Highland Fling Part 4

Kate trembled. She'd wanted the man in the picture for weeks. She'd dreamt of him. Now he stood before her, flesh and blood.

Often she felt like an observer. That's what she did at her job. She stood back and directed. That's what she'd done with the picture. She'd wanted him but she'd wanted him as an observer. Now she was no longer standing outside watching. Now she was in the picture and by G.o.d if she wasn't standing outside watching, she'd partic.i.p.ate to the fullest. She knew she was a bit of an overachiever and this situation was no exception.

This time tomorrow, she'd be waking up in her own bedroom, in her own bed-heck, if this went well, she'd be back home within the hour. There was no need to squander opportunity. And as long as he kept saying stuff like he hungered for her kiss and didn't mention any of that wench stuff, then he didn't necessarily need to keep his mouth shut.

"You fed me when I was hungry. Let me return the favor." She pulled his head down to hers, but it was MacTavish who took control of the kiss. His mouth whispered against hers, the merest brush, a litmus test, and then returned to claim hers. Kate curled her fingers in his dark hair and absorbed the feel of his lips, the warmth of his breath. Like the unfurling of a tight bud, the kiss grew and deepened until Kate was caught up in the sensation of his mouth on hers, the heat of his big hands on her shoulders.

Instead of satisfying their hunger, the kiss intensified it. His tongue swept the recesses of her mouth.

He raised his head. "A man could feast on your mouth all day, Katie-love."

Kate stood there, her mouth still tingling from his kisses. Men didn't say things like this to her on a regular basis, well, okay, they never said anything like this to her and she didn't know how to respond.

"Uh, thankyou." She stepped back from him. It was much easier to think that way. "I think we have to have a bit more of a plan than we're working with now." She pointed toward the painting on the wall. "That was the painting I came through to get here. As you recall, that's where I was when I got here. I think we should pick it up from there."

His wicked smile set her pulse hammering. "Aye. Then I suppose I can't make love to you on that sheepskin rug before the fireplace."

Kate hadn't exactly known what to expect from DarachMacTavish , but if he did the rest the way he kissed.... "I have to be home in time for work on Monday, but I'm really not in any big rush. Um...maybe we should work in a practice, you know, just to make sure we get it right." She had the day off. This beat the heck out of doing laundry. "Unless you have something else to do."

"I've left instructions that I am not to be disturbed."

"For how long?"

"I've instructed Hamish to bring our meals. Otherwise, until I leave this room, no one will dare approach it."

"What would have to be happening for someone to come up here?"

"The castle could be overrun with Sa.s.senach-"

"Who? What?"

"Thebluidy English. My men would station themselves at the stairs below, but none would come up here. I have spoken and so it is." He teased his tongue along the line of her lower lip. "We've got naught to do today but get it right. And I'm going to try very hard to get it right for you."

There was something about him, a confidence that translated to arrogance, perhaps the innate certainty of a man who operated daily in the role of protector, but Kate found herself letting go of the underlying concern that she might not return home. Never, ever in her life had she done something so decadent with her time as spending the afternoon devoted to carnal pleasure. And now, apparently, she had nothing else to do with her time. She knew she was an overachiever, but she brought the same single-minded determination to this that she brought to everything else. She might not have a lot of experience, but determination and enthusiasm went a long way. And she was feeling very...enthusiastic.

Of course, it was rather mind-boggling that of all the women in the past, present, and future to choose from, this man, who really was rather gorgeous, had apparently zoomed in on her in the cosmic scheme of things. Which was weird, but something of a mega self-confidence booster in the womanly wiles department.

It was as if some unseen force had cut through all the noise in her life and reduced her to her essence-a woman intent on finding her pleasure and bringing pleasure to her man in return.

She caughtMacTavish by the hand and led him to the sheepskin on the stone floor before the fireplace. "This looks like a good place to start."

GOOD AND BLUIDY RIGHThe wanted this done thoroughly. He'd ne'er ached for a woman before. Never felt as if he'd trade his soul to the devil for another taste of her lips. Katie Wexford had cast a spell on him and the sooner she was gone, the better. And that definitely meant getting it right, so that no vestige of this hunger remained, extinguis.h.i.+ng the l.u.s.t that coursed through him when she was near. He'd make sure they were both sated before he sent her back to ensure she'd be well and truly gone.

He sank to the sheepskin and drew her down between him and the fire. He was a big man and he didn't want to block the heat and he also wanted to see all of her. There was no shame in admitting she was a mystery to him, so unlike any woman he'd known before.

