Bound by Wish and Mistletoe (Highland Legends, Book 1.5) (16 page)

Oh, sweet heavens, she needed to make peace with her mind. Needed to know how to discover the truth, and once and for all, put her fears to rest if they were truly unfounded.

“Are you hurt, Brigid? I couldn’t bear it if he’d harmed you.” She stepped closer.

“Nay,” Brigid said, resignation coloring her voice. “I’m sorry I’ve upset you, Susanna. He dinna harm me physically. And he dinna abuse me emotionally. Not directly anyway.”

No matter what Brigid said,
Susanna’s heart refused to stop thundering. Her hands shook so badly, she buried them into the folds of her dress and focused on a seam in the stone floor while she tried to slow her breaths.

“Susanna, talk to us,” Brigid said, standing taller. “I dinna think about how my uproar would distress you. Please forgive me.”

Susanna exhaled slowly, steadying her riotous nerves in small measure while her heart hurt for her friend. “I...Brigid I’m verra sorry for whatever he’s done. ’Tis the wrong time, I know...but—”

Nervous, she clasped her hands, wringing them. She’d never asked anyone for anything before. The proper way to go about it escaped her knowledge, and she felt suddenly inadequate.

Isobel placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Brigid shook her head and gave her a weak smile. “Go on, Susanna.
Please.
I need a distraction to calm down.”

Distraction.
Susanna looked at the gray stone floor of the corridor and took a fortifying breath. She glanced back up at her two friends, focusing beyond the frightening thoughts in her mind and the thunderous pulse in her ears.

Although trust was new and fleeting for her, she had to believe these women would trust what she was about to tell them, and she had to convince Robert that she felt fine when she returned to him for their wedding night. Despite the real-life threats to her person and their clan, with the inescapable demons haunting her mind, her very sanity depended on it.

“I need your help.”

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Robert remained where he stood when Susanna last left him, his gaze locked onto the dark corridor down which she’d disappeared. The concern on her face had been understandable, but it was the panic in her eyes that distressed him. He hoped that Brigid and Isobel would soothe Susanna’s fears about those things
most unbelievable
within his clan. Things he’d intended to explain tonight, before fate once again commanded otherwise.

With events happening on pace like the very winds of the blizzard that had blown her here, he still hadn’t had the time to explain to her about the magick Brodie Castle held—or the fantastical events often occurring because of it—but he would. Perhaps in support of what Brigid and Isobel might reveal.

He raked his hand through his unbound hair and took a deep breath to calm his rising nerves. The corridor leading to the castle’s ancillary rooms had never looked so desolate.

A tankard of ale appeared before his face. “Doona fret about the
lasses. All problems with women have a way of workin’ themselves out. Trust me.”

He glanced at Iain and took the offered drink. After half a dozen hearty swallows, he took another calming breath and nodded. “I’ve never had to handle a woman before,” he admitted.

Iain roared in laughter. “You’ve handled plenty, my friend. But this is the one who sets your head spinnin’ and your heart racin’, and handlin’ her requires care and patience.”

Robert snorted. “Aye.”

Susanna suddenly appeared at the far side of the room, accompanied by her newfound friends. They all looked stronger than they had when they’d left, and three more bonnie lasses he’d never seen. Isobel walked on the left with her wavy blond hair; Brigid on the right with her wild red curls; and in the middle, with an arm looped into each of theirs, was Susanna, her raven locks gently framing a most angelic face.

Susanna caught his gaze and smiled, which made her all the more stunning. His chest ached, as if her look of happiness had taken hold of his heart and squeezed. He strode across the room, unable to stop himself. The women beside her each brushed a kiss to Susanna’s cheeks and drifted away from her side, into the crowded room.

He tried to still his shaking hands as he took her delicate fingers in them, lifted them to his mouth, and placed a gentle kiss on each. “Susanna. I worried when you’d run off. There are many things I need to tell you, to explain to you.”

Her smile widened, and she lifted a finger, placing it on his lips. “Not tonight, Robert. Take me to bed.”

He kissed the tip of her finger. “With great pleasure, wife,” he replied, his voice husky.

