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He dipped his head, bringing his mouth perilously close to hers. “Have ye now?” he whispered, his breath grazing her lips.
At the sound of her stifled gasp, his chest tightened. Teasing her sparked a thrill in his veins, but he couldn’t deny that he was teasing himself as well. Although, “torment” might have been a better word. All he had to do was tilt his neck ever so slightly, and their lips would meet in the kiss he longed for.
“What was the question?” she croaked, sounding out of breath.
The burning gleam in her eyes sent his desires into a frenzy. He wanted nothing more than to curl his arm around her waist and kiss her until their mouths were bruised and her voice cried out for more. Indeed, he found his mind racing through all the ways that he could steal the very breath from her lungs.
“Have ye been kissed?” Noah repeated as he skimmed his lips across the apple of her cheek. Not quite a kiss, but a promise of one.
She shook her head and smiled sheepishly at him. “Nay. I cannae tell a fib. My face always gives me away.”
Her shy tone pleased Noah. It was a clear sign that she was telling the truth. He exhaled as his hand slowly drifted to her neck, his fingers curving around her nape. Her skin seared his fingertips, while her shallow breaths were like bellows, stoking the blaze within him.
“So, I shall be yer first for a lot of things—is that right?” he mumbled as he let his hot breath tickle her jaw line. Her body shivered under his touch.
“Aye,” she confessed, staring up at him with the most intense gaze.
Noah wished he could fall into those deep pools, to dive for her soul the way other men dove for pearls. She would be the rarest of them all; he was already certain of that.
Listening to her quick breaths and feeling the sharp rise and fall of her pert bosom, he whispered his lips along her jaw and up to her cheek, resisting the urge to add any pressure as he skirted around the hollow of her temple and across her glistening brow. As her arms loosened and her palms turned up to touch his chest, however, the restraint he’d been clinging onto vanished.
Her hand is on my heart…He caught her anticipating gaze for half a second, and then his lips were upon hers. He couldn’t hold back anymore.
The first press of his mouth detonated fireworks within his belly. His chest constricted and his blood sang, as if every kiss he’d ever experienced had been a lie: a pale imitation of what a kiss could and should be. Slowly, he brushed his lips to hers again, his forehead creasing at the intense burn of it. All the while, he willed her mouth to respond, to strike against his lips like a flint and spark an even greater fire.
Her hands curled into fists, gripping his shirt. At the same moment, her lips moved. A timid return of his kiss, but a return nonetheless.
Immediately, he froze. In that hesitation, his mind seized the reins again, pulling him away from temptation.
“Well then,” he rasped, drawing back, “that will certainly give us somethin’ to look forward to, one day. I’ll bid ye a good night, Saoirse.”
A sharp inhale of air hissed through her sweet, ripe lips, but he’d already made up his mind. Pushing back off the bed, he stood and folded his hands behind his back, as if he didn’t trust them not to touch her again. Saoirse sat up abruptly, her hands still balled into fists, her knuckles white from where they’d gripped his shirt to tightly.
“Ye’re leavin’?” Her voice trembled.
He bowed his head and turned, eager to abandon the chamber before his resolve crumbled again. Despite what Scott had encouraged, Noah couldn’t do it. Not tonight. Not with his head in such chaos.
“Ye’d walk away without another word?” Saoirse called out.
He paused on the room’s threshold. “I have business to attend to.”
Of course, it was so much more than business that pulled him away. His desire to possess her rattled him to his core. The fact that he had come so close, terrified him.
“But I thought—” Her voice brimmed with disappointment.
“Nae tonight,” he repeated, more firmly.
“Why nae? Did I nae do it right? If ye daenae teach me, how can I learn?” Her tone flitted back and forth between hurt and annoyed.
Noah pivoted on his heel, aware that he owed her some explanation. “It’s nae ye, Saoirse.” He swallowed thickly. “I just daenae think it’s a good idea to engage in such things when impulse is runnin’ rampant, nor would it be fair to ye when ye’ve had such a tirin’ journey.”
Saoirse’s lips turned down in to a frown. The sight made him want to laugh, for there was a charm to her almost childish innocence. He doubted she even knew what it was she was asking for, which was precisely why he couldn’t give it. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her any more than he already had, or watch that innocence disappear.
Ye’d hate me in the mornin’, and that would be worse than fallin’ in love.Scott had made things sound so simple, but in reality, they were anything but. Apparently, Noah lying with his wife was the most impossible thing on Earth.
“So, Iamto be abandoned here.” Saoirse breathed a sad sigh. “I feared it might come to this, but a pretty cage, even with a bathtub, is still a cage, Noah. If we cannae behave as man and wife, then what is the point of any of this?”
Her words stunned him. Before he knew it, he was striding back to her. Reaching the bed, he knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. Shock flashed across her face as he rose up on his haunches, bringing his lips to within an inch of hers, stealing the air around her.
