Page 106 of Promised to the Forbidden Laird

Roy’s mouth moved from hers to her cheek and the curve beneath her ear. Donaldina tilted her head, allowing him closer. His breath warmed her cold skin while his lips traced the line of her throat.

“Donaldina,” he murmured. There was wonder in her name.

She drew him back to her mouth. They lost all measure of time.

The waterfall continued its endless descent. Mist settled upon their skin. Somewhere among the trees, birds called and branches shifted beneath the wind, but the world beyond the rocks held no power over them.

There was only the strength of Roy’s arms, the warmth of his mouth and the extraordinary relief of being wanted without being possessed.

At last, their kiss slowed. Donaldina remained against him, her forehead resting beneath his chin. Roy’s hand moved along her back, holding her with none of the hesitation that had defined every earlier touch.

“Ye will regret this when we must put on wet clothing,” he said.

She laughed softly against his chest. “There is the solemn man I recognized.”

Cormac still lived. The clans remained divided in ways no shared patrol could immediately mend. Danger waited beyond the hidden path, patient and unseen. But Donaldina did not permit those truths to diminish this one.

She had chosen him.

And when he kissed her again beneath the falling water, she felt him finally believe it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Roy went still for a single breath. Surprise struck him cleanly.

Then his restraint broke.

One arm closed around her waist, drawing her hard against him. Wet linen met wet linen, offering almost no barrier between their bodies. Cold water still clung to her, yet where she pressed against him there was only heat.

Donaldina made a low sound against his mouth. It destroyed what remained of his caution.

Roy kissed her with all the hunger he had carried through every council meeting, every quiet walk and every moment spent watching her hands move among the hives. His fingers spread across the small of her back, holding her so closely that he felt each breath she took.

She tasted of cold water and wind, of salt carried inland from the distant sea and something warm that belonged wholly to her. Roy felt the pull of them through the soaked cloth. She held him as if the ground beneath them could not be trusted, as though he were the only solid thing in a world reduced to water, darkness and want.

She pushed the wet hair back from his face and caught a fistful of it, keeping him near. Roy’s hand slid along her side, feeling the shape of her body beneath the clinging linen. He imagined touching her. He forbade himself from imagining it. Neither effort had prepared him for the reality.

Roy’s gaze fell to her mouth. Her lips were parted and reddened from his kisses. Water glistened upon her skin. The linen at her shoulders clung close enough that he could see her pebbled nipples. The sight drove him mad with desire.

“Ye dinnae ken what ye are doing tae me,” he said roughly.

Donaldina’s fingers moved to the fastening at his waist. The last thread of his control snapped.

Roy caught her around the waist and lifted her. Donaldina gasped, then wrapped her legs around him without hesitation. Her arms closed around his shoulders as he carried her several paces from the water, toward the shelter of an ancient pine whose roots broke through the earth beside a broad stone.

Her back met the tree with enough force to shake droplets from the branches above them. Roy’s mouth returned to hers. Donaldina kissed him like a challenge, like victory, like something she had been denied for too long and intended to reclaim in full.

His hands tightened upon her thighs, holding her against him. The wet cloth between them had become an unbearable torment, revealing every movement. Each time she shifted, Roy’s thoughts scattered further, and the sight of her naked skin continued to tantalize him.

He kissed the corner of her mouth, then the line of her jaw. Donaldina tilted her head, offering him the pale length of her throat. Roy pressed his lips there.

Roy forced himself to ask. “Tell me tae stop.”

Donaldina’s grip tightened. “Dae ye wish tae?”

“Nae.”

“Then dinnae insult me by pretending I dae.”