The Highlander’s Rescued Maiden by Anna Campbell
Chapter 13
When Will heard that muffled gasp, he lifted his head. All eyes and ashen shock, Ellen hovered a few feet away, watching his lonely efforts at relief. Humiliation twisted his gut into knots. How he must disgust her.
He drowned in a mire of embarrassment as he waited for her to run away, but to his surprise, she stepped toward him. What she said hardly penetrated the blood thundering in his ears and the nausea churning in his stomach.
“What?” It emerged sharper than he intended, but, for pity’s sake, could a man be caught in a less dignified moment?
Licking her lips, she braved another step closer. Her face was as red now as he was sure his was. He braced for disdain or even worse, horror, at his rough, masculine needs. Her gaze fastened on the hand clasping his erect prick, and she licked her lips again.
She took so long to answer that he feared the delay turned his hair gray. She fiddled with the sash tying her velvet robe. Will bit back a groan, only too aware that she was naked beneath the covering.
“You’ve given me so much tonight. I’d like to give something back to ye.”
He surveyed her in disbelief. “You’re no’ revolted to find me here like this?”
She shook her head, sending that curtain of gold hair drifting around her. “No.” She paused, then spoke in an even lower voice, so he had to strain to hear her over the crackle of the fire and the constant wail of the wind. “I’m fascinated.”
His hand dropped away from his cock, as he stared at her openmouthed. “Ellen…”
She made an eloquent gesture. “I’ve been curious, as well, Will. Curious about how ye look without your clothes. Curious about what it would be like to touch you. Curious about…whether I can make ye feel a fraction as good as you make me feel.”
He was thunderstruck. “I’m no’ worthy of you.”
She smiled. She no longer looked so shocked, although those beautiful blue eyes remained focused between his legs. His dick twitched in response, as he couldn’t help imagining her hands closing around him. His imagination strayed toward her lips servicing him there, but surely that would be too much, even for a brave creature like Ellen. After all, she was an innocent. Hell, before last night, she’d never even kissed a man.
“Of course ye are. You’re the best of men, Will Mackinnon.”
He found himself smiling back, although he was almost as hard and aching as he’d been when he’d fled downstairs. He’d been desperate to ease the agony in his balls, afraid that if he didn’t, he’d lose himself in her presence. “Are we about to have an argument about which of us is the more deserving?”
“I ken what I’d rather do.”
“What’s that?” Although he had a fair idea.
Glowing azure eyes locked with his, and at last he read the avidity in her face. She wasn’t doing this as a reluctant return for the pleasure he’d shown her. She was doing this because she craved him. “I want to touch ye, Will. I want to discover what you like a woman to do to you. I want ye to shake under my hands the way you’ve made me shake. Please dinnae deny me.”
Deny her? He felt like he’d knocked on the gates of heaven and they’d opened wide. He extended a hand in her direction. “Come here.”
She moved swiftly and accepted his hand before settling on her knees between his splayed thighs. When her attention returned to his dick, it jerked in excitement.
If her eyes could do that, heaven help him when she touched him. He’d spill at the first brush of those slender fingers.
He released her and curled his hands around the oak armrests. “Do I frighten ye?”
She licked her lips again with an innocent greed that turned his blood to steam. “A wee bit.”
Her honesty was part of her bravery. “You’ve never seen a naked man?”
To his surprise, her eyelashes fluttered down and color tinged her cheeks. “I’ve caught the guards swimming once or twice.”
“Brazen hussy,” he said in a fond voice.
Discomfiture tinged her short laugh. “Aye, but it’s a very small island, ye ken?”
“I do indeed. Did ye want to touch them, too?”
Her eyes flashed up to meet his. “No!” She paused. “Anyway, none of them were nearly as…impressive as ye are.”
He cupped her delicate jaw, loving the way she nestled her cheek into his palm. A tempest of sexual need rose around them, but tenderness hovered, as well, charging all that heat with radiance. “That’s what a laddie likes to hear.”
Her lips pursed. “You ken this was after my father placed his ban on young, handsome guards.”
Will gave a theatrical sigh. “So you’re saying I shouldnae be too flattered?”
She arched her eyebrows. “I’m sure even the young, handsome guards could never match up to ye, my fine Mr. Mackinnon.”
“Och, that’s better.” Loving her teasing, he leaned in and kissed her.
When she pulled away, her eyes glowed with pleasure. “Anyway, their…things didnae look like yours.”
He glanced down to where his prick rose hard and insistent. “After a dip in that cold sea, I’m no’ surprised.”
“May I…may I touch ye?”
“I’d like that more than anything.”
Which wasn’t completely true. What he’d like above all things would be to haul this lovely woman beneath him and plunge deep inside her.
Uncertainty shadowed her eyes. Had he ever been so aware of another person’s reactions as he was of Fair Ellen’s? He’d led a blessed life. Since meeting Ellen, he’d never been so conscious of that.
But even discounting the danger that threatened them, with her father’s men only a few miles across the sea, there was an edge to what happened with her that he’d never experienced. These last days had sloughed away a layer of insulation between him and life. In her company, everything seemed fresher, sharper, more poignant, more beautiful.
Their attraction had blossomed so fast, he needed to catch up with its full meaning. But he already knew that if he left Bortha without this bonny woman, life would lose all its color.
She was thinking on a more profane plane. “Will ye tell me what to do?”
“Let’s see how ye manage on your own.” She’d already proven herself such an inventive partner that he was curious to discover what she’d do, given free range of his body.
“I dinnae want to hurt you.”
He snorted with grim amusement. “I ache for ye already.”
