The Recruit (43 page)

The expression on his face made all of her insecurities slip away. He looked moved.
Humbled. Overcome by an emotion she didn’t recognize.

“You are so beautiful,” he whispered. He reached out and skimmed the back of his finger
over the curve of her breast. “Your breasts are incredible.” He cupped her in his
warm, callused hand, circling his thumb over her nipple until it hardened to a taut
peak.

“You don’t think they are too large?”

That made him laugh. “Sweetheart, I don’t think there is a man alive who would think
that. They’re perfect.”

He bent down and took the nipple he’d hardened into his mouth.

She gasped as heat and dampness enfolded her sensitive flesh, as his tongue circled,
as his teeth nibbled, as he sucked. She buried her fingers in his thick, dark hair,
holding him tightly to her. Sharp needles of pleasure shot from her breasts to between
her legs. She was gasping with pleasure, her already heavy breasts growing fuller,
her nipples throbbing.

But he had only just begun. He took his time exploring every inch of the naked flesh
that she’d hidden from him. He caressed her with his hands, tasted her with his mouth,
and devoured her with his eyes, until there was no part of her left untouched and
she was weak with wanting.

Finally, when he’d brought her to a fever pitch, when every inch of her skin was burning
from his kiss, when her body was damp and writhing with restless desire, his mouth
found hers again.

She moaned, reaching for him. She held him tight, her hands gripping the hard slabs
of his back and shoulders.

He was stretched out beside her, leaning over her, and the heat of his naked skin
against hers felt so good, she
wanted more. She tried to pull his chest toward hers, seeking the solid heaviness
of him on top of her, but he held himself away.

He put his hand over her stomach. “The babe.”

She didn’t think there was a reason to worry, but decided not to argue. Instead, she
succumbed to the power of his kiss, letting the warmth spread through her limbs like
molten lava, dissolving everything in its wake.

But eventually, it wasn’t enough—for either of them.

The slow, lazy seduction and the gentle exploration had reached its limit.

His kiss turned harder, more determined. Each powerful thrust of his tongue, each
possessive stroke, taking her deeper and deeper. His groans echoed hers as their passion
built together. She could feel the beat of his heart against hers, pounding faster
and faster.

The hot column of his manhood pressed against her hip and instinctively she turned
toward him, needing to feel the hardness. The thickness. The sweet pressure. Her heart
dropped at the sensation. Right there.

She rubbed up against him like a cat. A warm, sensual cat. She’d never felt so free,
so open. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t holding anything back. With every
touch, every kiss, every long, slow slide of her body against his, she showed him
exactly how much she loved him.

Kenneth had never felt anything like this. The primitive attraction that had sprung
between them, the raw unbridled lust that he’d thought couldn’t get any better, paled
beneath the force of the sensations surging through him right now. Everything felt
deeper. Stronger. More meaningful. The heat didn’t just surge through his blood, it
burned in his heart. Hell, it went deeper than that—it burned in his soul.

Her beauty humbled him. From the top of her golden, silky head to the tips of her
tiny pink toes, she was beautiful. A dainty package of lush femininity. The long,
softly
curved limbs, the ripe swell of her stomach, the bouncy pink-tipped plumpness of her
breasts, the velvety smoothness of her skin …

His throat had gone dry just looking at her. But then when he’d touched her, when
he’d slid his mouth over every inch of her skin and marked her with the scrape of
his beard, he thought he’d died and glimpsed the peaks of Olympus. She was a goddess
who brought him to his knees.

He smiled. Who would have guessed his too-skinny gray nun would turn out to be the
source of such divine inspiration?

He never wanted this to end. But unfortunately, when she started to rub against him,
his body rather powerfully disagreed.

Breaking the kiss, he lifted his head. When he started to roll off the bed, she blinked
as if suddenly coming back to earth—he knew the feeling.

“Where are you going?”

He moved to the edge of the bed. “Right here.” Taking her legs, he guided her around
and positioned her at the edge of the mattress—which happened to be the perfect height
for what he had in mind. He looped his arms under her knees and held her legs apart,
probing her gently with the tip of his cock.

“I don’t want to lie on top of you, so we’re going to need to be a little creative
until the babe comes.”

She made a sharp sound, her back arching as he probed her a little harder. He rocked
his hips, readying her with little nudges.

He liked to make her moan. Liked to make her head fall back and her lips part as she
begged him to ease her agony. But that wasn’t what he wanted right now. He didn’t
want to tease her, her wanted to love her. He wanted to hold her gaze as he entered
her, as she took him into her body. As she took him into her heart.

“Look at me, Mary.”

Their eyes locked. Then slowly—agonizingly slowly—he pushed inside her. Inch by inch,
he buried himself in the wet, velvety heat of her body.

It felt so damned good, sensation roared through him like a lightning rod. He could
have groaned. But he didn’t. He was too focused on the woman before him. He would
remember this moment forever. He would never forget how it felt to look into her eyes
as he entered her and see the overwhelming emotion squeezing his chest mirrored in
deep aquamarine. They were bound together, and just for right now he could believe
nothing could ever break them apart.

When he’d gone as far as he could go, when he was buried to the hilt in the tight
grip of her body, he stilled, held her gaze, and nudged a little deeper, bringing
a startled gasp to her lips.

“Kenneth …!”

“I love you,” he said. “Let me show you.”

And then he began to move. Slowly and gently, in long, languid strokes. For the first
time in his life, Kenneth made love to a woman. He told her with his body how much
she meant to him.

Mary was in heaven. Her husband had roused her passion, taken her to higher peaks
of pleasure than she’d every imagined, but she had never expected anything like this.

