by Tarah Scott
Yet he deserved his ease. Especially when it’d been so long since a woman had touched him intimately. Between the warm water swirling around him and the Norsewoman’s gifted fingers, it was only natural that he’d hardened.
He glanced up at the raftered ceiling, closer to the brink than he’d been in centuries.
Then her fingers dipped lower, dancing over his tightened balls, kneading and caressing them. “You could intoxicate a woman,” she breathed, taking his swollen length in another firm grip and stroking, expertly.
“Have mercy!” He almost bucked out of the water.
Damn his soul for being so needy. And damn Mara MacDougall for making him burn with such raging desire that one of Bran of Barra’s light-skirts almost had him spilling his seed into the bath water.
It was Mara’s fault he was so vulnerable. Had she not enflamed him beyond all reason, he’d be the seducer here. He’d have the Norse beauty and any other of Bran’s fancies quivering with need and writhing beneath him, screaming their pleasure as he satisfied them one by one.
Instead…
He could think only of Mara. Just the thought of sinking himself into any other female dampened his desire, dashing his need in a painfully visible manner.
“Sakes alive,” he ground out, clenching his hands on the rim of the bathing tub.
Was Mara’s hold over him so strong he couldn’t desire another woman? Even after centuries of monking? A glance downward gave him his answer.
No one but his flame-haired, amber-eyed minx of a MacDougall would do.
And he was stark raving mad.
Crazy in love.
“Do I displease you?”
Alex looked up at the Norsewoman. “It isn’t you.”
“Then what is it?” She smoothed both hands over her breasts, lifting and plumping them. “Do you not like what you see?”
“Lady, you are lovely,” Alex hedged, crossing his legs to hide his lack of appreciation. “Well-made and rousing,” he added, trying to sink lower into the tub. “You would heat any man’s blood.”
“But not yours?”
“My heart is given,” Alex spoke true, unable to pretend any longer. “And with my heart, my body as well.”
“More than half the men who visit Bran’s hall have wives or sweethearts elsewhere in the realm.”
“I am otherwise.”
“Then prove it,” she challenged, tugging down her bodice so that her bared breasts sprang into view.
She had lovely full, round breasts and they were his for taking. The rest of her charms were just as enticing, and would surely be offered with equal generosity.
But he didn’t want her.
Even so, he couldn’t look away. He’d trapped himself in a nightmare of his own making and couldn’t seem to wake up.
“Ah, you do like what you see.” Triumph flitted over her face as she misinterpreted his stare. “I knew you’d prefer me to the MacDougall maid Hardwick mentioned.”
“Mara.” Alex’s eyes flew wide as his love’s image flashed across the Norsewoman.
He blinked, his heart thundering. But he couldn’t deny it - Lady Galiana had company. The Nordic beauty stood before him, but he also saw Mara.
She was prancing around her bedchamber in nothing but that tiny bit of black lace she favored.
She’d also slung a MacDougall plaid about her shoulders.
Alex started to curse upon noting the plaid, then, much to his astonishment, discovered he didn’t care. Of much greater importance was that she was coming closer, a shadow image meshing with the Norsewoman. Her sweet perfection superimposed atop Lady Galiana’s features.
Then Mara was right before him, the Norsewoman fading.
Alex’s eyes rounded.
Never had he seen the like and he didn’t know what to make of it now.
He gripped the edge of the tub, felt the room begin to spin. Pushing to his feet, he sprang from the bath. “Mara!” he called, almost crashing into a standing candelabrum because the room was whirling even faster now.
The speed made him dizzy and he hunched forward, bracing his hands on his legs, struggling to clear his head. Cold, dark mist blew around him, pulling him into a vortex.
“Lass,” he called again, searching for Mara in the shimmering haze. “Where are you?”
Only silence answered him.
Until somewhere in the swirling madness he heard a woman’s sharp intake of breath. “Come back,” Lady Galiana’s voice reached him. “I will make you forget her.”
