Highland Song (43 page)

He grinned despite the sweat sliding down his spine from the violent tension of his body and the overwhelming passion.

"No debt. I only expect our bargain to be fulfilled. You've given me the sweetest delight." Then, his voice harsh, he added. "Help me."

"How?"

"Bring up your knees."

Her legs shifted to accommodate his wishes.

"Higher. Yes. Like that. Sweet Jesu," Slade said huskily, "I wish I could see all of you."

Lainie made a tiny, stifled sound as he smoothed and parted and caressed her satin petals. "That's it, purr for me. Let me know you like what you're feeling--what we're doing."

He wanted to memorize every part of her, hold on to the memories for when they were no longer together.

Carefully, Slade caressed the velvet nub he had found hidden within her moist slick folds.

Lainie's breath rushed in with a raspy noise that could have been pain or pleasure.

"That's it darling girl," he said in a soft whisper. "Feel for me. Feel everything I give you."

He teased the sensitive knot with his fingers before he captured it and plucked gently.

Lainie's body tightened and she cried out again, sending a wave of liquid heat across him. His own body tightened, heated. A fire so hot he thought he would surely melt swept through him.

"Lainie?"

She didn't answer. All he heard was a shattered breath, a muffled gasp. She arched into him and writhed beneath his caresses, twisting and turning with wild abandon.

Her reaction was all the answer he needed. In her own way, she told Slade that she wanted him as overwhelmingly as he wanted her.

He slid into her one more time to experience the intense satisfaction of feeling how much she desired him, and knowing what he could give her. The mercuric burst of her response clung to him, shimmering in the vague light, making him faint with the surge of the lightning pulse response. He shifted slightly, bringing his aroused flesh very near her, testing, exploring, and seeking to know her ability to take him inside.

The exploration was also a caress. Lainie made a sound of surprise. Sensual heat swept over Slade's fiercely aroused skin, pulling a harsh groan from him. His hips moved in a primal dance, instinctively parting her sweetness, seeking a more intense joining.

"Tell me," his voice rasped.

Slade needed more than anything to hear her cries of pleasure. And he wanted to know more, to discover her feelings but he couldn't. He was feeling Lainie too intensely. She watched him, her eyes heavy lidded, as he took her and gave himself to her.

Slade had never known such a sensual merging of body with body, heat with heat, breath with breath. Nothing stood in his way. There was no memory of rape and fear of the joining. There was no pain, no attempt by Lainie to reject him. She wanted him, her body arching wildly against his.

She gave herself to him completely, luring and surrounding him as he made love to her. No matter how deeply he pressed there
was
only a liquid heat and a velvet constriction caressing him, teaching him what it meant to be fully, passionately joined with a woman.

The sheathing of himself so slowly and carefully within her undid him. Blood pulsed through his body, filling him until he thought she would surely be the death of him.

"Lainie…"

Slade's voice had splintered. Flames licked up from the spot where Lainie's body joined with his. Her mercuric, convulsions brought a pleasure to Slade that was so great he felt each silky pulse distinctly. With each pulse, his way was eased even more, welcoming and caressing him.

And with each pulse, Slade's control was ripped away, shattered by a power greater than anything he'd known before. He drove once then twice within her, before the firestorm within burst in sweet relief. He arched into her welcoming heat and gave himself to her in a shuddering rush that left him spent.

Lainie made a sound deep in her throat and writhed against him as her body pulsed wildly telling Slade he had pleasured her completely.

Watching her, he moved slowly within her, enjoying her throaty cries and the melting of her body around him. He had never known a woman to enjoy so clearly his presence within her. He had never guessed how much pleasure there could be in watching his smallest movement changed into passionate feminine pulses and a silent, pleading for more.

Nor had he known what his own body was capable of doing.

"I hope you felt the transformation as profoundly as I did, little darling."

Lainie opened pleasured filled eyes and stared at Slade. She moistened her lips giving a sensual promise Slade doubted she was aware of doing.

"I--" she responded dazed.

Her voice shattered before her answer was finished because Slade was moving slowly inside her filling her again.

"Do you like this? Tell me what I can do." he asked, withdrawing and returning once more.

"Aye,"

"It doesn't hurt?"

Feminine laughter was the only answer Lainie gave Slade. Her delicate fingertips caressed the length of Slade's back and then up to his neck, pausing for a moment to slide through his hair. Then she ran them back down, exploring every part of him she could reach. She stopped when her hands reached his buttocks which brought a stifled groan from Slade.

"Stop…" he said, pausing to watch her smiling face.

"Why?" she asked hesitating, more question in her voice than he wanted to acknowledge.

"Because," he began. "If I get any harder, I'll explode." He moved inside her. "And I want this to last a long time."

"Oh, my."

He brushed his lips across hers. The heat of her amazed him. Everything about her surprised him.

I'm not what you think
. She was right about that
.

"Is that a blush I see on your cheeks?" he asked, teasing her and enjoying every moment as he caressed the heated softness.

Shaking her head, Lainie buried her face in his chest and hit his shoulder lightly with her fist.

"I'll never understand how you can be so passionate and yet so shy…" Slade's voice faded into a soft laugh.

She didn't answer.

"With time you'll get over it."

A muffled sound made him realize she didn't agree with him.

"Look at me,"

"Nay," she whispered.

He gently pried her face from his neck.

"Shy, little darling," Slade said, feathering light kisses over Lainie's hot face. "If you knew how much your passionate generosity means to me, you wouldn't be embarrassed."

He saw the gleam of Lainie's sky blue eyes as she peeked through lowered lashes at him.

"You are a rare woman," he breathed against her lips.

Very rare and as beautiful as this wilderness.

"Slade, I'm…"

Lainie's words were lost when Slade covered her mouth with his own. The tiny, throaty cry she gave affected him the way a wildfire rips through the countryside. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth, retreating and returning with exquisite control.

Darling girl, I just can't get enough of you.

With a ragged cry that was Slade's name, Lainie arched her hips against him trying to reclaim what he teased her with. Slow measured sensual torture was his answer.

"You make me feel as if I'm riding the storms on jagged bolts of lightning," Slade said in a low voice, watching her.

He moved gently against her, leaving none of her untouched, rocking with calculated cadence of a wicked, summer storm that has a lifetime to generate power.

"Pain?" he asked softly, knowing he would stop in a heartbeat if she gave any indication he was hurting her.

Her answer was a murmuring sigh of pleasure and the arching of her hips to take him more fully inside within her velvet warmth.

"Tell me if there is any pain," Slade said, challenging her to tell him only the truth, always the truth. "Promise."

Tenderly, he shifted, slipping his arms beneath her knees, bending and lifting her legs, pressing them gently back against her body, moving in slow motion, joining them more deeply than ever before.

"Lainie?" he whispered. "Stay with me."

"Sweet Jesu," she said, trembling. As Slade moved and then for the briefest moment held still.