Elise stepped over the threshold into the roundhouse. An ancient stone table set back from the door was the only furniture. The light was muted as the open roof had been claimed by creeping vines and overhanging trees, and she couldn’t help the relief that washed through her.

She didn’t want Cameron to see her in the full force of daylight.

He kicked the door shut with his foot. Before he could pull her into his arms, she spied a timber rod propped against the wall.

“We can secure the door.” She indicated the rod and the weathered bolt holders that, at some distant point in the past, had been attached to the door and wall.

Only the slight raising of his eyebrows showed his surprise before he hoisted the rod and dropped it into place.

“You’ve been here before.” There was no censure in his tone, yet Elise had the strangest certainty that Cameron had believed she had not.

If she had taken lovers in the past, and Cameron was any other warrior, then what he believed in this matter was irrelevant. Did a warrior remain celibate when away from his wife?

Elise knew few were faithful. It was not even expected unless a love match was involved. And how often did those with royal or noble blood wed for love?

But she hadn’t taken any lover. And Cameron wasn’t any other warrior. She didn’t care for the elaborate games played out between lovers, despite having spent so many years indulging in the frivolous pastime of flirting.

She curled her hand around his bicep. Even through his sleeve, she could feel the heat of his flesh and the rigid strength of his muscles. The knowledge that they were utterly alone thudded in her mind and caused her breath to catch in her breast.

“I’ve not been here before with anyone. But some of the ladies love to gossip. It appears this roundhouse has been used as a lovers retreat for many generations.”

His fingers trailed along her cheek. It was such a gentle gesture. Almost reverential. As though he wasn’t certain whether his touch was truly welcome.

“I didn’t imagine having you in a ruin.” His husky whisper, combined with his irresistible accent, was as potent as the feel of his fingers on her face. Spellbound she gazed at his harsh, unsmiling face that no longer caused her to shiver with unease. Because she could see beneath that surly exterior. She hadn’t been mistaken when she’d thought he presented a façade to the world.

“How did you imagine it?” She slid her hand up his bicep and over his powerful shoulder. Even though they were both fully clothed, her fingertips tingled from the contact, and a thousand fluttering wings collided within her chest.

“In a bed. For your comfort.”

Damp heat trickled from her pussy at his words. Unlike another man, she knew Cameron didn’t say such a thing merely because he knew it would please her. He said it because it was true.

“The moss is springy and quite comfortable, so I have been told.”

“I wouldn’t take you on the wet ground.” Lust spilled through every word but there was an undercurrent of masculine outrage. As though the thought she expected him to do such a thing offended his sense of honor.

For a second she was entranced. And then the meaning of his words penetrated.

What a fool she was. She had forgotten about the storm. The moss beneath her feet was likely still sodden. She should have brought a blanket with her.

“Elise.” There was a hint of laughter in his tone now as though he didn’t share her dismay, and she stared at him, bemused. Cameron wasn’t given to amusement and what in the name of Bride was there to find amusing in this situation? He traced his forefinger along her bottom lip. Goddess, she had never imagined her lips were so exquisitely sensitive. And who could have imagined how beautiful Cameron looked when he didn’t scowl?

“Elise?” He repeated, as his voice dropped to a decadent rumble, but the frown was back on his face. She blinked, clearing her vision, but frown or not Cameron still struck her as beautiful as an immortal god.

“Yes?” Her breathy whisper was all she could manage. She wound a length of his hair around her finger. It was surprisingly soft, like threads of silk. She had never before done such a thing. How wonderful it was not to cringe at the thought of touching a man.

“I will not take you on the ground.” He wound his arm around her waist and tugged her tight against his hard body. “But I have every intention of having you before we leave here.”

The length of his rigid cock pressed against her stomach. Tremors rippled through her sheath. She felt deliciously swollen between her thighs and pressed her legs together. The friction was not nearly enough to satisfy.

She rose onto her toes, pressing her aching breasts against his chest. His eyes were so dark they appeared black, and his unwavering focus was as potent as any pretty words.

Their lips touched. It was everything she remembered from the other night and so much more than the dreams she’d had since. His kiss was tender and he coaxed her lips to part. The tip of his tongue teased and explored but did not thrust inside. She sighed and shifted in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Holding her securely with one powerful arm, his other hand drifted up her back and over her shoulder. She felt him tug her gold circlet from her head and heard it land upon the mossy ground. Her veil slid onto her shoulders, and Cameron speared his fingers into her hair and held the back of her head.

