“That’s what the water is for, lass. And the moon. It will keep yer parts from being seen.” He smiled as he ripped off his kilt, not even remotely shy about standing naked in front of me. He glanced up at the dark sky and then frowned. “I doona think I thought of all this, lass. I like seeing yer private parts. Perhaps, we shouldna go for a swim.”
“Nuh uh, you already planned it. We’re going for a swim.” I slipped out of my gown and jumped into the water before he could stop me. It froze me, and I breached the surface gasping and yelping as my entire body tightened up in response to the cold water.
Baodan laughed and dove in after me. Reaching for me, he pulled me tight against him as he ran his hands up and down my arms to warm me.
“This water is fricking freezing!”
“What did ye expect, lass? ’Tis summer, but ye do know where ye are, aye? ’Tis warm where ye are from?”
We swam in circles around each other and slowly I warmed. “It can get pretty cold in the winter, but most of the time, it’s much warmer than this. The summers, oh gracious, they’re hot.”
He moved toward me and grabbed my hand, tugging me gently to an edge of the pond diagonally across from us. “Are ye any warmer?”
“Yes.”
He stopped swimming. The pond seemed to shallow in this area because he stood as he dragged me across the water, only stopping once I floated in front of him. “Float backwards, lass.”
I did and quickly bumped into a smooth ledge behind me. Placing my hands on top of it, I pushed myself up so that I sat on its edge. It set just deep enough beneath the water so that my breasts bobbed like apples on top of the surface, and its width allowed me to easily lean back into a wall of rock.
Once seated, Baodan stepped closer to me, grabbing each of my knees and spreading my legs so that he could step in between them. “I love the water, lass.”
“I know you do. Do you know what I love?”
He grabbed my hands and pulled me close to him, so close that I could feel him hard against the lowest part of my stomach. “What’s that, lass?”
“You.” I blurted it out rather unromantically, but I never did well at that stuff so I’d not really expected it to sound eloquent. I just wanted him to know so that he could love me without the doubt of whether I returned his love.
“Ach, Mitsy.” He rarely said my name, and he said nothing else as he grabbed the back of my head, leaning me backward so that he could kiss me while exploring me intimately beneath the water with his fingers.
I gasped into his mouth as he slipped two of his fingers inside me, the rush of water accompanied them only a glimpse of the fullness I knew would come soon. After ensuring that my center was warm and ready, he moved his caressing to the bud above it, creating an effortless friction as the water allowed his fingers to slide easily over the tender flesh.
Exquisite torture. As everything inside of me built, I slid against him, moaning as his lips explored every inch of my mouth, neck, and breasts. I neared release, but I didn’t wish to climax without him. I wanted him to be a part of me as I did so, to feel him quiver as I clenched around him.
I reached up and grabbed his hair, tugging it roughly as I begged him. “I need you. Please, Baodan. Please.”
“And I ye, lass.”
He needed no more encouragement. He lifted me effortlessly so that he could adjust himself for entry. I took a deep breath as I waited. In the span of one heartbeat, he thrust inside me, filling me so completely that I felt I couldn’t breathe without him.
As he moved inside me, nothing existed outside the rhythm we set with one another. I couldn’t tell where we each began and ended. When release came, we shuttered in one another’s arms, trembling as we slowly fell back to Earth.
Afterward, he moved to sit next to me on the ledge, kissing me and cleansing me with the water as I lay in the nook of his arm, resting against his chest.
He leaned forward to kiss the side of my head and whispered gently, his voice still shaky and breathless, “Will ye look at me, lass? I wish to tell ye something.”
Weak and happy, I turned to see what he had to say, but the sound of rapidly approaching hooves interrupted us.
Baodan leapt out of the water to retrieve his kilt before the rider arrived. “Stay in the water so that ye are covered, lass.”
Concern etched his face. I could tell by the way the rider approached that he carried terrible news. As the man started to slow his pace, Baodan called out to him. “What is it, man? What news do ye bring here so urgently?”
“’Tis yer cousin, Laird Cameron. He’s dead.”
Chapter 28
The details behind Griogair’s death made little sense. Nor did the sudden disappearance of his mother. According to the messenger, they found Laird Cameron collapsed over a plate of food in his mother’s empty cottage. With Nairne nowhere to be found.
Baodan stood for only a moment before he pushed aside his shock to make preparations. He directed his words to the rider. “I need ye to ride into the village for me. Gather up Rhona and all from the castle who I sent away from here today. Tell them to return at once for I must leave verra soon.”