Page 40 of Highland Ruse

He did not straighten away from her. No, he let his lips drift up her slender neck. His stubbled chin brushed the bit of her exposed back beneath the line of her gown, and she gave a little strangled sound somewhere between a cry and a moan.

Longing surged through his body and left him ravenous for her.

He wanted his hands on her, his mouth on her, his body on her. But he held back.

Only his mouth.

Only her neck.

Only a taste.

He carefully traced the line of her neck with the tip of his tongue. Her skin was sweet and salty, leaving him wanting more.

“Kaid.” His name was so quiet a whisper on her lips, he almost hadn’t heard it.

He paused, thinking she might stop him to point out how wildly inappropriate his actions were. His body pounded with desire, and his blood poured through his veins like liquid fire.

He waited for her protests.

They did not come.

He licked her delicate neck once more, a languid tease of his tongue against her naked flesh.

This time she moaned and leaned further back, until her back pressed against him.

“Yes.” There was something pleading in her tone.

He caught her slender waist and held her to him, scraping his teeth against her skin, letting his kiss deepen with sucks and bites.

His cock strained with need. He ran his lips up her neck and caught the lobe of her ear in his mouth.

She whimpered and arched her back, pressing into the part of him which wanted her so desperately.

He wanted to spin her around, so he could gaze at her in those precious moments before kissing her lush mouth.

But those stares, those kisses were not for him.

She was MacKenzie’s.

Even as Kaid reminded himself of this, he continued kissing the length of her slender neck, tormenting himself with what he could never have and yet could not stop wanting.

Elizabeth reached behind her and gripped his arms, as if she needed them to stay on her feet. The curves of her body beneath her dress rolled back into him, and her breath came in delicate pants.

“Kiss me,” she gasped. “Please, Kaid. Kiss me.”

He almost groaned with the need to fulfill her request.

She was MacKenzie’s.

His frustration came out in a rasping growl in her ear.

Elizabeth inhaled sharply and tried to crane her face upward, toward him. “Please, Kaid.” She writhed in his arms. Hungry, desperate, in need.

He understood those emotions too well. They were the same as his, for he wanted nothing more than to kiss her—not as the woman he’d abducted, nor as the future wife of his enemy, but as the woman for whom his affections ran deeper than they ever should have.

• • •

Delilah was on fire.