The Emerald Isle Trilogy Boxed Set

by Vincent, Renee

  Spurred by her candidness, he circled her. His breath came soft and hot behind her ear, while his hands snaked tenderly around her throat and down below her chin to unfasten the buttons on her shirt.

  She could feel the points of his fingertips brushing against her breasts as he worked. Down, down, down his hands traveled, leaving a memory of his evanescent touch along her midline. He was talented with his hands. So skilled, that he unhooked the front closure of her bra with nimble fingers while teasing her with ‘accidental’ deliberate caresses.

  Once he stripped her of both items, she felt him trace the entire vertical line of her spine and dip below the waistband of her jeans with his finger. Goosebumps flawed her skin instantly.

  “I can’t wait to see that sheer white thong on you,” he said huskily. He planted his mouth on the sensitive skin behind her ear before he slid his hands around the front of her hips and hugged her close.

  While she combated the overwhelming heat of his bare skin against her back, she wondered how he knew the color of her panties. Then she remembered he had laundered them last night with the rest of her clothes and set them out for her this morning. Nestled in his embrace, she flushed with shame as she pictured him retrieving her delicates.

  “I’ve been thinking about them on you ever since I plucked them from my curtain rod.”

  “I can’t believe a little bit of cotton and lace has been on your mind that long.”

  “Not the cotton and lace, love. The cotton and lace on you. Big difference.”

  “Whatever. It’s just a technicality.”

  He spun her around to face him, not shy in dropping his eyes to her chest. “All right, then technically you could be wearing nothing at all, and you still would’ve been on my mind all day. In fact, I’m picturing it right now.”

  “Oh, really?” Though her words were innocently said out of surprise, they sounded more like a dare. He nodded and took a harrowing step forward, backing her into the bathroom.

  Once clear of the threshold, he closed the door and leaned against it, his arms crossed. “I’m waiting.”

  She swallowed, knowing full well he wanted a show. By and large, she was a modest girl who tended to prefer the lights off when stripping down to nothing. With Leif, she didn’t glance at the light switch or even grab a towel off the rack to cover herself. She gave him the most wanton look she could conjure, kicked off her shoes, and unbuttoned her fly. Slowly she unzipped it, making him sweat it out.

  Jack had never looked at her this way, even in the beginning of their relationship when everything was new and exciting. Maybe Jack knew she’d not be comfortable strip teasing in front of him or didn’t think she’d be sexy enough to turn him on. Either way, she’d never removed her clothing for the purpose of pleasuring a man.

  Watching Leif as she slid her jeans down her hips, she knew she was doing something right. His mouth fell slightly open and his eyes followed her every move like a love-sick puppy. He stood helpless, staring as she taunted him with a little display of skin an inch at a time.

  Feeding from his reactions, her performance became more daring. While rolling her hips in an exotic fashion, she turned around giving him a peek at the thin white string splitting her ass before bending over and pushing the denim all the way to her ankles.

  From behind, she heard him groan and squirm against the door.

  Slowly standing, she arched her back and jutted her bottom out, shooting him a come hither glance over her shoulder. “Is this what you pictured all day, Leif?”

  He cleared his throat as if trying to regain the composure she destroyed and left in ashes at his feet. “Not even close,” he muttered, pushing off the door. “The real McCoy is ten times better because I can actually reach out…and touch it.”

  Her heart skipped a beat, anticipating his touch. She felt him slip a single finger beneath the thong and stroke her skin with the back his knuckle. With both his hands, now clasped upon her hips, he spun her around, his eyes washing over ever curve of her body. Memorizing them. It didn’t bother her that he ignored meeting her gaze for a time. She liked that he admired her with such scrutiny, caressing just about everything he observed. Some places were more sensitive than others, threatening to light afire.