Goodbyes and well wishes were shouted at their backs with laughter as he hoisted Susanna into his arms and raced up the stone steps. He paused halfway down the corridor, breathless, only to have her wind her hands around his neck and kiss him with body-melting heat. They passionately explored each other’s mouths as he continued down the hall, a renewed urgency pumping through his veins.

Unable to see the latch to the door, he fumbled with the iron lever until it released, sending the heavy oak barrier flying open from their weight against it. He kicked a foot behind him, slamming the door shut with a loud thud.

They broke the kiss together, breathless and gazing deep into the other’s eyes. Susanna knew him better than any other. He knew her better than he knew himself. Two lost souls, drifting through life, had collided, becoming one. He’d never felt more blessed.

With a shaky inhalation, he carefully placed her on her feet as they stood on the far side of the carved bed in front of the open window. Someone had tied back the bedchamber’s tapestry, but the hearth’s blazing fire sent ample warmth into the large room.

In gentle worship, he removed the delicate white layers of fabric from her body as she trembled beneath his fingers. Her gaze fell to the floor, and she blushed as if he hadn’t touched her before. As his hands skimmed over her smooth curves, the silken chemise she’d worn beneath
her gown drifted to the ground.

Her porcelain skin shimmered in the moonlight, luminous. When a burst of cool air danced bumps across her arms and chest, she shivered. He impulsively lifted his arms to warm her, but she grasped his forearms, staying his action.

“’Tis my turn.” Her words were soft, but they held a tone of command.

He smiled and dropped his hand. “Aye. My body is yours.”

Susanna tilted her head, a faraway look appearing in her eyes before she focused on him again. She lifted her fingers to the pin fastening his plaid and released the silver clasp with a tug. The woolen fabric unraveled, falling to the ground. With her sparkling eyes locked onto his, she pulled up his linen shirt, and he raised his arms in assistance as she dragged the material over his head.

Her soft hands fluttered over his chest and drifted down over his abdomen. Each of his muscles tensed in reaction to her warm touch no matter how he tried to relax. She paused in her descent, placing a gentle kiss over the linen bandage covering his wound.

His heart hammered dents into the backside of his ribs as her fingertips drifted lower and teased across each of his hips. His cock twitched, throbbing and aching for her touch. Deep breaths and tremendous focus were the only things that kept him standing—and his hands and mouth restrained.

Her soft words purred heat over skin already on fire. “Aye, and what a fine body you have, Robert.”

She sat down upon the bed, perched on the edge, as her eyes locked onto his bobbing shaft. He watched her in rapt fascination, unable to move. He swallowed hard, finding it difficult to breathe.

“I’m free to do anythin’ I like?” she asked, her gaze flicking up to his.

He tried to answer, but his throat had locked up. A gravelly croak managed to break free. “Aye.”

The woman actually smirked at him. Her gaze drifted back down his body to land on what stood at proud attention to her.
For her.

“Any way I like?” She licked her lips.

“Aye,” he whispered.

She extended her tongue. He stared down with held breath as she licked the underside of the tip. He hissed, sucking air in between his teeth.

Her eyes widened as his cock twitched, hardening further, throbbing mercilessly. She wrapped her fingers around the base of the shaft and tightened her grip as she placed her lips at the tip and pulled him inside. He groaned, closing his eyes.

Delivering pleasure-filled torture, she slowly licked and sucked. He trembled under her attention, tightening his thighs and calves to prevent his body from collapsing to the floor. For a woman unfamiliar with a man’s body, his wife had great intuition on what pleased him.

Her other hand drifted up the inside of his thigh. Caresses, licks, sucks—she leisurely explored his body, satisfying her curiosity, teasing his last threads of control, of which he had only a tenuous hold.

When she moaned low—his cock deep in her mouth and her hands cupping and lifting—he growled. His hand dropped to her jaw, urging her back with a gentle pressure, not wanting her to bite down in surprise. On a slow, long suck, she pulled her mouth off of him, a popping sound echoing into the room as she finally released the engorged tip.

She looked up at him, smiling. “You enjoyed my mouth on you?”

