Highland Song (28 page)

"I've wanted to do this for a long time," he spoke softly. "I want you to kiss me." Her eyes were filled with raw hunger yet he knew she feared him. He wanted to erase the fear forever from her eyes. And for a moment he was struck with the thought that Bertram had put that fear in her eyes. His gut tightened. Hatred for the general centered in his head.

She swallowed hard and licked her lips.

He could almost taste her. "Do you keep your word, little fox?" he challenged. "Kiss me. Taste me and forget about Bertram."

She nodded, her eyes closing and then opening. Black sooty lashes fell across alabaster cheeks. "I have never gone back on a promise. But I never agreed to kiss you."

"I won't force you. Is that what you're afraid of?" The words stunned him. Had Bertram forced her? He felt his stomach knot. "Kiss me."

Her smile was forced. "I'm afraid you won't keep your promise. If I kiss you, you might take something I don't want to give you."

"Don't be afraid of me," he whispered, his mouth descending so the words whispered across her lips.

Slade's mouth closed over Lainie's. His tongue slid between her lips, cutting off the possibility of talking. To deny him, she would have to push him away.

Slade was surprised when she didn't protest or fight him. He'd expected a little of both. Once he understood her response to him was genuine and hot, he held her tenderly and let her take the lead.

The sensations ripping through Slade sent his mind spinning. Of her own accord, her fingertips tightened around his neck, bringing her flush against him. She was soft and the heat from her swept through him. As Lainie deepened the kiss, currents of awareness that had burst into life the instant he had seen her in the dark corner of the tavern flared, sending a tremor sweeping hot and deep inside.

He wanted her more than anything and he wouldn't rest until he did know her intimately. But for a short moment, he pulled back and watched.

Slade studied Lainie, sensing she felt the same heat, the same raw hunger he did. Yet all he could see of Lainie was sooty lashes lowered against alabaster skin and shimmering hair.

She looked up and smiled shyly at Slade then almost hesitating she kissed Slade and touched Slade's tongue with her own. He groaned.

"You know how I like it, Lainie, hot and deep." Then it seemed she obeyed him, deepening the kiss, touching him, exploring him. A mercuric heat settled in the pit of Slade's stomach. His hands roamed the length of her back, exploring her, melding her more tightly against him.

Her grip on Slade tightened even as she pulled back.

Slade made a thick sound of protest.

"I can't breathe," Lainie tried to explain.

The huskiness of her voice told Slade more than her words. He caught her lower lip gently between his teeth and bit with great care, drinking her startled gasp and reveling in her passionate response. Her body vibrated with passion as her hips slowly rocked against him, silently begging him for more.

"Don't quit on me now, little fox."

"Slade?"

"Remember? Remember how I taught you to kiss?" he asked, urging her to come to him.

Slade's arms tightened, arching Lainie closer to his hungry mouth.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten."

He didn't give her time to reply. He caught her lips under his own. His head moved abruptly, opening Lainie's mouth once more. Heat raced through him.

The sensual exploration of Slade's tongue drew a tiny noise from the back of her throat. Her body tightened, but not in protest of the increasing force of the embrace. This time she arched into him without coercion.

The innocent touches of her tongue against his changed. She explored more deeply into his mouth, tasted him more fully,
stroked
his tongue completely with her own. The sensation of her tongue tangling, rhythmically with his made his head spin. His breath wedged in his throat until he could barely breathe.

"Keep that up and I will surely melt," he whispered into her mouth.

Slade made a thick sound and pulled Lainie closer, taking and giving a kiss that made him realize he had never really kissed a woman before--not like this, two hungry flames burning, twisting, straining toward each other across the barriers of flesh and clothing.

"Sweet jesu, Lainie, you make my head spin."

When Lainie finally tore her mouth from Slade's, her breathing was ragged.

She gazed up at him with dazed eyes. His fingers sank into the resilient flesh of Lainie's hips as he dragged her against himself, letting her feel the fire she had started.

"Little fox,
You're
burning me alive."

