My Daring Highlander (18 page)

Well… Seona knew Isobel wanted her and
Keegan together. She encouraged her at every opportunity, because
she wanted Seona to have a happy marriage like she had. But Seona
did not see how that could happen.

Her gaze darted back to Keegan. He
watched her as an osprey watches a salmon, with a concentrated
focus that might be called hunger. Aye, she hungered for him as
well.

His brows quirked in a wee, concerned
frown. “Are you afraid?”

“Nay.” Did she look afraid? She tried
to smooth out her features. She certainly didn’t fear Keegan. Only
what he represented—everything she wanted, standing before her,
just waiting. She still wasn’t sure she was brave enough to grab
hold and face down all the obstacles.

“Good. I would never want you to be
frightened of me, Seona.” His deep, soothing voice was
spellbinding.

“I’m not. I trust you more than
anyone.” ’Twas the truth and she was not shy about admitting it to
him.

“That means more to me than I can
say,” he whispered. “But ’haps you shouldn’t.”

His words should have alarmed her, but
they didn’t for she suspected she knew what he was about to say.
“Why not?”

His gaze grew more penetrating.
“Because I wish for things I have no right wishing for.”

Another kiss?

“When I’m alone with you…” he said,
shaking his head, “I find I want to…” He blew out a sharp breath
and glanced away. “Hell, why am I telling you this?”

“I want you to tell me.” She yearned
to know his every thought. “I couldn’t sleep.” That was her
confession. Surely he would understand her meaning—she couldn’t
sleep because thoughts of him kept taunting her, especially after
he’d consumed her mouth earlier.

“Would one more goodnight kiss help?”
His expression remained serious. Passionate.

Her heartbeat thumped in her throat.
“Aye.” ’Twas a lie. The kiss would not help her sleep; it would
keep her awake the rest of the night. But ’twas the one thing she
craved most, as a starving person craves bread.

Gradually, he moved closer to her,
stroked his warm hand along her cheek, leaned down and pressed his
lips to hers… twice, completely seducing her. She slid her hands
around his neck. Each kiss was more lingering than the last, then
he flicked his tongue against her mouth, sparking fiery yearnings
within her. She parted her lips, inviting a deeper kiss. With a
soft moan, he indulged her. He tasted faintly of spiced wine, but
mostly, he tasted like a man she wanted to devour.

Before she knew what was happening,
the passion exploded. She could not get close enough to him, and he
seemed equally determined to bring her body as tightly as possible
to his. Her knees grew weak and her feet left the floor. The
sensation of flying suffused her with dizziness. He was carrying
her, she realized, awareness of his strength only fueling her
desire for him.

A moment later, she felt him kick a
door closed behind them. Opening her eyes, she could see naught.
The room was pitch black and the air smelled of spices and flour.
The storeroom?

Saints!
Would he seduce her in truth?

If so, she was ready. Life was short
and she needed a few precious, sparkling moments to bring her joy
during the dark days of the future.

“Lady Seona?” he whispered, his
breathing harsh and unsteady as he held her against the door, her
toes barely touching the floor.

“Aye.”

“You are not frightened, are
you?”

“Nay.” In the darkness, she stroked
her palm along his bristly square jaw, then kissed his lips,
eliciting a groan from him.

He grazed his tongue between her lips.
That move shattered her thoughts and her composure. Her hands
fisting in his hair, she drew him closer and welcomed his tongue
invading her mouth.

Oh, how she craved this man, the taste
of him, the scent and feel of him. He was tall, his shoulders broad
and thick with muscle. His chest and stomach were hard against her,
as was a lower, male part of him. She knew little about men’s
bodies, but since the evening she had seen Keegan walking naked
from the loch, she had been fascinated. Through their clothing, his
hard shaft pressing against her lower belly enthralled
her.

“Mmm,” he hummed quietly and consumed
her mouth. That sensation she’d felt before when he’d kissed her
was now besieging her ten times stronger than before. It had to be
the arousal Isobel had told her about. She had said the kissing and
caressing a man did would make a woman eager for the bedding. Seona
had never experienced this before Keegan had kissed her that first
time. But now she knew, she wanted his naked skin brushing against
hers.

She wanted him to bed her.

But she couldn’t. If her father found
out, he’d surely beat her. At the same time, she could not refuse
Keegan anything he wanted, because she wanted the same things. She
wouldn’t turn away from him.

“I want to touch you,” Keegan
whispered between little kisses, his hand skimming from her waist
to the side of her hips.

“Aye,” she agreed, perhaps a bit too
eagerly. She didn’t know where or how he would touch her, but she
craved it, his hands, his mouth.

“I’d never do anything to harm you.
You ken that?” he asked.

“Aye.” She loved how he was so
considerate and protective of her.

Her skin burned, head to
toe. She knew not what to do, or what he would do. In the next
instant, he unfastened the brooch that held her wool plaid
arisaid
together at her
chest.

He was undressing her? She shivered in
expectation.

He kissed her again, and
pulled her closer. Bending slightly, he placed his hand behind her
knee and pulled her leg upward, rubbing her knee alongside his
hip.
Heavens!
Her
legs were spread in a decadent way that made her crave having him
between.

He placed his hand on her
calf, then slid it beneath the hem of her
arisaid
and her smock. His hand
heated her bare skin as he stroked her calf gently, entrancing her.
Tingles traveled up her leg toward her center.

“Oh,” she breathed, tilting her head
back and allowing him to scatter little kisses down her
neck.