Her eyes closed as she savored the feel of his hands on her body. Yet all he did was hold her still while his fingers slowly massaged her head. It was oddly intense and intensely arousing. She’d never imagined a man would do such a thing to her, or that it could feel so good.

His kiss deepened. His tongue slid into her mouth and liquid darts of a strange pleasurable pain tumbled between her thighs. She dug her fingers into his hair, wanting him closer. If only they didn’t have the barrier of clothes between them.

He tore his mouth from hers and she gasped, trying to catch her breath. He looked at her as though she was the only woman in the world. In this moment, she felt like the only woman in the world, and Cameron was that world.

“I cannot believe you’re here with me.” There was a hint of awe in his voice and she gave a breathless laugh before she could stop herself. His fierce expression softened as though her response, far from spoiling the mood, merely added to it. “You could take your pick of my compatriots. Why me?”

She cradled his jaw. His faint stubble grazed her palms. Cameron MacNeil was a tough, taciturn warrior. Yet she had glimpsed his soul, and he was the unlikely man who had haunted her secret dreams.

“I took my pick of warriors, Cameron. Not one of them stirs my passion as you do.”

He brushed a lock of hair from her cheek, his fingers lingering on her warm skin. “I don’t know how to say sweet words, Elise. They are foreign to me.”

“A man can say anything and mean nothing. All that counts are his actions.”

A look of anguish flashed across his face, as though she had plunged a sword through his heart. “I would never wish to hurt you.”

“I know,” she whispered. “You won’t.” Yet deep in her heart, she knew he would, even though it wouldn’t be his fault. When the time came for them to part, she would grieve for what might have been until the last breath left her body.

But she would never regret this time with him.

She watched him as he loosened the laces of her bodice. The look of utter concentration on his face sent need spiking through her. He tugged open the material and pulled her gown over her shoulders revealing her breasts to his gaze, and she hitched in a jagged breath.

Her breasts felt heavy, aching for his touch. He trailed a finger over her exposed flesh and heated shivers coursed over her nakedness. Then he cupped her breasts, squeezing them together to create a deep cleavage. Every erratic breath pressed her sensitized globes into the palms of his hands. It was beyond anything she had imagined.

He lowered his head and pressed his lips to her. She threaded shaky fingers through his luxuriant black hair and gasped as his mouth captured her erect nipple.

Mesmerized she stared at him as he sucked on her sensitive peak. Pleasure streaked from her captive nipple straight to her swollen clitoris. The sound of her heartbeat pounded in her ears and she dug her fingers through his hair, pinning him more securely to her throbbing nipple.

His tongue swirled and his teeth very gently nipped. She gave a strangled groan and shifted helplessly as he abandoned her untouched breast and molded the shape of her waist and hip.

He grasped her gown and began to tug the material up her leg. In a tiny sane sliver of her mind, relief spilled that he was exposing her left leg and not her injured right. But almost instantly, the thought fragmented when his hand curved around her naked thigh.

Her nipple slid from his wet mouth as he straightened. Impeded by her disheveled gown she could no longer cling onto him and instead gripped his shirt where it sculpted the taut planes of his stomach.

His hand slid around to the apex of her thighs. His knuckles brushed against her curls in a touch as light as a feather, but liquid flames ignited deep in her core.

She swayed and her grip on his shirt tightened. A hint of a smile tilted his lips, as though her reaction pleased him. Shock flickered through her as she found herself smiling back at him.

In the past, sex had never been something to smile about it. Warmth flooded through her blood and heightened the need surging through her veins. “Should I be smiling?”

His knuckles gently stroked over her pussy lips. “I like to see you smile.” Raw lust wove through each word and primitive desire tugged low in her belly.

“I like…” she swallowed, mouth dry, as he nudged her throbbing clitoris. “That.” She gasped the word and clutched desperately onto his shirt to keep from collapsing onto the ground.

For answer, he cupped her sex and drew one finger along her wet seam. He didn’t penetrate but teased her unmercifully until she writhed with wanton need.

“Are you ready for me, Elise?” His words were uneven and she couldn’t drag her gaze from his. She could not find the wit to answer him, either.

Clearly her ragged breath and burning face were answer enough. Slowly he dipped a finger inside her cleft and then another. She groaned out loud and then bit her lip in mortification.

“Don’t.” His command was rough. She stared at him, bemused, while he rotated his fingers inside her, building the intense pressure between her thighs. Goddess, it was too much… “Don’t be silent. I want to hear you.”

