather uncomfortable, though?” she added to justify her actions.
“Ye’re a bonny sight every day,” he offered softly, brushing her fingers aside to loosen the tie a notch himself.
So that she wouldn’t touch him? So he wouldn’t be tempted? Again?
There was something empowering about the idea. That she was the temptress when everything about him teased and enticed her.
“Connor…”
“Ah, the tea.”
The relief in his voice was palpable as Edith returned with the tray. With a sigh, Piper took a seat on the settee and waited while the maid arranged the tray on the table in front of her. “Thank you, Edith. That will be all.”
The maid dropped a curtsy.
“We can see to ourselves from here.” Piper gathered her courage and added, “You may retire to the manor before it gets dark.”
Both Edith and Connor stared at her as if she’d grown two heads, but Piper studiously ignored them, pouring out two cups. “Sugar, Mr. MacKintosh?”
“Perhaps I should wait to serve your supper?” Edith suggested.
Piper smiled at her blithely. “Oh, no, I’m certain we can manage it if we get hungry. Thank you, Edith. Good night.”
The maid shifted from foot to foot, as did Connor, before she executed another curtsy and left the room. A few moments later, the creak of the door opening and the snick of it closing reached her ears. Then there was silence.
Smiling up at Connor, Piper patted the space next to her. “Won’t you join me?”
His mouth opened and closed a few times before he perched at the far end of the divan. He made no move. Neither did she. She watched his face as his eyes roamed around the room, focusing on everything but at her.
Funny that he should be the one who was nervous. She was nothing of the sort any longer, unswerving in her decision to seduce him with a confidence she hadn’t known in some time. It was the right thing. The perfect thing.
He would kiss her as he had in the drawing room. Position himself as he had with her in the tack room, and they could pick up where they left off.
The lid of the teapot rattled with the tremor of her hand, so she set it aside and clasped her hands together. An odd tingling tickled the end of her nose, and she rubbed it away only to discover it extended to her lips, then her cheeks. When she swallowed, there was a new tightness at the back of her throat.
That ache was back. In her chest. Low in her belly, radiating between her thighs. She clasped them together, though that merely served to amplify the sensation. The need. The desire.
Yes, there was much she wanted to talk to him about. Before that, however, there was something she wanted even more.
“Aren’t you going to kiss me?”
That turned his head. She stared at her clenched hands, bearing the weight of his intense scrutiny.
“I thought ye invited me for tea.”
If tea were a gentle euphemism for something far less bland, then yes. It was precisely what she’d invited him here for. She’d known it all along, even if he hadn’t guessed.
“Tea, yes.” She paused, then added softly, “Among other things. Mostly other things.”
“Like kissing?” His words sounded rather strangled at the end and Piper saw that same swirling heat in his eyes that she’d witnessed before. It set her pulse racing.
She managed no more than a whisper. “Among other things.”
The ardent pounding of her heart filled the silence while Connor stared at her with a mixture of shock and frustration.
She reached out and took his hand, scooting closer to him at the same time. “I haven’t yearned for much these past years,” she murmured. “I’ve been content with my lot such as it is. Then you came along and all I can think of is you. You wash all the rest away. All I know is that I want more of that.”
A deep, agonized groan emanated from somewhere within him.
“Piper…”
She’d never heard her name as both benediction and plea for mercy. The sound of it on his lips excited her all the more. She leaned forward to kiss his lips, just as he tugged his hand from hers.
“Connor…”
With a low curse, he leapt to his feet and aimed for the door. Piper rose to stop him. She caught his arm, forcing him to turn back to her. To look at her.
He played the game very well, but he couldn’t be that much of a true gentleman, could he?
“I want you, Connor,” she confessed plainly.
“Am I wrong in thinking you want me, too? If I am, tell me and that will be that. But if you do, I’d like to do something about it.”
Chapter 17
The Season will soon begin. London will be bursting with balls and frivolity. What I wouldn’t give for a chance to know what might have been. To meet a handsome lord and fall in love. I fear I will never know now.
~ from the diary of Piper Brudenall, January 1893
“Ye dinnae ken what ye’re saying, lass. What it entails.” His brogue was harsh, husky. Filled with the same desire that suffused her more and more with each passing second. She loved the sound of it.
The words, not as much.
