“No, I wouldn’t say I mind. What’s gotten into you?” I asked the question breathlessly, but I had to know the answer. I wasn’t sure he’d ever loosen up enough to ever actually do anything besides kiss me, but I certainly never expected him to change his tune so suddenly. He moved confidently, unburdened by whatever held him back before. It pleased me to no end. Bossy Baodan was so sexy I wouldn’t have been surprised if my entire gown just melted off my body. My skin burned.
He moved to my lips and kissed me ravenously before answering my question. As he pulled away, he kept one hand at the lowest part of my back, pressing me against him. The other slid up to my shoulder, pulling my dress down until the upper part of my arm was showing. “Ye, lass, ’twas no only the witch that sent ye here who possesses magic, for I know ye do as well. I have spent much of the past years acting as a fool. None have been able to make me see that until ye. Now,” he paused for just a moment and grinned down at me, “lift up yer arms.”
I did, first pulling my other arm out of the sleeve before lifting them up slowly, enjoying the look of torturous delight on his face. Once they were up, he all but charged me, crushing his mouth so hard to mine that I tasted blood. His kiss would bruise me, but I could not have cared less.
He moved his hands to the top of my dress and pulled so hard that stitches popped as it fell below my breasts. I gasped as my nipples brushed against his chest. When his hands cupped them, he groaned deep into my mouth.
I nibbled his lower lip and reached up to stop the kiss, to pull his head down to my breasts. He didn’t fight me, and his eyes widened as he actually saw my breasts for the first time. He groaned as he sucked the peaked bud deeply into his mouth, and my stomach grew taut at the sensation. My knees grew weak as he flicked my nipples with his tongue, the painful tugs exquisitely delightful.
The wall was all that held me up as his lips reclaimed my mouth and his hand reached underneath my dress. I could not keep steady. After my bath, there’d been nothing in the way of underwear, so I was bare beneath the gown. As he caressed my center, I moaned as my knees nearly gave way.
He held me tight against him, not allowing me to fall as he explored me intimately. His hips moved against me. My dress barely hung on, and I reached down to feel him underneath his kilt as his hardness rocked against my dress. He groaned loudly as I grabbed him, and his lower lip trembled from the touch.
I’d known his largeness from feeling his length against me the night in the woods, but holding his erection in my hands made me tremble in anticipation.
“You can’t leave yourself like this, again. I’m not going to let you. “
He knew what I referred to, and I released him as he pulled away from me. Grinning, he shed his kilt. I stared at him googly-eyed until he moved toward me. He bent and scooped me up as he carried me to the bed, working the laces on the back of my gown as he did so.
“I’m pleased to hear it, lass, for I will no deny meself the pleasure of claiming ye a moment more.”
Chapter 26
It took only one yank for the dress to loosen enough for him to pull it away from her. As he slipped it from the rest of her body and looked down at her, he felt his heart might stop. Baodan lay her on the bed and stepped away so that he could look upon her. She was more beautiful than he’d imagined. The vibrant red hair against the paleness of her skin, the smooth lines, and full breasts were enough to make him throb with the need to get inside her.
She looked up at him with anticipation and a sense of trust so complete that it broke his heart. He could not do what he wanted to most in the world. He could not lay claim to her as he wished, as he promised himself and told her he would only moments ago.
He needed her too much, his desire too strong. If he let himself enter her, he would lose himself in it, in the sensation of being inside a woman. All else would fade away, and the act would become more about forgetting his shame for the resentment he allowed himself to hold onto, than the love he knew he felt for her.
If it had been another woman he found in his bed, he would use her in the way he needed. No matter the pain it caused him, he could not bring himself to do so to Mitsy. She could pull him from darkness, and she deserved more than to be the vessel with which he emptied his frustrations.
She deserved his love and honesty. His love, she had, although he could not bring himself to tell her just yet. She warmed his cold heart the first moment he saw her, and she captured it completely the first time she fell asleep against his chest the night he saw her running into the woods.
He suspected she felt much the same way, but it wouldn’t be fair of him to allow her to love him when he’d been dishonest with her. He could not sleep with her and claim more of her heart before she knew the truth about his wife’s tragic demise. For if it caused her to feel differently, she deserved the chance to get away before he lay claim to the most precious part of a woman.
“What are you doing?”
She crawled toward him, wrapping her arms around his neck, keeping her knees on the bed, her breasts pressed flush against him. Enough temptation to pull him from his thoughts.