Page 125 of The Laird's Masked Passion

“Because I cannae think of a clever reply.”

“Then the cold has performed a miracle.”

Then, catching him utterly off guard, she kissed him. Colin caught the back of her neck and drew her nearer. The kiss deepened at once, with grief and anger giving way to heat with alarming speed. Elspeth’s arms encircled his shoulders, careless of his half-healed wound.

He lifted her from the water before either of them lost all sense. They reached the bank dripping and breathless. Colin laid his cloak over the grass and lowered her onto it, sheltering her body with his.

“Still clearing yer head?” he murmured against her mouth.

“I believe it requires further attention.”

His hand moved between them. Elspeth’s breath caught and she arched beneath his mouth. The movement nearly destroyed what remained of Colin’s restraint.

He felt every small response she gave him, the quickening of her breath, the tremor beneath her skin, the way her fingers tightened against him as though she needed something solid to hold while pleasure carried her beyond familiar ground.

He wanted her to feel beautiful. More than that, he wanted her to understand that her body belonged to neither fear nor duty. It belonged toher. Every sigh, every shiver, every uncertain demand was hers to give or withhold.

His hand travelled slowly down her body, allowing his fingers to skim over each warm curve before settling between her thighs. She stiffened for the briefest moment.

Colin raised his head. Her eyes were closed, her lips parted, but he saw the faint tension in her brow.

“Easy,” he murmured. “I have ye.”

Her lashes lifted and trust looked back at him. The sight struck deeper than desire.

Colin touched her gently, learning her responses rather than assuming them. Her breath caught. Her hips shifted toward his hand with a shy instinct that made heat gather fiercely in his blood. He repeated the caress. Elspeth gasped and lifted beneath him.

Colin bent to her breast again, drawing one sensitive peak into his mouth while his fingers continued their careful rhythm. Her skin tasted faintly of loch water and wind. She was cold at the edges and burning beneath, her body softening by degrees as pleasure overcame uncertainty.

He looked up at her. “Ye like that?”

Her eyes opened, bright and unfocused. Cruel of him to ask, perhaps. The answer lived plainly in the flush across her chest and the restless movement of her body. But he wanted to hear her. He wanted Elspeth, who had once prepared herself to endure his touch in frightened silence, to discover the power of telling him what she wanted.

“Mmm,” she managed.

The sound was soft, almost a purr. Colin’s mouth curved against her skin.

“An eloquent answer.”

She attempted a glare. It failed entirely when he changed the motion of his fingers and drew another breathless sound from her.

He moved to her other breast, letting his lips and tongue tease until she was shifting restlessly beneath him. Every response she gave became another demand upon his control. Her body was no longer guarded against his. It welcomed him, searched for him, trusted him to guide what she did not yet understand.

Colin thought possession would be the most dangerous pleasure a man might know. He had been wrong. Being trusted was infinitely worse.

His finger slid inside her velvet heat, and Elspeth’s head fell back against the cloak. Her own fingers closed around his arm, holding tightly as he brought her nearer to the edge.

“Aye…” she moaned. “Faster, faster…”

“A lady who kens what she wants,” he murmured. “At last.”

He kissed his way upward. Her skin warmed beneath his mouth as he moved from her breast to the delicate hollow at the base of her throat, then along the line of her neck. His hand never ceased.

Elspeth trembled. Colin felt the change in her before she understood it herself. Her body tightened, her breathing became short and broken, and her grip upon him turned desperate.

He brought his mouth to her ear. “Let it come.”

Pleasure overtook her. She arched against him with a startled cry, her whole body trembling beneath his hand. Colin held her through it, watching wonder cross her face like the first time as she surrendered to something she had once believed women could not feel. The sight was almost unbearable.