by Barbara Mack
Dark hair grew profusely all over the top of his muscular chest, then began to thin out after his massive rib cage until it was an arrow over the ripples of his hard stomach that pointed down into his black trousers. The hair grew progressively darker and silkier the farther down it went, and Kathleen’s eyes followed it greedily. Duncan jumped when she put a hand to his stomach, and he groaned when her hand went inexorably lower, tracing its way delicately past his navel to hover over the fastenings of his pants.
“Kathleen,” he moaned. It was an entreaty, and her eyes dropped to the hard bulge growing in the front of his trousers. Her eyes flew back up to his. Kathleen felt a sudden guilt.
She was drowning in a rush of sensation; she’d not stopped to realize what her exploration was going to do to him or how it was going to make him feel.
Duncan read the emotion on her face, and pulled her small hand from its grip on the placket of his trousers. He brought her protesting digits up to his mouth and forced her fingers to uncoil. He breathed a kiss in the palm, then at her gasp flicked out his tongue to lave a small spot on the sensitive base of her thumb. She moaned when his teeth grazed there, then licked the hurt away.
“This is about pleasure,” he murmured. “Your pleasure, my pleasure. Guilt has no place here. How far you decide to go in this is your decision, Kathleen. I won’t force an unwilling woman, and I wouldn’t have you ashamed in my bed.”
He pressed slick, warm kisses to the pulse that pounded so violently in her wrist and Kathleen nearly fainted from the feel of his mouth on her. She felt the last of her inhibitions slip away, an enigmatic smile twisting her mouth.
Duncan’s eyes were hot as he watched her reaction, and Kathleen wondered if her mouth felt as good to him as his did to her, and she leaned forward to find out. She buried her face into his chest, turning her head from side to side sensuously, loving the way the crisp hair felt against the side of her face. Duncan dropped her wrist, and she brought both palms of her hands down to skim lightly over the hard muscles of his biceps.
When her open mouth found the flat button of his nipple amongst all that wonderful hair, she flicked her tongue against it and blew lightly. Duncan stiffened in his seat, and as Kathleen lapped there as daintily as a cat, his hands came up to thread through her hair, holding tightly. The pressure on the back of her head felt heavenly, and she moved experimentally against it.
Duncan felt a clench in his guts as she closed her eyes and threw her head back in his grasp. A low growl rippled through him, and he swept her up and onto his lap as easily as if he were picking up a child. Kathleen’s eyes flew open as he forced her to straddle his lap, but her eyes held no fear, just a frank curiosity that made him jerk her mouth up to his, one hand still gripping the hair at the nape of her neck. The other hand slid down her back, knowingly massaging the bumps of her spine on the way down until it reached the small of her back and then the curve of her buttocks. When one large hand clamped down on the curves there, pressing her against his hard arousal, Kathleen wiggled, but not in protest. It felt so good, his wet mouth sucking at hers, the hardness rubbing between her legs, she could not get close enough.
Her hands, which had been clutching his shoulders, wrapped themselves around his neck. His mouth left hers to trail along her jawline, and her head fell back. The world began to spin around her, and she closed her eyes again. The absence of sight made her feel everything more intensely, and she felt a pressure building up inside her, a pressure that curiously made her want to move against him even more.
“Duncan,” she whispered. “Oh, oh, I feel so – so . . . “ Her voice trailed away as his hand left her hair and grasped one full breast. She kept her eyes closed as he slid the hand that was on her buttocks up to the small of her back and let her lean back even farther, supporting her weight partially with his strong thighs. Kathleen’s eyes popped open and she grasped his shoulders again frantically.
“Ssshhh,” he whispered. “I won’t let you fall. I just want to look at you while I touch you.”
Her hands loosened, and she fell backwards, trusting him. A smile of triumph briefly touched his mouth.
The palm of his hand traced the contour of her breast, circling round and round, always avoiding the point that begged for attention. Kathleen began to squirm and make noises of entreaty as Duncan failed to touch the part of her she thrust shamefully towards his big hand. He laughed softly when she brought one hand up to pinch his thigh viciously, demanding that he do what she wanted.
When he softly pinched her nipple, at last, her body arched up and nearly came off his lap. A small cry burst from her mouth, and Duncan’s hands clamped her hips hard. He ground her against his arousal, her damp warmth anointing him even through his trousers and her cotton drawers. He nearly came right then, just from looking at her, at her head flung back and that magnificent hair nearly touching the ground, at her mouth in the shape of an o as she cried out. He began to draw her up, toward him, gentling her with his touch, stroking his fingers soothingly over the muscles in her back, petting her as she lay panting against his warm naked chest.
Her hands snaked up suddenly to twist themselves in the hair on either side of his head. She pulled his head down to meet hers, nose to nose with him. She was still breathing hard, her chest rising and falling against him with the force of her breaths, her cleavage swelling above the modest neckline of her gray gown as she struggled for control. Her mouth twisted in a snarl.
“Damn you,” she hissed. “Damn you. Don’t you dare stop now. Don’t you dare. I will hate you forever if you stop.”
