AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then she bent, kissing his chest. Tracing the myriad paths of Máelodor’s cruelty, her gaze bright with unshed tears.
Courage. Strength. Compassion. Generosity. She possessed them all.
Heart beating painfully, he swept her up and into bed to lie atop him, her sun-drenched brown hair spilling over him, her skin silken soft and blushed pink and gold like a sunrise. With ever-increasing abandon, she kissed him, tugging at his bottom lip with her teeth, darting a tongue inside, matching his temptations with her own.
Urgency ignited his blood, his cock hard at the junction of her legs. It would take seconds to bury himself deep inside her. Instead, he spun out his seduction. Enjoyed her body inch by melting inch. Treated this time as precious and never to be again.
She moaned her yearning into his open mouth, begged him even when she knew not what she begged for. Her body sinuous, sinful perfection.
Rolling her beneath him, he spread her legs, kissing his way down over her breasts, alternately laving and sucking her nipples until she trembled. Preparing her for him with skillful gentling as if she were indeed the self-conscious wild creature he’d first envisioned upon that rocky mile of lonesome beach below Glenlorgan.
So when he entered her with a tender stroke, her body curved into his, hands twined around his neck, hips arched to meet him.
She gasped, eyes wide as he remained poised above her. But only for a moment before she smiled, spurring him onward with a siren’s invitation. Taking him deeper within her until it was his turn to tremble, his body closing fast toward a dangerous edge.
He slowed the tempo, savoring the pleasure. Knowing it for what it was. A beginning and an end.
She may not have understood the significance of his actions, but she responded with a sweet eagerness that had every nerve in his body leaping to new heights of attention as he thrust deeper.
Sabrina wound her arms around his back, face dappled with light and shadow, breasts high and round, tips pebble-hard. Pressur
e built within him. Pooling low. Radiating outward. The pleasure-pain of their joining increasing with every thrust.
Her eyes fluttered open, meeting his steady gaze with a diamond-blue rapture. And it was as if he were back where he began. At the ship’s gunwale, staring deep into the heart of the sea. Praying to any god he could to be allowed to rejoin his lost lover in Annwn. Had this then been their answer? Had the gods heard him after all? And was this one moment with Sabrina his reward?
Or his punishment?
Desire coalesced down to a focused instant. Boiled high in a brilliant shockwave as he exploded inside her. Kissed her as she moaned her bliss into his mouth.
She dug her hands into his shoulders, head thrown back, breath ragged. Whispered his name over and over as she climaxed around him. Achingly star-bright and beautiful in ecstasy.
Later, they lay nestled together, neither one ready to gather the discarded proprieties they’d shed with their clothes. The day lingered into twilight as they talked and dozed and talked some more. He should release her. Let her go. Force her out of his bed and, even if she didn’t realize it, out of his life. Instead, his arms wrapped around her, his chin resting against the top of her head, the heat of her warming every dead place within him.
“Will you return to Glenlorgan?” he asked.
She shifted in his arms until they faced one another, a crease between her brows. “Not if Aidan has his way.” She curled closer into him. “He wants me to return with him to Belfoyle. He thinks going there will make me forget the last seven years. As if we can re-create the life we had before Father’s murder, and I’ll suddenly realize his plans for my future are the best.”
“Perhaps going home would help you lay aside your grief. You can see things as they are now. Not dwell on what was.”
“Once he’s got me safely hidden away at Belfoyle, he’ll never allow me to return to take my place among the sisters. I’ll be fitted out as the latest Douglas up for sale on the marriage market. Healthy, all my teeth, and the rents from an estate or two thrown in for good measure. What gentleman could resist?”
“Love can sometimes be found even in the most practical of alliances. You may be lucky in your brother’s choice.” Like picking at a half-healed wound, he tormented himself with the statement, imagining Sabrina with another man.
“Even if I did, what use would my healing abilities be in this world? I’d be trapped in the role of good little hostess and breeder of sons. Never allowed to utilize the gifts I’ve been given. I couldn’t stand that.”
He pushed her hair off her face. Kissed her forehead. “Your brother sees happiness in marriage and family. And who can argue? Not many men are blessed with a woman as courageous and spirited as Lady Kilronan.”
She lifted her head, her crease deepening. “You know her?”
He shrugged, answering quickly, “By reputation only,” hoping that satisfied her.
It seemed to. She lay back down. “You think I should listen to him and return to Belfoyle.”
Isolated. Warded. Far from Dublin and St. John and Máelodor.
And him.
Belfoyle was exactly where she needed to be.
