Chapter Sixteen
His fingers slipped under my shirt, gliding upward, taking the fabric with them. Cool air whispered over my skin as he exposed my belly in leisurely increments. The hairs all over my body went erect and a breathtaking tingle swept over my skin. Eyes half closed, I let my hands rest on his chest, awaiting the moment when I would be bared to him.
Aidan froze, his fingertips a hair's breadth below my bra.
"No," he said, "not like this."
Irrational annoyance blustered through me and I threw my hands up. "What now? If you say we have to wait so you can do whatever Lachlan did — "
His soft, throaty chuckle caressed my senses. "I meant not with me undressing you. I want you to strip for me."
"Oh." My cheeks grew warm with a rising blush. "Sorry."
"Don't be." He tipped my chin up with one finger. "I like your passion."
"Apparently, I get a little irrational when I'm sexually frustrated."
He kissed me — a quick, light touch. "I'll take care of that soon enough. First, I want to watch you."
With a suggestive smirk on his lips, he sauntered to the bed and lowered his big body onto the mattress. It creaked under his weight. His hands lay on the quilt, but his eyes stayed glued to me.
I stood there, immobilized by uncertainty. How did a woman strip for a man? Was I supposed to do some kind of sexy dance? Ugh. I had no clue how to do that.
"Relax," he said, canting his head as he swept his gaze down the length of my body and back up to my face. "Just take your clothes off. I'm easy to please, trust me."
Okay. I could do this. Strip. How hard could it be?
I chewed the inside of my lip, fingering the hem of my shirt, my gaze averted to the dresser.
"Look at me," he murmured. "Keep your eyes on me and try to relax. Look like you've got a caber up your erse."
"You have a caber fetish, don't you?"
"I've got a fetish for watching you undress."
The smoldering fire in his gaze heated me up, softening the tension from my muscles, melting me from the inside out. I took hold of my shirt and drew it up over my head, then tossed it to the floor.
"Oops," I said, my hand flying to my mouth. "Was that too fast? Should I do it slower?"
"It was fine." He moved his hands behind his butt and leaned back on them. The pink tip of his tongue poked out between his lips, tracing the seam. "Keep going."
The husky tone of his voice electrified my body. My breasts grew tight and my nipples ached, desperate to escape the confines of my bra. I unzipped my pants, shimmying out of them under Aidan's attentive gaze. His lips parted as he tracked my every movement, and when I kicked my jeans away, he swallowed visibly. I turned my back to him and looked at him over my shoulder with my best attempt at a saucy smile.
"More," he growled, his breaths labored.
Emboldened, I unhooked my bra and let it tumble off my shoulders, fluttering down to the floor. I slid my thumbs inside the waistband of my panties, and little by little, I eased them down while swaying my hips, dragging the fabric over my buttocks. The slow slide of cotton on my skin amped up my own arousal — but it was the hungry, almost crazed, look on Aidan's face that triggered a deep, wet ache in my sex.
Nude at last, I folded my arms around me, still gazing at him over my shoulder.
He twirled one finger in the air. "Turn, please. Slowly."
His erotic command burned through my inhibitions, incinerating every last shred of self-consciousness. I brushed my hands up and down my arms, swiveling my hips, then spread my palms over my hips, undulating my whole body as I rotated to face him.
His mouth had fallen open. Really, truly fallen open. His half-closed eyes drank me in from head to toe, his gaze searing my skin like a physical touch as he absorbed the sight of my breasts and rigid nipples, the planes of my stomach, the curly hairs at the apex of my thighs. His attention stalled there and he licked his lips.
A wild, heady freedom rushed through me.
I walked up to him, lifted one leg, and set my foot on the bed next to him. Exposed to him in the most intimate way, I draped my hands on his shoulders. His focus snapped to my groin. His chest heaved and I swore he growled low in his throat, a possessive and feral sound that set off a wave of liquid fire in my sex. I followed his gaze to my body, to the glistening flesh revealed to him, to the drops of my own juices clinging to the fine hairs on my mound.
"So bonnie," he said breathlessly. "So bloody perfect. Pink and slick and begging to be tasted."
He lifted one hand, as if in slow motion, and held it near my throbbing sex without contacting my flesh. His palm would've cupped me if he'd moved a touch closer, but instead, he wiggled his fingers to tease the hairs.
My fingers dug into his shoulders.
"Cannae wait," he hissed, and grasped my hips in both his strong hands. He slanted toward me at the same time he tipped my hips toward him. His mouth closed around my clitoris. I gasped, clutching him so hard it must've hurt him, but he gave no sign of noticing. My head fell back as he licked and nipped at my nub, swirling his tongue, suckling gently and then so hard I cried out.