  With her knees ready to buckle, she closed her eyes and tilted her head back. If she didn’t see it coming, perhaps she’d do better withstanding his wicked touch. But as soon as his fingertips grazed over the front of her panties, her legs lost all feeling, except for the precise spot at the apex of her thighs. There, she felt everything. Heat. Vibration. The soft scrape of her underwear, the firm pad of his finger grazing over her folds through the sheer material, and a raw ache that hurt so good it hummed. A voracious desire to feel him pet her again burned between her legs.

  Leif pulled her close, pressing his arousal into her belly. His bright eyes blazed with lust, their color darkening with each breath he took. He wanted her. She could see it. Feel it. And when he bent to kiss her, she could taste it.

  His lips, both dominant and frenzied, consumed hers. His tongue jutted between her lips, sweeping throughout her mouth like a violent storm. She was powerless to that kind of passion. The blunt force of his crazed euphoria had already picked her up and carried her away. There was no hope for her anymore. She was but a plaything in the hands of rapture.

  Before she had any sense of what was happening, she felt his hands grab hold of each string at her hip. With one quick jerk, the flimsy material of her thong broke apart and fell to the floor. She had no time to mourn the loss of her favorite panties. His hand was already between her thighs, replacing the need of the hardly-there material.

  While one hand occupied her body, the other reached over behind the shower curtain and twisted the faucet. The sound of gushing water filled her ears while the influx of steam filtered throughout the bathroom.

  She was amazed at how he didn’t miss a beat. His kiss continued as if he were thoroughly engaged and not busy testing the water with his hand. After a few tweaks with the knob, he whisked her off her feet and set her in the shower.

  Thick steam fogged up the room and she didn’t get to see him strip off his pants. All she heard was the clinking of his belt, the sharp rip of his zipper, and the scuffle of stepping out of them.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Disappointment crept into Lorraine’s thoughts, until he slipped through the fog and stepped into the shower with her. She soon forgot all about the missed opportunity and took every advantage of seeing his beautiful naked body within arms reach. His legs were just as muscular as the rest of him, his sun-kissed skin looking twice as dark against the white tile of the shower.

  In tandem, they reached out and pulled each other close, relishing in the feel of wet skin on skin. “Is the water warm enough?”

  “The water is perfect…” Her voice trailed off as he slowly neared her face. Eye to eye, mouth to mouth, they held each other’s gaze until his lips pressed gingerly against hers. He glided his hand over the silken skin of her buttocks and nestled his hardened body against the soft of hers. As the kiss lengthened, the spark of attraction intensified between them and his arms greedily pulled her tight against him.

  It had been so long since she felt the palpable product of an aroused man. To feel an erection as hard as Leif’s made her loins throb and burn.

  “I want to bathe you.”

  She stammered. “W-what?”

  “You heard me.”

  It was quite a personal thing to bathe another, more so between lovers, and how difficult it would be to stand there and let it happen. “Leif…”

  He dropped to his knees and slid his hands down the back of her legs, tarrying around her thighs. “Please?”

  A nervous smile crept in slowly. “You make it very hard for me to say no.”

  Leif’s reaction to those words nearly caused her heart to slam out of beat as his eyes befit well the scoundrel smile he flashed in response. Before she could even think to change her mind,
he grabbed the bottle of body wash and squeezed a large dollop into his palm. Lifting her foot to his knee, he rubbed her calf and shins with the bubbly lather. After cleaning her entire right leg, he wasted no time in doing the left, and then stood to lather her stomach, breasts and arms, taking great care to be gentle.

  And overly thorough.

  Bashfully, Lorraine lifted her chin as he crept up her neck and around her shoulders, finding it amazingly difficult to look him in the eye. Having a man actually cleaning and caressing every part of her body without a cause for shame was more than she expected this night. Every sweep and slippery stroke of his hands coerced her raging desire to flare low in her stomach, a craving that consumed her every thought. She closed her eyes, following the enjoyable play of his hands as he left no part of her untouched.

  All too soon, she found him pressed against her soapy body, whisking her near-orgasmic daydream away with one wolfish smile.

