Page 67 of To Wed a Wild Scot
He came across the room and stopped in front of her. “There’s no need for you to be shy,mo bhean. I’m your husband now, and I think you’re…” He glanced down her body, and his throat moved in a rough swallow. “Àlainn. Beautiful.”
“You do?”
He laughed softly and reached out to drag a finger over the narrow band of ribbon at her neckline. “I didn’t think I’d been subtle about it, but you sound surprised.”
He continued to stroke that finger over her, the tip of it brushing against her skin. Juliana’s breath quickened, and her eyelids became so heavy they sank to half-mast. She wouldn’t have thought such a big, powerful man could touch her so gently.
“Get in the bed,” he murmured. “I’ll join you there in a—”
“No. I can’t.”
Logan had been gazing down at her with sleepy eyes, but that made him frown. “You can’t? We talked about this, Juliana. The marriage isn’t legal unless we consummate it.”
“No, no, it’s not that. I mean…it’s too high.” She waved a hand toward the bed, her cheeks heating. “It looks like it was made for a giant.”
Logan’s lips curved. “My wee wife.”
Juliana let out a relieved breath. That smile, the glint of humor in his blue eyes—this was the Logan she knew, the man she’d begun to trust. “I’mnotwee, though I confess I could use a little help getting—” She gasped as Logan slid an arm across her back, another under her knees and swept her up into his arms. “Logan!”
“Youarewee, but I don’t mind.” He carried her to the bed, his chest and shoulder muscles shifting against her as he lay her gently on her back.
He stood for a moment, gazing down at her. “Fhìnealta. Uaine air leth-shùil bòcan,” he murmured, his blue eyes glowing.
Juliana didn’t know what that meant, but the look in his eyes when he said it…
She tried not to sigh.
He’d said he’d join her in a moment, so Juliana thought he’d leave her there while he went off to do some mysterious bridegroom preparations, but to her surprise he stretched out on the bed beside her.
When he moved closer and draped an arm over her waist, Juliana’s nerves came roaring back. The next thing she knew, she was babbling. “I thought you wanted to…what I mean is, didn’t you say you—”
“Juliana.” He pressed a finger to her lips to quiet her.
His blue eyes roamed over her face. He paused at her mouth, seeming fascinated by the sight of his fingers against her lips. He stroked her with a fingertip, tugging gently on her lower lip, opening it for him.
Then…then he kissed her. He was careful with her, his mouth sweet and gentle against hers. One kiss blended into the next until Juliana couldn’t tell where one ended and another began. Then, when he parted her lips with his tongue, she stopped thinking altogether.
His kisses were slow, drugging—more seductive than anything she’d ever felt. He kissed her until she went boneless against the bed, her limbs heavy with a delicious languor. He kissed her until she was arching against him, her fingers frantically tugging at his hair, the sound of her own panting breaths echoing in her head.
This was what she’d been so nervous about? Why, it was glorious! She couldn’t get enough of his kisses, his caressing fingers. She whimpered when he dragged a hand down her neck and pressed his lips to her throat. She needed to bring him closer, as close as she could get him…
When she thought it over later that night, she couldn’t pinpoint the moment when things started to go wrong. By the time she realized it was happening, it was already too late to stop it. One moment Logan was kissing her and her head was dizzy with wonder and desire, and the next…
Cold air rushed over her skin. Logan had dragged her night rail over her head, and the chill had been just startling enough to remind her she’d never been unclothed in front of a man before, much less one who was intimately touching her. His body felt enormous against hers, his weight heavy, the smattering of crisp dark hair on his chest surprising her. It tickled her breasts, and she stiffened slightly. It wasn’t unpleasant, just…strange.
“Juliana?” Logan pulled back, concerned.
Juliana laid a hand on his cheek and brought his mouth back to hers. He’d soon kissed her into quivering, needy mindlessness again, and things might have gone on well enough from there, but then he’d put his hand in a place where no man’s hand had ever been. It was a place a husband might be expected to put his hand, but she’d tensed again, and this time Logan went still above her.
“So small…don’t want to hurt you.” He tried a second time, gently probing with his fingers, but he soon withdrew his hand again. “Not ready for me,” he muttered, his breath harsh against her neck.
Not ready? She was naked and lying beneath him. What else was required?
She was doing something wrong, and it must be terribly wrong indeed, because Logan was drawing away from her. Did he not intend to consummate the marriage, then? The thought threw her into a sudden panic, and misgivings careened wildly through her head. Doubts flooded her, each more disordered than the last, but there was only one that made her gasp with pain.
Alison McLaren. Logan was in love with Alison, so in love he couldn’t take his own wife…
Before she knew what she was about she was clutching at him, wrapping her limbs around him and whispering at him to finish it—to take her. She squirmed beneath him, urging him on until at last he pushed inside her with a defeated groan.