His breaths came out in short bursts, ragged and shallow. The woman had pulled him right to the edge of release.

“Aye. Back on the bed, Susanna.
My. Turn.
”

The moment she reclined, he stalked between her legs, forcing her back until she’d fallen onto the center of the bed. He settled his shoulders between her knees, pressing her soft thighs wide open. Delicate and pink, the very center of her glistened, sweet and ripe just for him. He swiped a flattened tongue through her folds.

Susanna moaned, squirming in his hold. He tightened his grip on her thighs, holding her immobile while he took his time to pleasure her, to tease her right to the brink, exactly as she’d done to him. He nipped with his teeth, soothed with soft kisses, tortured her in slow licks before he slid two fingers inside and stroked with gentle pressure. The erotic sounds she made, her shaky breaths, guided him in what she liked, what her body needed. She cried out, her thighs quivering as she grabbed the bedding in tightened fists.

A single pulse grasped his fingers tightly, and he slowed, holding her right below the breaking point. As he kept her there, she thrashed more, low whimpers escaping with her every exhalation. In slow measure, he teased her, ignoring his cock that had hardened to a near-painful degree.

“Robert...”

She moaned his name, and the sound was the sweetest wine, intoxicating.

“Robert...
Oh
...Robert...
please
...” Her words drifted into mumbled incoherency.

He ceased his actions, pulling away from her, needing her wrapped around him as much as she needed him deep within her. “Please
what
, my love?”

With patience, he kissed a trail up her body, his lips meandering up her quivering belly, stopping for a small suck of the delicate skin over her ribs. With his firm tongue, he licked beneath the swell of her breast and up, circling her nipple as the peaked tip hardened further. He captured it playfully between his teeth, tugging on it.

She speared her hands into his hair, pulling him forward. He released her breast and climbed higher.

Lust filled her eyes, dark blue and sparkling in the firelight. He nipped her lips, the tip of his cock fitting into her entrance.

Susanna arched, but his movement flowed with her, denying her what she needed.

She groaned, and he smiled, loving what he did to her. The woman, so sure of herself, independent and needing no one, came apart in his arms. In all his dreams, he’d have it no other way.

“Please what?” he repeated on a whisper, but kissed her again, preventing her reply.

Her hands slapped onto his hips, her fingernails digging into his ass as she pulled his body forward in demonstration. She arched again—the action pulling him a little deeper—as she threw her head back.

“Please...
please
take me,” she begged.

Robert thrust forward, capturing her lips in a searing kiss. He groaned into her mouth as he plunged deep inside her welcoming body, intense pleasure sizzling through his nerve endings. He rocked back and pressed forward, over and over in a slow dance, as her cries grew. Unable to contain the fire raging through him, he lifted her hips and pump
ed into her with renewed force.

Liquid heat wrapped around him as a pulse fired from her
, then another. In slow restraint, he continued the measured pace, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead from the great effort. Susanna trembled and suddenly clutched his hips in a bruising hold. Fully seated deep inside of her, he stilled, sensing that she drifted onto the precipice—where he swayed, about to fall over the edge.

Susanna whimpered and arched her hips into him. He tightened his hold, lifting her ass higher. He flexed his hips hard, and she cried out. When he did it again, she dropped her head to his shoulder, releasing a sob into his skin as her entire body began to shake. Another deep thrust, and she screamed. Hard pulses gripped him as a wash of warmth flooded in, bathing him in her release.

He abandoned all restraint, pulling back and driving forward. Her cries magnified as his movements pulled marvelous sounds of found ecstasy from her throat. Intense pleasure unfurled from his spine, shot through his loins, and fired out hard and fast. He gasped from its force before his roar burst out into the room.

The world exploded into fragments of sensation, everything happening at once.

Heavy breaths.

Slickened skin.

Pounding hearts.

The logs in the hearth shifted, the fire crackling and snapping. A cool draft in the room prickled, rushing over his heated skin. Beautiful, trusting eyes gazed up at him, a small smile curving onto her glistening face.

“If God granted me a last piece of time to treasure forever, this would be it,” she whispered.