“Alex…” a second voice pleaded, much fainter. Mara’s voice, so dear, but miles and centuries away, calling him fervently, drawing him to her.
“Please … I need you. Want you.”
Alex’s clenched his fists, straining to see as more thick gray fog poured into the special love chamber of Bran’s tower. The mist eddied and shimmered, swirling around him. The floor tilted, weaving until he lurched, struggled wildly for balance.
Still he heard the Norsewoman calling to him, felt her clutching at him through the mist, trying to keep him there.
He caught another glimpse of Mara, but Lady Galiana loomed in front of him again, her voice rising. “You do not need the modern. Come, let me…”
“Alex, please, I need you so…” Mara’s voice drew him. Golden and sweet, it filled his ears, anchoring him as the mist spun faster, speeding him through the black chasm of time.
“No-o-o…” the Valkyrie wailed, her voice fading.
Then Alex was alone, and there was only the rush of the wind as he spiraled through the darkness, back to where he belonged.
Home to his bed.
The woman he meant to make his. He didn’t know why he wanted her so fiercely, only that he did. She was a woman of strong passions, great kindness, brave and resourceful. She was also much more than that, though such things shouldn’t concern him at all. But they did, and he was completely disinterested in every other female. He desired only Mara.
And he was about to have her.
No matter what it cost him.
***
“Alex!” Mara blinked, her wildest dreams come true. He stood at the foot of her beautiful bed, looking at her in a way that curled her toes. She pressed a hand to her breast, unable to trust her eyes. “Are you really here?”
And you are naked! She wasn’t sure if she blurted those words or not.
She did look, at all of him.
He smiled, his tall, well-muscled body silvered by moonlight. “Aye, lass, I am here.” He came forward, his sexy Scottish accent stealing her breath. “For truth, I didnae plan to see you this e’en. It seems nothing can keep me away from you.”
He looked wet. Tiny droplets of water sparkled on his shoulders and glittered in his chest hair, winking at her like a scattering of diamonds. But even as he reached for her, she knew she was fantasizing.
How else could the room spin around them, a shimmering, whirling mist blotting everything but her bed and the two of them? She didn’t care. Only that, as in the way of dreams, she was able to cling to him, clutching fast, unable to get enough.
She needed him close, skin to skin, sharing breath and sighs.
“Sweet minx.” He curled a hand into her hair, the way he looked at her letting her know he understood her need. “You are mine. This night and always.”
She nodded, having no idea how he could come to her, just so glad that he had.
She bit her lip, half afraid to move for fear she’d break the spell, undoing the magick, and bringing back the cold reality that made a relationship with him so impossible.
He didn’t even exist!
Yet here he was, murmuring Gaelic words as he caressed her back, his hands sliding everywhere. His touch thrilled her. Cascades of desire spilled through her and she shivered, her need growing intense. His kiss electrified her, each bold thrust of his tongue into her mouth sweeping her to such heights as she’d never believed existed.
“Oh…” She stroked the hair back from hi
s face, threading her fingers in the thick strands as delicious, tingling warmth coiled inside her. A precious gift she wanted to tuck away deep inside her to keep for the times when the sun shone and not the moon, and when she’d be too awake to believe such a wonder.
“You can’t be here,” she said anyway.
He laughed softly, sounding very real.
“Shush, lass, and just feel.” He tightened his arms around her, crushing her against him and giving her another soul-searing kiss. A heated melding of tongues and breath, so deliriously good, her entire body shook with such incredible pleasure she feared she might die of its intensity.
She did know she could come to crave his kisses.
Perhaps she already did.
“I am yours, Mara-lass.” He drew back to look at her, his eyes ablaze with passion. “See what you have done to me. I cannae be without you. I no longer even care about your name, though I’d rather give you mine.”
“Yours?”
Her breath caught, but he’d seized her face in his hands and was kissing her again. This time rough and hard, their tongues clashing furiously.
