I shrugged, a motion that caused the ties around my waist to loosen just the slightest bit, sending Adwen’s eyes straight toward the center of my chest. I relished knowing that he wanted to see me—that he’d enjoyed what he’d seen just moments before.
“Isn’t that obvious? I think I told you as much.”
“Aye, I heard what ye said, but ye dinna say it to my face, did ye?”
“Does it matter?” There was an increased sense of vulnerability, a heightened awareness of what was to come now that we stood looking squarely at one another. My flesh burned and ached with the anticipation of it.
“Aye, Jane, it matters verra much. If ye wish me to bed ye, I need ye to say so plainly. For ye have told me too many times that I would never have the pleasure of sharing yer bed.”
“You’re right.” I nodded, loosening the robe so that it fell open, revealing the dip between my breasts. I stepped toward him, reaching out as I neared him, placing one hand lightly on his chest as I slid the other hand down and underneath his pants, latching onto him. “I should have made myself more clear.”
Adwen gasped as I touched him, groaning as he leaned forward, bruising my lips with the intensity of his kiss. I slid my tongue along his lower lip, nibbling at it ever so slightly to slow him down.
“I want you…” I whispered breathlessly against him, “I want you to ‘bed’ me, Adwen.”
I moved in to kiss him again but was stopped as he reached to grab onto both of my wrists, pulling me away from him as he all but ran out into the hallway, his breath ragged and loud as he walked.
“What are you doing?”
He stopped and spun toward me, glancing back and forth down the hallway to make sure we were alone before moving his hands to my face. He gripped my cheeks roughly, holding my face but an inch from his own.
“I’ll have ye in my bed lass, no in a common room of the castle. Ye doona…ye canna know what ye’ve done.”
He paused and his lips quivered with need, sending a current of sparks down my core and out through the bottom of my toes. My heart sped up in response to it, my chest lifting and falling rapidly in time with his own.
“To touch me as ye did, to kiss me and move so surely, lassies rarely do that, Jane. Ye’ve unleashed a sort of beast within me. I…I doona think I can be gentle with ye.”
I didn’t want gentle. I wanted to be consumed by him, to have everything around me dissolve but the feeling of him. I let out a shaky breath and turned my face to kiss the inside of his palm before moving to look surely at him.
“Then don’t be.”
CHAPTER 25
My permission released Adwen from any restraint, and my back met with the wall in an instant. He clawed frantically at the robe. With one pull it fell open, revealing my entire front to him. One of his hands moved to the back of my neck and the other slipped between my legs, briefly cupping me before two of his fingers slipped deftly inside.
I gasped at the sensation, my hips moving against him as he worked them in and out of me, making me slick and ready, causing me to arch against the stones behind me. He thumbed at my breasts as he kissed me, bringing up the beads of my nipples as his kisses traveled downward.
I cried out in pleasure as he bit at one of my nipples, pulling it deep into his mouth, groaning as he moved between them. Teasing me until my breasts ached with desire for him, he grasped onto either side of my hips, pushing them hard against the wall before he dropped to his knees to press his lips against the inside of my thigh.
Slowly he moved upward. When his tongue finally lapped at my center, my knees gave way as I slumped against the wall. The only thing that held me upright was the pressure of his hands against me, and I squirmed and writhed in response to him. I relaxed, allowing the sensation to spiral me upward.
I peaked quickly, crying out as I climaxed, my heart thumping so rapidly that I could hear the blood pumping in my ears despite the intensity of my scream.
At the same moment, laughter reverberated off the walls around us, joined by the sound of approaching footsteps. In the midst of my pleasure, a keen sense of terror set in.
I could think of nothing more horrifying than the thought of Cooper running around the corner and finding us in such a position. There would be no explaining our way out of it, and therapists just weren’t available in the seventeenth century. I didn’t want to be responsible for that sort of childhood trauma.
“Adwen, stop. You have to stop.”
He pulled away from me slowly, shock spreading across his face as he looked up at me from his knees. His eyes remained glazed with lust, but they changed the moment he heard them, his eyes narrowing in panic as he stood and scooped me up, running with me in his arms the short distance to his bedchamber.
Once inside, he lowered me to my feet but kept a firm grip on both my arms.
“They heard yer screams lass, but as long as they dinna see ye, I doona care, for I have no doubt that they’ll hear them again. Get in the bed.”