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Chapter 29
Aidan couldn’t believe his ears. Or his eyes, or his body, for that matter.
“Am I truly to have more of you?” He smoothed the hair from her damp brow. Goose bumps shivered her skin, and he pulled the covers over her shoulders and hugged her closer. She was cool against his body, he like a furnace, on fire with a craving for her he’d only begun to explore. “I dare not believe it. ”
He molded her breast through the blanket, and her nipple hardened at his touch. He gently pinched her, and her instant reaction had his cock stiffening. She’d feared she was too small for him, but really she was perfect. He’d spent years around women who foisted their lush curves upon the world, propping their goods atop the shelves of velvet bodices, dazzling with silks, feathers, and threads of gold. “You were fashioned just for me, I think. ”
“I think it so too,” she said, giving him a shy smile.
How the woman could be a sexual wanton one moment and a sweetly uncertain miss the next had won him.
She’d given herself so freely. And the honor of lying with her would’ve been gift enough, but Elspeth contained a fiery ardor that’d staggered him. Her selflessness was humbling, but it was the memory of her consuming ardor that had him fantasizing already a
bout when he might take her again.
He couldn’t imagine a woman better suited to him. She was kindness and sweetness, yet with a passion that matched his own, she didn’t fear the tempest broiling within him. Fashioned for him, indeed.
“Shall we test the theory?” He tugged the covers down, and her skin pebbled in the cool air. He’d not allow a moment for her shyness to return and took her breast in his mouth, nibbling and sucking, until he felt her body loosen and melt beneath him.
Hoisting himself up onto his hands, he shifted over her to lie propped against the wall on her other side. It was a new angle, and he took a moment to appreciate it. “I could spend the day just staring at you. ” Tilting his head, he peered closer. “But what’s this?”
He lifted her left arm above her head, momentarily transfixed to watch the mound of her breast rise with the motion. Then, cradling her arm in his, he studied a small birthmark at the juncture of her breast and rib. “How could I have missed this beauty?”
“It’s a heart,” she said proudly.
Squinting, he saw that, surely enough, there was a tan spot shaped like a little heart beneath her breast. “So it is. ”
“I’ve always thought it meant I was marked by love. ” She traced the mark, her fingers knowing where to go without her looking. She watched him, as if she expected he might challenge her assertion. “In Hindustan they read folks’ palms. Some people read tea leaves. It seemed reasonable to infer some meaning in such a shape, and on my breast no less. ”
He, who’d spent over half his life wearing a scowl, couldn’t help but smile down at her. The woman was as fanciful as a poet, and he loved her for it. “Destined to find true love, were you?”
“Well, I always knew I’d feel love. It’s been a surprise that I’ve actually found it. ”
His heart soared. “Have you indeed?” He’d not felt loved, not been loved, in many long years. He placed his hand over the mark, barely touching her skin. “And this wee spot foretold all that?”
“Yes,” she said, looking down to study her body. With a giggle, she tugged the blanket lower, revealing a fresh mark blooming on the uppermost curve of her other breast. “And in case the universe missed it, it looks as though I’ve been marked elsewhere too. ”
He brushed the spot with a tentative finger, cursing himself. “Och, I’ve kissed you too hard. ”
“You kissed me just right. ” She snatched his finger in her hand.
The tease in her voice did nothing to ease his worry. She was so delicate, and he so brutish, the thought that his body might be too much for her was appalling. “Did I hurt you?”
“Oh, Aidan”—she cupped his cheek, turning earnest—“not at all. I didn’t feel it. ” A naughty gleam lit her eyes. “Rather, I might have felt it, but I certainly didn’t mind it. ”
Relief flooded him, and happiness too. He lay naked in bed with his Elspeth, and for this one stolen moment, the world felt right.
It was heaven, but time marched on, and too soon he’d have to pay the devil his due. With a sigh, he craned his head to glance at the porthole. “I curse that we’ll lose the light soon. I must take you home. ”
“I won’t let you. ” She tucked the blanket up over them with a snap. “I won’t go back there. I belong with you now. ”
He shook his head, marveling at her conviction. He prayed that the force of her will was enough to bring truth to her words. “You do belong with me. And you shall stay with me, and soon. But not tonight. ”
“You said yourself that you wanted to look at me all day. Here’s your opportunity. ”
It was an opportunity they couldn’t risk. It wasn’t just that they needed to find her way out of this betrothal. It wasn’t just her narrow-minded, tightfisted old father. He’d not allow Elspeth to be ruined.
“Think on it,” he said. “Your father will realize you’re gone and scour Aberdeen looking for you. There’ll be a scandal. ”
