Greer looked thoughtful as he toyed with the round globes, but then nodded. “Fair enough.”
“Aye,” Saidh moaned, arching into his touch and then realizing what she was doing, gave her head a shake and picked up the thread of the story. “So he asked the frog, but the frog said, nay, he’d sting him.”
“Who would?” Greer asked.
Saidh glanced down with confusion at the question just as he leaned forward to catch one nipple between his teeth and then suck it into his mouth. The sight alone was frightfully exciting, but the feeling . . . She moaned and shifted in his lap as he drew gently on the already hard bud, then gasped and arched her back as he suckled harder, drawing the entire dusty rosy aureole into his mouth and lashing it with his tongue.
“The . . . er . . .” Saidh shook her head to try to clear it and asked uncertainly, “What did ye ask me?”
Greer let her nipple slip from his mouth and ran his thumb lazily back and forth across the wet nub as he raised his head to give her a wicked grin. “Having trouble telling the tale?”
Annoyed at his gloating expression, she narrowed her eyes, her anger pushing back some of the passion he was so busily stirring in her. “Nay. Having trouble understanding the fool question. Who would what?” she finished, able now to recall his question.
“Who would sting him?” Greer said on a chuckle.
“The frog refused to give the scorpion a ride across the river because he feared the scorpion would sting him,” Saidh said succinctly.
“Ah, I see.” He nodded solemnly. “Thank ye fer explaining that. I was no’ sure.”
“Aye, ye were sure,” she said dryly. “Yer just trying to slow me down to give ye more time to try to win this race.”
“I’m wounded that ye think so little o’ me, m’lady,” Greer murmured, tugging her gown off her shoulders to pool around her waist, leaving her bare to his view. “Gawd, Saidh, yer a beautiful woman.”
Saidh flushed with pleasure at the compliment, but gave a sniff and muttered, “Ye’ve seen it all before.”
She thought he whispered, “No’ like this,” before he leaned forward to lave one breast.
Saidh determinedly steeled herself against the action and continued, “The scorpion argued that he’d no’ sting him because he’d drown then too. So the frog—” Saidh paused abruptly as his hand suddenly slid up her thigh to cup her between her legs through the skirt of her gown. “You—I—”
Greer used his free hand to pull her head to him so that he could kiss her, and she moaned as he thrust his tongue into her mouth, emulating what he’d done between her legs in the stables with his fingers.
Saidh kissed him back briefly, but then turned her head away to moan, “That’s no’ fair. Ye stop me from talking doin’ that.”
“Yer right,” he growled. “I’ll no kiss ye again. Just turn in me lap, love, so we’re facing each other.”
Saidh shifted under his touch, her hands clenching on his shoulders now and gasped, “Why?”
“I want ye to ride me to yer pleasure. I like it when ye ride me like ye did in the clearing. Come, shift fer me,” he pled, removing his hand from between her legs and nudging her hip.
Saidh hesitated, but then slid off his lap, catching her gown to keep it from falling to the ground as she did. Only rather than climb to straddle him in the chair, she grinned and then rushed out, “So the frog took the scorpion on his back and started to swim across the river.”
“Bloody hell, now who’s cheating,” Greer muttered and caught her by the waist to lift her onto his lap himself.
Saidh straddled him, but her gown was caught beneath her and uncomfortably tight across her upper legs, so she raised herself slightly to pull the material from between them before settling to sit on him saying, “But halfway across the river the scorpion stung the frog.”
“O’ course he did,” Greer muttered, tugging at the material of her gown to get enough of it out of the way that he could get his hand under to continue caressing her.
Desperate to get the story done before he could succeed, she rushed on.
“As the frog began to drown, taking the scorpion with him, he asked the scorpion. Why—eee,” she ended on a small cry as his hand finally got beneath her gown and found her core. Shaking her head, she continued determinedly, “Why would ye sting me when it would mean yer own death too, and the scorpion said—”
“Lass?” Greer interrupted in a weak growl and she glanced to him, startled to see that his face had gone pale. He also wasn’t caressing her, she realized. His hand was just pressed against her, unmoving.
“What?” she asked uncertainly.
“Where are yer braies?”
Her eyebrows rose at his sharp tone. “Well, I take them off when I change fer sup. ’Tis no’ as if I’m like to go riding at night,” she pointed out reasonably.
“Oh, dear God,” Greer groaned and lowered his head to rest his forehead on her breast, but not in a good I-want-to-suckle-at-yer-teat way. It was more a, God-has-forsaken-me-and-I-am-in-hell kind of despair he appeared to be acting out.
Saidh pursed her lips and eyed the man, but when he continued to remain as he was, appearing frozen, she shifted impatiently in his lap, and said, “ ’Tis—”
“Do no’ move.” Greer almost roared the words. He lifted his head abruptly and snatched his hand out from under her skirts as if he’d touched hot coals. Spotting her startled expression, he opened his mouth, closed it, and then said more gently, “Pray, m’lady. Do no’ move.”