Eyes still wide with wonder, mouth swollen and ripe from his kisses, she stunned him, reaching down between their bodies to cradle his shaft in the cup of her palm. Exquisite pleasure drove through Niall.
"I do not know what—what to do," she whispered. "I only know I want you to feel what I felt when you touched me that way." She stroked him, trying to imitate his movements from moments before.
He captured her hand in his, thrust once against her soft palm. "Take me inside you, Caitlin," he groaned. "I need to be inside you."
She lay back, opening her thighs to him,opening her arms to draw him close. Niall felt the blunt tip of his sex nudge her fragile opening, his hard hands clasping her hips. He wanted to be gentle, tender, wanted not to hurt her. But he was too big, too hard. He knew before he moved that a painless entry into her body was too much to hope for.
But already Caitlin was restless beneath him, shifting against his body with a sensuality as maddening as it was innocent.
With a groan, Niall surrendered. He drove his hips forward, piercing her with one swift, clean thrust.
She cried out in surprise, her pliant body stiffening as her maidenhead tore. And Niall wished with all his being he could have endured that pain in her place.
He kissed her cheeks, her brow, his hips agonizingly still, letting her grow accustomed to the feel of his shaft embedded deep inside her. It was the most exquisite of tortures, the most wondrous of miracles, when at last he felt her rigid muscles ease under the tender stroking of his hands. He whispered against her bare skin, praises he had never thought to utter.
And she answered him with her body, moving against him, sighing with building pleasure.When she moaned softly, eagerly, Niall knew it was time.
Unable to hold himself back another moment, he drew his hips back then thrust ever so gently into the sweet sheath of her body. Caitlin gasped, her arms twining around him, her long legs shifting restlessly against his. He guided her legs about his lean hips, taught her how to draw him deeper, ever deeper. He pressed hot kisses against her cheeks, her breasts, suckling her as he drove himself again and again into her body.
She was sobbing now, pleading for the release they both craved, and Niall reached for it, strove for it, with every sinew in his body. When he felt himself careening toward release, he slipped his hand between their bodies, and finding her tender nub one more time, he stroked it once, twice, as he moved hard within her.
Caitlin buried a cry against his shoulder just as his own climax crashed over him, spilling his seed at the mouth of her womb.
An animal groan tore from Niall as he collapsed atop her, struggling to right himself as the world spun away. He clung to her, his chest heaving, his heart pounding. After a moment, he shifted his body until she lay alongside him. Silent, shaken, he cradled her in his arms, halfafraid he had broken her somehow, this woman of dreams and light and fierce generosity.
She lay so quiet against him he could not bear it. He raised his head, looked into her face. Tears streaked her cheeks, her lips quivering.
"Did I hurt you?" he rasped, wiping away the moisture with the tips of his fingers.
"Nay."
"Then why do you weep?"
"I cannot bear to think what I almost lost. I might never have known what it felt like to be loved by you. But now—now I will always remember how tight your arms held me, how you kissed me and suckled me and—" She stopped, her voice unsteady. "Now, even when I am alone, I will always remember."
Niall peered down at the quiet resolve in her face, his own chest aching.When I am alone.Her words echoed through him, impossible, unthinkable.
How could he let her go after what they had shared? How could he walk away? He wondered, stroking the silky curve of her shoulder in silence.
But he had managed to walk away before, had he not? From Daire, from Fiona and his motherand the memory of his father. Could it be so much harder to leave Caitlin behind?
Desolation swept through him. He had been blinded by his own pain when he had abandoned his family years ago. But now he had seen what his selfishness had cost them. Was he coward enough to cast Caitlin to the winds of fate as well?
But what choice did he have? Conn would be satisfied by the letter Niall had sent for only a brief while. Soon the chieftain would expect his champion to present himself at the fortress, to take up arms again in his name.
What would Conn do if Niall refused to fight any longer? If Niall left the fortress for the seclusion of Daire? Would Conn suspect... what? That Caitlin lived? That Niall had betrayed his trust?
Nay, Niall reasoned with a twinge of guilt. Conn believed in his foster son. He would never imagine the boy he had cared for would deceive him. It was a dark deceit to pin a future upon. And yet Niall could not help but feel a stirring of hope.
Was it possible he and Caitlin could stay at Daire? That she could be safe here? No man on earth or angel in heaven could guard her as well as he could.
If she were careful, if he were vigilant, was it possible that they could build a life together, here on this secluded patch of land with its memories and its strange fascination, its irresistible spell of enchantment?
He gazed down at Caitlin, her eyes closed now in sleep, and he imagined forever waking with her in his arms, the tenderness in her eyes driving back any memory of mockery and scorn and shame.
Niall drew the folds of wool around her, warming her in his arms. She made him believe that anything was possible, if he had the courage to trust in her, in himself.
For an instant, he almost confided in her, told her of the secrets he now held in his heart. But he did not dare. For if he failed...
