“I can walk,” she said with irritation as he turned to carry her back out of the water.
“It did no’ look that way to me,” Greer said with amusement. He set her on her feet on dry land and then stepped back to look her over, before meeting her gaze and arching an eyebrow. “I think this means I trounced ye.”
“Ye did no’,” she argued at once. “Me gown unraveled and tripped me.”
“I tugged yer gown from its mooring so that it would trip ye,” he countered with not an iota of shame. When she gaped at him, he shrugged. “All’s fair in battle, love. Ye use what’s available to ye.”
Saidh let loose with a string of curses that would have made even her brothers blush, though they were the ones she’d learned them from.
Greer, however, merely smiled more widely, shook his head, and murmured, “That mouth o’ yers, lass.”
“What about it?” Saidh barked, glowering at the man.
“I like it,” he said so softly she almost missed the words.
Saidh stared at him with bewilderment. She was wet and cold, but for some reason his words and his expression sent a warm shiver through her body, and she was aware of the rise of those bewildering sensations that only he seemed to raise in her. A strange want and need that culminated in frustration and aggressive action. Responding to it, she reached for him.
Greer’s eyes widened and he reached for her too, then released a startled curse when she suddenly hooked her foot behind his ankle and pushed with her hands to send him crashing onto his back on the ground. At least that was her intention. However, Greer had already caught her arms when she pushed and rather than just send him to the ground, she was dragged down with him.
Saidh landed on his chest with a grunt of surprise and then pushed herself up to glare at him, her damp hair hanging down, a dark curtain around their faces. But then she just lay there staring at him. She should be pummeling him with fists and words, berating him for cheating and making her trip and fall in the lake. Or alternatively, she should be getting up and leaving him lying there in the dirt while she rode back to the castle. Instead, she just lay there, staring into his beautiful dark eyes, her upper body half raised and her lower body flat against him, feeling every inch of heated flesh through their clothes.
Greer stared back briefly, but then his gaze dropped and she gave a start as he ran a finger lightly along the neckline of her gown.
“Ye must be cold,” he growled.
“Aye,” she agreed, surprised to find herself sounding breathless.
“I’ll warm ye.”
“Aye,” Saidh murmured as his hand moved up to cup her head and draw her face down to his. His lips were warm and soft yet firm as they brushed over hers, and she held her breath at his first touch. When his tongue slid out to run along the seam where her lips met, she made a startled sound, her mouth opening involuntarily, and then gasped when his tongue immediately slipped past the open gates to explore her depths.
This was uncharted territory for Saidh. She had grown up with seven bossy, nosy brothers who seemed to follow her everywhere. No boy or man had ever dared to even try to kiss her ere this. It left her feeling awkward and uncertain now as to how to respond. Should she suck on his tongue as she suddenly wanted to, or was she supposed to stick her tongue in his mouth too? Saidh didn’t have a clue, so did neither and simply held herself still above him until her arms began to tremble.
Greer suddenly broke the kiss and shifted, turning them both until she lay on her back on the ground and he rested on his side. He didn’t go back to kissing her though. Instead, his gaze drifted down her body. Saidh watched his face, but then glanced down with surprise when he pinched one nipple through the wet cloth of her gown.
The material was old, which was why she’d changed into it. She hadn’t minded if it got damaged during their battle. But, she saw now that the cloth was thin with wear and rather sheer when wet, she noted as she saw the dusky rose of her nipple through the material. Before she could be embarrassed by that, Greer ducked his head and covered the nipple with his mouth.
Saidh sucked in a deep breath, her back arching in response as heat encompassed the sensitive nib. She then moaned, and clasped his head with some vague intent of pushing him away when he began to suckle her through the material. Instead of push at him, though, she found her fingers tangling in his hair and clasping him closer, urging him on. She even moaned her disappointment when he broke off the caress and raised his head, but she relaxed and wound her arms around him when he kissed her again instead.
This time she did suck on his tongue when it invaded her. She simply couldn’t resist it, and he did not seem to mind. At least, he didn’t stop kissing her. Instead, they became more demanding, almost violent as he slanted his head over hers and thrust his tongue in and out and in and out. Saidh was so consumed by his kisses that she wasn’t even aware that his hand was working busily at the neckline of her gown until he suddenly broke their kiss and shifted to close his mouth over her breast again, this time without the cloth there between them.