Chapter Nine
Thanks to Mabel insisting that he take her out to lunch three times a week to learn how things worked in this century, William had become very comfortable eating in restaurants. And tonight he found he quite liked the concept of dating as well, as he couldn’t remember spending a more entertaining and enlightening meal with a lovelier woman. And a rather talkative one, too; the more Maddy drank the more she talked, and the more she talked the more enchanted William became. She’d even admitted that Eve had said she could only have one drink to calm her nerves—a little tidbit she’d thrown out after finishing her fourth glass of what she’d called a Long Island Iced Tea.
William had taken a sip at her insistence, and decided it wasn’t like any tea he’d ever tasted; the fumes alone could have brought down a bear. When he’d asked why she felt the need to calm her nerves, Maddy had explained how dating was like riding a horse, and that when a person repeatedly fell off, they sometimes needed a little liquid courage to climb back on again. Then she’d gone on to say she was limiting herself to only four drinks tonight, as five seemed to be her tipping point for outright stupidity.
William had followed the waiter to the bar when she’d obviously lost count and ordered her fifth drink, and he’d instructed the man to cut the liquor down to a quarter and replace it with more of the tea. He was pleased Maddy was comfortable enough to let her guard down with him, but he preferred his women consciously willing.
He’d limited himself to two drinks of warm straight whiskey, unwilling to let his own guard down as long as Maddy was in his care.
All in all, he felt the evening was a success thus far. In fact, he even got to drive. Maddy had handed him the keys as they’d stood up to leave—after gulping down her sixth drink—saying she certainly wasn’t drunk but maybe it would be better if he drove. And seeing how she appeared relaxed and rather agreeable, he figured she wouldn’t start screaming if the truck decided to stray off the pavement of its own accord.
It was his first experience driving at night, and he found that once he left the town of Oak Harbor and was traveling a dark road, the headlights were more of a hindrance than a help. He tried to turn them off, but no matter which button he pushed he couldn’t make them go out. Total darkness would have allowed his eyes to adjust, whereas the headlamps only shone a few hundred paces in front of the truck, so he had to go very slow for fear something would suddenly appear in front of him.
Maddy complimented him several times on the drive back to Midnight Bay, and said he should be able to get his license very soon.
William decided the more time he spent with the lass, the more he liked her.
He slowly made his way down the dirt road going into his land, stopped at the edge of the cove, and shut off the engine. And still the lights didn’t go out.
“Are the blasted lights going to stay on all night?” he muttered.
Maddy giggled. “They’re on a timer; they’ll go out in a minute or two. They stay on so you can walk to the house without tripping over anything.” She giggled again, only to end with a hiccup—which made her giggle again. “I haven’t been down this road since high school,” she said. “We used to come here to drink and go parking.”
“How does one go parking? If you’re parked, you aren’t going anywhere.”
The dash lights let him see her surprise. “You’ve never been parking?”
“I believe we’re parking right now, are we not?”
Her expression went from surprised to intense.
The headlights suddenly went out, plunging them into darkness, and Maddy hiccupped again—which was followed by another giggle. She blindly reached over and grabbed his arm. “We’re certainly not going to be able to park in this truck. The console is keeping you way over there.” There was enough moonlight that William could see her smiling somewhat expectantly as her fingers feathered over his forearm. “But I guess that’s why they make backseats,” she said huskily.
He glanced over his shoulder and would have laughed if he hadn’t known she was serious. Full-grown men and women made love in backseats? Christ, he’d get a leg cramp just trying to undress her.
Maddy hiccupped again, but no giggle followed as she pulled her hand away.
“Come on,” he said, opening his door—which brought on the interior lights this time, allowing him to see her cheeks had turned a lovely pink as she stared down at her hands in her lap. “Let’s head up to the bluff so I can show you my building site. Wait, stay there; I’ll walk around and get you, so ye don’t trip and fall.”
He held on to the truck to guide himself around to her side, as he couldn’t see the ground because apparently the interior lights were also on a timer. He took hold of her hand as she slid out, and immediately closed her door.