She was marvellous, Duncan thought. A surge of lust heated his blood as he looked at the savage emotion written plainly on her features. Her blond hair fell around her shoulders in wild disarray, and her red mouth was swollen with the force of her kisses. Her bare arms were supple and strong, and the muscles stood out with the force of her grip on him. Her nipples were standing up; Duncan could see them through the thin stuff of her summer dress. He reached a languid hand out to rub one almost roughly, a slow smile growing ever larger as he watched her helpless reaction. Her hands fisted tighter in his hair, and he rubbed again.
“Oh, no, darling,” he said softly. “I’m not stopping. We are far from done. Put your arms around my neck.”
He coaxed her hands down where he wanted them and slid one arm around her waist, his eyes narrow slits of flashing blue. His other hand bunched up a portion of her dress, pulling it up slowly. Kathleen stared into his eyes as the hem rose ever higher, until it lay on her thigh. His hand caressed the calf of her leg smoothly, drawing a gasp from her as he stopped momentarily to touch the sensitive skin behind her knee. He skimmed a hand up the porcelain skin of her thigh, barely touching her. Kathleen looked down, and the contrast of his dark, hair-roughened hand against the milk-white of her skin nearly made her delirious. She moaned, and his hand clamped down momentarily. She bucked against him and his arm tightened around her waist, bringing her firmly against him. She hooked her feet around the rungs of the chair and forced herself down, feeling his arousal jump against her. His hand slid between them, and she cried out sharply when he found the sensitive nub there and began to abrade it gently through the soft cotton of her drawers. Her breath began to come in small pants, and she clenched her teeth on the cry that threatened to escape from her throat.
Her world narrowed until it contained only his hands, only his body against hers, and still his clever fingers rubbed her, rubbed her in small circles that stole her breath, and a feeling began to rise in her. It raged higher and higher, this feeling, until it was an inferno raging out of control, until her whole body was on fire, until she moved wildly against his hand, and then stars burst behind her eyes and she was dying, dying in his arms and she lay limply in his hold.
When Kathleen came to herself, her feet were still hooked around the rungs of the chair, and she was slumped over Duncan’s lap. His arms were the only thing that kept her upright. She opened her eyes and tried to sit
up, but it was impossible until he helped her. Her muscles felt as if they were made of jelly.
When he swung her up, a sudden sharp burst of pleasure made her moan and lay her head helplessly against his chest. She felt the rumble against her face as he laughed almost silently.
“Still feels good, doesn’t it?” he whispered tenderly, his words blowing damp tendrils of hair away from her ear.
Kathleen shivered and nodded, her chin against his hairy chest making rasping noises. She shut her eyes again, and he unhooked her feet for her. Her arms crept around him, loving the way he felt against her. He swung her legs around until she sat across his thighs instead of straddling him. When he thought she was able to stand, he eased her off of him. Kathleen began straightening her hair, searching for the pins which had fallen all over the floor.
“Marry me, Kathleen.”
She turned her head to stare into his beautiful eyes. “I might,” she said slowly. “Can you compromise?”
“And do you have an example of this compromise?” He raised a finger and ran it down the curve of her shoulder and toward the jutting swell of her bosom.
“I will never give up my principles. I won’t put myself in danger anymore, but I can’t give it up completely.”
“And what do I get from this deal?”
“You get me,” she said softly. “I’m stubborn. I have a sharp tongue. I will fight to the bitter end if I believe that I’m right. And I love you more than I ever believed possible, Duncan. I’m only half alive without you,” Kathleen said shakily, tears welling up in her sky-blue eyes. “I fought against it from the very first, but I knew it the first time our eyes met and so did you.”
“I was going to wait,” he murmured against her warm cheek as he drew her into his arms. “But I don’t want to wait anymore, Kathleen. I love you, not some dream of a perfect woman who would bore me silly in a week. I like your flaws. I don’t want to live without you, either.”
He pressed his lips to hers and her mouth opened willingly beneath his, their tongues tangling in a duel that both would win.
Suddenly she jerked away from him. Her hands flew to her mouth and her eyes rounded.
“My mother! She’s expecting company tonight, and she’ll have a search party out for me before long.”
She dashed out the door and down the stairs without so much as a fare-you-well. Duncan was still staring in stunned disbelief at the open doorway when he heard her footsteps come tripping lightly back up the stairs. She flew back through the door and stood on tiptoe to press a quick kiss to Duncan’s scarred cheek before she ran out again. He’d lost the feeling in that side of his face when the knife had sliced through his skin and severed the nerves and it had never come back, but he imagined that he could feel the heat from Kathleen’s lips. No one had ever touched that spot on his face once it had healed, and the gesture seared his heart.
He put his hand to the spot she’d kissed and moved to the window in time to see her driving her little wagon down the narrow street, her hair flying behind her like a flag. A short laugh burst from his throat.
It looked like there would be no sleep for him again tonight, but he couldn’t stop smiling. Real life was so much better than dreams.