His hands shifted to my ass. He held me in place with my foot still on the bed, while he lavished my clit with rough swipes of his tongue, increasing the pace with every pass. His tongue raked my flesh up and down, up and down, side to side, up and down. He paused for a heartstopping second, then devoured my flesh again and worked my hard nub until I was moaning and thrashing my head, clinging to him like I'd fly away into the heavens if I let go.
My climax slammed through me. Scorching, wrenching, mind-altering pleasure that had me writhing in his grasp and letting out a strangled scream.
Aidan tilted his head back to gaze up at me over my mound. His lips glistened with the moisture from… me. "Ah, Calli, you taste like everything wonderful. I could feast on you all night, but I've got other plans."
Still stunned by the exquisite orgasm he'd gifted me with, I dropped my foot to the floor and steadied myself with his solid body. My mind gradually came back to reality and I noted one salient fact.
Flicking a finger on the neck of his T-shirt, I said, "You're not naked."
"Noticed, did ye?" His lips quirked, his eyes sparkled. "Nothing gets by you."
I slapped his shoulder. "Well, get rid of your damn clothes."
"If you insist." He pressed his mouth to the sensitive skin just above my mound, eliciting a small shiver from me. "Wanted to taste you since the night we met. Now, I want to make you mine."
"Get naked already."
He laughed, but did not move.
Despite my orgasm, I endured a deep, pulsating tingle that would not be satisfied until he drove into me. I knew this, though I couldn't explain how. My body knew it.
And I couldn't wait one more second.
With a sharp huff, I grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it up. He arched one brow, but raised his arms so I could haul the garment off of him and fling it aside. The shirt landed on the dresser with a whuft sound. I knelt between his thighs, fumbling to undo the rivet on his jeans, but my fingers had begun to tremble and I couldn't quite grasp the damn thing.
He caught my hands. "Easy, love."
In one fluid movement, he wrapped an arm around me to crush me to his body, rose off the bed, and with his free hand hurled the covers aside. A puff of air rustled my hair from the sudden motion of the quilt and blanket. The top sheet billowed, then settled onto the bed.
Aidan tossed me onto the mattress.
I landed with a bounce and a little yelp. "Hey! What are you doing?"
"Speeding things up." He stripped off his jeans and kicked them out of the way. Since he didn't bother with underwear, I now gazed with rapt attention at the buck-naked Highlander before me.
I'd seen him naked before. This time was different. Helpless to tear my gaze away from his body, I let my focus wander over acres of burnished, firm flesh and the sharp lines of defined muscles. The delicious planes of his torso, sprinkled with fine hairs, inexorably lured my gaze lower and lower, tracking the path of hairs as they tapered down to a point, an arrow pointing straight to the glorious, thick, veined cock I craved.
"But you wanted me to go slow," I said, feigning a pout.
"I'm fickle." His grin was salacious and teasing. "Should I leave?"
"Don't you dare."
He planted one knee on the bed alongside my hip, preparing to straddle me, but stopped. His lips compressed, he scrunched his eyebrows.
"What is it?" I asked, pushing up onto my elbows.
Lips working, he stared at me for several seconds. "Are you certain you want to do this? If I'm your first, you'll always remember me."
"Hate to break it to you," I said, nudging him with my knee, "but even if we don't have sex, there's no way I'd ever forget you. Even if you'd never touched me. Or kissed me. You are unforgettable."
"So are you." He swung his other leg over my body to straddle my hips, landing on his knees, poised above me like a medieval warrior about to claim his mate. His hair curled wild around his face and ears. Lips parted, his gaze searing into me, he slanted forward to plant his hand at either side of my head. "Guess you're stuck with me, then, even after you tell me to bugger off."
A pang lanced my heart at the thought of him leaving. I had no time to ponder the reason for it, though, because he dipped his head to mine and his warm, inviting mouth teased my lips with swift brushes.
I dissolved for him in an instant, my body lax and limp beneath him despite the desire swirling through me, coiling ever tighter in my belly.
"Tell me," he said, "what would ye like me to do first?"
"Anything. Everything."
His chuckle resonated through his chest. "Hard to do everything at once."
"You pick. I — "
He caught my lower lip with his teeth and released it with maddening slowness while his shaft rubbed across my abdomen, spreading a drop of moisture onto my skin. I glanced down at that impressive cock and flashed back to another night, when I'd taken him into my mouth. The flavor and feel of him rushed through my senses anew, drawing a faint moan from me.
"What are ye thinking?" he asked, his lips barely touching mine, his eyes blazing into me.
Unable to form words, enveloped in the aura of all that manly flesh, I snaked a hand down to fold my fingers around his erection. His eyelids fluttered as if he fought to keep them open. I glided my hand up and down his firm, velvety flesh.
"Ah," he hissed, and seized my hand to pull it free of his cock. "Not this time, mo chridhe."
