“Oh, oh,” she cried, as he teased her, holding her tight, moving slowly, deeply.
Only when he felt her begin to convulse did he give himself over to it. As she came, he pumped harder, deeper, pulling her hips back so tightly against him it was all he could do to maintain balance.
And as she continued to shudder through aftershocks, he slid his hands back to her hips and reared up, and let himself loose inside of her. Thrusting hard, fast, deep. She pounded her fists on the tiles, pushed back hard against him, on him, but it was that moment, when she looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes still filled with need, filled with desire, and, in that moment, needing to connect specifically with him, and not simply giving herself to the moment…that was what sent him finally soaring over the edge.
And even as he was pumping everything he had into her, he vowed that next time, it would be slow, gentle, and she’d know, without a doubt, who was making love to her with every second they were joined.
He wasn’t sure whose knees were wobbling the worst when he finally slid from her. They were both gulping in the thick, steamed air, their breathing labored and raspy. He shifted his back to the wall, leaning all his weight against it as he turned her toward him, cradling her against his chest. They said nothing, just let the hot water caress them, as he held her close, his cheek pressed to the top of her head, her face buried in his shoulder, as they slowly reclaimed control.
But this closeness wasn’t enough, and the moment he could, he tipped her face up to him and kissed her. This time it was tender, quiet, more a reverent benediction than an impassioned plea. His heart squeezed almost painfully when she responded in kind. He couldn’t remember ever feeling such sweet affection, such honest emotion, for anyone.
There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but, for once, he was wise enough to know it wasn’t the time. They were too raw, too confused, too riled up. So he kissed her, and held her, until the water started running cool. “I think our ten minutes are up,” he said, smiling when she laughed a little.
“Tommy’s probably had a cat and a few litters of kittens by now,” she said, then leaned back and looked up into his eyes. “Poor Tommy.”
Dylan’s smile spread. “Aye.” He leaned over and shut off the water, then reached out for several of the hotel towels. She reached for one and he shook his head. He wrapped the towel around her and helped her out of the tub, carelessly wrapping his towel around his hips before joining her. “Let me,” he said, when she started to pat herself dry. He winked at her when she just looked at him. “Full service.” He didn’t give her time to argue, though she seemed pretty willing to let him dry her off.
But when he’d wrapped her in the hotel bathrobe and tugged her close for another kiss, she surprised him by whipping his towel off. “My turn,” she said. “Fair’s fair.”
“I rather like the way your mind works,” he told her, then snatched the towel back and wrapped it again around his hips. “However, if you’ve any prayer whatsoever of getting back to work, you’ll leave me to it. Otherwise we’re going to find out what it would feel like to make love in that big bed of yours out there.”
He saw the emotion immediately leap into her eyes and reveled in it. Aye, so she did want him as he wanted her. Body and soul. His body stirred in response, which, considering the toll taken on it these past twelve hours, was nothing short of miraculous. He shooed her out of the bathroom before he could change his mind. “Off you go. Unless you’d like me to dress you as well.”
She looked over her shoulder as she crossed the room toward the wardrobe. “As I can’t go downstairs naked, I’m thinking that’s not such a good idea.”
“Now you’re getting the drift.” He stayed in the doorway of the bathroom, leaning against the jamb, both enjoying the steamy air behind him…and the view in front of him. Aye, he was a lucky, lucky man, indeed.
She toweled her hair dry and he found himself grinning at the messy pile of hair that looked about the same wet as dry. He couldn’t imagine her looking any other way.
“What about you?” she asked, as she pulled the clean bra and panties from her drawer. She slipped the panties on, then shrugged out of the top half of the robe, leaving it hanging over the belted waist.
“What about me?” he asked, crossing the room and brushing her hands away as he helped her hook her bra in the back.
“Here I’m all clean and fresh. I’m sorry you have to pull on those same clothes again.”
He crossed to her bed and flopped backward, arms crossed behind his head, ankles crossed. “I suppose I’ll just have to do without.”
“Your towel! You’re getting the bed all wet.”
To which he simply whipped it off. “There.”
“God, what am I to do with you?”
“Have you a few hours? I can give you a detailed list. Or better yet, I can show you.”
“Don’t you have anything better to do than lay about my room, a kept man?” she teased, clearly expecting that to get a rise out of him.
He stretched luxuriously and rather enjoyed the way she couldn’t stop sneaking peeks at him. “You’re the one who took over my home and all but booted me out. I think it’s only fair you cater to my well-being in the meantime. Besides, I’m beginning to see your point about the owner not being underfoot during filming.”
She pulled on a T-shirt and a pair of khakis, then scooped up his damp towel and flung it at him as she crossed the room to stand by the bed. Just out of arms’ reach, he noted. “The women scare you that much?”
“They’re a formidable lot.”
She folded her arms and pretended to be affronted. “And I’m not?”
With lightning fast reflexes, he lunged to his side and snagged her hand, tugging her off balance and onto the bed, sprawled across him. “Oh, you’re the most formidable of all,” he said, kissing the tip of her nose, delighting in the accompanying frown that earned him.
