by Jackie Ivie
“Ah . . . Juliana. You doona’ ken. ’Tis even worse than I thought. And better. Your beauty. Your smell. Your . . . taste.”
Aidan’s whispers against her lips had accompanied the motion of his hand, grazing buttocks and thighs and loins. Her jerk of reaction had him shoving strong, hot, and rigid thickness against the linen covering her thighs. And then he pushed farther, his action moving the material into the opening her thighs created as they separated to make room.
Everything ceased. Sound ceased. Breathing ceased. Time ceased.
Aidan shuddered in place while everything about him tightened and constricted and stilled. Totally. With vicious intent. And then he gave a groan that ripped their lips apart. He’d tipped his head back as well, giving her a perfect view of throat and chin . . . and all of it muscled and defined and coated with a film of moisture that beckoned. Invited. Thrilled. Dared . . .
Juliana leaned forward and licked skin and got an instant grip in response, as the arms about her back seized her to him, holding her locked to him, while he shook and quavered and shuddered in place. And then stilled. He lowered his head, pinned her motionless with the moonlight-caressed beauty of his face, and then put his lips to a pout and blew a sigh.
“That was . . . Whew.” A tremor accompanied the words, vibrating through them before it halted. “We’ve got to slow this, lass. Slow. You ken?”
She shook her head, got his smile, and then another sigh. He lifted her above him then, the movement releasing the shaft from between her thighs, and that caused another tremor to score his frame and another sharply indrawn breath. Juliana hovered above him, her belly atop the muscle of one shoulder, while he finished trembling and groaning and flexing. And then fingers reached and peeled the last of the pearl and silver wire ribbon–bedecked headdress from her tresses and then dropped it. Juliana heard the slight rattle of it, and then he was running his fingers through the ringlets all over her back and buttocks and the backs of her upper thighs.
And then fingers were pressing against the satin-covered flesh at the backs of her knees, grasping and kneading and massaging . . . before roaming higher along the backs of her thighs. Every touch released froths of tingles that flew over her frame again and again and with increasing momentum and effect. She felt him at her buttocks, cupped to hold her as he slowly lowered and slid her down from the perch atop his shoulder until she was pressed fully and totally against him, while the solid, firm portion of him pushed at her belly with the size and mass and power of it.
Juliana glanced at the shadow-darkened recess created by his groin before looking back to him, and Aidan was watching for it. His one eyebrow was cocked up as he moved to a finger-width distance, narrowing eyes that locked on to hers, entrapping her deeper, more fully, and more irrevocably by the bare hint of moisture she could see of the amber color.
“Juliana. Juliana. Sweet . . . sweet Juliana . . .”
What began as a groan turned into a litany of her name, gaining in depth and speed and breathlessness until it blended into a blur. The sound accompanied one hand movement up her back, sliding along her spine before reaching the curls at the back of her head to grip her and hold her and deny her the option of receiving his kiss. Passion gripped at her, owning and taking her, and making her lips the ones to devour his, sucking and lapping and tasting. Aidan’s groans filled her ears, his tongue her senses, and then he was moving, trailing a kiss over her chin and to her throat . . .
Juliana put her hands on his chest muscles and pushed, and he allowed it, loosening his hands and moving them to her shoulders . . . then her back . . . and then he used them to hold her as she bowed backward until wisps of curls nearly touched the floor. Juliana started swaying then, moving her upper body back and forth and again, and he moved with her, making a graceful dance with silent music.
Aidan stilled, stopping her movements with the pressure of his fingers, and then using them to bring her back to him with as much connection as her arched position allowed. Juliana opened her mouth and gasped for each breath as he started lapping his way down her throat with a tongue laced with passion and eroticism and fervor.
Waves crested over her, keening through her entire frame before finding a berth at each breast. Juliana pulled up and out of her arch, granting him access to everything he wanted, every place he desired, every speck of flesh he craved. Her hands moved of their own accord to his shoulders, then up along his face, before shoving into the hair at his temples, gripping handfuls of the silken strands, and pulling them loose from the queue he’d trapped them in.