He lay on his side and admired the play of the flickering fire over her skin, the contrast between pale flesh and shadow. Her shorn hair hugged the line of her scalp and curled about her head. Gold studs adorned her small delicate ears. He noted a p.r.i.c.kle of gooseflesh along her arm.

"Are you warm enough?"

"I might have a slight chill." Her eyes gleamed with a teasing light.

She was more relaxed-a good sign. "Ah, could I do something to warm you?"

Was that a blush staining her neck and face or merely a trick of the lighting? "Maybe a few more kisses would work nicely."

Darach didn't think Kate a virgin, she was a bit long in the tooth to have not lain with a man, but he'd wager not many had been before him. Not that she wasn't comely and not that her kisses didn't stir a man to the edge of reason. Nay, there was a distance to Kate Wexford. And now there was a charming awkwardness to her flirtation, as if it wasn't a role she'd worn very often.

"Ah, then 'tis my pleasure to warm you,m'lady ." And truly, he could think of nothing he'd like better than to kiss her again, except perhaps bury himself between her sweet thighs...but all in good time.

Bearing his weight on one arm, he leaned over and kissed her. Just as before, heat winnowed through him. With a small moan, she opened her mouth and invited him in with a tentative sweep of her tongue against his lips. She linked her arms around his neck and her touch s.h.i.+vered through him. He kissed her harder, deeper, longer, and still it wasn't enough. He scattered kisses along her jaw, down the length of her neck. With each taste of her, his want grew and pooled thick and heavy between his thighs.

Beneath his lips, her heart raced, the pace matching his own. He traced the upper swell of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and she arched her back with a small moan. He fondled her breast through the material and his rod grew harder still at the press of her nipple against his palm. He eased the material down, baring one full breast with its ripe pouting point. He suckled the tender flesh, relis.h.i.+ng the taste of her against his tongue, the brush of her warm woman's softness, her scent. He flicked his tongue against her nipple and she arched up into him.

"MacTavish." She uttered his name in a half moan, half pant. Swirling his tongue around the distended point, he drew her into his mouth and suckled. She made a mewling sound in the back of her throat that threatened to send him up in flames. With an impatient tug at the plaid, she freed her other breast.

"Ah, Katie-love, you have a bonnie set of t.i.ts." He lent his attention to the newly freed one, lavis.h.i.+ng it with the same care and attention.

Beneath him, Kate laughed, a breathy sound that caught in her throat. "And you've got a bonnie mouth, MacTavish ."

"The better to pleasure you."

Her eyes dark with desire, she reached between them and loosened the knot that held the plaid in place. She unwrapped the fabric, leaving herself naked before him, like a gift atMichaelmas .

She fair took his breath. She was even lovelier than the first time he'd seen her naked, mayhap because this time she'd taken her clothes off for him instead of just winding up in his bed. She'd made a conscious decision.

He drank in the sight of her-full, round b.r.e.a.s.t.s tipped with pink crests, plump womanly hips to cradle him, soft curls several shades darker than her hair between her thighs, shapely legs to wrap about his waist.

"Aye, you're a most bonnie la.s.s, Katie-love."

"Thankyou,MacTavish . That's a good thing to say to a naked woman."

"'Tis naught but the truth."

"Perhaps you'd like to join me in being naked."

Darach smiled. She'd not need to ask twice.

WHILEMACTAVISH DIVESTEDhimself of his kilt, Kate reached into her purse and pulled out a condom-not that they were hard to find sinceTorri had shoved a handful her way. She opened the package and took it out, leaving it on the wrapper between them.

She'd seen him naked before and he was just as impressive now. Thick muscles sculpted his shoulders, arms, and thighs. Dark hair sprinkled his chest and his legs. His p.e.n.i.s stood proud among a thatch of equally dark hair. He was primitive power and masculinity and antic.i.p.ation s.h.i.+vered through her.

He dropped to the sheepskin and reached for her.

"What thebluidy h.e.l.l is that?" he asked, eyeing the condom.

"It's a condom. Birth control." She recalled the limerick on the bathhouse wall the summer she'd camped with her best friend's family. Feeling faintly ridiculous and a bit juvenile, she recited it now. It was one way to make a point. "In days of old, when knights were bold and rubbers weren't invented, he placed a sock upon his c.o.c.k and babies were prevented." She dangled the prophylactic between her thumb and index finger. "I think it's a vast improvement over a sock."

He threw back his head and laughter rumbled through him. "Aye. I ken a sheep's bladder is better than a sock."