I reached down with my free hand, intent on capturing him again.
His lips twitched with wry amusement as he collared that hand too, pinning both above my head. "Behave."
I lifted my brows as I arched my hips into his hard-on. "Since when do you want me to behave? You've spent over a week trying to convince me to do the exact opposite."
"Did the job a wee bit too well, eh?" His body descended onto mine, slowly, delicately, the weight of him pressing me into the mattress. He threaded his fingers through mine, our hands linked above my pillow, and nibbled at my lower lip.
I wrapped my arms around his back, splayed my fingers, and reveled in the sensation of all that muscle, all that power, concentrated on pleasure — my pleasure. And suddenly, I couldn't wait. "What happened to speeding things up?"
"Easy, lass." He savored my mouth with flicks of his tongue, the touch light and sweet yet decadently arousing. "We have all night."
Desperate for more of him, I lunged my head forward to kiss him. He pulled back, grinning with that naughty gleam in his eyes.
"Uh-uh-uh," he said, shaking his head.
I huffed. "Well, dammit, do something."
"Maybe I should take pity on you, since this is your first time." He muffled my complaint with his mouth, crushing it to mine with brutal passion, thrusting his tongue between my lips to forge deep inside. With strong, punishing strokes, he ignited my simmering desire into a roaring, all-consuming conflagration. I plundered his mouth while he plundered mine, our teeth clashing, our tongues tangling, our lips fused like nothing short of a chainsaw could separate us. I clutched him tighter, my nails sinking into his back, and hoisted my knees up to spread my legs for him.
He drew his head back, panting, lips slick and swollen from our kiss. "Guess ye cannae wait, can ye?"
I shook my head furiously, breathing hard, my hair flapping around my face.
"Well then." He rose onto all fours, his engorged penis dangling between our bodies, curving up toward his taut belly. "Hell with taking it slow."
I sucked in a sharp breath, anticipation a palpable sensation on my skin, sizzling and snapping through my body. "Oh yes, please, Aidan."
"Condom?" he asked.
Jerking my head, I indicated the beside table. "Drawer."
He yanked open the drawer, snagged a condom packet from inside it, and shut it with a thwack. He almost wheezed with the effort to catch his breath and his cock twitched as he fumbled to open the condom packet with one hand and his teeth.
I snatched the packet from him. With a rough ripping noise, I tore it open with my teeth and handed the packet back to him.
He gazed at me open-mouthed. "Ahm getting the impression ye willnae be passive when I take ye."
"You wouldn't want me to be." I scraped my nails down his chest in one long, slow sweep. "Take too long and I might fuck you instead."
Laughing, he sat back on his heels to sheath his thick shaft with the condom. "Ye willnae get the chance. Not this time."
He bent over me again, dropping his head to take one nipple in his mouth. He swirled his tongue around the swollen peak, just as his hand closed around the other breast, his thumb and forefinger plucking at the nipple. His mouth devoured my other breast, consuming the whole areola along with the tip. He suckled hard enough to squeeze a gasp from me, while his hand kneaded my other breast.
Frantic for more, I lodged my heels on the mattress and hoisted my hips up, struggling to catch his cock but missing. As my butt flopped back onto the bed, Aidan withdrew his mouth from my nipple. The air cooled my damp, pebbled skin.
He beheld me with keen interest and deep lust. "Not one for foreplay, are ye?"
"Maybe next time."
"All right. Have it your way."
He grasped my knees and pushed them toward my chest, forcing my legs to bend. With my knees drawn up and his weight penning me, I could do nothing except gaze at him, almost panting from the need to have him inside me.
"Please," I moaned. "Please, now."
"Cannae let my woman suffer." He grasped my ankles and lifted them, settling my knees on his shoulders. "Donnae want to hurt ye, so tell me if — "
"Now, Aidan. Take me now."
He drove into me with one long, smooth stroke, his cock penetrating deep until it felt as if he filled every space within me. I let out a sharp cry, part gasp, part yelp.
Aidan froze, buried within my body. "Did I hurt you?"
"No," I said, breathless. "Don't stop."
Motionless, unblinking, he looked at me as if he were seeing me for the first time. As if I'd transformed into a glowing, ethereal angel right before his eyes. As if he might change his mind and leave me aching for him.
"Please," I whispered, clasping his wrists. "Please don't stop."
"Won't." He slipped free of my hands and shifted my legs off his shoulders. My soles fell to the mattress, though my knees stayed bent at either side of him. Still buried inside me to the hilt, he settled his big body on top of mine, braced on his elbows with his hands at either side of my face so he could stroke my face with his fingers. "I would never leave you wanting."
It was almost like he'd read my thoughts, knew I'd worried he might give up on this. My throat constricted at the fondness in his expression as he lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me with all the sweetness of a man worshiping his true love.
