Page 37 of Highlander’s Beautiful Liar

“What would make me happy, dear wife, is if ye were naked and in my bed.”

“This is my bed,” she pointed out. Her voice was barely audible, but a wicked grin spread across Alec’s face, and she knew that her husband had heard her.

“Works for me.” Leaning down, he pressed his lips against hers, and there was nothing tender about it. Cora was eager for his kiss. Had been eager for it ever since the first time he’d kissed her, and when she opened for him, she tasted his need. For her.

It made her dizzy to know how much he wanted her. The things she remembered about her mother, the whispered secrets that echoed off the walls of her girls school and the stolen taboo writings in illicit novels couldn’t have prepared her for this.

“Tell me that ye want this,” Alec whispered as he moved his lips down her throat. Angling her head, she tried to give him as much access as possible. Grasping at his shirt, she bunched the fabric in her hands and wished there wasn’t any barrier between her touch and his skin. She needed to know that he was running as hot as she was.

“Cora.” Tugging her shift down, he exposed more of her cleavage and growled before he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers. “Cora, please.”

“Yes. Yes.” Releasing her hands from his shirt, she stroked her fingers through his hair and found the bold strength to kiss him, to run her tongue along the seams of his lips, and to moan. “Yes, I want this.”

“Sweet, lass. Kiss me again. I like the taste of ye.”

As her lips teased over him again, Alec took charge and pulled her up against him. The fabric rose with the action, and she wrapped her bare thighs around his waist. There was an ache that couldn’t be assuaged no matter how hard she tried, and she tried to press harder against him, feeling the hard edge of his erection. He gasped and walked them to the bed.

“Easy.” The murmur swept over her skin and curled around her. “Slow down.”

Slow down? She was going to burn up in his arms if he didn’t do something. “Please. I need…” What did she need?

“I have ye, Cora. I wilnae let ye go. Tonight, ye are mine.”

Yes, tonight, but what about tomorrow? When the sun rose, what would she be to him then?

As he softly placed her on the mattress, she reached for him again, but he pushed her arms above her head and stared down at her. “Do ye know how lovely ye are, Cora? Did ye have suitors in England? Men who did whatever it took to marry ye? To get ye into their bed?”

“No.” No one looked at her the way that Alec looked at her. No one made her stomach flip, made her knees weak, made her skin tingle from just a brush of his fingers.

“Then the English are fools.” Sitting back on his knees, he stared at her with such appreciation in his eyes as he slowly trailed a finger down between her breasts and along her abdomen. Her sex pulsed and quivered in anticipation for something she didn’t quite understand, but she put all of her trust in him. “Do ye have any idea how much control ’tis taken for me not to touch ye before now?”

“I was ready. I have been ready. Please, Alec. Make me your wife.”

“Aye,” he breathed as he gathered the skirt of her shift. “Lift yer hips. I want to see yer body.”

With warm cheeks, she did as he asked, and he slipped the thin material up and over her body. Now completely naked, she had to clutch the blankets beneath her to keep from covering herself. It wasn’t just her nakedness. When Alec looked at her, she felt as if he could unravel everything inside of her until there was nothing left but the truth of how she felt about him.

He was her savior and her husband, but if she let herself fall in love, then she would have to feel the weight of her guilt for not trusting him. For still lying to him.

“Alec.” Wanting to shove that all away and just enjoy the moment, she reached for him. If she was naked, then she wanted him to be as well. “Alec, please!”

Wordlessly, his gaze never leaving hers, he stripped off his shirt before he leaned over her to taste her mouth again. The column of her neck. Her shoulders. Her nipples.

Gasping, she arched under him as pleasure danced inside of her. His continued moving down her body, and when he kneeled between her legs, her eyes widened and she pushed herself up. “What are you doing?”

“Making you ready for me, sweet. Just relax and enjoy.”

Relax? How could she relax when those wicked lips and tongue were teasing along her most private center? When they slipped over her sensitive nub, she jack-knifed up and gasped, but there was nowhere to escape the pleasure. Using every bit of his strength and power, he held her down and continue to pleasure her until she didn’t recognize herself as she writhed and moaned.

Then it hit her. An explosion that rocked her body and left her helpless and shuddering. Releasing her, Alec eased off the bed and removed his trousers, and when he returned, he spread every delicious inch of his naked body along next to her.

“Ye are going to do that again when I’m inside of ye,” he whispered sensuously as his hands traced up and down her arms while she continued to glow from her orgasm. She had no idea her own body could do that, and she couldn’t imagine doing it again. “And I am going to feel yer pleasure, Cora.”

He kissed her, hard and hot, while his hands stroked her and brought her alive. Bolder now, she reached for him to explore. He was so hard, all muscle and power, and so hot beneath her fingers. Listening to his breathing, learning what he liked, she fluttered her fingers over him until she found courage and grasped his hard length and squeezed.

Hissing, he jerked out from her touch. “Sorry,” she muttered as she clenched her fist. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Hurt me? Cora, ye slay me. I want this to be good, but I wilnae last if ye touch me like that.” With another kiss, he moved between her legs and reached between them. She was wet and aching for him again. “My wife. Mine.”