“I swear you’ve spelled me in a worse way than your ancestors,” he vowed, sliding a hand around her neck, threading his fingers in her hair. “And I dinnae care, I only want you. Forever. Remember that on the morrow.”
“What do you mean?” She blinked, his tone frightening her.
He pulled back to look at her, the heat in his gaze melting her. “That we must enjoy what we have, this night.”
And the other nights? The rest of my life? Mara refused to consider his life, such as it was. But a tremor of ill ease rippled through her, and she chose to ignore it.
This was, after all, a dream.
Then he was kissing her again, proving it. Another deep, open-mouthed kiss that she wished would never end.
“You are mine, Mara, and ne’er you forget it,” he growled, his silky-smooth burr making her heart race, the hot carnality streaming off him, heating her blood. “I’ve waited too long for you and I willnae let you go now that I have you.”
I do not want you to let me go.
The admission almost split her heart but her throat was too thick for her to release the words. Instead, the sweetest golden warmth spooled through her.
As if he knew, he eased her down against the covers, splaying a hand across her belly to hold her in place. “Be still and just lie there. Let me look at you, for I’ve a need.”
“So do I.” The throbbing between her legs was now a torment she couldn’t bear much longer. “You’re my dream and I want you.”
Before I wake up and lose you again.
She wanted to hold fast to him, drinking him in. To drown in the wonder of him, branding his image on her soul and keeping him there, for the empty nights when she didn’t dream.
For this night, he was hers.
Her logic warred at the impossibility and her throat thickened in a painful way. But she blinked back her cares and kept looking at him, glorying in every magnificent inch of him.
She shivered, all her senses alive as never before. He was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at him. His hard, medieval warrior’s body gleamed in the moonlight and his hair was damp, as if he’d just stepped out of a shower.
He smelled good, too. Clean, fresh, and manly.
Deliciously sexy.
And he was so ragingly hard that streaming anticipation flooded her, making her tingle with such urgency she could hardly bear it. His entire maleness hovered not a hand’s breadth above her, his nearness and heat making her burn. Only a shiver of air and the flimsy lace of her teddy separated them.
Desperate, she reached between her legs to undo the tiny clasps of her undergarment. “I can’t wait any longer-”
“Och, lass, you shouldnae have done that.” He looked down at her, his gaze darkening as the crotch piece fell away. “Now I’ll have to love you as only a Highlander can.”
“Good.” Mara’s heart flipped. Deep inside her something primordial was unraveling. Excitement whipped through her, making her part her thighs, baring herself even more. Her pulse roared in her ears and her heart hammered so fiercely, she wondered it didn’t spring from her chest.
“So, lass!” He kept his gaze on her, reached down to cup her mound, rubbing slowly. “Will you burn for me?”
“I already am.” She was crazed with wanting him, trembled as her knees opened even more, giving him greater access.
“Aye, that’s good, lass.” He leaned in, his gaze intent on her as he teased his fingers across her intimate curls. “I cannae see enough. Show me more, Mara. I would see all of you.”
“And I would have all of you.” Again and again, until the sun rises, and then even longer. Eager, she glanced at his arousal. “I want you now. Inside me.”
“In time, sweet.” He touched a hand to her breast, palmed and tweaked her nipples. “I will lose my seed as soon as I enter you and I’ve waited too long no’ to prolong our pleasure.” His eyes darkened even more, his gaze raking her intimacies. “You are beautiful and it pleases me to look at you.”
“Touch me again. There, like you did before.” Need ran hot in her veins, making her bold. “I will shatter if you don’t,” she breathed, certain she would. “I need you.”
“No’ as much as I need you.” His gaze still locked on her sex, he placed his hands on her knees, urging them wider until her entire femininity was opened to him. “Dinnae move, sweet, let me look on you, touch you…”
“O-o-oh!” She shivered, an exquisite, almost unbearable pulsing beating through her, hot and delicious.
