Page 40 of To Claim His Highland Bride

If he could see her, he knew she would be frowning. Rowena saw her scar as a flaw. He saw it as a sign of strength, the sign of a survivor.

“Now that you’ve undressed me, it’s my turn to finish undressing you.” Hungrily, she reached for his waist and untied his breeches. Pushing the fabric aside, his manhood sprang forward, hard and pulsing as it met the cool cavern air. Rowena left his breeches, to quickly remove his boots and stockings. When she was done, she pressed her mouth against his in a kiss that tasted of desperation and desire. She pulled away and quickly divested him of his breeches until they were both naked in the darkness. He reached for the garments they’d removed, setting them around his shirt, making a nest for them atop the rock.

He leaned forward and captured her lips, licking the seam and tasting her depths as she opened to him. He pressed his warm body against hers and pulled her down, stretching his body next to hers.

“I want to touch you. May I?” she asked.

“You can do whatever you want.” Marcus put both hands behind his head to stop from taking control of the moment. If she needed to learn his body, he would give her that time. He clenched his jaw against the sweet torture of her fingers feathering over his skin. She sat up, running her hands over his shoulders, down his chest. She circled his nipples with her thumbs, and he groaned, closing his eyes and revelling in the pressure. When her soft touch was replaced with wet heat, his breath caught.

She moved her explorations lower, and Marcus tried to think of anything but her breath tickling his hair, her hands bumping over his stomach muscles as she moved closer to his throbbing manhood.

When she wrapped her strong fingers around his erect member, her exhalation of awe washed across his over-sensitised skin, and Marcus wondered if he could die from pleasure as she stroked him tentatively.

“Does it feel good when I do this?”

“Yes.” Marcus shuddered. “I like it too much. You’d better stop.” He shifted their bodies until she was beneath him. “Last night I wanted you so badly I took more than I gave. This time, it will be different.” He ran his fingers over her body, hoping that he left a trail of fire across her breasts, her throat, her belly. His hands nudged her legs apart and he moved between them, stroking the nest of curls surrounding her womanhood. His fingers splayed out to tangle and play. After a while, he bent down and slowly rubbed his cheek against her curls. The faint abrasion of her curls was wildly exciting. He nipped gently at her softness and then his tongue followed to soothe and tease. Her muscles tightened, but he brought up his hand to her belly to relax her. “You wanted to forget about everything. Relax. Give in to the sensations and let them take you where they will.”

“Relax? Every muscle inside me is vibrating in anticipation.”

He laughed and the sound echoed through the darkness. “Wrong word, forgive me. Allow yourself to melt. Let me help you in that endeavour.”

He trailed his fingers across her mons and then explored farther down until he found what he was looking for, and began to press, rotate, and flick.

She gave a low cry and her fingers clenched helplessly in his hair. When he plunged two fingers inside her wetness, she groaned, and he could hear what he thought was her head moving back and forth as he began a rhythm that sent her into convulsions of pleasure and hunger.

“Marcus!”

“Hush, my sweet. Let me pleasure you for a while. It will make the rest so much better.” He wanted to pleasure her with an intensity that surprised him. Her every response was linked in some mysterious fashion to his own. Every taut muscle of hers communicated her pleasure and that same sensation echoed within him.

Marcus continued his pulsing rhythm inside her as he shifted his body upwards to suck a ripe nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue over the rigid flesh. Rowena cried out again, but he gave her no mercy. He nipped, licked, and suckled one breast, before moving to the other. Her body tightened beneath him. Slowly, he pushed his finger deeper into her cleft, feeling her intimate muscles clench.

Last night their lovemaking had been fast and furious, two bodies that had long been denied the pleasure they’d both longed for. Today, he wanted to stretch things out. To show her as much pleasure as he could so that when they parted they would each have their memories of this moment to hold on to. He explored her body with desperation, communicating to her his hunger, his need.

*

Rowena was falling into a pool of sensation, and she longed to tumble further still, now that he had invited her into this world of delight and bliss. Marcus’s mouth was hot and insistent on her breast. His finger pressed deeper into her, burning sweetly as her body tightened around him.

Rowena arched her body. When he released her breasts, she wrapped her legs around his hips. Her core was empty and aching. She pulled him closer to the most intimate part of herself, the steel ridge of his erection nudging her wet, slick flesh. She rubbed against him. “I need you, Marcus, now.”

Awaiting no further invitation, he entered her, slowly, letting her become accustomed to his fullness. He began to move, alternating short strokes with long ones. He would move swiftly, then with infinite slowness, until the sound of their mingled breath echoed around them. If death were imminent, this would be the way to go, cocooned in a sea of pleasure.

Needing more of him, Rowena raised her hips, undulating her lower body to try to hold him inside her a heartbeat longer. At his gasp of ecstasy, she repeated the movement, realising she could give him the same gratification he gave her.

“Merciful heavens.” Marcus’s body grew more taut with each movement of her hips. “You’re making me lose control.”

“Relax into the sensations,” she breathed, repeating his own advice.

His breath was coming in rough gasps as he plunged deep. “I’m taking you over the edge of glory with me.” He cupped her bottom, holding her still as his strokes became hard and hot, searing her in a fever of heated pleasure. She felt something building, tightening deep within her.

“Rowena—” The word was a ragged plea and a prayer as the tension inside her that had been building shattered in a wondrous rapture, shaking her to the depths of her soul. She clenched around Marcus and heard his low cry above her as he joined her in endless glory.

Rowena relaxed back into the clothing beneath them, filled with a satisfaction she had never known. “When we catch our breath, can we do that again?”

Marcus’s chest rumbled with laughter as he lifted off her and settled next to her, pulling her into his arms until her head rested on his shoulder. “We can do that as many times as you wish, but I think it’s best if we rest for a while.”

A surge of emotion swelled inside her. She nestled her cheek against his shoulder, her hand drifting over the solid wall of his chest in a slow, sleepy caress even as a stab of sorrow pierced the haze of their lovemaking. What would she ever do without him in her life? As quickly as it had come, she forced the thought away. Now was not the time to walk that road. At this moment, he was hers and she was his. That was all she would think about.

Marcus remained silent for a long while. Rowena was half-certain he had fallen asleep when he kissed the top of her head and said, “Rowena, I need to turn the lamp on for just a moment to check on the water.”