"Nay, 'Tis ye. Burning me. I don't understand what is happening. It wasn't like this…"

Slade paused for a moment, her words penetrating the flames sweeping through him. "…before?" he questioned but didn't wait for a response. He lifted Lainie, holding her suspended in his arms, while his tongue made hot entreaties into her mouth. He wanted to take her down to the ground and bury himself in her warm and sultry body, but knew it was far too dangerous.

He didn't have a death wish. Jericho could be around the last curve in the trail.

Bloody hell I should have killed him in Ayr.

Slade's arms tightened and he took Lainie's mouth as he wanted to take the rest of her body. Without breaking the kiss, he carried her two short steps to the weathered ledge and sat down.

Lainie made a surprised sound when she found herself sitting across Slade's legs. He unsheathed his sword and let it rest on the ledge next to him within easy reach. With a wall of stone at his back and a lap full of warm woman, he was as safe as he was going to be.

You're a fool to even think of safety or caution with a warm willing woman in your lap, Slade thought disdainfully.

But with a woman who touched him as no other woman had, Jericho seemed very far away. Her kiss was as hot and sultry as his wildest imagination, making and meeting sensual demands. Her kiss was enough to make him forget that a woman only wanted what she could seduce from a man.

Slade had never had a woman want him so much she forgot the coy game of tease and retreat and ended up burning in her own fire. Knowing Lainie wanted him that much made Slade shake with a hunger greater than he had ever known.

Sweet Jesus," Slade said heavily.

Before Lainie could say anything, Slade's mouth fastened urgently on hers. The cloth of the shirt she wore was frail with long use, and so thinned by age that it was little barrier to his explorations. She wore nothing underneath but the heat that radiated up to him, stripping away his restraint.

Beneath Slade's nimble fingers, he could feel Lainie tremble. Then Slade's mouth replaced his hands, testing and tugging at Lainie's sensitive flesh through the cloth. Her nipples hardened into tiny little buds. The low sound of pleasure she made encouraged Slade even more and sent him close to the breaking edge of his restraint. His hands tightened reflexively as he fought to control the unexpected fury of his need. As his fingers clenched, the worn-out cloth of her shirt gave way at the shoulder seams. A flap of material fell forward, revealing one perfect breast.

Slade groaned. He had not meant to tempt himself like this. But having done it, he couldn't resist.

He lowered his head and took the hard peak deep into his mouth, laving the tip with his tongue and his teeth. She tasted of hot steamy afternoons, of roses and hidden pools and secret pleasures. The husky sound he drew from her throat was a siren song urging him to forget whatever danger might wait in the encompassing darkness.

The rest of the fabric fell apart with a soft sound that was lost in the rippling cries Lainie made while Slade's mouth and hands continued their evocative play. Her breasts pressed against his naked chest sent a hotter and wilder inferno sweeping within.

Slade was a man well and truly damned. He didn't care what dangers were out there. He eased his hand between her legs until only the fragile barrier of old cloth separated his fingers from her hidden softness. Passion seemed to burst through Lainie, drenching her in liquid heat that Slade could feel through the thin worn cloth. He wanted to touch and taste all of her.

"You have no idea what you are doing to me," Lainie whispered raggedly.

Slade laughed almost painfully. "Ah, but I think I do know. Do it again sweet little fox."

"Slade?"

His hand moved once more, tightening around the soft flesh that wept passionately at his lightest caress.

Lainie gasped. Slade felt the liquid fire spread from her body to his hand.

Without warning, Lainie's fingers gripped Slade's wrist, leaving deep marks. "Nay," Lainie cried. "Slade, nay! Ye
cannae
mean to do this to me."

"You're burning up with need for me. You're trembling with it." Slade said, but he felt the panic in her voice and didn't understand how she could change so quickly.

"Nay!" Lainie said frantically. "You promised ye wouldn't force. I don't want to do this. I couldnae bear it if ye made me."

Slade hissed words that made Lainie turn pale. Without warning, he shoved her off his lap so fast she barely caught her balance against the cliff ledge. She yanked her shirt up to cover herself and faced him with an anger blazing in her eyes.