“You didnae look like you were enjoying yourself when I found ye.”
“I’ll enjoy what ye do.”
And also suffer. He accepted that. But he wanted those neat, deft hands on his body more than he wanted his next breath.
Her lips quirked. “I hope so.”
He stretched out in his chair, extending his legs on either side of her so his feet rested on the mat in front of the fire. “I’m all yours.”
Will sounded like he was joking, but he’d never meant three words more. Closing his eyes, he angled his head back. He braced for what he already knew was going to be agonizing delight.
She gave a shaky inhalation, and he could picture her serious expression. He didn’t look at her, because he had a notion she’d feel less self-conscious without him watching.
So he jerked in surprise when she laid her hand on his bare chest. He should have known she’d need to work her way up – or down – to touching his cock. The reminder of her innocence had his heart cramping.
As she rose over him, she slid against his bare thighs. In his agitated state, the soft friction of her velvet robe on his skin nearly blew the top of his head off. He felt the silky tumble of her hair as she bent to kiss an incendiary path across his pectorals then down his breastbone. More blasts of sensation.
By the time she traced her way across his belly, he was gasping and in danger of losing himself. She hadn’t even taken him in her hand yet.
Just as stirring was the symphony of her enjoyment. Little hums and murmurs that expressed female appreciation. She’d learned a lot in the last hours, imitating what he’d done to her and adding something of her own to the heady mix. She drove him to the edge with a flick of her tongue or scrape of her teeth, and every so often a sharp little nip that smashed through him like cannon fire.
When he trembled on the brink, she lifted her head. The cessation in contact left him shaking and needy. For a long time, he remained unmoving, as he waited for her to touch him again.
Nothing.
All he could hear through the pulsing in his ears was the crackle of the fire and the erratic rasp of his breathing.
He opened dazed eyes just in time to watch her shape a trembling hand around his prick.
Lord Almighty! As heat encompassed him, he gritted his teeth until they threatened to crack. His muscles tightened to rock while he battled for control.
For most of the night, he’d been as hard as an iron bar. The ache in his balls had been unremitting. Now when Ellen fondled him, the urge for release verged on invincible. But he ground his teeth together and somehow held back, although every inch of him screamed at the cruel restraint.
He must have made some sound of discomfort, because she released him. “I’m sorry.”
Will sucked air across a throat that felt like it was lined with gravel. “What the devil are ye doing?”
She shot him a troubled glance. “I knew I’d do it wrong.”
“The only thing ye did wrong…”
“Aye?”
“Was to stop.”
Her eyes widened. The lamplight revealed a return of the confidence she’d started to find upstairs. “What are ye saying?”
He groaned. “Damn it, keep going, lassie.”
“But ye sound as if I’m torturing you.”
He wanted to laugh at her bewilderment, but he was too close to the edge. “It’s torture to control myself.” He started to sound more like himself, although his grip on the arms of the chair threatened to reduce that fine old oak to a pile of splinters. “But the Mackinnons breed braw warriors.”
Her attention swept from his head to his toes then back again before settling on his throbbing dick. “Och, they most certainly do.”
That comprehensive inspection claimed him. He’d never thought of wanting a woman to possess his heart and soul. It turned out that he wanted Fair Ellen to take everything he was and keep it safe forever.
Still she didn’t touch him. Waiting for her next move – and her next move might be to stand up and march away up the stairs – was like being stretched on the rack. His torment mounted as those full pink lips curved up in a slow smile that he could only describe as gloating.
“You’re at my mercy.”
His groan came from the depths. “Nae need to sound so pleased about it.”
“But I am pleased.”
She didn’t need to tell him that that. “Ye enjoy torturing me.”
“Of course.” She kept smiling. “You’ve tortured me all night. It’s nice to return the favor.”
“Och, do your worst.”
“Ye may have to help me learn how to touch you.”
“It’s a promise.” Demand roughened his voice. “Now, for God’s sake, Ellen, go back to what ye were doing. Or else I fear I’ll explode into a thousand smoking pieces.”
She had no trouble laughing, but then she wasn’t poised on a knife edge of desperation. “Poor you.”
He released a theatrical sigh, although his need was real. “If ye had a heart, you’d rush to ease my suffering.”
She surged up over him and kissed him with clumsy enthusiasm. Just as the kiss took fire, she lifted away and fitted her hand around his cock again.
A tidal wave of heat engulfed him. Will tightened his grip on the chair arms until his hands ached. “Aye, that’s it.”
She firmed her hold. “Like this?”
“Move…move your fist up and down,” he grated out.
“The way ye touched yourself?”
“Like that.”
She followed his instructions, until his heart crashed against his ribs. “You’re so big,” she said in soft wonder, as he turned harder by the second. “I had nae idea.”
His jaw came close to breaking under the pressure, as he bore the exquisite torment of her caresses. “More.”
Through the pounding demand of his body, he remained conscious that this was Ellen who touched him. He’d never been so aware of his own responses. Yet despite his overwhelming need, he never lost sight of her lovely face.
She increased the pressure to a point where he felt he must shatter, before she paused to brush a drop of moisture from the tip with her thumb. Then the world dissolved into smoke when she bent her ruffled gold head and placed a tender kiss on the top of his dick. The soft movement of her lips was too much for his shredding control.
“Ellen…” He released the chair and lunged forward to push her down onto the worn rug in front of the fire.
She went willingly, although a cry of shock escaped her when he shoved aside the loose robe. Her shaking hands caught his arms in a frantic hold, as he spilled himself in gasping ecstasy on her bare stomach.
