‘What?’
‘Sometimes, when you smile at me, your face holds all the quiet beauty of the world.’
Her throat thickened. ‘I didn’t have you for a poet, Lyall.’
‘Only with you. Only ever with you,’ he said.
She climbed onto his lap so that she was straddling him and took hold of his face. Her desperate need made her bold. How handsome Lyall was with the breeze lifting his hair, his green eyes tortured, but beautiful, where the sun lit them, his sensuous mouth calling to hers.
‘What are you doing, Giselle?’ he said slowly.
‘Giving myself to you,’ she said, kissing him.
He pulled back. ‘Giselle, no, you don’t have to do that to earn my forgiveness.’
‘I want to.’ She kissed him harder. ‘Can you not tell how much I want to?’
He frowned and shook his head. ‘I gave my word that I would not take your virtue.’
‘I want you to take it. I want you to break your oath.’ Giselle took his throat in her hand and pressed her forehead to his, amazed at her own boldness. ‘Would you have me beg, Lyall Buchanan?’
He smiled, a light entering his face. ‘Now that I would like to see,’ he said as his expression turned from mirth to hunger, and his arms came around her like iron bars.
Giselle was fearful. She had opened the door, now a beast was about to rush in.
Lyall undid the ties at the front of her dress with deft hands. He pulled it up and over her head. There was only her shift between his hot hands and her skin. He pulled the cloth down over her shoulders. Giselle wriggled out of it so that it fell and bunched around her hips. As his hand progressed up her back, stiffening her flesh into goosebumps of delight, he took fistfuls of her hair.
‘So beautiful,’ he murmured, sliding his mouth against hers, gentle and slow like the river’s glide. Lyall bent his dark head and rubbed his forehead against her chest. His hair tickled her breasts and, when his tongue found them, Giselle gasped and arched her back. The flick of it, warm and wet on her nipples, made her loins scream for him to go further.
Giselle gasped when Lyall slid a hand up her thigh, around her buttocks, his fingers spreading out so that his hot palm seared her skin. He held her tightly as his touch moved up her back, rough fingertips on her waist, her breasts, her belly. Lyall’s eased his thumb between her legs, searching, circling and gentle, causing Giselle to suck in a breath at the sheer lightning stab of pleasure that ripped through her belly. She wanted this, so much that she could not help but press against his hand.
He stopped for a moment to tear his tunic over his head.
‘I want to feel your skin against mine. I want to look at you, Giselle. God, lass you are so lovely.’
He fumbled with the opening to his braies and his manhood sprang free. What a glorious thing it was, so strange and compelling. He shifted her so that her core was pressed against it.
‘Better get acquainted with your master,’ he laughed, taking hold of her hips and gliding her over it.
Oh, it was delicious, this joyful ache between her legs as she slid over its firm length.
‘Lyall, please, I so want you to do it,’ Giselle gasped, taking his mouth with hers.
‘And I intend to, lass, but not like this, not your first time.’
He rolled her over onto her back. Giselle delighted in his naked chest pressing against hers, the dark hair of it, soft, against her tender nipples.
‘I am almost at the point where I can’t stop. Tell me you are sure this is what you want, Giselle before we both go up in flames.’
‘I do.’
‘You know what this means? It will hurt a little.’
‘Yes, but you must not stop.’
Giselle lay under his weight, in a sudden panic, her knees pointed to the bright sky, spread open for him. The gravity of what she was doing hit her, as Lyall positioned himself at the entrance to her body and pushed in a little. It was not too bad, for she was slippery with lust for him. Giselle arched her back, and it sent him over the edge. He thrust all the way into her, filling her, making something inside her rip and sting.
She cried out, and he stopped and clutched her tighter to him, moaning into her neck, but only for an instant. Lyall cradled her head in his hand and kissed her hard, and then he began to move inside her, filling her and drawing back, sliding his hips against hers, their bodies slick with sweat and need.