“Ye would find me carrying ye to the bed romantic?”
“Weel, since we have ne’er made love anywhere but on a plaid or the grass, I believe I find the verra idea of making love in an actual bed romantic right now.”
He laughed, picked her up, and gently tossed her onto the bed. Harcourt then shed the rest of his clothes, his desire renewed when he saw how she looked at him as he did so. Climbing into the bed beside her, he kissed her even as he began to remove her thin shift.
His breath actually caught when he finally bared her to his gaze. Her breasts were fuller and her hips a little rounder, but she was still as beautiful as he remembered. His gaze fell to the faint scars bracketing her womb and his heart clenched with the meaning of such marks; they were the marks of her work to give his son life.
When she suddenly covered the marks with her hands, he gently removed them. Harcourt bent his head and kissed each one before turning to face her. She was blushing just as she used to and he still found it endearing.
“I may nay be able to openly claim the boy, may nay e’en have the right to think like that since I held to the plan to breed him and hand him to David, but I still thank ye.” He traced each scar with his fingers. “With so many healers in my clan, I am nay as ignorant of the risk a woman takes to bear a child, as weel as the pain she endures and the strength she needs to bring life into the world. So thank ye.”
Annys reached up and stroked his cheek. “I am the one who has had the blessing of Benet so I think I should thank ye.”
He grinned as he leaned over her. “Then what do ye say to us heartily thanking each other for a wee while?”
She lifted her hand and gave a come here wave with her fingers. When he growled softly, she laughed and he smothered the sound with his kiss. Annys had the thought that it was pure heaven to at last be skin to skin with him before passion’s fire cleared her mind of everything but the taste and feel of him.
Harcourt kissed her until his head swam from the heady taste of her. Then he began to kiss his way down to her breasts. The way she gasped and squirmed beneath his caresses strained his control over his own passion. He needed to be buried deep in her heat but he was determined that she share in his pleasure, that she get the full measure of her own. He slid his hand down over her belly and between her legs. The fact she was already wet nearly snapped those last threads of control he clung to.
Annys thought she ought to be feeling pain as the fire inside her grew and grew. She caressed every part of his strong body she could reach, loving the feel of his skin beneath her hands. His every caress and kiss only made her hungrier for him. She realized she needed him joined with her soon, if not sooner. The tightness in her belly was growing so fast she knew she risked being done before he had even entered her.
She slid her hand down his body until she reached the erection she could feel pressing against her leg. He certainly felt ready to her, she thought as she stroked him and lightly rubbed the dampness from the tip with her thumb. The groan he gave sounded as if it welled up from some place deep inside of him. Then he grabbed her hand and pulled it away. A flicker of panic went through her as she feared she had overstepped.
“Och, lass, that broke me,” he said, his voice little more than a low growl. “I apologize now if it is too soon for you.”
Before she could tell him that it was not too soon, he was thrusting inside her. Annys gasped and shook with the pleasure of him inside her. She had the odd thought that it was where he belonged and then he began to thrust in and out of her, the tightness in her belly growing almost painful. She clung to him and was returning his kiss when that tightness suddenly broke apart. He growled when her cries of release fell into his mouth.
Annys was still shaking from the force of her pleasure when he found his. The warmth of his seed as it spilled inside of her made her shiver with another small wave of pleasure. She wrapped her arms around him when he slumped over her, careful to fall a little to the side so as not to put his full weight on her. It was just as wonderful as she had remembered, she mused, as she held him close while she fought to catch her breath.