The Scottish Lord’s Secret Bride (17 page)

‘Perhaps you could oblige me and do that whilst I dispense with my boots?’ Fraser asked her in a gravelly voice. ‘My hands are shaking and I’m fumbling. Plus, it could help us to be skin to skin so much faster. For if you don’t mind, I will attend to my breeches. I’m sure if your fingers go under the waistband, my control will go and so will my chances of filling you.’

‘Then by all means you do it,’ Morven said rapidly. ‘I need you in me, not all over yourself.’

He needed that as well.

Fraser watched with a dry mouth as Morven sat up, took her jacket off and then slid her skirt lower until she lay supine and naked in front of him. Never had his fingers felt so thick and ungainly as he struggled to strip. Fraser swore under his breath as his feet decided not to leave the haven of his boots without brute force, his cock snagged on his breeches, and his shirt on his hair.

Morven chuckled. ‘Butterfingers.’ She was ready long before him. Her loosened hair curled around her shoulders and teased her nipples, as she sat back against the pillows and watched him bright-eyed and avid. ‘What is holding you?’

He looked down at his throbbing cock and smiled wryly. ‘He is, or was. Now? Nothing except my desire to make everything perfect. Sadly I have no wine or flowers, no music playing in the background. All I have is my body with which to worship you.’

‘Your body is all I want. I don’t need fancy trappings. This—’ she waved her hand to encompass both him and the room ‘—is all that is necessary. Everything I crave.’

‘Then you shall have everything you desire.’ Fraser took the three steps necessary to reach the foot of the bed and clambered up until he knelt at her feet. ‘If my memory doesn’t fail me, I have an idea you will squirm and beg for mercy if I do this.’ He ran the nail of his index finger across the sole of her foot. The skin was nowhere near as soft as he expected, until he remembered her propensity to go barefoot whenever possible.

Fraser flicked the underside of her big toe with his finger and reversed his touch to scratch his way back to her heel. Morven arched up off the bed with a scream and shook as he tormented the other arch in the same way.

‘Fraser, no it is… Oh no, you fiend, nooo.’ She collapsed back onto the bed in feverish laughter as he moved his hands and knelt back on his haunches.

‘What?’ he said innocently. ‘What did I do?’

‘Ha, you know and just for that…’ Morven grabbed his wrist, pulled him forward and rolled to one side so he fell flat on the bed, not on her. Then she rolled him over and put her hands to his ribs. ‘If I remember rightly you will squirm and squeal like a stuck pig if I do this.’

She started to tickle him. Her fingers dug into his skin and Fraser wriggled and edged further way. He began to laugh helplessly, as she followed him across the sheets. Morven walked her fingers higher and feathered them over the soft skin of his underarms. Fraser squirmed. ‘Lord, love, no more or, oh, you devil, this is war.’ He twisted and brought her on top of him. She moved and reversed the positions, her fingers still busy as she attempted to make him squeal.

Such light-heartedness had been in short supply lately. Fraser gave in to the sheer pleasure of just being. Of enjoying himself without any thoughts of the morrow.

Chapter Nine

‘Well now, let me see…’ He grinned, grunted and bent upwards, his intent to dislodge her and give him the upper hand. His staff prodded her belly and they both froze until he reversed his arch and his cock slid between them to tease her mound.

Morven gulped. ‘Ah, I think we might need to change where we are.’

‘You want to be on top?’ He grinned. ‘I’m more than agreeable.’ It had worked well for them in the past; there was no reason to suspect otherwise now.

She gurgled and her eyes twinkled. ‘Well yes, that could work perfectly, but that was not what I meant. I fear if we don’t go back the way we came the next move would be downward.’

‘Pardon? Go home now?’ Why would she think that? Was it all too much? Hateful or hurtful? Fraser struggled to speak and not show his dismay.
Damn she has to want this, has to.
‘You think that?’

‘Go home? What are you talking about?’ Morven frowned and sounded mystified. Then her face cleared and she shifted one hand to lift it up to his cheek and patted the hair-roughened skin. ‘Lord I hope not. I meant across the mattress. There is no carpet on this side of the bed.’ She rolled slightly. ‘Splinters. In your arse. Or mine. Not pleasant.’

Fraser moved one leg to steady them. Instead of silky sheets he felt fresh air. He looked to his right and realised they were perched so near to the edge of the bed that a sneeze or a cough could send them over and onto the floor. As Morven intimated, the wooden planks were bare.