He couldn't love me, not yet. He'd said he didn't. But the way he gazed at me, I could only describe it as… adoring.
The brush of his lips on mine became a sweet, exquisitely tender kiss, with our lips caressing each other in a questing exploration. Then he began to move inside me, easing out of me until only the tip of his penis touched my opening and plunging back in with a long, lazy glide that awakened every inch of sensitized flesh within my body. I arched my hips up to meet his thrusts, my hands gripping his upper arms. With his full weight atop me, I felt connected with him in a way I had no words to describe. The whole time — while his cock glided in and out, consuming me with lush strokes only to abandon me once again — he kept kissing me, savoring my lips with tiny licks but never delving inside. The sweet torment of it intensified my arousal, even as his gentle mouth eased the knife-sharp need just enough to keep me from tipping over the edge.
This man was driving me out of my mind with tenderness.
I hadn't known it was possible, for him to ease me toward climax with such deliciously sweet seduction. My sex grew wetter, hotter, pulsating from my clit down to my opening and straight into my core, where he teased my swollen flesh into ever-increasing passion.
"Oh God, Aidan," I moaned against his lips. "Please."
"Tell me what you want." His words groaned out of him, as he dived into me with another sure, measured thrust. "Tell me."
"More. I want more."
He seemed to know what I meant, though I wasn't sure what I needed. This hunger simmering inside me, rising toward a full-on boil, scattered my wits. But he understood what I couldn't voice. Mashing his mouth to mine, he withdrew his cock and plunged his tongue deep at the same instant he plowed into me with one swift, powerful thrust.
Everything inside me exploded.
Not an orgasm, not yet. My nerves erupted in a torrid cascade that crashed through me from the inside out.
He tore his mouth from mine to growl, "More?"
"Oh yes, Aidan, more." I lunged my hips up as he drove into me again. "Yes-yes, oh God, yes."
Pushing up onto his straight arms, hands braced at either side of my shoulders, he pistoned his cock into me again and again, hips undulating, muscles rippling all over his body with the effort of pleasuring me. I clutched at his arms while little cries of joy burst out of me one after another and my body tightened with an oncoming climax. He grunted with every devouring thrust, bouncing me on the bed, and I clamped my legs around him, my heels digging into his ass. I had no idea what I was doing, only that I craved more of him, all of him, every ounce of pleasure he could feed into me.
My sex clenched around his shaft.
The orgasm seized my body, shocking in its intensity, wrenching a hoarse scream from me. My sex clenched around his shaft again and again, milking every last ounce of pleasure from the climax. I screamed again as the last burst of mind-altering ecstasy roared through me and faded into a lovely afterglow.
Aidan's entire body went rigid, his features contorted with a desperate need.
I felt his release pulse inside me as he drove into me once, twice more.
With a long, deep groan, he collapsed to the bed beside me. He shed the condom and shucked it into the little trash can beside the bed. Breathing hard, he pulled me against him and held me gently in his arms. I nestled my cheek against his chest and listened to the thudding of his heartbeats. Gradually, they slowed along with mine.
He ran his hand up and down my arm. "Sorry about that."
I raised my head to squint at him. "You better not be apologizing for having sex with me."
"No." He sighed, shutting his eyes for a moment. "I meant to take it slow, make it special. This was your first time."
"It was special." I wriggled until I could get in a position to press a kiss to his lips. "What you gave me tonight, it was perfect."
One chestnut brow hiked up. "Perfect? I'm good, but not that good."
"Not actually perfect," I said with a laugh. "But for me, that was the perfect first time. I should be thanking you."
"Are you sure you don't mind having me as your first?"
"Why would I mind?" I studied his face, but couldn't puzzle out his mood. "You are sweet, funny, gorgeous, and incredibly sexy. You make me feel… treasured."
"Because you are." A slight smile kinked his mouth as he slid a hand into my hair, massaging my scalp. "I want you for more than sex. I know you think you don't want me for more. You don't love me yet, but you will."
"You can't make me love you by repeatedly telling me I will."
"Can't hurt." He placed a finger on my sealed lips. "You did vow you'd never have sex with me. And look how that worked out."
"Uh-huh." No idea what to say to that, since he was right. I'd broken my first rule.
If I can tempt you to break your first rule, the rest will follow, he'd said a few days ago on the beach. No sex, no love, no marriage. Scratch number one. The rest would not follow, no way, I couldn't risk it. I wasn't falling for him.
I could stop it from happening. I had to.
Aidan pulled me tighter against him.
Without thinking, I snuggled into him with my head in the crook of his neck. He smelled of sweat and sex and pure man. With his arms around me, his warm body beneath mine, I felt safer than I had in years.
Not falling for him.
The pain in my chest disagreed.