“But you aren’t angry,” she said in a whisper-soft voice.
His eyes narrowed even as he pushed farther into her hand. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re about, lass.”
Her eyes widened innocently as she stroked him from his cods to the very tip of his cock. He leaned down to kiss her, breathing in her very essence. He inhaled, holding and savoring the air that had been hers and then he returned it and it danced around their lips and tongues.
“This won’t get you out of trouble every time,” he warned.
She smiled. “I’ll settle for most of the time.”
He was about to lose himself in her hand. Her soft exploration was driving him to the brink of insanity. He had to have her. Now.
He reached down and clutched the hem of her night dress.
“Don’t tear—”
The sound of material ripping muffled her warning. He shoved the material up over her hips and rolled until he was positioned between her splayed thighs.
He found her heat, felt her silky warmth spread over the head of his shaft and with one push he was inside her. She gasped and arched into him, her belly trembling beneath his.
She was so tight around him, a fist gripping and squeezing, holding him so intimately that he began to unravel.
“Ah, lass, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Her hands trailed over his shoulders, her nails scraping at his flesh. He closed his eyes, knowing this wouldn’t last long at all.
“I seem to lose all control when I’m with you. This will be fast. I cannot hold back.”
“ ’Tis all right,” she whispered. “For I find I cannot hold back either.”
She lifted her hips and wrapped her legs around his waist. It was too much for him to bear.
He thrust hard and already he felt himself letting go. Again he thrust, plunging mindlessly into her willing body. His seed spurted forth and he kept driving, over and over, until her passage, so slick with his passion, released him.
Unwilling to deprive himself of her sweetness just yet, he tucked his shaft back to her opening and eased inward, riding the aftershocks as she trembled and spasmed around him.
He leaned forward, resting his weight on her while he remained inside her warm sheath. She was breathing hard, her puffs of air blowing over his neck and chest. Her body was tangled around his, arms and legs clutching him and holding him close as if she’d never let go.
He liked that. Aye, he liked it a lot.
Finally he rolled to the side but kept her limbs entwined with his. He wanted her a part of him. He liked the sight of her much smaller body secured by his. She was his.
She gave a lusty yawn and nuzzled into his chest. He knew she was asleep in a matter of moments, but he remained awake, liking the feel of so much feminine sweetness in his arms.
When he finally slept, he was careful to keep her as closely linked to him as possible.
The next day, Mairin busied herself with the women to prepare the noon meal while Ewan was occupied with Laird McDonald. The two men had gone hunting that morning, and much to Rionna’s displeasure, she’d been left out of the hunting party.
She sat in the hall dressed in man’s garb, a loose-fitting tunic swallowing the upper half of her body, looking bored and faintly terrified by all the bustling going on around her.
Rionna was a bit of a mystery to Mairin. She wanted to ask the lass about her apparent fascination with the duties of a man, but she was afraid of insulting the woman. Mairin had heard from Maddie that Laird McDonald sought to marry his daughter to Alaric to seal the alliance with the McCabe clan, and that in fact, the lairds were in talks of just such an arrangement.
Mairin pitied Rionna because she gained the distinct impression that Rionna had no desire to marry, and Mairin could only imagine Alaric’s reaction to the proposed arrangement.
What did the lass hope to accomplish by engaging in such shocking activities that obviously brought her father’s ire down on her?
And Alaric, surely he wouldn’t be accepting of his wife’s wish to engage in swordplay. Ewan would be appalled, and Alaric was no different in his thinking. All the McCabe brothers had firm ideas of a woman’s role, and it was definitely not the path that Rionna had chosen.
Rionna needed someone more … understanding, though Mairin couldn’t imagine any warrior allowing his wife the freedoms that Rionna apparently enjoyed.
Mairin shook her head and allowed Rionna to remain sprawled in one of the chairs to watch the goings-on around her.
“Is everything prepared?” Mairin asked Gertie as she entered the sweltering heat of the small cooking area.
“Aye, I’ve just taken the bread from the fire and the stew is simmering. As soon as the men return, I’ll begin putting out the food.”