“Just stand here a minute until the lights go out and your eyes can adjust to the moonlight,” he suggested, lacing his fingers through hers. “Are ye cold, lass?” he asked when she hugged herself with her free arm. “Your long skirt might be warm, but your blouse is sleeveless. Here, I’ll give ye my shirt,” he said, letting her go to unbutton it.
“No! I mean, you should probably leave it on,” she said, her voice sounding even huskier as she stopped him by grabbing both of his wrists.
The interior lights suddenly shut off. William felt her fingers flex on his wrists, heard her breath hitch, and suddenly her hands were gone and she hiccupped again.
But no giggle.
His eyes having adjusted to the moonlight enough to see that she’d gone back to hugging herself, William unbuttoned his shirt, pulled the tails out of his pants and shrugged it off, and then wrapped it over her shoulders.
“Omigod,” he heard her whisper on an indrawn breath, which was quickly followed by a strangled hiccup.
“Slide your arms into the sleeves,” he told her. As soon as she did, he took her hand and started leading her up the new road the crew had carved through the trees. “I believe you’re going to have your stockings blown off, lass, once we reach the bluff.”
“Omigod,” he heard again, only this time it came out more as a squeak.
“Can ye see well enough?” he asked. He wrapped an arm around Maddy’s waist and tucked her against his side when they reached the uneven ground of the building site.
She hiccupped so violently that she stumbled anyway, and William stopped and turned to face her. “I believe I have a cure for what ails ye,” he said, threading his fingers through her hair to cup her face in his palms. He tilted her head and covered her mouth with his own just as her soft sweet lips parted in surprise.
Her hands gripped his wrists, her breath hitched, and she leaned into him. Aye, he knew exactly how to cure what ailed the lass.
And she seemed to like his medicine. In fact, she parted her lips even more, and her sweet, delicate tongue found his. She trailed her fingers down his forearms, then back up, then down again before moving them in a feathery path up his naked torso. She splayed her hands over his back and pulled herself into him, the entire length of her body melting against his.
She started making soft little sounds, her hands kneading his muscles. William tucked her head in the crook of his arm and deepened his kiss even as he reached down and cupped her bottom, her mewls turning to moans when he pulled her against his groin. She started trembling again, but William knew she wasn’t cold. Without breaking their kiss, he turned them both as he searched for a place to lay her down.
The moonlight shone off a thick cloth covering some building material, and he reluctantly tore his mouth from hers, smiling openly at her protest. “It’s just temporary, lass,” he said, leading her to the cloth. He tugged it free and dragged it—towing Maddy with him—to a patch of grass, and tossed it down, pulled her back into his arms, and settled his mouth back over hers.
The moment she melted into him again, he eased them both down onto the makeshift bed he’d made, settling beside her to wrap her in his arms.
Only the lass seemed to have another idea; she hiked up her billowy skirt to slide a leg over his hips, and swung up to straddle him. “I’m afraid it’s your stockings that are going to get blown off, Mr. Killkenny,” she said with a throaty giggle, her hands splaying across his naked chest as she pressed her womanhood against him. But when he tried to reach for her, she captured his wrists, leaned forward, and pinned his hands beside his head.
“Not so fast, big man. I’ve been waiting a rather long time for this. You just lie back and relax,” she whispered, her big dark eyes locked on his. “And enjoy the show.”
She thought she’d been waiting a long time? Hell, he’d been several centuries yearning to get his hands on a woman again!
She hesitated to see if he would obey, then straightened—which served to press her rather provocatively onto the growing bulge in his pants. Having absolutely no intention of just watching, William slowly slid his hands under her skirt—relishing every inch of her silky thighs—and grasped her hips.
She stilled in the act of unbuttoning her blouse. “I thought you weren’t a leg man,” she said as he worked his fingers beneath her underpants to palm her soft, wonderfully feminine bottom.
“Not a—what could have given ye that impression?” he asked, even as he used his grip to slide her along the length of his shaft.
“N-never mind,” she said with a breathless moan, squirming intimately against him. She hurriedly finished unbuttoning her blouse and shrugged it off along with his shirt, only to reveal a small lacy garment that looked to be strangling her bosom and causing an intriguing amount of flesh to spill over the top.