And then he touched her again, tracing the very center of her. Waves of desire swept her as his hand moved over her, his fingers teasing and probing as a tremendous need built inside her. It was maddeningly delicious to be so opened to him. Never had she experienced anything so rousing as his questing fingers working their magic as his gaze absorbed and burned her, sending little flickers of flame everywhere he looked.
Any moment she would climax.
“It’s too good.” I am dreaming. She knew she was.
“Nae, you are good, Mara.” He circled his thumb over her clit, his other fingers lightly stroking her cleft. “Is this what you wanted?”
“Yes!” She was almost there, the pleasure so exquisite. “But I also need you inside me.”
“No’ so fast, lass.” But he rolled on top of her, settling his body over hers. He slid his shaft up and down her damp softness, each glide bringing her closer. “I’ve waited too long for such pleasure and willnae rush now that the fates have been so kind.”
His expression changed for a moment, his eyes looking troubled. “Or are you not enjoying yourself? Is this no’ what you wanted?”
I want you to be real. Mara met his gaze, the silent words ripping her soul. I want you to love me. Need me and want me as much as I need and love you.
However impossible it seems!
She wanted him despite the odds, had fallen in love with him regardless of practicalities. And her need wrapped around her chest, squeezing so tight.
But instead of crying out her deepest wishes and perhaps shattering her dream, she turned her head to the side and nodded, letting her body beg him for release rather than letting him see her heart’s weeping in her eyes.
An orgasmic fantasy was better than not having him at all.
Any moment she’d splinter into a thousand tiny pieces, her release was so near. She didn’t care if her cries carried across every hill in Scotland.
She knew he wanted her, too. He remained poised above her, keeping up his sensual rubbings, leaving her no choice but to hope he’d soon plunge inside her, letting her slip over the edge. She was so close. She’d never felt such pleasure, such abandon with any man. She never would again.
Except with him, for she wouldn’t allow anyone else to touch her.
Ever.
Emotion, raw and powerful, clutched her heart, love spiraling through her. He
made her feel so alive, beautiful and sexy and wanted. Every inch of her tingled with her feelings for him, the long, empty nights without him no longer important as she raced closer to her release, to bliss…
***
Her bliss. Alex knew she was about to climax and her pleasure was so rousing to watch. Never had he seen a woman wear her excitement so beautifully. He slid a finger down the soft dampness of her and slipped it inside, finding her hot, sleek, and wet.
He stilled for a moment, his heart catching. She was so perfect, so dear. She was also arching against him, the urgent rocking of her hips telling him everything.
It was time; she could wait no longer.
And neither could he.
“Lass, I must have you now.” He bracketed her face with his hands, kissing her hard. She kissed him back, almost feverishly, as she clamped her legs around him and pressed close, her every wild, open-mouthed kiss more urgent than the one before.
“Aye, minx, show me you need me.” He cupped her bottom, kneading and squeezing, her smooth, naked skin making him crazy, setting him on fire.
“Yes!” she cried, grinding herself against him, showing no mercy. She rubbed her breasts into him, slid a hand down between them to seize him and guide his cock over her slick wetness. “Oh, Alex, you feel sooo good.”
“No’ half so good as you.” He nearly spent when she tightened her fingers on him, not stroking as she’d done before but holding him in a firm, possessive grip and easing him inside her.
Not far, only an inch or two.
But enough to make all the stars in the heavens explode in his head. They crashed down around him, blinding him and making his world spin until he was sure he’d slide right off. His entire body welcomed the power of her passion, the glory of her.
“Sweet lass,” he breathed the endearment into her mouth, then rose on his elbows to look at her. “Dinnae move or I’ll plunge full deep and this will end before we’ve started.”
She clung to him, thrusting her hips, her movements drawing him in another inch or so. “I’ve waited so long to have you.”
“Nae, lass.” Alex used all his strength to pull back until just the tip of him hovered inside her. “‘Tis I who have waited – an eternity. Ne’er did I think to give my heart, and for sure no’ to you. But I have and now I would savor you. Every precious moment we have.”