  “My turn.”

  Upon hearing that demand from Leif’s mouth, her mind drifted off and she found herself standing before her imaginary Viking warrior, in a hot, stuffy room enclosed by wood on all four walls. He looked exactly like Leif, yet his hair was longer with tiny silver clips decorating the few random braids.

  She wanted to scream, for this man—Dægan—intimidated her with his look alone. But she couldn’t budge. She could only watch helplessly as the scene played out before her eyes.

  ****

  “Have you not already had your bath this evening?”

  “Not by the pleasure of your hands.”

  Dægan gathered my hands, along with the soap, and placed them on his chest. “Come now, love. Touch me.”

  Eventually, without his coercion, I stroked my thumbs across his nipples, feeling their unexpected tautness, and then back again, creating the start of satisfaction on his face. I simpered as well, liking the freedom to touch him wherever I so dared, and the liberty of enjoying every wicked moment of it.

  I circled my hands around his chest, slowly at first, taking in every dip and bulge of his torso from navel to neck, then uninhibitedly around his shoulders and arms. My curious exploration turned into a sensuous display of greed, and, quite honestly, I adored the feel of him.

  His skin was smooth, stretched taut against his bulging muscles, and had it not been for the soap that lathered him, I dared to taste it beneath my tongue.

  I caressed the flat plane of his stomach, feeling him tighten with anticipation as I dipped further below his waist, and gripped his erection. I felt him shudder like a newly taken adolescent boy.

  I fancied the sound of his uncontainable groan. Its low and deep hum pulled at the very tiny threads of my unraveling restraint. I liked the feel of him in my hands, the slippery hardness of his body that seemed to change and thrive with every movement of my fist. I watched his breath catch and his eyes close. He was submissive to my every command and yet wildly savage in his naked form.

  Suddenly, he slipped from my clenched hand, dropped to pick up a bucket of clean water, and dumped it on the both of us.

  ****

  Lorraine gasped at the sudden shock of cold water running down her back.

  Leif jerked her out of the water and smashed her up against the far wall, shielding her from the spray. “Sorry, I should have warned you to speed it up a bit. But when you were soaping me up like that, my mind went blank. I couldn’t think of anything but the feel of your hands on me, much less the limited supply of hot water in the tank. It’s always been enough hot water for me. I suspect I’ll need to remedy that right away, won’t I?”

  Lorraine blinked in confusion. “I bathed you?”

  “Uh…yeah. From top to bottom and then some.” Leif fidgeted as the water doused his back. Reaching through the cold stream, he turned the knob, shutting off the water. “You don’t remember?”

  “Oh, no I remember. How could I forget?” she babbled. “I just can’t believe I did that. I’ve never bathed a man before.”

  He grabbed two towels and handed her one, a sly smile splitting his lips. “You could have fooled me.”

  Stepping onto the fluffy bath rug, she dried herself off, anesthetized by the strange flashback. Not only did she see a past situation similar to what was taking place in her life, it correlated between her and this princess—who evidently fell in love with a Viking named Dægan.

  As she mulled over the bizarre scene, she realized her visions always seemed to be triggered by something Leif said. A specific phrase would fall from his mouth and that seemed to set off a string of prior memories, conceivably familiar events as if they were from her past.

  She flashed Leif a look, studying him. Could it be that Leif was the reincarnated version of Dægan? And she the reincarnated princess? It all seemed far-fetched, yet so logical if one could tolerate the doctrines of metempsychosis with an open mind.

  Leif resembled the Northman in both looks and temperament. They shared similar names and Leif had said things to her that she’d also envisioned Dægan saying, almost word for word. So many things were beyond coincidental. Without a sensible explanation, a passing of one’s soul after death to another body seemed to make the most sense.

