He hadn’t intended their kisses to take fire the way they had. When she was in his arms, strategy turned to ashes, and all he heeded was his clamorous craving. Once she married him, he’d show her that this powerful attraction was nothing to fear. Instead, their mutual need was cause for celebration.
The library was dimly lit, and he was glad to see that a fire blazed in the hearth. While last night’s encounter had been marvelous, the temperature in the morning room had threatened to freeze his balls off.
It took him a moment to locate Elspeth. When he did, a slow, satisfied smile curved his lips.
“You surprise me, lassie. Here I was convinced ye would never shrink into the shadows again.”
With a grace that made his heart leap about like a newborn lamb, she rose from the window seat. “Shadows come in handy, when I’m doing things I shouldn’t.”
He shut the door behind him and crossed the room to take her hand. “You’re trembling.”
“It’s lunatic to be nervous, I know.” Huge brown eyes sought his. “You’ve kissed me before, but this is the first time we’ve made an actual assignation.”
He liked the sound of that. An assignation hinted at naughty acts.
Brody forced himself to recall his honorable intentions. He needed to treat Elspeth with care. She was his friend’s sister. She was a guest in his cousin’s house. She was still an innocent. However much he might ache to claim her, he owed it to her to wait until his ring was on her finger.
“You’re no’ really afraid, are you?”
“A pleasant flurry of nerves, that’s all.” The humor curling her lips made him desperate to kiss her. “I trust you.”
Those three words enclosed him like steel bands and stole his breath. He hadn’t always been a good man, but he prayed that he proved worthy of this lovely girl with her pure, generous heart.
“I willnae let you down,” he said in a gruff voice.
It sounded like a lifelong vow. He supposed it was. A precursor to vows he’d make before the minister in the not-too-distant future.
He leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss to seal his silent promise of fealty and protection. Soft lips moved beneath his, before she sighed and shifted closer to bury her hands in his hair and deepen the contact.
Arousal, swift and powerful, crashed through him. A groan of yearning escaped, as he gathered her up in his arms. Soon she met his rapacious kisses with rapacious kisses of her own. How far she’d come from the skittish innocent, who hadn’t known enough to open her mouth, the first time he kissed her.
Elspeth remained an innocent, however difficult that was to remember when she pressed so close that he couldn’t fit a wafer between them. When she made choked little sounds of female pleasure that rang sweeter than music in his ears. When her greedy hands stroked his face, his neck, his shoulders, his chest, his back. He felt like she tried to possess him through touch alone.
He, the jaded man of the world, shuddered with arousal under her exploration. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted any of his adventurous Edinburgh ladies. With difficulty, he contained the urge to swing her onto the couch and strip away that stylish gown. Instead he pushed her back against the wall and ran his hands over her lush, rounded body.
With burgeoning delight, he discovered the sinuous curve of breast and hip, the sumptuous rump. When his fingers sank into the soft flesh of her buttocks, he gasped into her mouth. How he cursed the layers of material that kept him from touching her skin.
Knowing he shouldn’t, Brody began to drag up her skirts. He waited for her to stop him, as he was sure she must. Every inch he dragged the froth of silk and lawn higher felt like a victory. Until he shaped his hand over the delicious arch of her bum. Frail drawers still formed a teasing barrier, but when he kneaded one round cheek, he couldn’t suppress a groan of appreciation.
Her floral, female scent was more intoxicating than a barrel of claret. Hot blood pounded in his ears and made him deaf to everything but her choked gasps of excitement. Brody caught her under the buttocks and lifted her, plastering her tight against him. He tortured himself for nothing. Much as he wanted to, he couldn’t take Elspeth tonight.
When he pressed her against his aching cock, she whimpered in protest and pulled away, clutching his shoulders to stay upright. “Brody, that’s wicked,” she gasped.
“I know,” he groaned, running his teeth down her neck and wishing to hell they were already married and he could plunge inside her.
“We must stop. It’s getting…dangerous.” She squirmed, which
did nothing to allay his excitement, damn it. “Please…please let me go.”
She was right. This heat between them threatened to take charge. He had to step back, or it would be too late. He’d never verged so near to dishonor, yet his intentions had never been so pure. “Must I?”
She wriggled again, then stopped when he gave another heartfelt groan. Dazed eyes clung to his face. In the flickering firelight, her lips were red and swollen, and her untidy coiffure now owed less to art than to the raking touch of his hands. “Am I hurting you?”
His grip on her arse hardened, as he consigned propriety to Hades. Propriety, and drawers, and honor. He hadn’t planned on testing the limits of his control tonight. Which made him a fool. He should have taken a lesson from this afternoon’s wild kisses. “Only because I cannae have what I want, lassie.”
“I think you should put me down.” She didn’t sound too certain.
“I should.” His hands tightened.