“Christ’s blood, can ye breathe in that thing?” he asked, every last bit of his blood shooting to his groin. He bolted upright with every intention of helping her out of the garment, eager to taste her sweet flesh.
But she reared away with a gasp of surprise. William lifted his hands to catch her from falling backward—which in turn lifted her billowy skirt up, exposing her bottom to the ocean air.
She immediately lurched forward and reached back to pull it down, driving her bosom into his face. He fell back with a muffled grunt of surprise when something hard and pointy nearly poked out his eye.
With a yelp of horror, she tried scrambling off him, driving the air from his lungs when she shoved herself off his chest, her knee damn near emasculating him. William bolted upright to protect himself and caught her flailing arms. He rolled them both over to pin her to the cloth as she continued to try to push her skirt—which was tangled up in his legs—back into place.
“Maddy, darling,” he whispered, working to keep the edge from his voice, “what say we just lie here for a while and enjoy the moonlight?”
She suddenly hiccupped, and William tucked her against his side with a sigh of defeat, guessing that if drink number five was her tipping point for stupidity, number four must be her point of calamity.
Either that or they were both out of practice.
Maddy couldn’t remember ever being so embarrassed.
But then, she’d never tried to make love while keeping most of her clothes on before, either. That’s why she’d worn this skirt; because it was full enough that she could just pull it up, slip off her panties, and straddle William. And the thin lace on the top half of her bra was supple enough that she could tuck it under to expose her nipples while still keeping her boobs jacked up. It was all part of her perfect plan of seduction; she could blow William’s mind with sexy underwear and a little mystery and show off her good assets while keeping her flaws hidden.
“Can I ask ye a question?” he said over the sound of the gentle surf washing against the rocks below.
“No.” She’d had to mutter her answer into his naked chest, because he was holding her plastered against him, apparently afraid she would attack him again. She took as deep a breath as his embrace would allow and let out a sigh. “Okay, what?”
“That tiny garment you’re wearing around your bosom; is there metal in it?” he asked, rubbing his eye with his free hand. But then she saw him hold it up in the moonlight and rub his fingers together as if they were wet.
Maddy popped up as far as his grip would allow. “Are you bleeding?” she asked, touching his cheek just below his eye. When she felt her own fingers come away wet, she shoved her hand down the front of her blouse to her bra. “Omigod, my underwire worked free and poked you in the eye!” she cried in dismay. Utterly humiliated now, she tried to get up so she could go jump in the ocean and drown herself.
He pulled her head back down to his chest with a chuckle. “It’s not a mortal wound, lass. So what’s an underwire?”
Maddy went still. He hadn’t really just asked that, had he? “It’s a wire, or rather a set of wires, sewn into a bra to shape a woman’s breasts and . . . jack them up.”
“Why?”
“So we don’t trip over them,” she snapped, trying to wiggle free again.
Only he still wouldn’t let her go. “I see. No, actually, I don’t,” he said. “Why would a woman feel the need to shape her breasts in an unnatural way, and . . . jack them up? It looks very uncomfortable.”
Was this guy for real? She decided she didn’t want to jump in the ocean; she wanted to throw him in. “To maintain our youthful figure,” she growled, “after we have a baby and all our parts head south.” Since he wouldn’t let her pop her head up to glare at him, she unthinkingly poked him in his side. “Did you just fly in from another planet or something? Don’t they have Wonderbras in Ireland?”
“Hush, lass,” he said, capturing her hand so she couldn’t poke him again. “Just lie back and listen to the surf. Isn’t it a beautiful evening?”
She couldn’t hear anything but his strongly beating heart because one ear was plastered against his naked chest and the other one was covered by his big, strong, wonderfully masculine hand.
“I believe I’ll like living here,” he continued. “This coast reminds me of home.”
Not wanting to be hushed again, and enjoying the lilt of his soothing voice and the heat of his pleasant-smelling chest, Maddy let out a yawn, only she wasn’t able to cover her mouth because he was still holding her hand.
Obviously a very polite man, he decided to cover it for her.
He lifted her chin as he resettled their positions, and brought his lips down over hers, kissing her gently. But then he threaded his fingers through her hair to tilt her head back, apparently so his tongue would have an easier time making deep, delicious love to her mouth.
