“Lachlan,” she whines. “Are you toying with me?”
“Hard to resist,” I say with a grin. I finally capture her mouth with mine, our kiss no longer gentle but intense. She moans into my mouth and I kiss her harder, bending her to me until she’s flat on the loveseat and I’m framed above her. She yields to me so beautifully, I melt into her. My eyes close and I’m drowning in her scent, in her soft body, in the essence of everything about her.
I groan with the effort of holding myself back when we come up for air, but I have to.
“Listen to me, Fiona,” I whisper in her ear. “I just spoke with Keenan. And tonight, I’m taking you with me. I have to align myself with local mafia for our safety and protection. Do you understand?”
She nods, though she eyes me warily. Her lips are parted, and she eyes me as if I’ve just hung the moon.
“I do,” she says. “You’re taking me with you?”
“I won’t leave you anywhere without my protection. I have to do this.”
She nods but doesn’t speak.
I swallow. I’m not sure how to explain what has to happen. I won’t hurt her, I fucking won’t.
“Are you scared to take me there?” she whispers.
I close my eyes before I answer, then shake my head. “No, lass. There’s not much I’m afraid of, but what scares me is what I have to do before we go.”
Panic flits across her features and she bites her lip. “Do you need to… take another woman? Or something? Pretend to have an escort?”
“Fuck no.”
Her brow furrows. “Then what?”
I swallow, cup her chin in my hand and make her hold my eyes. “I need to mark you.” Now that I’ve said it, firm conviction fills me and my voice is louder, more confident. “So that when I go in there with you, they know exactly who you belong to.”
She blinks but doesn’t speak for a moment, then whispers a breathy, “Alright, then. Let’s do it.”
I grin at her. “Let’s do it? Really? You don’t even know what ‘it’ is.”
“It doesn’t matter, does it?” she says. “Because I trust you.”
I hold her hand and squeeze her to me. “Fiona, I won’t ever make you regret that. I fucking promise.”
She nods and smiles at me. “So, um. How will you… mark me?”
The thought of the multitude of ways I have to mark her makes my dick tighten beneath her arse, and my mind goes crazy with the thought of everything I could do. My ink along her neck, her arse welted and striped with my belt, my come on her thighs.
Marked.
Owned.
“We’ll start here,” I say. I tip her head to the side and bend my mouth to her neck, suckling the tender skin. She moans and braces herself on the loveseat. I cup her breast while I suckle her skin. I run my thumb along her hardened nipple and her breath catches in her throat. I suckle until I know I’ve left a mark that they’ll see clear as day. She’ll wear an up-do tonight.
Next, I bring my mouth to the top of her breast and do the same, sucking the sweet, gentle skin into my mouth until she arches into me and I leave a bright red mark there as well. When I’m finished, she’s panting, and the scent of her sweet arousal permeates the room.
I thumb between her legs, straight down at the apex of her thighs, over the fabric of her jeans. She moans and gyrates her hips, eager for more.
“Good girl,” I whisper in her ear. “Are you needy for me again, lass?”
“Oh aye,” she moans.
“Tell me, Fiona,” I say. I need to know. I have to know. “Have you ever been with a man?”
I can barely bring myself to ask her. If she has, I will hunt him down and kill him. He will die a slow and painful death, and I won’t regret a fucking thing.
“Of course not,” she says. “How could I without your knowledge? I’d be mad. You may have taken ages to claim me, Lachlan, but I certainly never loved anyone else.”
As soon as she says this, she flushes pink and bites her lip, but it’s all I need to hear. Within seconds, I’ve got her on her back, her top is pushed up to reveal her full breasts, and she’s pulling down her knickers.
“Wait,” I tell her. “Goddamn it, woman, I’m not prepared for any of this. Let’s ease into this.”
“Ease into it? Are you out of your mind, Lachlan? We’ve been easing into this for five fucking years.”
I slap her thigh and she moans and wriggles.
“What on earth are you afraid of?” she challenges me.
Until she phrases it just that way, I didn’t think I was afraid of anything.
“And anyway,” she continues. “You said you have to mark me. Why don’t you do a right good job of it, then?”