“Cameron.” Her voice sounded strange to her ears, breathless and sultry. “I fear I may fall if…” If she didn’t lie down. But she couldn’t lie down because the ground was wet, and Cameron wouldn’t allow her to lie on the rain soaked moss.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her with him as he backed up to the stone table. Still teasing her swollen clitoris with the tip of one finger, he sat on the edge of the table, released her waist and hiked up his heavy plaid.

His muscled thighs were glorious, all she had dreamed. Her gaze shifted upward to his mighty cock and she forgot how to breathe.

She had only ever seen her husband’s before, and there was no comparison. Cameron radiated vigor and youth, everything she had ever hoped for as a young maid.

“If you continue to look at me like that, I will likely spill my seed before even possessing you.” His tortured growl thickened the desire pooling low in her belly and she dragged her eyes up to meet his penetrating gaze.

“That would be a grievous disappointment.” She edged forward, straddling his thighs. The musky scent of arousal drifted in the air. He slid his fingers from her and the chill air against her wetness caused her pussy to quiver. She braced most of her weight on her good leg and licked her lips. “Are you ready for me, Cameron?”

He laughed, the sound echoing around the roundhouse, and a startled look flashed over his face. Entranced by how young and carefree he’d looked in that fleeting moment she smiled back at him, as a strange ache gripped her heart.

“Aye.” His voice was rough. “I’ve been ready for you for a long time, Elise.”

He palmed her bottom, rubbing his hand over her rounded flesh. His thighs spread her wide and her pussy nudged the head of his cock. Tremors raced over her naked breasts as he tugged her even closer. Her gown now concealed his erection, but somehow that heightened her breathless anticipation.

Tentatively she lowered herself and his thick cock penetrated her wet cleft. She gasped and froze, savoring the sensation of having Cameron MacNeil enter her body for the very first time.

“Christ, don’t stop.” His agonized command and the way his hand gripped her arse caused fiery tremors to spiral through her sheath. She sank a little farther down his shaft, and his groan was the sweetest music she’d ever heard.

Feverishly he pulled at her gown so he could bury his hand beneath her skirts. He wrapped his hand around his cock and his thumb massaged her swollen nub.

She panted desperately and sank down his shaft a little more. Goddess, he was big. He filled her in a way she had scarcely dreamed possible. Yet there was no pain, only a sensation of such raw possession, her senses spun.

His hand slid from his erection as she took more of his length inside. But his thumb continued to torment her, building such exquisite pressure it seemed the earth rocked beneath her feet.

“Come for me, beautiful princess,” Cameron said and fastened his mouth around her nipple. The shock of his words and the feel of his lips tugging on her erect flesh ricocheted from nipple to clitoris like lightning.

Cameron flexed his hips, thrusting his length inside her. She gasped and clutched onto his shirt for balance and sanity. Liquid heat built and her pussy convulsed around him.

Her nipple slipped from his mouth and he looked up at her, eyes black with passion. Her body quivered and heart pounded as he rammed into her again and again. Forcing her to abandon her will and her reason as pure sensation consumed her.

Her vision blurred and the world receded. There was only Cameron and this moment in time. She could scarcely breathe. Scarcely stand. She sagged over him, their foreheads touching, and only his arm, now wrapped around her waist, prevented her from collapsing.

He dragged his hand from beneath her skirts and rubbed his thumb over her nipple. His gaze never left hers. “Elise, my princess.” The words were jagged with a primitive edge of possession. He kissed her, a savage plunder that caused another wave of pleasure to ripple through her core.

Before she realized his intention, he lifted her from his rigid cock. She fell against him, his arm still securely around her waist, and watched him grip his shaft.

The heady scent of sex and arousal perfumed the air. She watched, mesmerized, as Cameron pumped his seed onto the mossy ground. His strangled groan of completion pierced her enchantment and she looked at his face.

His eyes were closed, his teeth gritted. He looked in the throes of agony. She leaned closer, although how that was possible she would never know, and slipped her arm across his chest and clung onto his shoulder.

As his tortured gasps receded, she trailed kisses from the corner of his mouth and along the line of his strong jaw. After an eternity, when her heartbeat had slowed and Cameron’s rigid muscles had relaxed, he turned to her.

She smiled and brushed a chaste kiss across his lips. “The next time I will take precautions to prevent conception. There will be no need for you to withdraw so hastily.”

He trailed a finger along her face and across her lips. It was a gentle gesture that caused her tender pussy to once again quiver with need.

“I look forward to that.” His husky voice wrapped around her heart. “But nothing will ever compare to our first time, my princess.”