The satin of her bodice was shoved aside to a questing tongue that sought and reached, and then licked one of her nipples. At the first touch, Juliana reacted, flinging her head back to look with unseeing eyes at the ceiling joists, tightening her fingers in his hair, and opening her mouth for each gasp of breath as the jolt of shock was replaced almost instantly by a molten sensation . . . overtaking, encompassing, and then overriding everything else. She was flying. Falling. Soaring. And her choked squeal told of it.
Aidan licked her flesh again, gaining another squeal, greater tautness of her entire frame as she shoved farther back against his supportive arm, and tighter fingers through his hair.
“Sweet . . . Juliana. My Juliana.”
The murmur was made atop flesh that immediately reacted to the wetness he’d put there. Juliana wriggled, moaned, trembled, and then shoved her breast closer to his mouth, subconsciously begging for what he denied.
Her eyes closed. She was floating. Being carried. Falling. Cool linen touched her back, the softness embracing her back, hips, thighs, everywhere except where one of his arms still enwrapped. The limb gave a thick support for another arch and Juliana bowed into one, sinuously sliding back and forth while shoving her belly and breasts upward, and receiving nothing but air-touched wetness that accompanied his chuckle.
“Aidan . . . please?” The hoarse whisper scratched at her throat, sounding desperate and breathless and distressed, and the second time it was even more so. “Please . . . Aidan. Please?”
Juliana sensed movement, experienced the mattress beneath her shifting and swaying, felt air from a heavy sigh careening all about her, and then she heard ripping.
“Aidan?”
The form-fitting samite of her wedding dress released its grasp . . . before getting pushed into a confining wrap about her waist. She twisted and moaned and slid about the linens as he shoved the material to her knees . . . her ankles . . . feet . . . and then pushed it from her completely.
Swift spurts of tightening heralded the white satin underdress’s surrender, as Aidan pulled each bit of stitching apart, one spot at a time, first down one side and then another. Night air caressed the flesh revealed, feeling wanton and sensual, and completely erotic. Juliana arched again, sending her body into a sinuous writhe of movement against bed linens at her back and nothing atop.
“Lovely . . . beauteous . . . Juliana . . .”
More sonnet-like words filled her existence, mouthed against her throat and then her breasts, while Juliana gasped for breath after breath in a baited agony of want. And then he touched her nipple again, lapping at a nub that quivered and tightened against his tongue before he put a full mouth upon it and suckled.
Juliana lurched fully, filling his mouth with more flesh as she reacted. Waterfalls of cold snowmelt poured over her body, followed by fire, then ice, and then fire again, until she couldn’t contain the sensation another moment. Her mouth was open and grasping and emitting the longest, most melodic note until she ran out of air and sucked for more. Aidan responded with a chuckle, sending chill atop chill all over the nipple he’d just sweetened, before rolling her slightly in order to give the same rapture and wonder to her other breast. Juliana’s arch went brutal, affixing her in a tight bow of carnal yearning and overpowering desire, and laying bare every bit of it. Aidan was with her the entire time, sucking and licking and caressing and sending her over more snowmelt waterfalls and into more wic
kedly hot baths, and gaining more long notes into the chamber over and over until her throat felt raw with the effort.
Aidan lifted himself from her then before he moved, the act deflating her poised position, and Juliana slowly settled into the cloud-like mattress. Then it was denting, rocking in odd spurts of movement as he shoved from it. Juliana rolled her head, catching her hair beneath it and slitting her eyes to the sight of Aidan, pulling at his kilt band until the brooch ripped fabric and the plaid moved off his shoulder and onto his arm. A thud of sound accompanied his belt hitting the floor, followed by a peppering of sound that was his dirks and weapons. And then the feile breacan was unwound and pushed from him. He grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head, ripping seams in the process and stealing every bit of her available air with the sight of moonlight-kissed masculine beauty.
