“I didn’t want you to think I did all that just to get you into bed.”
“I didn’t think that. I wanted to make love with you last night, Damian. I wanted to be close to you. I felt like we connected at dinner. We got to know each other better. When you left, I thought…”
“What, love?”
“I thought you didn’t want me anymore. That once you got to know me, you changed your mind.”
“Never, love.” He sat up and faced her, his swirling eyes boring into hers. “I’ll never change my mind about you.” He brushed his lips lightly against hers. “Is that why you were crying?”
She nodded and tore her gaze from his. He tipped her chin with his hand and forced her to look into his eyes. “I promise you, Suzanne Wood, I will never change my mind about you.” He brushed his lips over hers. “Mo cridhe, I love you.”
Suzanne gasped as her heart nearly leaped from her chest. “I’m sorry?”
“I said I love you, Suzanne.”
“But how?”
“Crazy, I know. Damned if I understand it. But from the first moment I saw you, smelled you, touched you, I knew. You’re mine. Always.”
Suzanne squirmed, wanting to break away, yet wanting to clamp herself to him and never let go. The overwhelming contradictions gnawed at her gut. “Oh, Damian, I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.”
“But I do. I’m only here for a few weeks. I have a job, a home, a life.”
“So you’ll start a new life. Here. With me.”
“It’s not that simple.” She breathed deeply. “You know I just got out of a messy relationship. I don’t want you to be my rebound guy. That wouldn’t be fair to you.”
“Rebound guy?”
“You know. The man who picks up the pieces and then moves on.”
“I’ll never move on.”
She covered her face with her hands. What had she gotten herself into? And why was she half ready to drop her entire life and stay in Scotland with a man she had met less than seventy-two hours ago?
Damian gently pulled her hands from her face and replaced them with his own. “I love you. There’s not a doubt in my mind. You’ll love me someday. I’m sure of it. I want to make love to you now.” He pressed his lips to hers. “Now. Right now.” His brown-green eyes swirled.
Suzanne’s breath caught in her throat. “Damian—”
“Now. I’ve waited long enough for you. I need you. Desperately.”
“But I—”
“You were ready to love me last night. I should have taken you then.”
Suzanne nodded. “Yeah. You should have. I wouldn’t have turned you down.”
“And now?”
She lowered her hand to her pillow and found the soft fur of her stuffed wolf. Perfect. A change of subject. “How did you know I love wolves?”
He still cupped her cheeks, and his eyes swirled into hers. “I didn’t.”
“I collect them. Photos, figurines, stuffed animals.”
A lazy half smile curled over Damian’s sensuous mouth. “I didn’t know, love.”
“You have good instincts then, I guess.”
“Aye. So I have.”
“Do you like wolves?”
He drew his gaze away from hers, still cupping her cheeks. “I wrote about them in my book.”
“So you like them?”
He sighed, his eyes a swirly mass of brown and green. And sadness? “I love many things about them. Their strength. Their beauty. Their wildness.” He returned his gaze to hers. “Now, mo cridhe, will you let me love you as I desire?”
Suzanne’s skin tingled with anticipation. Her blood boiled like hot nectar in her veins, the warmth flowing downward to her sexual core. She slowly nodded her head.
He groaned and lowered his mouth to hers. His kiss was deep and passionate. No mouth foreplay this time. He delved in with his tongue and tasted her thoroughly, completely.
Damian’s tongue danced around hers, licking, stroking, plunging in and out, mimicking the sex act. Suzanne’s pulse raced as she laced her fingers through his waves and pulled him closer, kissing him deeper. If it were possible for two people to mate through a kiss, they were doing it.
Then hands. Hands everywhere. His on her breasts. Hers on his shoulders, caressing his tight sinewy muscle. His cupping her mound, sliding through her slick folds. Hers grasping his cock, stroking it as his shudder rocked through her own body. Heat. Intense heat.
“So wet,” he said as he fondled her pussy. “So wet. For me.”
She gasped as he slid a finger inside her.
“For you,” she echoed, sliding her lips over his neck, his shoulder, down onto his chest, where she flicked her tongue over a brown nipple.
“Aye, love,” he said. “Touch me. I’m yours. All yours.”
Suzanne’s fingers shook as she scraped the golden skin of his chest and licked downward, twirling her tongue through the masculine hair, down to his navel, and then…
She wanted him in her mouth. That beautiful perfectly formed cock. It called to her. Lick me. Taste me.