Page 40 of Highlander’s Protector

As though overcome by a flood of feeling, his mind switched off. And he did what he’d wanted to do for days.

He leaned in and kissed her.

CHAPTER 15

His kiss was like velvet.

For the first time in her life, a man had put his lips on hers and was kissing her.

And it wasn’t like anything she’d ever expected. David, with his hard angles and muscles and sharp jaw, wasn’t at all rough or in a rush.

On the contrary, his lips touched hers like he was a cloud. Light and gentle. His smell reached her, and his taste was on her tongue…something delicious, masculine. Something that shot a bolt of fire straight through the middle of her body and down there, between her legs, where the feeling rested and grew and burned.

She didn’t know anything about kisses. She didn’t know much about men at all.

But she knew one thing.

She wanted more.

More of this mysterious man who talked of time travel and the future and football. Of success and universities and of potential.

He couldn’t have confused her more. She didn’t believe him.

And yet, everything he had told her about himself couldn’t be more similar to what she felt about herself and the world.

Like him, she felt trapped. Like him, she had to constantly prove she was good enough and worthy. Like him, she’d been alone and unwanted for as long as she could remember.

And so, when he dipped his tongue into her mouth and brushed hers, she didn’t pull back. She pushed against him as though an invisible force connected them.

His tongue, his delicious, sleek tongue worshipped and licked and stroked, stirring a storm of fire with every wicked movement.

His arms wrapped around her, bringing her to him in an iron-hard embrace. She clung to him, her arms around his neck, like a crab. She stroke his surprisingly silky hair, running it between her fingers.

His unshaven chin scratched her skin, which was strangely exciting.

But then his lips left hers, and she stared at him as he pulled away, panting. His eyes were dark on her. “I shouldn’t have. You’re not mine.”

Not mine…

Och, how she wanted to be his.

But he was right. She was marrying another man. Someone she’d never met in her life. Someone the very thought of whom made her feel like she was suffocating and sad, like she was back in the oubliette.

She clenched the side of his tunic. “I thought I was about to die in that oubliette. I thought my life was over just before it began. I never got what I wanted in my life. Nae my father, nae my clan gave me that. To be wanted. To love and to be loved…” She shifted closer to him. “I may die tomorrow. My husband may be a cruel man, and there’s nae a thing I can do about it once I’m his wife. But I ken ye’re nae any of those things. And I ken I want ye. And for once in my life, I will get what I want.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, a tortured look on his face.

“Ye,” she said. “The rest of my life, I’ll serve my husband, Scotland, and my father. Let this be one moment. One night where I can have what I want.”

He studied her, not blinking, eyes dark and stirring a delicious feeling of danger in her blood. There was an ache behind his eyes, but also heat. As his gaze dropped to her mouth, she had a strange sensation of falling.

“Anna…” he said, his voice soft and warm and intimate.

Why didn’t he move? Why didn’t he kiss her again, wrap his arms around her like a tight cocoon? The hurt of rejection tightened her throat in a hot, painful clasp. He’d made her feel brave, made her want to take action and allow herself to live, but mayhap she had read him all wrong.

“Ye dinna want me?” She pushed away, trying to get out of his grip, but he held her.

“I do. Christ, Anna, you have no idea how much I want you,” he growled and brought her to him. “It’s taking my last drops of self-restraint not to tear that dress off you and show you how much you are wanted, and how much you’ll be missing with your husband. This is your last chance to stop me. Tell me no and I’ll never touch you again. Last chance, Anna.”