When he rose up on his forearms and touched his lips to hers, Arianna flung her arms around his neck and kissed him with all the passion swirling inside her, and a touch of gratitude. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, stroking her with his tongue in the same rhythm he used to move his body in and out of hers. She was filled with him, stretched further to hold him than she had ever been with Claud, yet there was still no pain. He tugged her legs around his waist and she gasped in delight as he plunged even deeper within her.
She could hear herself making soft noises as he moved within her, rubbing against her where their bodies were joined in away that increased the pleasure he was giving her. The knot low in her belly grew tighter and tighter with each thrust of his body until it was nearly painful. She was just beginning to wonder if she could ever make love without pain when that knot snapped, filling her veins, her heart, even her mind with the purest bliss. Arianna was faintly aware that she called out his name. A heartbeat later, he thrust deeply, held fast there inside her, and his body shuddered as he spilled his seed.
Though weak, in a way she thoroughly enjoyed, Arianna held him close and savored the lingering flush of pleasure. She liked the damp warmth of his breath against the curve of her neck, liked the damp touch of sweat coating his broad back, and especially liked the faint trembling that afflicted him for several moments after he collapsed in her arms. With Claud she had been glad when he had abruptly left her arms, but she wanted to cling to Brian, wanted to hold him deep inside her for as long as possible.
This was what the women in her clan had sighed over, had tried to get her to understand. This was passion, that deep, wild hunger that her husband had never given her. Even better, this was a passion that was shared. She suspected she was not completely free of her doubts that she could please a man, but for right now she was certain that the man in her arms had been pleasured most thoroughly. The cure for the wounds Claud had given her was probably not complete but she did not care for she was certain that the healing had begun. If she was not so tired she could not even keep her eyes open to appreciate the beauty of the man sprawled in her arms, she would have gotten up to dance around the room.
“I did weel, aye?” she whispered as she allowed exhaustion to finally claim her.
Brian slipped from her lax hold and dragged himself out of bed to fetch a damp cloth. Once he had cleaned them both off, he crawled back into bed and pulled her into his arms. He took a moment to enjoy the sight of her naked body from the fullness of her rose-tipped breasts to the gentle curve of her waist. He especially liked the lean strength of her legs. Even more so when they were wrapped around him, that strength used to hold him close while he buried himself deep within her wet heat.
It was hard to understand how a woman like her could think herself unable to please any man she chose to gift with her favors. Her passion ran hot and wild once she stopped running from it. Claud had tried to kill that sweet heat, left it unsatisfied and then denigrated her. If the man were not already dead, Brian would have been willing to go to France to kill him.
He touched a kiss to the top of her head and smiled against her silken hair. “Och, aye, love. Ye did weel. Verra weel indeed,” he murmured before allowing himself to follow her into sleep.
Chapter 7
Arianna woke to soft, warm lips upon her cheek and a big calloused hand stroking her breast. For a moment, she thought herself back in her marriage bed but then the last dregs of sleep released her mind. Claud had never been affectionate like this. Her eyes widened as she abruptly recalled everything that had happened before she had fallen asleep.
She was curled up in bed with Sir Brian MacFingal, naked and wrapped in his arms. She had taken a lover. She had taken a big, strong, handsome lover many women would envy her for. She had also enjoyed every minute of it. That still astonished her as much as it pleased her right down to her toes. Claud had been very wrong. She was not cold.
Even as she began to smile, fear crept in, rapidly dimming her pleasure. Arianna could not deny that she had finally tasted that pleasure her kinswomen all talked about, but had Sir Brian really experienced the same pleasure? She had felt him spill his seed inside her but Claud had done the same. When she had foolishly given her opinion that that showed he had found pleasure with her, he had laughed. Claud had then told her that a man could rut with a hole in the ground, which he had said was a good thing for she was not much livelier. Had she misjudged the depth of the pleasure Brian had experienced?