  After wrapping the towel around her chest, she tucked the corner in her cleavage and caught Leif staring at her. Her feet felt glued to the floor as he neared her. His caress across her cheek wiped away all thoughts of her elusive past and made her concentrate on the tangible present. In his eyes, she found a security she had never known before. As if all her restlessness, doubts, and fears dispersed like leaves in the wind.

  Leif captivated her.

  If she dared to wager, she’d bet he once captivated her a long time ago, from the bows of a longship.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Leif stood in the doorway of his guest room, staring at the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, the most erotic woman he’d ever encountered, and yet he had to find a way to say ‘goodnight’ and walk away. It was the right thing to do.

  Though they both were ideally dressed for the occasion in nothing but bath towels, he had to get the notion of having sex with Lorraine out of his mind.

  “I guess this is…goodnight.”

  He watched how she played with the hem of the towel, its edge falling just inches from what he wanted to see. He’d give anything to slip his hands underneath and feel the smooth skin of her legs again. To feel the softness of her ass in his palms. To hear her call out his name as he spread her legs and buried himself deep in her core.

  “I guess it is.”

  Leif expelled his disappointment in a long, drawn out exhale, though not even a blatant rejection could chase away his steel-hard erection. He thread his fingers through his hair, keeping them from balling into fists, and feigned a congenial nod. “Okay. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  He turned on his heels, hiding the anguish on his face, but her voice stopped him in his tracks.

  “Leif?”

  He gripped the door frame, staring out into the hallway. “Yeah?”

  “Will you be washing your hands of me now?”

  His head fell and his shoulders dropped. How did he get so wrapped up in this woman, that any little thing she said sent his mind whirling and threw his self-control into a tizzy? He slowly turned around, forcing his line of sight to remain above her shoulders.

  “I don’t think I could ever wash my hands of you, Rain.” He recalled the amazing day they had together, the conversation at the fort, the kiss at sunset, and the intimate shower they shared. “Not anymore.”

  “Then why are you leaving?”

  Leif crossed his arms, trying to remain poised. “Because I should. I came too close to having my way with you in the shower had it not been for the timely blast of cold water in the pipes.”

  “You wanted to have your way with me in the shower?”

  Leif couldn’t help but laugh at her innocence. “Was it not obvious to you, then?” He glanced down at his tented towel. “Or even now? Hell, if it we
re up to me at this very moment, I’d have already sprawled you out on the bed behind you.”

  Her cheeks blushed and her eyes darkened. She chewed on her lip, pondering the scenario as the seconds lugged by. Her reply hung in the balance.

  “Okay, that just came out.” He rubbed his hands down his face. “Obviously, that’s my libido talking and—”

  “So, what’s stopping you, Leif?” Her hand came up to her chest and she untucked the towel at her breasts, letting it fall to the floor.

  His mouth went dry and his heartbeat kicked up a notch. Heat and blood and all things hormonal coursed through his veins. He couldn’t hold back even if his blasted conscience slipped in a last minute ethical reason for thinking twice. Her naked body, pleasantly dainty with soft curves in all the right places, spurred the animal inside him. She had given him permission to take her as he wanted, and that was all he needed to slam the door shut on morals and decency.

  Bolting from the room, he rushed into the bathroom and jerked the medicine cabinet open. Fumbling with the condom box, he tore it open, snagged one, and sprinted back to the guest room.

  Within two strides, he had his hands upon her and his mouth pressed to her lips, backing her toward the bed. She smelled like body wash, like him only sweeter, and somehow it felt primal to breathe in his scent from her skin. As if he’d marked his territory upon her flesh and she were all his. For once, he understood the predatory nature of the animal kingdom, for there was no way he’d ever let another man have her. Ever.

  Lorraine was his.

  He could feel it as much in his heart as he could in his blood. She was an integral part of him, part of his makeup, part of who he was as a red-blooded Norwegian. Without her, he’d be half the man.

  Where this all came from, he had no idea. He never felt this way before. He never looked at a woman and felt instantly drawn to her.

  Only Lorraine had this crazy effect on him.