‘Hmm, I see your point. Hold on.’ He entwined their legs together, took hold of her firmly and began to roll back the way they had come. In a mix of pale female skin and sun-kissed male they tangled together. Her hair, which she sometimes thought had a mind of its own, swung out around them like a cape of shining midnight sky.

‘Fraser,’ Morven shrieked as he kissed her ear, her nose and any other place he could reach, until they were in the middle of the bed, the mattress fluffed up around them like a cloud and Morven firmly on top of him. Her tresses teased his skin.

‘I am now, as you see,’ Fraser said as he put one of her palms flat onto his chest, and curled the fingers of her other hand around his staff, ‘in your hands.’ He fastened three fingers into her hair to hold her in place and waited with bated breath to discover what she would say or do next.

Morven tilted her head to one side considering, careful he imagined to move in such a way that his hands were not pulling harder and licked her lips. ‘So I can feel.’ Her fingers tightened around his cock. ‘Very nicely so.’

Oh yes.
Fraser put his other hand on her waist and held her there. ‘You did say you enjoyed riding all those years ago?’

‘Yes, so?’ She looked puzzled and then blushed. ‘Oh.’

‘Oh and so, how are your skills these days?’ Fraser asked her urbanely. ‘Have you honed them or forgotten all you learned?’

‘Let’s see, shall we.’ Morven lifted her hand from his chest and wrapped it around his cock below the one with which she already encircled him.

Fraser let go of her hair and smiled slightly. ‘All yours with nothing to hinder you.’ He was more than interested to see what she would do.

Morven lifted herself onto her knees and oh so carefully guided him inside to the entrance of her channel. ‘Thank the Lord. Hindrances would not be helpful.’ She hovered and he could see the effort it took her to hold steady.

Fraser’s heart missed a beat as he held himself motionless. He wanted to shout, to thrust up into her and move, but this was her time.

‘Now I wonder what will be the best… Ah yes, like this I think.’ Morven licked her finger and put it to his mouth. He sucked and pulled it between his lips. She sighed. ‘Oh my. And now…’ She slid down him, inch by slow inch. Not until he was buried deep to his bollocks did she do any more. Then she wriggled. That was almost enough to send him cross-eyed with the effort not to come. All he felt, all he was aware of was Morven, her scent, her heat, and the effect it had on him. Never before had he experienced such a sense of being overwhelmed, of scarcely holding on to his wits. He thought he was in command of all he ever did. Now he understood how wrong he was.

‘Oh I remember,’ Morven said in a sultry, erotic voice that spoke of long hot nights and luscious couplings. ‘Now I do…’ She paused, tightened her inner muscles and pinched each of his nipples to the point of pain. ‘Now I do…this.’ She lifted off him until only the very tip of his shaft remained inside her and then pushed, fast and hard.

He swore his eyes crossed. Stars danced under his eyelids and she wavered in front of him. Then she moved again. Up and down, fast and slow, hard and gentle. It was no good, no it was
too
good. His brain was scrambled. Fraser thought of icy cold rivers, tripe—he hated the stuff—tree frogs, anything to stave off the explosion he knew was oh so near.

Morven began to pant as his cock filled and he knew it was the point of no return for him.

‘I have to…’ He retained his wits enough to rub her clitoris and pinch it in the manner he remembered she enjoyed. Fraser bit his lip to concentrate on her and not his impending climax. It was a close run thing who shuddered and screamed first. He thought, hoped, she had beaten him to it. His heartbeat echoed hers as it thundered in his ears. It was several heart-stuttering moments later Fraser realised something important. Mouth hollow he swallowed and uttered words he never thought he would hear himself say.

‘Holy hell, love. I didn’t withdraw.’

****

‘Hmm?’ Morven heard his words through a post-coital haze and frowned. ‘Didn’t what?’ Did she really have to try to decipher his words? She was happy, sated and in no mood to think anything other than that she was spent.

‘Withdraw,’ Fraser said baldly. ‘I filled you with my seed. You could be with child.’

Her legs were sticky and indeed she felt full, but really? How did he know?
Could he said could. Listen, do not jump to conclusions. He is but a mere man not one who can look at a woman and say she is with child or not.
Morven prayed she was correct or she really was in the mire.

‘You did,’ Morven agreed with the first part of his comment. That had to be true. The rest? ‘Not withdraw. You did fill me, and most satisfactorily as well. However, I doubt I am.’ She wasn’t even going to think about it yet. What was the point? They couldn’t undo what was done. ‘With child,’ she added in case he was in any doubt to what she referred. ‘It is unlikely.’ She pressed her point home.