Who'd have thought whenTorri foisted a handful of condoms on her that she'd be having a safe s.e.x discussion in the eighteenth century? She put the wrapper off to the side.

He seemed a smart man and condoms were fairly straight-forward, but she didn't want to take any chances on misapplication. She stroked his rigid length with one hand and he quivered beneath her touch.

"May I?"

"Katie-love if you touch me like that, you can do nearly anything." He lay back, propped on his ma.s.sive arms, every inch the man in charge and she knew a strictly feminine thrill that she was here with him.

She sheathed him-he was dangerously close to proving that one size didn't fit all-and even that simple act held a carnal pleasure for her. But then this man affected her, turned her on, like no man ever had before. She felt almost drunk with want, all her inhibitions stripped away, as if she'd tossed back a couple of martinis. Her condom duty done, she still lingered to play. Using both hands, she stroked the length of him again and his eyes glittered hotter and brighter. She tested the heavy weight of his sac in her hand and he groaned.

She wanted, no, she craved, intimate knowledge of his body. This wasn't a hunger for a man, any man, it was a hunger for this man. His scent. His taste. The cadence of his breathing.

"Let me get to know youMacTavish ."

"Aye, I think I am all for this process, Katie-love." His slow, wicked grin spiked her internal temperature a few degrees.

She spent the next few minutes roaming, discovering his body with her hands and mouth, catching up with where her imagination had taken her over the last several weeks. There was a familiarity to the texture of his skin beneath her lips, the slight saltiness of his body beneath her tongue, a recognition, as if she'd known him for weeks, years, possibly a lifetime and this was simply reality catching up.

She brushed her lips against the puckered skin that stretched from his back to his side, her cheek resting against his hip, her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s against his muscled, hair-roughened thigh.

"Do you know me well enough now, Katie-love?" he asked, his voice low and warm. She looked up past his flat belly and broad chest to his hooded eyes and his face taut with desire. He reminded her of a king. Despite his nakedness, he lay before the fire cloaked in authority and absolute power, a devastatingly s.e.xy combination.

"I know you well enough,MacTavish ."

"Then 'tis time for me to know you."

He wrapped his big hands about her waist and pulled her up his body, a slow sensual slide of skin against skin. Her body rejoiced in his corded muscles and hard planes, the supple suede of his skin and the rough slide of masculine hair against her sensitized flesh, the press of his hard c.o.c.k against her belly and then her thighs as he pulled her up and up, the abrasion of his chest hair against her nipples, the press of his hands at her waist, his scent that seemed to surround her-the scent that aroused her. She lay atop him, a fire of want raging within her.

She tested the silkiness of his hair against her fingertips. His heart beat against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and his belly muscles tensed beneath her thighs at her touch.

"You were s.e.xy in that painting, but you are infinitely s.e.xier in real life."

She obviously said the right thing. In a smooth, sensuous movement he reversed their positions, with her on her back and him on top of her. Warm, soft sheepskin cus.h.i.+oned her backside from the unyielding stone floor whileMacTavish's heat engulfed her from above. He trailed a kiss down her chest and flicked his tongue against her tight nipple. The sensation ricocheted through her and intensified the ache between her thighs. She cried out and rocked her hips against him.

MacTavishnudged her thighs apart and asatyric smile curved his mouth. "I'm going to give you what you came here for."

Arrogant s.e.xy b.a.s.t.a.r.d. His words and att.i.tude made her hotter still. She reached between them and wrapped her hand around his c.o.c.k. There was no mistaking the shudder that coursed through him. She'd seen his reaction when Hamish told him she'd come here becauseMacTavish needed her. Taunting the lion in his cage perhaps wasn't the smartest move, but she'd be d.a.m.ned if he'd make her out to be some twenty-first century desperate who had to go back nearly three hundred years to find a man willing to sleep with her.

She spread her legs wider and guided him to her wet portal. Her smile mocked his. "And I'm going to give you whatyou summoned me here for...what youneed. "

THE DEVIL TAKE ITbut he wanted her. Mayhap not her precisely, but some relief. When it came to a tumble, one la.s.s was much the same as another. She'd given him an itch and he'd scratch it. But he was DarachMacTavish , the Laird ofGlenagan and heneeded no woman. Katie was about to discover exactly who needed whom. Hamish wouldn't deliberately lie, but he was subject to err in his facts.

She'd opened her legs and guided him to her. One fractional move of his hips and his rod teased against her. His body tightened in antic.i.p.ation. "Ah, Katie-love, you are as hot and wet as a summer storm."