“Yeah, I can see that. You’re completely cowed.”
He rolled her beneath him in one swift move, intending to continue their playful banter, but somehow his words turned all serious and earnest. “You have no idea the power you hold over me, Erin MacGregor. None a’tall.” He looked down into her eyes, wishing like mad he knew what she was thinking about him. “It might well terrify you if you did.”
“I don’t scare easily,” she said, holding his gaze, searching his eyes.
“No’ perhaps when it comes to getting the job done for others.” He pushed damp strands of hair from her forehead. “But what of the things you want for yourself? Will ye fight for them as hard? Will ye risk yerself that way?”
“I—” She started strongly, then immediately faltered. “I don’t know,” she answered, never so honest, her voice more uncertain than he’d ever heard it. “I’d like to think so. I guess I’ve never really let myself want all that much.”
“Hard to disappoint ye, then, aye?”
“Aye,” she repeated softly.
Then she reached up and stroked his face, her eyes still searching his, and his entire body trembled at that single, tentative touch. “Let yerself want,” he said, the words barely making it past his lips. Let yerself want me, he wanted to add, but couldn’t make the words form.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” she whispered. And his heart squeezed painfully until she added, “I already do.” Then she tugged his head down and kissed him. So tender, so sweet, so full of want and need, and fear.
And no one was more terrified than he was, to let himself want this much, this big, this deep, knowing full well the chances of him having all that he wanted were slim. Why her? Why now? Had he the wherewithal, he’d have laughed. The gods had certainly not made his life a simple one thus far, so why should he think they’d change his life’s path now?
Before they could continue, her mobile phone chirped loudly to life.
He didn’t want to let her go, didn’t want to let the outside world intrude, until he felt more sec
ure that it wouldn’t steal her away from him forever. But of course he had no choice. So he reached across her to her nightstand and handed her phone to her. But he wasn’t a Chisholm for nothing. He slipped his weight from her and allowed her the room to talk, but kept his body in contact with hers, stroking lazy circles on her stomach, his leg tangled with hers.
“Hey, Dana,” she said, smacking at his hands when he inadvertently hit a ticklish spot by her ribs.
His grin was unrepentant. After all, she wasn’t exactly scrambling off the bed. In fact, she made no move to leave his side. Point to him.
“Where are you?” Her assistant’s voice squawked through the small phone, causing Erin to hold the phone away from her ear, and allowing Dylan to hear the conversation.
“I had to come up and change clothes,” Erin told her.
“I was just there, pounding on your door.”
“I—I grabbed a quick shower. I must not have heard you.” Erin sent him a warning glare when he started to slide his palm under her shirt. But she didn’t make him move it. “I’m on my way down. Right now.” That last part was directed toward him.
He merely winked at her. And started kissing the side of her neck.
“Tommy’s on the warpath,” Dana continued. “The women are sequestered at the moment, readying for their first interviews, but he wants them moved out to Glenshire early. And he’s not real keen on me disappearing for a few days, so you might want to take that up with him. I tried to tell him we needed that last location, but at the moment, he’s more concerned with keeping the women away from the locals. One local in particular. Who I lost track of when Tommy snagged me, but his car is still here, so he’s around somewhere. You might want to get down here.”
Dylan chose that moment to nip her earlobe and a small moan escaped Erin’s lips.
“Boss? Are you okay?”
“Fine.” Erin had to clear her throat. “Just a bit, uh…I’ll be down in a second. Hold the fort.” She quickly disconnected and shifted to glare at him. “I thought you were all about showing me how well you could fit in with my work schedule.”
He gave her his best “Who, me?” look, then quite unabashedly pulled her to him and kissed her as if they might be parted for eons, rather than hours. To his immense gratification, she resisted for all of a nanosecond, before kissing him back in kind. When he finally lifted his head, he thought it might be a while before he could wipe what was likely a very smug grin off his face. “Just wanted you to have something to remember me by. You know, so you dinna forget me, up here all alone, naked, hiding from scary, aggressive Yankee women, waiting for you to come rescue me again.”
Her lips quirked, then she gave up the fight and laughed. “You’re completely shameless.”
“If it will get me what I want, aye, that I am.”
She pushed at him. “Right now what I want is to get downstairs and keep Tommy from imploding.”
He rolled off her, but quite brazenly propped his hands behind his head and stayed sprawled naked across her sheets while she got up and gathered her shoes and fresh socks. “What was that bit about you sending off your assistant for a few days?”
“I still need to find an overnight date location, and in case you have forgotten, I need to find a replacement for you. I was hoping Dana could kill both of those birds with one stone, as it were. But it looks like Tommy is set on getting the women out to Glenshire early.” She perched on the edge of the desk chair and slipped on her shoes. “Apparently you got them pretty riled up and he’s concerned you’ve gone and spoiled them for the real Prince Charming.”
“They’ve merely been pent up too long, is all,” he said, ignoring the blush of heat that stole into his cheeks.
“Nah, it’s the accent. We’re suckers for that. It doesn’t take much else.” She glanced up and he saw the teasing twinkle in her eye.