He slid his hand to her knee, then
higher, his fingertips trailing lightly along the outside of her
thigh, delightful and stimulating. She held on ’round his neck,
lest she fall over from lightheadedness.

His questing hand moved higher, up her
thigh, to the flare of her bare hip. Oh, saints, he was
bold.

He purred against her throat and
glided his hand down the outside of her thigh again to her knee,
then slowly up the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. She held her
breath in anticipation while he leisurely stroked his fingertips
back and forth, lightly teasing her skin, making her tingle and
ache in shocking places. Some primal part of her urged her to
spread her legs and allow him to stroke her very core. She gasped.
She could not do that.

At least she should not.

But her need for Keegan was too strong
to ignore, and she wished to feel his hands all over her. She
wanted him to teach her everything about passion and carnal
relations.

Using his thumb, he stroked over the
upper part of her mound, tickling through her hair. She felt
paralyzed, unwilling to stop him, but too afraid to
move.

His heated breath fanned against her
throat and the upper part of her chest. Her plaid fell behind her,
leaving her covered in naught but a linen smock. She shivered, hot
and cold at once. Keegan’s bristly jaw rubbed against her breast,
the course whiskers prickling the sensitive skin of her nipple
through the material.

She gasped, for she had never felt
such a sensation—raw need and possessiveness.

He moaned and brushed his lips over
her beaded nipple, then plucked at it through the
fabric.

Breathing hard, she pulled
him closer. “Aye,” she whispered, needing more. A second later, he
slipped his fingers between her legs.
Saints!
A shock cut through her at
the same time sizzling pleasure jolted her. She had never been
touched
there
by
anyone. She even tried to avoid touching herself on that spot. He
was lightly but deliberately caressing, bare skin to bare skin.
Heat and lust seared her.

“Lass, you are luscious and wet,” he
murmured low in her ear.

She knew not what that meant… except
that she wanted him… craved for him to do something more to her, to
appease this powerful need. Oh, how she ached inside.

She clutched his plaid in her fist,
pulling him closer. “Keegan?”

“Aye. Do you like this?”

“Aye. You make me feel…” How could she
describe something she’d never felt before?

“I ken what you mean,” he whispered
against her breast, then using his lips, he tugged at her nipple
again.

With frantic unsteady movements, she
untied the neck of her smock and yanked at it, until her breasts
were bared to him.

He muttered a curse and took full
advantage, drawing her nipple into his mouth and
sucking.

“Oh,” she breathed, dizziness storming
through her. She clung onto his broad shoulders for dear
life.

His wicked fingers teased her beyond
bearing. She widened her legs, allowing him access to the
mysterious part of her that tingled unmercifully.

He rubbed his fingers over the spot
and massaged in a circle. The sensations were startling, blinding,
and impossibly pleasurable.

She heard herself cry out.

“Shh, lass. No one must hear
us.”

“Aye.” She bit her lower lip to keep
from making noise, but the intense, delightful feelings almost
overcame her.

His mouth covered hers again and she
eagerly sucked at his tongue as his fingers tormented her. He
slipped one of his fingers further between her legs. Oh, that was
where she ached for him! He must have sensed what she wanted. She
widened her thighs more.

He hissed a curse, stroking in and
out, very shallowly. “Seona. You feel so good.”

Unbidden, a high-pitched cry came from
her. Realizing what she was doing, she forced herself to be silent
again, no matter how incredible it felt.

He slid his fingers to the tingling,
sensitive spot and teased it again. She had become very moist and
needy, craving his attention. She wanted to push him to the floor
and climb atop him. She did not understand it. Nothing made sense,
and she could not think anyway.

She pressed her hip more firmly
against his shaft where it stood upright toward his stomach. He
moaned. That hard appendage was what she craved stroking her
instead of his fingers. She knew it was designed to slide inside
her.

Her hips moved wantonly but she could
not stop them. He turned her so that her back was to him more. With
her derriere pressed against his shaft and her legs spread wide, he
held her tight, his hand caressing her.

He kissed her neck, then urged her to
turn her head toward him. He locked his mouth to hers and rubbed
her more firmly and persistently. She cried out at the intensifying
sensations, but he caught the sounds with his mouth. She found
herself arching her back, yearning for something more.

A strange, otherworldly feeling
overwhelmed her—shivers hurtling through her body and converging on
her center. Primal pleasure seized her. She could not breathe, or
think. “What…?” she gasped. Keegan’s mouth covered hers, and she
felt she was leaving the earth, shooting straight up into the
stars. Every muscle in her body contracted over and over, wishing
to clutch onto Keegan, but she couldn’t. She yanked at his
clothing, trying to show him what she needed, but he was in the
wrong place. She could only arch her back and grind her derriere
against his stone-hard shaft.

He groaned in her ear. “Aye, Seona,
lass. That’s it.”

Near suffocating, she gasped for
breath, trying to regain her reasoning abilities. What had
happened? Her whole weakened body trembled in the wake of that
storm of sensation.

A fist banged at the door, breaking
through the sensual fog in her brain.

Chapter Fourteen

Another knock sounded at the storeroom
door. Keegan froze, his body pressed close to Seona’s. “Shh,” he
hissed in her ear, then lowered her smock. He was unable to see her
in the absolute darkness of the storeroom, but he knew she had to
be horrified that someone was pounding at the door not five seconds
after he’d brought her to climax. How could someone interrupt one
of the most amazing experiences of his life?

“’
Twill be all right,” he
whispered, then directed her behind the door. He felt her
struggling to adjust her smock and
arisaid
into place. He’d love to help
her, if only he could see, but everything had to be done by touch
in this windowless room.