Instead of plunging into her, he delved the wet folds of her channel with his tip until her gasp told him he'd found what he sought. Again and again he rubbed his c.o.c.k against her, until she grasped his arms with her hands, her nails scoring him, and she met his stroking with quick thrusts. Despite her heated response, she kept her face turned toward the fire and her teeth bit down on her lower lip, yet she couldn't quite contain the soft mewling in the back of her throat. Her body tensed and he knew she was on the brink of finding her pleasure. He eased away from her.

She whipped her head around to face him and tried to tug him back to her. "MacTavish..."

Her utterance was a mixture of reproach, entreaty and protest.

Much as he'd like to slip into her wet heat and find the release hovering so close, it was too soon.

"Patience, Katie-love." He swirled his tongue about one perfect nipple and found reward in her sharp intake of breath. He looked up. "Even though we both consider this practice, truth is, neither of us know what will happen once we have lain together. There's no guarantee you will not disappear from my world immediately afterwards."

"Afraid you'll miss me?"

Cheeky la.s.s. "That's yet to be determined. How will I know until you've gone? But if you are gone after one toss, I'll not have you remembering DarachMacTavish as the world's briefest lover." And he'd not have her confused about which one of them had the greater need.

The evil wench laughed at him.

He flicked his tongue against her other nipple and her laughter ceased. "I want to make sure you find your pleasure."

She propped herself on her elbows and looked at him, quirking one eyebrow. "Maybe there is something to be said for the eighteenth century, because men I know don't share that particular concern. We'd have already been done."

He paused, his cheek resting just above the soft heat of her belly. Despite the fact that she'd appeared out of nowhere and his intent was to promptly send her back, the idea of another man breathing in her scent, tasting her skin, burying himself between her thighs rankled.

He traced the circle where her pink crest met the smooth alabaster globe of her breast. "Then you have obviously bedded the wrong men."

She sighed her pleasure and arched up into his touch, the tip a tight pouting bud. "You're obviously right and obviously my lot has now improved."

"If that's what you are used to, then it definitely has. In my opinion the more you want something, the better it is once you get it."

"Or sometimes you've wanted it so long, so desperately and you've built it up in your mind and then it doesn't live up to expectations. Or maybe you only want it because you think you can't have it." Foolish woman. Darach never allowed himself to give consideration to what he couldn't have. That type of thinking left a man weak. "That is simple enough. Know what you want and make sure you get it."

"And do you always get what you want?"

They both knew he wanted her. And they both knew he was going to have her. "Always."

"Because you're the laird ofGlenagan ."

"Aye. I'm the laird ofGlenagan ."

"Is this about me finding my pleasure or is it about you being in charge?"

He kissed his way down the slope of her belly, further aroused by her scent, and paused, parting her damp curls with his thumbs. "Mayhap both." He dipped his head and sampled her tender, honeyed flesh.

KATE SANK BACKinto the sheepskin asMacTavish alternately licked and sucked on her c.l.i.t. Oh. Yes. Every sensation seemed centered between her legs. The swipe of his tongue...the thrust of his nose against her...the brush of his hair against the tops of her thighs...the heat of his fingers against her folds.... He inserted a finger into her as he continued to stroke her nub with his tongue. "Yes." She panted and fisted her hands into the silky wool and pushed against his finger and mouth, desperate for..."More."

"Aye, Katie-love, there is more." He slid another finger in, stretching her, filling her and she moaned her approval. He moved his fingers in and out while he laved her c.l.i.t. Each stroke of his fingers and tongue knotted her tighter inside until she thought she'd scream with want, until she writhed with the need to come.

MacTavishstopped and looked up the length of her quivering body at her and Kateknew what he was all about, knew whatthis was all about. She'd have her pleasure, but she'd pay the price for her earlier taunt. Or not.

She skimmed her hands down her belly and rested her right hand on her mound, within an inch of where he was poised between her thighs.

He retreated, giving her room. His dark smile, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with s.e.xual energy, rocked her but she still issued her challenge. "You know I can finish this myself."

"Aye, you could." His voice was a low, sensual croon. "But would that really satisfy you, Katie-love? Is it your touch you crave?" He fingered her and a shudder wracked her. "Is that what you need? Just to finish and be done?"

Kate had two goals, one immediate, one long-term, both self-serving-to come and to get back home. Opting to go solo wasn't going to adequately achieve either. If she was planning to hang around and/or pursue a relations.h.i.+p with this man, they'd definitely have to address his "need" issues but she wasn't on either count so they didn't have to go there. She'd play by his rules.