Every hormone in her body started doing a happy dance again, and Maddy moved restlessly against him. God, she hoped he wasn’t one of those slow and gentle and really considerate lovers. That might be fine halfway through a weekend, but tonight she wanted it fast and hard and . . . dammit, she didn’t need him to be considerate, she needed him now.
Maddy reached into her eye-poking Wonderbra—that she was sending back to the company first thing tomorrow with a nasty letter—and pulled out the condom she’d tucked inside it when Eve hadn’t been looking, for just in case she found herself in the backseat of a shiny new pickup with a caveman turned sexy hunk.
But hey, she was flexible, and a moonlit bluff overlooking the ocean worked equally well—though the old canvas tarp left something to be desired.
Maybe she could lie on her skirt.
Better yet, maybe she’d get William to lie on her skirt, and she would lie on him.
She pulled her mouth from his and held the condom up to his face. “Here, you open this, while I open your pants,” she said raggedly, reeling from his kisses as she fought to keep her hormones from exploding—at least until he was inside her.
Oh, God, just the thought of him sliding inside her made her shudder.
She wiggled down his beautiful, barrel-chested torso, unable to keep from running her lips over him as she did—gratified to feel him shudder in response.
God, he tasted as good as he looked.
“Maddy, darling,” she heard him say in a strangled growl, his hands grabbing her shoulders when she started unbuckling his belt.
Not about to let him turn this into another wrestling match, she got right back up in his face. “Here’s the deal, Killkenny,” she ground out. “I haven’t been laid in forever, okay? I don’t want sweet kisses in the moonlight—even though you certainly can kiss—and I sure as hell don’t need an hour of foreplay or any other romantic crap. We’re both consenting adults, we both knew where this evening was headed the moment I asked you out, and I don’t know about you, but I’m about one second away from exploding.”
She grabbed his hand holding the condom and held it in front of his face again. “So just open the damn thing. You want to play touchy-feely; you can touch and feel all you want—after.”
She went back to unbuckling his belt, the task made difficult because she was shaking uncontrollably now, either from hormone overload or abject fear he was going to stop her. She unzipped his pants and tried to work them down his hips, only now she was having difficulty because he was really, really aroused—thank you, God.
He finally sprang free and Maddy stopped breathing.
Oh man, she was so ready for this.
She wrapped her hands around him with a hum of pleasure, and he said her name in a strangled groan, every muscle in his body tightening in response.
Maddy’s insides clenched with anticipation.
Only she couldn’t decide if she wanted to taste him first, or feel him inside her.
No, dammit, she really couldn’t wait any longer.
And hey, nothing said she couldn’t blow his socks off after.
Intending to sensually slide the condom down over him herself—though he certainly didn’t seem to need any more stimulation—she looked over to find him still holding the unopened packet. “Oh, give it to me and I’ll do it,” she said, grabbing it and tearing it open with her teeth. Her happy-dancing hormones turned into a mob of impatient rioters the more she handled him, and her hands shook uncontrollably as she finally got him safely sheathed. She scrambled up to straddle him—fully prepared to push him back down if he sat up again—desperately needing to feel him inside her.
Only he wouldn’t fit!
No matter how she wiggled or moved, she couldn’t make it happen! Whimpering in frustration, she started to grab his hand to make him help her, but suddenly stopped in mid-reach. Prickles of blazing fire scorched her cheeks as she stared into his moonlit eyes filled not with lust but with concern, and the full scope of what she was doing suddenly brought her crashing back to reality.
She pushed off him with a cry of horror to really go jump in the ocean.
But he snagged her skirt and pulled her back into his arms, rolling her onto her back with dizzying swiftness. “Shhh, easy, lass,” he whispered, brushing her hair off her face. “There is nothing you can say or do or even think, that should ever make you feel the need to run from me, Madeline.” He trailed his lips over her cheeks. “And I swear there is nowhere you will ever be safer than in my arms.” She felt his hand slide up under her skirt, his fingers slipping under the elastic of her panties. He slowly pulled them down her legs, the heat of his broad palm making her shiver. “So let’s see if I can’t help ye finish what ye started, lass,” he whispered.
