If she were the sort of girl to swoon, she’d be sprawled on the floor in a faint, spittle drooling from the corner of her mouth.
He strode to the fireplace and set his shirt beside her damp clothes. His back was to her, allowing her to study him as long as she wished. The lively fire cast a delicious glow across his lightly bronzed skin, the delicate firelight washing over his back as he bent to remove his boots. Handsome didn’t begin to describe Ewan.
The bandage wrapped over his shoulder enhanced his good looks. There was something strong and primal about men with wounds. It would make for interesting research.
He glanced at her as he began to unbutton his trousers, and then stopped. Grinning, he shook his head. “I’d better keep these on for now.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re looking at me as though I’m a laboratory specimen and you can’t wait to dissect me.”
She blushed. “There’s nothing wrong with curiosity. You were staring me quite avidly a few moments ago. Do you dare deny it?”
He shook his head and let out a soft chuckle. “Nay, lass. Finish your tea. Have another biscuit. Try not to choke on it.” He glanced at the large four-poster. “Once I have you in that bed, I’m not letting you out of it for a good, long while.” He came to her side and set his hands on each side of her body. Still grinning that sexy, dangerous grin of his, he leaned forward and gave her a possessively tender kiss that curled her toes. Then his dangerous grin faded and his eyes turned to hot, green embers. Crumpets! She was going to miss him when he returned to Scotland.
He left her side to wash away the dirt and sweat of the night’s ride. He rubbed the lavender soap over his chest, shoulders, and hair, and then rinsed himself off in that carelessly manly way, allowing the water to slowly stream in droplets down his neck and across his broad chest. The droplets gleamed against the firelight, and all Lily could think of as they glistened against his bronzed skin was that being alone in a cozy inn with a hot, wet, almost naked Ewan beside her was the best thing on earth. Even better than membership in the Royal Society.
He returned to her side with the look of promise in his eyes and lifted her into his arms. He smelled of lavender and clean, male heat.
“Finally,” she whispered, circling her arms around his neck. His hair was damp and curling at his nape. Then she was on the bed, naked and curling her fingers in his damp hair as he settled over her, his big body covering hers and his mouth slanted across hers in a kiss that put sparkles in her eyes. Not that she could see her eyes, but the sparkles were there. Shining as bright as diamonds.
His gaze locked on hers as he unbuttoned his trousers and slipped them off to reveal his long, muscled legs. Lily’s eyes widened at the sight of his male hardness. She wanted to reach out and touch him, but he had a glint in his eye that warned he wasn’t quite under control, and she decided not to test him. She wasn’t certain of the consequences.
Then all further thought flew out of her head, for he was atop her again, his long, lean body pressing her down against the mattress, the exquisitely intimate weight of him so arousing against her skin. He eased her thighs apart and shifted himself between them. “My fair Lily,” he whispered, lowering his mouth to hers and kissing her with a tenderness that stole her breath away. Then his lips moved lower... down the arch of her throat, to her breast. His tongue began to work its magic, flicking across her engorged nipple. She groaned, felt a hot pulse at the junction of her thighs, and almost shot off the bed as he moved lower. He closed his mouth over that hot pulse, teasing and licking the swollen nub between her thighs, evoking sensations she’d never dreamed possible.
She felt herself floating upward to the stars, lifted so high she could touch the silvery ball of the moon. And floating higher, beyond the moon and stars. Her heart thudded to a rampant beat. Her skin felt hot. She was mindless. She was a coiled ball of heat about to explode. Then it happened, that same magical sensation she’d experienced in the tub, but this time the wave of ecstasy was even stronger, like a shower of meteors striking the ground, sending shocks and ripples through her body, exquisitely hot and pulsing, exquisitely and endlessly magical.
“Lily, what you do to me,” he whispered, shifting himself upward so that his erect member was now between her thighs, poised and throbbing. Then he slid inside her, filling her, gently thrusting in and out, his body taut as he struggled not to hurt her. He guided her legs so that they wrapped around his hips, murmuring his pleasure as her hands caressed his skin. He watched her even as he lost control. She knew the moment he’d crossed into mindless instinct, for his eyes turned dark with molten desire. But even then, there was a gentleness in the way he held her, the way he looked at her. He’d never hurt her. That need to protect her was so much a part of who he was and why she loved him.