She released a broken cry when his tongue found her clitoris. Pleasure streaked through his veins at the grip of her fingers in his hair, the pinpricks of her fingernails scrabbling at his flesh. “Don’t stop,” she whined. “Don’t stop, don’t…” She broke off on a moan as he slid two digits into her channel.
He brought her to the brink of climax with his fingers and mouth, savoring her soft cries and shuddering moans as her thighs trembled. She stiffened, throwing her head back on the pillows as she cried out. So damned beautiful he wanted to take her over the edge again and again.
Kissing his way up her limp body, he stretched along her side and pulled her over him, resting her cheek on his chest. His cock was aching, pulsing with the need for release, but he would wait for her. He’d worked hard to develop his self-discipline, in the water and in business, in all facets of his life, but never had it been tested so mightily or been so important to maintain.
For her. Anything,everythingfor her.
Her hips were rocking against his side, even as she fought to keep her eyes open. He chuckled as a primal gratification swamped his bones. “Satisfied?” he asked, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head.
She hummed low in her throat and nuzzled against him, kissed his collarbone. “Yes and no.” A hand to the center of his chest, she lifted herself enough to smile at him, a heavy curl falling over her cheek. “I’m quite content, but you…” Her palm drifted over his abdomen and his muscles twitched, a groan slipping from his lips. “I don’t think you are finished yet.”
“Nae, I’m pleased,” he grumbled, shifting beneath her hand. Her slim fingers were swirling through the hair around his navel and his cock jerked under the fabric of his trousers, eager for her attention.
“Your brogue is stronger when you’re aroused.”
Was sheenjoyingtorturing him like this? “Aye,” he managed, the most intelligible thing his brain could produce when her hand wasso closeto his—
“I wanted to ask you something.”
He swallowed his groan. “I’ll tell ye anything,m’eudail,with yer hand so close to my cock.”
“Oh.” She removed her hand, and he nearly screamed in protest. The flush he’d grown to adore bloomed on her cheeks.
“Tell me,mo chridhe.Tell me what ye need.”Tell me you want the heavens and the earth and everything in between, and I’ll find a way to give it to you.
Her lower lip was between her teeth again, and his chest twisted. He hated seeing her uncertain. “I never asked, and I should have, but… if there are consequences. Would you…”
“I’d take care of ye,” he finished for her. “Iswear it.”
The vision of Violet, belly swollen with his bairn, rushed into his imagination but was poisoned before he grabbed hold of it. She didn’t want a man who would never be home, nor would she tolerate an absent father to their child. He could barely afford to keep a roof over his own head, let alone provide for a family. He was only suited to love her from afar.
She strained to brush her lips over his chin, his jaw, as her hand resumed its exploration of his abdomen. “I knew you would.”
The trust would be what ended him, he thought as he rolled over and caught her mouth with his. She believed the best of him when he was selfish, when he wanted something he’d never have, would never deserve. Because he wantedher, all of her, her heart and soul, her body and her future, when he wasn’t able to give her the same. Even as she whimpered his name, her hands gripping his back, urging him on, he would always have responsibilities elsewhere, to the family he’d destroyed.
But what if the world were different? What if, somewhere beyond Violet’s celestial galaxies, another universe existed where he was the man she wanted, where his existence wasn’t inextricably tied to loss?
What if he could keep her?
“I’ll flatten ye like this,” he grumbled, lifting his torso from the press of her breasts, the constriction of his lungs.
“But I want you like this.” Her voice was breathy, as though she too was overcome by something too all-consuming to define. “I want you to—totakeme.”
“Fuck, Vi.” He kissed her, taking her mouth like she’d asked him to take her body, as he slid his hand between them and found the space between her thighs.
She jolted and moaned at his touch. “Please, Callum, I want you, I need—”
She was so wet, so ready, Christ, he wouldn’t last. “I want you,” he whispered, the words so pitifully inadequate for how he felt, how hewanted, that he wished to tear his chest open to let her in. He rolled to his nightstand, where he’d stored the tin of condoms he’d purchased in York. She watched as he shucked off his trousers, covered his erection and shifted between her thighs.
Lord, she was lovely, all flushed and soft and warm, and when he pressed the swollen head of his cock to her opening, her whisky eyes opened, wide and trusting, giving. Bloody perfect.
“Easy, lass,” he managed, even as the tight grip of her channel threatened to end him. “Relax,mo chridhe.”
Her hips shifted beneath him and he slid further inside, the heat overwhelming him. This was entirely different from the rushed coupling in the carriage, the desperate rutting to relieve their lust. Her body welcomed him like her heart had, and his breath caught with the power of it. Her eyes squeezed shut, and Callum cupped her cheek in his palm. “Am I hurting ye?”
“No…” Her response emerged on a sigh of pleasure, and his heart soared. “I just—I…” She giggled and rolled her hips towards him, taking him deeper, claiming him. “Words are—are challenging.”
He nuzzled his face against her neck, kissing her, breathing her in. “Aye, they are.”