His empty hand returned, tracing a slow, fiery path back up her leg, and Maddy suddenly realized he hadn’t fit because she’d still been wearing her panties!
“Ye have the softest, silkiest skin,” he murmured, his lips brushing her ear as her skirt somehow went the way of her panties. But even as she wondered how he’d managed to unbutton its waistband—considering it had taken her forever to get the damn thing buttoned at home—an involuntary moan erupted from her throat when his hand returned to find the seam of her opening.
He softly toyed with her slickness, and all her rioting hormones snapped to attention, collectively focusing on his finger gently sliding inside her. His thumb brushed across her sensitive bud—ever so lightly and then with increasing pressure—and Maddy almost wept at how wonderful it felt. She bucked upward with a soft cry of delight as she clenched around his salaciously talented finger.
“Come for me, Madeline,” he whispered against her lips, sliding a second finger inside her. “Give me your pleasure, lass.”
His unbelievably talented thumb set a rhythm that sent her flying over the edge before she even knew what was happening, and she came hard and fast and so violently that it tore another scream from her—which William immediately captured by lowering his mouth over hers.
His fingers continued to move inside her; pulling lingering spasms that rocked her gently as his thumb caressed her soothingly. He slowly backed away from their kiss, and she felt him shift beside her—getting to his knees, she thought, her mind still reeling with the force of her orgasm.
He started fumbling with the band of her bra. She wanted to tell him it clasped in the front, but it suddenly loosened all on its own, and Maddy instinctively grabbed to catch it as the cool night air washed over her nipples. Not fast enough, she immediately grabbed her breasts instead, to keep them from falling off her chest. She blinked up at him looming above her kneeling between her open thighs, his broad shoulders blocking the moonlight and making it impossible to see his face.
“Do not hide yourself from me, Madeline,” he said roughly, gently pulling her hands away. “Let the moon bathe your beauty,” he whispered, replacing them with his own large, masculine hands.
And his oh-so-talented fingers gently kneaded her breasts, his thumbs brushing both her nipples at once before he softly pinched them, making her moan in pleasure.
“Now that’s a sound as sweet as any I’ve heard in a while.” He lowered his weight down in order to replace one hand with his mouth, and ran his tongue in a slow circle around her areola before closing his lips over her eager nipple and suckling.
Maddy arched into him with a cry of encouragement. He lavished attention on each nipple in turn, the alternating heat of his mouth and the cool ocean air raising havoc with her senses. She touched him everywhere she could reach, kneading the muscles on his arms and shoulders, as he worked her into such a frenzy that she braced her feet on the ground to lift her hips, and came again just by rubbing intimately against his shaft.
And being the polite and obviously considerate man that he was, he rode the entire explosion outside her; then just as she started to ebb, he eased inside her with one long, smooth stroke that pulled even more clenching spasms from her as she stretched to accommodate him.
He made a guttural sound, lifting up onto his hands and throwing his head back to seat himself even deeper. “Again, Madeline,” he said through his teeth. “Let me feel your pleasure tighten around me.”
Sucking air into her lungs with enough force to crack a rib, she gaped up at him.
That is until he moved. He drew nearly out and drove into her again, and Maddy forgot all about the need to breathe as her mighty hormones snapped back to attention, apparently far more ready than she was for yet another spin around the universe.
He set a rhythm that sent her senses spiraling inward again, tightening into a knot of building tension. But when she dug her fingers into his chest because she really needed something solid to hold on to, and incoherently pleaded that he not flat-out kill her with another orgasm, he pressed his thumb intimately against her.
“Once more, Madeline,” he urged tightly, using his other hand to lift her onto his thighs and thrusting even deeper.
It was simply too much; Maddy exploded, rocketing into the universe and back with such dizzying speed that her cry of fulfillment came out as a hoarse, keening whimper. He went utterly still above her, both hands on her hips holding him sheathed deeply inside her as her spasms continued pulsing for what seemed like forever.
Oh God, if he moved right now he really would kill her.
But not only did he move, he suddenly pulled out of her and pressed his hand over her mouth just as she was trying to suck much-needed air into her lungs!