The raging firestorm of lust had given way to a slow, deep burn that proved just as
hot and even more devastating. There was not a part of her that he left untouched,
or unclaimed. He possessed her body, her soul, with each long stroke.

He gave no quarter, holding her gaze to his. It was impossible to look away from the
emotion she saw burning there. She devoured it like a greedy child, burying it deep
in her heart where it would always be safe. Where no one could ever take it away.

She didn’t want it to end. But the feel of him, so big and full inside her, was too
good. And it had been too long. Her body responded.

She lifted her hips to meet the gentle rhythm of his thrusts, increasing the speed
as the sensations built inside her.

She gasped, moaned, cried as his thrusts grew longer, deeper, harder. He circled his
hips, stirring her into a passionate frenzy.

She wrapped her legs around his waist, bringing him closer, wanting to increase the
friction and the pressure. He moved his free hands to her bottom, gripping her harder,
steadying her as the force of his thrusting intensified.

Everything moved, jarred by the fierce pounding of his body into hers.

It felt so good she couldn’t stand it. She arched her back, feeling her body clenching,
gripping him harder and harder.

His face was a mask of strain, every muscle bunched and coiled. His arms flexed and
the muscles lining his stomach stood out in stark relief.

“God, I’m going to come,” he grit out from between clenched teeth.

The knot of tightly wound muscles unwound as she spiraled into an abyss of pleasure
so intense it stole her breath.

He stilled and cried out. She felt the flood of heat fill her as his release mixed
with the spasming wave of her own.

Her legs fell from his waist. He bent over her, drained, as if he’d just run a long
race. Collapsing on the bed, he dragged her up alongside him and held her in the circle
of his arm. In a tangle of damp naked limbs, with her cheek pressed to his chest,
their baby nestled between them, and her palm resting on his heart, she knew she’d
finally found it. It had taken six and twenty years, but Mary had the love she’d been
searching for her whole life.

Twenty-three
 

“When will you be back?”

Kenneth glanced back over his shoulder at the naked woman lying on the bed tangled
in bedsheets. With her mussed hair and pouty bruised lips, Mary looked as though she’d
just been very thoroughly ravished—which she had been. But it didn’t stop him from
wanting to climb right back into bed and make love to her again.

It seemed he could think of nothing else. He had an almost desperate need to bind
her to him. It was as if the more he made love to her, the stronger their love would
be to weather the storm that was hovering on the not-so-distant horizon.

But if anything, it was making him more anxious about all that he had to lose. What
if she never forgave him? He knew it was better to wait until she was somewhere safe
to explain, but every instinct told him to tell her now. That every day he waited
made his betrayal worse.

Unable to help himself, he set his knee on the bed, bent over her, and slowly kissed
the pout from her lips. When she responded, threading her fingers through his hair
and drawing his mouth closer to entwine her tongue with his, a shaft of heat ignited
inside him and threatened to drag him under.

He had to tear his mouth away. “A couple of days. You won’t even have time to notice
I’m gone.” He smiled, unable to resist teasing her. She’d been moving furiously
around here the past few days since they’d arrived at Huntlywood Castle, like a bird
building a nest. “Though perhaps you will have crenelated the tower house by then,
and I won’t recognize the place.”

“Wretch.” She tossed a pillow at him. “Sir Adam said I was free to make the place
as comfortable as I like for my stay here. It’s been some time since anyone has stayed
in these upper chambers.”

“And you’ve taken to the task with enthusiasm.”

“Since it seems I will have much time on my own, what else is there for me to do?”

He felt a stab of guilt and instantly sobered. “I’ll come as often as I can. I know
it’s not the same as being at the castle, but it won’t be for long.”

If she only knew just how short her stay would be. He hoped that in a matter of days—a
week, no longer—he would have her safely ensconced in Scotland. Mary could stay with
Helen and Campbell’s wife at Dunstaffnage. Close enough for him to reach her when
the babe came. Later, he would send her north to Skelbo, the castle he kept for his
brother.

She sat up, dragging the sheet along with her. Untangling a few strands of golden-blond
hair from her lashes, she tucked it behind her ear. “I shouldn’t complain. I know
it could be far worse. I’m fortunate to be this close to the castle. At Ponteland
I would see you far less.”

“Sir Adam will be here to keep you company for a few more days.” He knew the answer,
but he thought he’d try anyway. “Are you sure you don’t wish to reconsider? France …”
He paused. “It might be a good idea. It will be safer for you there.”

Her expression fell, her eyes instantly growing large and round. “I don’t want to
go to France, I want to stay here with you and Davey. I thought you wanted that, too.”

“I do,” he assured her. “It’s just that I worry about your safety while I am away.
When war breaks out—”

“We have plenty of time for that. The king hasn’t even arrived yet. When you leave
for Scotland, I will go farther south. To my dower estate in Kent if need be. But
don’t send me away now—it’s too soon.”

He understood only too well what she meant. It
was
too soon. Their love was too new, too fragile. It needed time to strengthen before
it was tested by distance—or deception, damn it. But it was time he didn’t have.

He leaned over and gave her a light peck on the cheek so he wouldn’t be tempted to
linger. But the soft, velvety skin and faint floral scent worked its own magic. He
wanted to sink into her. To inhale her sweet femininity.

He had to drag himself away. “Very well. You win. But only because I’m selfish and
want you near me for as long as possible.”

A wide smile spread over her face, causing his chest to expand. “Are you sure you
must go? Is there no one else who can take a missive to Edinburgh?”

“Aye, I’m sure.” The rare opportunity to read Percy’s correspondence couldn’t be missed.
Moreover, he’d had a message from his contact in the village that his friends were
anxious to see him. This was the first chance he’d had to arrange a meeting with the
Highland Guard at a safe distance from the castle—and Felton.