Anguish-filled eyes held his. “With all that has occurred over the past few days,can you rest?”
The torment in her voice twisted his gut. “We must try.” His hands not as steady as he would have liked, he willed himselfto release her.
“I think this will serve us both better.” Before he could move away, her eyes dark with need, she lifted on her toes and pressed her mouth against his.
Her sweet taste poured through him obliterating logic. Aiden fought to think, to remember the reasons why he must keep away from her, failed. On a muttered curse he hauled Gwendolyn against him, filling his hands with her soft curves, tormenting in their lushness. Just a blasted taste, then he would set her aside, no harm done.
Heart pounding, he skimmed his mouth over hers, savoring until his every breath was filled with her. At her moan, he took the kiss deeper.
Gwendolyn slipped her hand beneath his tunic, and he hardened with anticipation as her fingers slid lower, searching, caressing until he burned to have her.
Pulse raging, Aiden backed her against the wall. His breaths coming in sharp rasps, he wrenched down her top filling his hands with her glorious breasts. He skimmed his thumb against their firm tips, leaneddown to suckle.
Her body shuddered as he took, nipped her sweet flesh, doubting he’d ever have enough. Lost to all but her, he knelt before her, shoved aside her garb and exposed her to his view.
“You are beautiful,” he whispered as he opened her slick folds, leaned forward to taste. Her moan drove him as he took, tasted until her gasps surround him ina heady bliss.
“Bróccín,” she cried out as her body shuddered her release.
His mind pounding out its demand, he swept her into his arms and laid her upon the bed. Cool air brushed across his exposed stomach, and he glanced down.
Gwendolyn’s sure fingers released the last tie, dipped lower.
God’s teeth! He caught her hand before she touched his hard length, and pinned her wrists against the sheets. What in Hades was he doing? Sweat beaded his brow as he dragged in a deep breath, then another, fighting back the need storming him. Blinded by desire, had she stroked him, guilt piled atop his doubts that he would have stopped.
With a muttered curse he fought to rein in his desire. How had he convinced himself that one touch of her would be enough? “We canna do this,” he rasped.
Confused eyes dark with desire held his. “But...we are wed. Though you were gracious to offer me time to adjust before we shared a bed”—a sultry smile curved her mouth as she slid her arms around his neck—“I want you now.” Gwendolyn skimmed her gaze down his every inch, then lifted her lids, and pinned him beneath scorching intent.
Bloody hell! With but one hand he could strip her naked and fulfill hisevery fantasy.
Except their marriage was a lie. However much he craved her precious offering, he wasn’t the man who she believed him to be.
Aiden damned his own wretched weakness. Once he departed and she received news of Bróccín’s death, she’d mourn the loss of another husband.
However much he despised continuing this charade, for the sake of duty, ’twas his only recourse. “I do want you— God’s sword, so much it hurts… But”— he pushed to his knees, the ache inside him screaming against unspent lust—“I willna have our first time together be on the floor of a cave. ’Twill be in a real bed, upon silken sheets, with firelight caressing your skin.”
Her lips parted on an unsteady breath.
Control eked in slow, pathetic spurts through his veins as he skimmed his hands over curves. “When we make love,” he whispered, his teeth nipping along the curve of her jaw, “I will revel in touching you, kissing your every glorious inch for hours. No rush. No worry. No intrusions. Even that willna be enough. We shall remain in our chamber for days,” he said as he kissed a path down her neck, her taste threatening to undo his steel will. “When we are not asleep, I will have you over and again until you beg me to cease.”
Eyes dark with challenge, Gwendolyn wrapped her fingers around his hardness. “Mayhap ’tis you who will be pleading when I kneel before you and slide my lips over your impressive length.”
His eyes crossed as he moaned against her tight hold, striving to smother his body’s demands, to not strip her and drive into her heat. “Nor will I be gentle.”
Gwendolyn gave a throaty laugh. “I am counting on that, my lord, but”—she skimmed her lips over the curve of his mouth, then began to edge down his body—“I dinna need towait. We can—”
Merciful God in heaven! On a rough inhale, Aiden flattened his hands against her shoulders. “I have given you little,” he growled. Her breathy moan shoving the control he’d worked so hard to rebuild down another notch. “’Tis my wedding gift to you,” he said between clenched teeth. “The waiting will allow us to learn more about the other, increase of our awareness, and give us the ultimate pleasure upon our joining.”
Skepticism stared back from a bewitching bewildering pool of gray eyes.
“Give me this,” he pressed, her heady scent, taste, eroding his will further. He unwrapped her fingers from his length. God’s swordhe needed air.
For a long moment sheheld his gaze.
As if possessing a maddening will of its own, his hardness flexed against her belly. He bit backanother groan,
“I agree,” she whispered, her eyes alight with mischief. “unlessyoudecide otherwise.”
