“Gladly,” he growled.
He kissed her passionately and thrust his tongue between her lips. His hands stroked and caressed her body, gliding over the fabric until, with a low growl of pure animal hunger, he picked her up and took her to his bed. Watching her, his eyes full of heated need, he hurried to take off his belt.
“No!” she gasped, half sitting. “Like that.”
She reached up and grabbed his belt to pull him down on top of her. Her eager hands attacked him, stroking his back, his chest, his nipples. With soft moans and anxious whimpers, she bent her legs, so that her skirt fell about her hips, exposing her nakedness to him. As he raised himself on his hands, she grabbed his buttocks and pushed him closer. Thefeileadhbunched between them, but not enough to keep him from thrusting eagerly inside her warm, moist, ready body.
She came nearly at once, arching and bucking and breathing hard through clenched teeth, her hands gripping his arms until her knuckles were white. She called out his name as wave after wave of pleasure ripped though her while he continued to thrust until, with a cry of ecstasy, he climaxed.
Sated and spent, he fell against her. “By the saints…” he murmured, gasping for air.
Her breathing was ragged, too. “I thought thefeileadhwould suit you, but I had no idea…”
He raised himself and looked down at her flushed face. “Was it just thefeileadh?”
She smiled like one drugged, or drunk, blissfully replete with the euphoria of making love. “Not just thefeileadh.Your body. Your legs. Your knees.” She lazily caressed his cheek. “You’ve got very handsome knees, Nicholas of Dunkeathe. I’d suggest you wear afeileadhall the time, but your maidservants would surely be too distracted.”
“And you?” he said, lightly kissing her nose. “Wouldn’t you be distracted?”
Her happiness diminished. “If I were still here, yes, I’d be distracted.”
“I’m sorry, Riona,” he said, and there was sorrow and remorse in his dark eyes.
“I’m not sorry,” she said sincerely as she brushed a lock of hair from his face. “And I don’t—Iwon’t—regret the time I’ve spent with you.”
He tenderly stroked her cheek. “You truly are an amazing and generous woman, Riona Mac Gordon. How I wish I could marry for love.”
She had longed to hear him say that he loved her, yet hearing it now gave her nothing but pain, and the certain knowledge that her heart would break when she left Dunkeathe, and him. “Whatever we’ve shared, it’s enough,” she lied.
He drew her closer. “Stay the night with me, Riona.”
“You know I can’t.”
“A while longer then,” he implored. “Just be with me for a bit longer.”
She couldn’t bring herself to refuse his request. “Very well—but you’d better take off thatfeileadh,or I’m going to want to make love with you again.”
“Are you trying to tempt me?”
“I think you’re the one tempting me, my lord.”
He didn’t take off thefeileadhuntil later.
Much later.
NICHOLAS AWOKEwhen a beam of early-morning light fell across his eyes. As he opened them, squinting, he thought of Riona, as he had every morning since the first time they’d made love, and even before then.
Last night she’d been trying so hard to keep things happy and carefree between them, as if she could make him forget the inevitable. More poignant than tears would have been, her efforts had brought pain along with happiness, sorrow with the pleasure.
He’d tried to respond in kind, to sound merry and happy in spite of what must be. She deserved no less, and so he hadn’t refused her request to don thefeileadh,even though he was sure he’d look ridiculous.
Clearly, to her, he hadn’t.
He smiled to himself as he recalled her passionate attack. What a lover. What a woman! And how he would miss her when she was gone.
Dreading the day she must go home, he’d asked her to stay with him longer. No, he’dbeggedher, and while he would rather die than beg of any man, he didn’t regret beseeching her to remain with him.
They’d talked and laughed and whispered like children as she told him stories of Glencleith and he told her some of the pleasant things that had happened in his life, until passion had kindled again. He began to caress her, and she him. Then they’d kissed, soft and gentle, warm and tender. They made love again, as if time meant nothing.