“I’m not that naïve. I know, and I want it. With you.”
She set a hand on his solid chest. He didn’t run, didn’t move an inch beyond the tiniest flinch. The beat of his heart pulsed against her palm, hard and fast. Stepping closer, she silently dared him to retreat. When he didn’t, she retrieved his hand and settled it on her breast. His fingers flexed then stiffened. She arched her back to increase the pressure. His fingers curled again, then curved under her breast. Piper’s breath caught as his thumb grazed her nipple.
A low curse passed his lips and he yanked his hand away. “Lass, I beg ye to have the good sense I cannae summon.”
“Me? You started this.” She stretched up until their lips were inches apart. “You gave me the hint of a kiss, made me want more. You introduced me to desire. Made me want more.”
“Piper, lass,” he implored, each word a soft caress on her lips.
“What makes you think I have any greater will when it comes to this than you? All I want is more. I want you.”
Slipping her hands inside his jacket, she smoothed her palms across his ribs, delighting in the heat of his body through his linen shirt. Wishing it were his bare flesh. He jumped and twitched beneath her hands.
“You challenged me to stop hiding from life and live it.” She drew back far enough to stare into his eyes. “This is how I want to begin. Are you going to deny your own advice and start hiding now?”
With a groan of surrender, Connor caught her up in his arms. He crushed her to him and brought his mouth down on hers, capturing her lips. Nipping, sucking. His tongue advanced and retreated as he plundered her mouth with an urgency that left Piper reeling. Jubilant.
Lowering her to the settee, he released her without breaking their kiss. His fingers conquered the buttons on her blouse in short order, spreading it wide. Trailing kisses along her cheek, he found her earlobe and nibbled on her tender flesh.
“Ye vixen. I was a fool to step foot through that door. Ye bewitched me from the beginning. How ye make my blood burn.”
The rough words thrilled her, though not as much as the shivers that followed as he raked his teeth down the side of her neck. Over her collarbone to the rise of her breast. With a tug, he drew down her corset and caught her nipple between his lips. Shock and an electric sizzle arcing to her core bowed her against him.
“Oh my God, Connor!” Her fingers curled of their own will in his hair, holding him close.
Frantic, manic urgency flowed through her. Piper reveled in it and resented it at the same time. She wanted this, yes, but she wanted to savor each moment, not have them tumble one over the other.
“Connor, please. I want—Oh!”
His fingers brushed the apex of her thighs. When had he raised her skirts? What had she missed along the way?
Yanking on his hair, she forced him to lift his head. “Wait.”
“Coming to yer senses, lass?”
He didn’t appear happy about the possibility now.
“No. Never,” she panted, trying to gather her scattered thoughts. “It’s just going so fast. I can’t give each moment the proper attention it deserves.”
“I’ve hardly touched ye, lass,” he drawled gruffly. “I assure ye, there is much more to come.”
Hardly touched her? She felt ready to explode.
“I want to see you. Touch you.”
His eyes flared. He liked the idea too. He stood and the next thing she knew, Piper was scooped up from the divan and cradled against his chest as if she weighed nothing at all. He kissed the hollow of her throat, sending a sensual quiver of yearning down to her toes. She silently thanked providence that she hadn’t been standing for surely she would have puddled at his feet.
“Point me to yer bed, lass,” he murmured into her hair, “and I’ll give each part of ye proper attention.”
Weakly, she gestured in the right direction, and he crossed the short distance in long strides. He set her on her feet and rotated her to face the bed, holding her steady when she swayed, eyes closed. Gentle hands peeled her blouse away while he skimmed light, teasing caresses along the way. Skirts and petticoats slipped to the floor with a sigh she was tempted to emulate. Hot lips nuzzled the back of her neck, his whiskers rasping with sinful delight as her corset loosened, then fell.
Throaty words of praise and adoration were muffled by the brush of his lips along her shoulder. When his tongue ran down her spine, the world tilted beneath her feet.
“Connor,” she breathed.
“Shush, lass,” he murmured, his lips returning to the nape of her neck.
He plucked a pin from her already disheveled knot of hair, another, then another until her curls were loose and flowing down her back and over her shoulders.
“That’s better.”