Shadows carved him into a mass of valleys and hills, the light roving about rivers of muscle, entwined knots of strength, and hollows of black dimness. Then he filled his chest with air, pumped out his upper body, and turned, revealing a thick engorged and masculine part that had her in a sit, staring and gasping, and then stifling all of it with the fingers she shoved into her mouth.
“Oh . . . Aidan.”
The words didn’t make sense against her fingers, but he heard them, or guessed what they were. Juliana couldn’t even blink as he went absolutely still and stayed that way, his stance leaving moonlight to caress and delineate him.
“Aye?”
“You’re . . . so . . . beautiful.”
He moved before she’d finished, crushing the mattress in front of her with a hand before propelling around and behind her and into the space at the back of the enclosed bed. Juliana’s gasp stuck in her throat as his arms snaked about her, pulling her against him, matching her curl-covered back with his chest, and then he was leaning and shoving and maneuvering until they were both on their sides. It had been so rapid and precise and without warning that Juliana was blinking at the moonlit mass of chamber in front of her and pushing each breath into the band of arms about her with surprise.
And then she felt the shake of him that accompanied a growling laughter sound, before stilling, his heartbeat hard and loud against her shoulders and his breathing harsh and swift along her skin. He didn’t move for so long, she squirmed. That got the arm beneath her tensed. And that got her lifted slightly from the mattress.
A whoosh of breath touched the back of her neck, and his free hand shifted, pushing hair from his path all along her . . . down her hip and along her thigh to her knee. Returning to brush her woman-place while she jumped, then sliding along her belly . . . and reaching a breast. Aidan flicked a nipple and then toyed with it while his entire frame started sliding against hers using the same sinuous motions she had.
Juliana closed her eyes and leaned backward, putting her shoulders against the hard mounds of his chest, while the backs of her upper thighs and buttocks touched and then jerked away from the mass of strength and thickness she’d craved with vicious want.
Aidan groaned, touched a kiss to her neck, and sucked on her while he stroked again along her nakedness. Juliana jerked away again. And again. And again . . . all the while his groans deepened and his attempts never lessened . . . as if daring a touch and waiting for her to take it.
Again.
“Ah . . . love.”
His whisper against her ear accompanied another slide of him, and he must’ve known the word had too much power. It always had. Juliana stayed connected that time and waited. And existed. Breathing. Waiting.
Aidan groaned again and moved, sliding his rod along her nakedness with slowness and precision. Heat licked at her from the connection before turning into fire . . . and then going back to heat. Aidan slid his shaft along the backs of her thighs . . . and then inserted it between them . . . pulled it back out . . . ran it along the backs of her thighs again. He spread the fingers of the hand beneath her across her belly, flexing his fingers before pulling her tightly against him in order to push between her thighs again. He held in place and shook, and then pulled out again. Then back.
His free hand moved then, skimming along her skin, igniting rivulets of reaction as he reached her hip and then moved unerringly to her woman spot. Juliana’s jump was caught and held in place, and then turned into a vibration of sensitivity with his first touch. It was too much sensation and in too many places!
Juliana moaned against an onslaught of touch and sensation and wonder, her breath coming quicker and faster and uglier and harsher, while her hands went to talons of grip against both his arms. She felt another push of his rod between her thighs, sending fire to match that at her core. He pulled back out, while the sensations he was creating got wilder and faster and quicker. And then he pushed back, sliding his hardness completely through her thighs and touching flesh that was in a whorl of tension and need and wantonness. Juliana heaved at the contact, even as he moved back out . . . Again . . .
The torment ratcheted higher, going stronger, more strident and more agonized, and just when she thought her heart was going to come straight out through her throat, it happened. Her heart turned into a separate entity, kicking about in her chest and rising to her throat and filling her ears with powerful beats, while the thick-ridged portion of Aidan shoved through her thighs again, stroking across the exact spot he was strumming . . .
And Juliana exploded.
Her eyes scrunched tight and she heard screaming. Wonder flowed everywhere, an entire panoply of it . . . washing through her and over her, covering her, soaking her, and sending wave after wave of wonder and exultation and glory, before the most vivid pressure joined in, entwining with the sensations of ecstasy and making Juliana pant with the fulfillment of receiving, containing, and enwrapping it.