‘Nevertheless, you do not know,’ Fraser stated the obvious and Morven bit back the retort of “neither do you” that sprang easily to her lips. Now was not the time to snipe. She glowered.

‘Nor do I know,’ he said with a snap. ‘Of course I don’t.’ He spoke the last few words more temperately.

Was he a mind reader? Morven nodded.

‘But it was stupid and irresponsible. I’m sorry, it was not my intention to put you at risk,’ Fraser said in a remorseful tone. ‘I’m not a callow youth. I should have thought and known when to pull back.’

‘Ah…ah, I see.’ He was worried about his lack of control, whereas she revelled in it. She reached up and stroked his cheek. ‘Stop worrying. Nothing happened all those years ago; nothing will happen now.’ Or it shouldn’t, she thought as she reckoned up the days since her last menses. Her mama had told her of the belief by some that a woman was more fertile at certain times in her cycle and Morven hoped it was true.

Fraser shook his head. ‘But… Hell, woman, just because we were lucky last time means nothing. It could have happened this time. Do women become more fertile with age? It is not something we males know a lot about.’

Nor did she. ‘Fraser, if it happens I will deal with it,’ Morven said firmly. His eyes widened and he blanched.
Oh Lord I never thought he would think of that.
‘No I would not go to a healer for herbs or the like. I would love any child we made. But seriously it is not likely. I…’ She paused. How much
did
men understand about a woman’s cycle? ‘My most fertile time is over a week away.’

He nodded then raised one eyebrow in surprise. ‘You have times…’ He held his hands up. ‘Perhaps not the time to inform me of all a woman’s secrets, but I had heard…’

Lord, Morven was sure her face was scarlet. Was it normal to exchange pleasantries about the workings of one’s body with one…one’s what…one’s whatever. Well, she thought fiercely, it bloody should be. Then excuses and snappy moments need not be explained away with inane statements.

‘Just so, and now is not the time.’

‘Yes, I see.’ Fraser stroked his chin. ‘Lord, love, I was so carried away in the moment, I didn’t think.’

‘Well nor did I or I would have pulled off you,’ Morven said and slumped down on top of him. Fraser’s heartbeat resonated beneath her cheek as he caressed her back in long, rhythmic stokes. If she were a feline she would have purred. It was comforting, not rousing, but hinted at what could be once more. ‘Perhaps it was a salutary lesson?’ she said semi-seriously. ‘No more coupling.’

‘Oh no.’ His words rumbled through her. ‘A salutary lesson yes, but one to say carry a towel and it will be a timely reminder. Perhaps ink on my forehead. “Pull out.”’

Morven laughed—it was that or cry—and wriggled backwards until her feet hit the floor and she stood up. Such a magical moment brought crashing down by real life. Time to return to reality. ‘Why is it we can not keep our hands to ourselves when we are around each other?’

‘Attraction, lust, need?’ He smiled. ‘Love?’

Morven bit back the glib reply she had been about to make. His expression was serious and his eyes dark with emotion. ‘Do you think so?’ She honestly did not know. ‘Can it live and not wither and die for all this time without being nurtured?’ It was something she had often wondered about over the years. How would she feel if she ever saw him again? Dare she really open her heart and find out?

‘It seems so to me,’ Fraser replied soberly. Then his eyes crinkled up at the corners and the depth appeared full of devilment. ‘And if you’re not sure I’ll be sure to help you agree.’

That was something she worried about. It would be oh so easy to let herself be overwhelmed by him and not really understand her feelings. ‘I’m sure you would. I’ll think about it.’ Morven picked her skirt up from the floor, inspected it for dust, and shook it. ‘I have a horrid feeling we need to make a move.’

Fraser stared at the angle of the sun and groaned. ‘I think you are correct. Come on, and on the way back we can think up excuses as to why we came and why we were away so long.’

Oh Lord, she did not like the sound of that at all. ‘I don’t suppose you could say you fought off pirates?’

In the event they didn’t have to make any excuses. As they trotted into the stable yard it was obvious by the quiet that the carriage hadn’t returned from the village. A missive was waiting to explain the ladies had accepted an offer from the minister’s wife to partake of afternoon tea, attend an early evening church service, and have a light supper before returning—one of the perks of summer being long light evenings.