“You taste like honey. Never have I had anything sweeter. You make me daft with wanting. You’re all that a woman should be, Rionna. Never hide that or be ashamed of it.”
Tears pricked her eyelids. She trembled from head to toe, not just from the onslaught of pleasure, but from the emotions welling from her chest. Emotions that he’d unleashed.
She felt like a woman tonight. She felt beautiful and desired. Like a bride should. How she should have been made to feel on her wedding day, instead of an inferior replacement.
His tongue circled her entrance and then slid inside, shocking her with the sheer intensity of the sensation. She arched upward just as she finally, finally broke free of the excruciating pressure building from deep within.
It was the single most bewildering, most powerful, most absolutely wonderful experience of her life. She flew. Soared impossibly high and then floated ever so gently back toward the ground.
She closed her eyes and melted into the bed, so boneless, so positively sated that she couldn’t even imagine moving so much as a finger.
Her body quivered in the aftermath and tiny little shocks simmered through her blood, humming and buzzing. There was still a pulse between her legs, a slight ache and a throb, a reminder of the attentions he’d just given her with his mouth.
She’d never imagined such a thing. Surely this wasn’t normal. She’d never heard other women speak of such. He hadn’t just kissed her as he’d promised. He’d licked her. He’d suckled her.
Surely there was no more intimate act a husband could perform for his wife. Contentment warmed her entire body and she smiled in satisfaction, marveling at how happy she was at this precise moment. No matter what tomorrow brought, she’d always hold tonight close.
She felt Caelen leave the bed, but she couldn’t summon the energy to open her eyes to see what he was about. A moment later, he pulled the furs up over her and climbed in beside her, his heated flesh a shock against her still quivering body.
Having no experience in such matters, she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. Her mother and father never slept in the same chamber. Certainly not in the same bed. She knew Mairin and Keeley both slept with their husbands every night. Their husbands would allow nothing less, not that either woman wanted it any differently. Perhaps ’twas a McCabe thing. Maybe they were so possessive of their women that they couldn’t bear to let them out of their sight. Or maybe they were just protective.
She decided she didn’t care. What was the worst that could happen? She’d gain Caelen’s censure? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t done that many times over the past few days.
She turned into his body and snuggled up tight against him. For a moment she worried she’d done something wrong because he stiffened against her. Gradually he relaxed and then he slid an arm around her waist and hauled her even closer until her nose was pressed against the hollow of his throat.
“Caelen?”
“Aye, lass?”
“You were right.”
“What was I right about?”
“Kissing. ’Tis a most wondrous thing.”
She could sense his smile.
“And you were right about another thing. There are so many other … places … where kissing brings much pleasure to.”
This time he chuckled softly over her head. “Go to sleep, Rionna. We must rise early in the morn. We have a hard journey ahead of us.”
She sighed and closed her eyes and just before she drifted off, she had the thought that this whole consummation thing wasn’t so bad after all.
CHAPTER 7
Caelen was in a black mood. He hadn’t slept a wink the entire night. He’d finally given up when he couldn’t take the torture of Rionna’s naked body wrapped around his a minute longer.
He had a raging erection, and even after prying himself from the bed and seeking privacy to take care of the matter, he was still hard and aching.
Her taste was still on his tongue. Her scent still filled his nostrils. Her lean body with her lush curves still haunted him. Whether he shut or opened his eyes, he couldn’t rid himself of the images of her writhing beneath his mouth.
“Sweet Jesu,” he muttered.
Panting after a woman had already caused him—and his clan—a lifetime of trouble.
He would bed her as soon as they arrived at McDonald keep and then he’d distance himself from her. A good tupping was what he needed. He’d been a long time without a woman. Aye, that was the issue. He needed relief and then he would regain his senses and he could function without being led about by his cods.
Knowing the others wouldn’t be up for some time yet, he went below stairs and into the courtyard. Snow had blown into drifts, barring the usual walkways. He cursed as he stared around at the heavy blanket of freshly fallen snow.