Aidan was grunting in small breaths that matched the shoves he was making, holding her with both hands about her hips, the position tilting her forward and making her receive him in little bits of sensation that were driving her mad.
And then something changed, and he shoved fully, filling her with as much as he could reach. Then he gave a twinge, making her moan with the sensation.
“I will na’ take you quick, Juliana. Na’ this time. Regardless of need and ache and want! And denial! Christ! Regardless of—” He cut off his words and everything stopped as he stiffened and tightened, except for the pounding beat of his heart against the backs of her shoulders.
Juliana slit an eye open on a rumple of bed linen at her cheek. She moved her head to face him, but before she could, Aidan responded. He sucked in a breath that moved her with it, and that just made everything flex and move from where they were joined.
“Oh Lord. Doona’ move.”
Juliana wasn’t moving. She was doing her utmost to accept and enjoy the fullness and heat without the motion her body was tormenting her with. And then he moved, sliding slightly from her only to shove right back in.
“Too . . . wondrous. Juliana . . . it’s just . . .”
Hot breath touched her shoulder, instantly followed by his tongue, and that led to more whispered words accompanying his kiss. And more movement of his groin against hers. His kiss reached her ear, and Juliana hunched her shoulder, defending skin that rose in goose bumps of reaction. There was too much sensation, too much emotion, too much intensity, and it was adding and mingling and interspersing the waves from where he was starting to rhythmically rock his loins against hers . . .
Pulling out. Pushing back into place. Pulling out . . . Aidan moved his kiss, trailing his lips to her jaw as Juliana turned her head, and then his mouth slammed against hers, mingling breath. Combining moisture. Connecting flesh.
He rolled her within his arms, putting her onto her back with a twist that had more ecstasy attached. The moan of it passed into the caverns of his mouth, and became more of them as he planted a fist into the mattress at her side and lifted, maneuvering her thigh around and about him, until she was fully beneath him, her legs about him, and receivi
ng every portion of him. While the groan he gave released her lips due to the length and volume of it. Aidan had both hands smashed into the mattress on either side of her as he lifted, using a rocking motion that fueled the wonder building, elevating . . . erupting.
Liquid friction surrounded her, sending flickers down her legs, up through her belly . . . through her breasts. Juliana ran her hands all along and over him, again and again, enjoying every bit of the ridges of his back, the heavy contours of his belly and chest, the heavy roping of strength in his arms. Her caresses sent an itch onto her fingers with every stroke, every touch, every contact, while Aidan’s movements added to the exquisite torment creating . . . building.
Heat put a moist film in place atop every bit of skin her fingers skimmed. Breath got harsher, more strenuous . . . quicker paced. Aidan started moving with broader strokes, alternately filling and releasing her with heavier and thicker and stronger movements that started such a tension in her core that she was going mad with it. Juliana flung her head from side to side, blowing little gasps of breath before gaining new ones. The feeling built. Expanded. Enlarged. Got closer. Nearer . . .
Juliana quivered with it, felt a thrill centering from where his motions were increasing, rocking and swaying the entire bed frame in fast-paced, heavy lunges of his body into hers. Over and over again and again, and then she sensed it . . . grabbed at it . . . and then careened right over the edge into such a perfect explosion of bliss, she opened her mouth to give full vent to it.
The note of ecstasy hung in the room, even after she’d spent her breath, giving vent to a wonder that couldn’t be contained. Juliana’s fingers clung to him, she lifted with him, meeting his every thrust with one of her own as he pummeled her body with an abandon that had nothing rhythmic about it. And then he stopped, pulling her up and against his body with her hold while everything on him went tense and stiff and filled with a vibration that moved her with it.
Juliana’s eyes were open and watching as Aidan tossed back his head, letting out a long sobbed note that had every cord in his throat taut and every muscle in his frame rigid, while the mattress shook from the shuddering of his arms.