“Oh, so that’s all it is, is it?” He rolled off the bed in one swift move, prompting her to shoot out of her chair, grab her bag, and back quickly toward the door.
“You know,” she said hurriedly, “you might want to consider sneaking out while the women are sequestered, and hightail it back to Glenshire, so you can be safely barricaded into your wing before the squealing horde arrives.”
She had one hand on the knob when he trapped her up against the door. “You know, ye might want to consider another plan entirely,” he murmured, leaning in to nuzzle her neck.
He wasn’t sure which was more intoxicating, their playful, easy banter, or the way she melted the instant he touched her. He’d like to do more of a study. An in depth study.
“What plan is that?” she managed, sighing a little when he lifted his head.
“As I’m an apparent disturbance here, and I’m certain I could be quite a bigger one out at Glenshire were I to put my mind to it, and as your boss seems to need your assistant more than you do, perhaps you could persuade him that the best use of your time would be spent away from here this weekend, doing your research…with a certain nuisance Scot in tow. A certain Scot you’re trying to persuade to sign on the dotted line for next season.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead, then tipped her chin up to look into her eyes. “Just tryin’ to help kill those birds for ye, luv.”
There was emotion in her green eyes that filled his heart with hope. And helped him ignore the confusion and wariness he also saw there. “Dylan, I—”
He pressed a finger across her lips. He wasn’t willing to let her shoot him down so quickly. Now that he’d had the idea, he was quite sold on it. A few days away from the demands of her job might be the only chance he had to convince her that this was something worth pursuing. Something ultimately life-changing.
Which is what it would have to be for her, if he had any chance. If his circumstances were any other than what they were, he’d follow her to the ends of the earth if he thought it was what would make them both happy. But he was locked into a life here in Glenbuie. And to be honest, though the villagers and his brothers could be a meddlesome lot, he’d come to realize that it was something of a comfort to know they were there for him, caring about him. Comforting to know that, unlike Erin, he had a place where he truly belonged. He’d just had to learn that the hard way.
Erin had had plenty of learning things the hard way in her life. And he honestly had no idea if she felt as if she could belong in any one place, or even if she wanted to try. A weekend wasn’t much time, but it might be all the time he had. She was something special that he couldn’t let slip away without at least fighting for her. And that had been one of the hardest learned lessons of all. Life was too short, too unpredictable, too fragile, to sit around and wait and hope things would change or get better. He was finished with waiting around.
He rubbed his fingertips across her lips, then replaced them with his own. Only this kiss wasn’t carnal, or about claiming, or about sex. This kiss was simply about letting her know. He framed her face with his hands, tilted her mouth to his and poured everything he was feeling into that one, slow, sweet kiss. When he lifted his head, he wasn’t sure who was more dazed. He had to clear his throat twice before he could form actual words.
“I, uh, there are a few things I need to take care of, at home, if I’m going to be away for a while.”
“But—”
It was gratifying that her one word was but little more than a croak itself, but again, he cut her off. “I’ll ask one thing of you, and I want you to be dead honest with yourself. And with me.”
She nodded, her expression sober.
“While you’re figuring this all out, I just want you to think about this. If I walked out that door and never spoke to ye again, hid myself away for the duration, steered clear of all your women and crew, until you were packed up and gone from here, would ye always wonder what might have been if we’d but taken those few days for ourselves?” He pressed a finger across her lips. “Think on this, don’t answer me now. It’s a lot I’m asking of you, I know that. And you should be sure of your an
swer. For both our sakes. So I’m putting this out there, as a measure of your importance to me. If ye’d rather forever wonder than find out for certain, then have your boss bring me the papers and I’ll sign on for next season.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. Which was good considering he’d just shocked the bloody hell out of himself as well. He had absolutely no idea where that had come from, but now that he’d gone and done it, he wasn’t back-tracking. Maybe something that shocking would make her really stop and consider what it was he wanted for them. He gained a slight measure of reassurance when he spied a wee bit of jealousy in her eyes at the idea of him devoting himself to a bevy of beauties. It was a promising start, anyway.
Heart pounding hard now, he plowed ahead. “Dinna get me wrong, Erin. I want the chance to know you. And only you. And given even half the chance, I plan on being a single-minded, supremely selfish bastard who will do whatever he can to convince you it’s time to be just as supremely selfish about your own life and what you want. And I hope to god what you want is me.”
He could feel the cold sweat forming on his brow, but the words continued to pour out of him. He was well and truly in it now, so he might as well go all the way. It was what he was asking of her, after all. “But if ye’d rather go on about your life without taking that risk, then at least let me show you what commitment and real caring can mean. Let me help you with that all important job of yours by making your boss a very happy man.” He tried to find an insouciant smile, but it was beyond him. Far too much was at stake here. “Who knows, you could get a raise in pay, or a promotion, boost your dream job to the next level. And maybe I’d find that true love you seem so convinced your show provides.” He forced a grin then, though it was more like a baring of teeth. “It would certainly prove your point that the best things happen when you least expect them.”
The Great Scot Page 25