He slipped the strap of her silk combination off her shoulder and raked his teeth there, rotating her to face him. Soft kisses traced her collarbone, lingered between her breasts. He tugged at the ribbons holding the front of the undergarment together, his mouth following the opening down. A hot wet trail that left her on fire, yet shivering. His tongue dipped into her navel and her knees wobbled.
“Nay, no’ yet.”
Holding her up, he eased the confection of silk and lace down her arms, past her waist, and over her hips in a whisper of a caress echoed by his calloused hands. Finally, when she thought her legs would no longer hold her upright, he let her sit on the edge of the bed.
Cool air licked at her bare breasts, bare everything. It hadn’t occurred to her that there would be daylight left when it came to this. She knew she should suffer some flood of modesty, some inhibition at being naked in front of a man for the first time in her life. However, all he’d shown her thus far was tenderness and pleasure. All she knew was desire, hot and combustible. She watched as he rid her of her shoes, untied her garters, and rolled down one stocking. His lips marked each inch of flesh as it was revealed, lingering behind her knee. The other received the same slow treatment until Piper trembled all the way to her bare toes.
A buzzing filled her ears, her mind. Every part of her being down to her fingertips reverberated with it. Her breathing grew shallow, each inhale an effort. An intoxicating weakness she’d never experienced suffused her body.
“Ye’ve marvelous legs, lass.” He glanced up at her, eyes glittering in the lamplight. Rough palms swept up the outside of her legs from ankle to thigh, then angled inward and back down, urging them apart as he went. “Lean. Long. Supple. I cannae wait to have them wrapped around me.”
The imagery was mildly daunting and deliciously exciting at the same time. Piper reached for him. “Come then.”
He shook his head and caught her hands with a wicked grin. “Och, and leave the treasure before me? I cannae. I did promise the proper attention to each part of ye, aye?”
“Each part?”
Connor bent his head to kiss her knee, watching her from the corner of his eye as he drifted upward. There was mischief there, and fire smoldering within. His tongue teased her inner thigh and her limbs shook of their own will as he urged them further apart.
“You can’t mean to…?”
But he did. Leaving a trail of kisses behind until he reached the junction of her thighs. She was strung tight as a bow. Torn between trepidation and anticipation. Not knowing what to expect while that
part of her already throbbed with instinctual understanding.
His tongue touched her, sending a shaft of rapture such as she’d never fathomed to her core. As if it might cleave her in two. With a cry of surprise, she drew back, yet contrarily threaded her fingers through his hair to hold him close. He licked harder, his tongue circling the source of it all. Another cry rose in her throat, she was helpless to stop it.
“Connor!”
“Aye, lass.”
Her pulse, weak and thready moments ago, sprinted. Her heart pounded with such ferocity, she feared it might burst through her ribcage. Every part of her body vibrated as if it would explode with the fire racing through her.
He lifted his head and a bereft sob racked her. Turning his head, he nipped at her wrist, reminding her of her death grip on his hair. She freed him, hoping he’d resume his task. Instead, he stroked her thighs with his hands, upward until his finger traced that spot his tongue had. Her breath caught and her head fell back. His caress went lower, circling another area that quivered at his touch.
“Ye’re so wet, hot.” His brogue was hoarse, thick. “By God, how I want ye.”
Before she could respond, her body arched of its own will against the thrust of his finger. His mouth descended once more, drawing on that sensitive nub. It was too much. The dam broke, rapture surged to bliss. Throbbing, pulsating. All-consuming, drowning her with its power. A scream tore from her throat, a release of the ecstasy overwhelming her. Darkness crowded the corners of her mind, and Piper fell back on the counterpane. Replete. Wringing the covers between her fingers.
“Oh my God. Oh my God.” The breathless invocation couldn’t be stopped any more than the tremors besetting her could. She’d imagined, she’d fantasized. None of it had come close to the reality of the euphoria Connor had brought upon her. Oh, she’d known there had to be something gratifying about this to make it worth the fuss, even so she’d never dreamed…
“Ye’re magnificent, my bonny lass,” Connor whispered in her ear and scooted her limp body to the middle of the bed. Coming over her, he pressed hot kisses to her belly, the bottom of her ribs. Each touch like a brand on her sensitive flesh. She jumped, flinched, although when his hand curved around her breast, she couldn’t help but sink back with a sigh.
A Question for the Ages (Questions for a Highlander Book 7) Page 16
