No such command came, but he drew back, kissing his way down the inside of her other thigh instead. Whether or not it was a punishment, she couldn’t tell.
To satisfy her confusion, his tongue found her again, curling around her clit and sucking gently. Her hips bucked, her fingernails clawing at the stone as bliss ripped through her, awakening all of those electric channels of ecstasy that would eventually send her soaring toward her climax.
He sucked to the point of it almost being too much, then backed off again, his fingertips now circling her entrance, teasing her afresh.
“If this is… how you distract me… It’s working,” she gasped.
At that moment, he pushed his fingers inside her, and his tongue returned to her clit. This time, there was no backing off, no hesitation.
Before she knew it, there was nothing bad in the world anymore. There was no room for haunting memories or regrets. There was just him and the rising bliss that pounded in her veins.
She felt as if she were leaning back over the opposite wall again, unafraid to hold out her arms and feel the thrill of danger. Sofree that she feared nothing, not even a fall, as long as she had him to hold her steady.
As that sweeping sense of power and liberty washed over her, it brought with it the crashing tide of euphoria.
“Yes… Fuck, yes… Oh God!” she cried out, not caring a bit if anyone saw or heard, though they were so high up that who would?
His tongue slowed, and the rhythm of his fingers became gentler, as she came to her shuddering conclusion, so overcome with the fierce flow of pleasure that she had to lean back to hold herself upright.
Her legs shook violently, her knees trying to buckle, while she moaned his name over and over, for he was the one who’d saved her from herself tonight.
At length, the pleasure began to subside, and Hunter carefully withdrew his fingers and kissed his way up her thighs and over her hip to the narrow expanse of stomach that her thrown-aside skirts had exposed.
He rose to his feet, and as he did, his mouth found hers in a slow, sensual kiss, while his arms wrapped tightly around her. Still dizzy with feeling, Nancy grasped for his shirt and kissed him back in kind, melting into the tender embrace of his strength.
I’m safe.
The thought came to her like a pleasant dream, the perfect antidote to the events of the evening.
Adeline had said that there was nowhere safer than being under the protection of a laird, but Nancy hadn’t appreciated the merit of that until now. Hunter wasn’t just a source of physical protection, but a guardian of her mind too, protecting her from all the things that might break her apart.
Instead of feeling like an empty shell, gutted by loss, she had never felt more whole, more fulfilled.
“Do ye see what I mean?” Hunter asked quietly as he reached for her skirts and pulled them back over the wall, letting gravity restore them to their former place.
Nancy chuckled as she rose on tiptoe and pulled his head back down.
“I think I do,” she whispered, before kissing him again, savoring every moment.
Honestly, she could have stayed there all night with him, learning how to let go. Maybe she would have if Jane’s voice hadn’t echoed up from the tower room below, her tone worried. “Nancy? Nancy, are you up there?”
Checking her dress to make sure nothing was out of place, Nancy cast a sly glance at Hunter, who smirked in reply as he took herhand and led her back to the wall where they’d started. There, they both looked out to sea as if that was all they’d been doing.
CHAPTER 27
“I’m here,”Nancy called, closing her eyes and drinking in the fresh, salt-tinged air, her lungs filling with the freedom of it.
Shehadalways been an overthinker. Perhaps Hunter had just cured her of that affliction. Although she couldn’t exactly go running to him to have him ‘calm’ her down every time she spiraled, or there’d definitely be some raised eyebrows.
The ladder creaked as Jane appeared, followed closely by her husband, a huge bear of a man, his grizzled face made all the more rugged with a couple of scars, his eyes cold and intimidating. Yet, when he touched his hand to the small of his wife’s back and glanced down at her, as if to make sure she was okay, there was an immediate softening to his features that warmed Nancy’s heart.
A man who’d raze half of Scotland for the woman he loves. A man worth staying three hundred years in the past for.
“Thank goodness,” Jane panted, catching her breath. “I’ve been looking all over for you, and getting a little bit worried, to be honest.”
“I’m fine,” Nancy replied, meaning it.
Jane’s expression relaxed. “I had no idea you already knew Dougal’s aunt. She said you needed some fresh air, but there are so many places that you can get lost in this castle. I’mstillfiguring it out, and I’ve been here a while now.”
