The Highlander’s Rescued Maiden by Anna Campbell

Chapter 21

Will knocked on the door leading from his dressing room to the bedroom Dougal and Kirsty had given them for their wedding night. It was late. The celebrations had turned into a wild ceilidh with music and dancing that continued past midnight. The islanders of Askaval loved a party. Around him now an expectant silence ranged, although he knew the house was packed with guests.

Or perhaps the expectant silence was part of the gratitude he’d felt all day, since this morning when he’d committed his life to Ellen Cameron. The day had been crammed with happiness and excitement, but powerful emotion kept catching him out, as he realized that she was his. He’d won her, and now they set out together to create their future.

A wee touch of triumph was forgivable. After all, he’d feared that Ellen’s terror of facing the world might outweigh her love for him. But mostly he was just bloody thankful. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve this glorious woman, but whatever it was, he was forever beholden to fortune for smiling on him.

And of course, there was desire. When he thought of Ellen, there would always be desire.

He’d wanted to whisk her away and have his wicked way as soon as he’d spoken his vows. But aside from what he owed to Dougal and Kirsty for the trouble they’d taken over the wedding, Ellen had been so overjoyed to find such a welcome with his family and the people of Askaval. She’d even managed to dance, letting Will support her when her balance failed.

He hadn’t had the heart to bring the party to an early end. But now at last, God be praised, passion would reign. His blood pounded with masculine intent, and expectation churned in his gut.

This time when he came to her bed, there would be no fear and no danger and no restrictions. He was hard and heavy under his brocade robe – his parents had brought him some of his belongings, including the fine clothes he’d worn for his wedding, and his late grandmother’s wedding ring. He hadn’t fancied standing up before the minister in borrowed finery, although he’d have attended the ceremony naked if it meant he got to call Ellen his bride.

Ellen seemed to take an age to bid him to enter, but he supposed it couldn’t really be so long. He was at the mercy of an appetite that turned any delay into a torment.

For the first time in his life, Will trembled at the prospect of possessing a woman. But then no woman had ever meant so much to him. The hand that pushed the door wide was shaking, and the legs that carried him across the threshold were unsteady.

He paused, captivated anew by her unique beauty. “Ellen…”

Candles flickered from every surface in the room, transforming her into a creature of light and shadow. She sat up in a large carved bed, with the sheets pulled to her waist. Her wisp of a pink silk nightdress did little to conceal her full breasts. Luxuriant hair tumbled loose around her bare shoulders, and her eyes glowed with sensual interest, as she subjected him to an equally detailed inspection.

Will was hellish glad that she’d undressed. The way he felt at this moment, he was likely to rip her stylish wedding gown to rags in his eagerness.

She smiled with an unabashed anticipation that made his blood pump even harder. “Ye took forever.”

“This week took forever. Now you’re all mine.”

Her eyes continued to devour him. “And you’re all mine.”

“Aye, that I am, my darling.” He moved across to the sideboard, where the servants had set out a bottle of claret, a couple of glasses, and a tray of food. “Would ye like a glass of wine?”

“No.” That ravenous gaze ranged over him in a way that made him crazy with need. “Perhaps later.”

His gesture was self-deprecating. “I want ye to know that you’ve married a civilized man and no’ a wild animal.”

She gave a low laugh. “I ken that you’re a perfect knight, Will. I ken that better than anyone.”

Ellen was remembering their nights on Bortha. So was he.

Part of him wanted to argue with that overly kind description. Most of him, however, loved her high opinion of him, however unmerited. He prayed he’d never prove her wrong.

“I also hope ye understand that while I want ye like the very devil, I also love and respect you.”

Amusement brightened her eyes to sapphire. “Noted.”

“So if I leap on ye like a starving man, I’m doing it with more than lascivious impulses.”

“Lascivious impulses sound good.” Her smile told him she wanted him almost as much as he wanted her, and her voice held a note of fond impatience. “Will, come over here and kiss me. This last week has lasted an eternity. I’ve wanted so much to be alone with ye. Dinnae make me wait any longer. You’re no’ the only one who has hankered and wondered.”

Elation rang in his laugh as he strode to the bed, letting his robe fall in a heap on the Turkey carpet.

***

Will swept Ellen up into a whirlwind. He moved so fast, she didn’t even get a chance to appreciate his magnificent nakedness. He kissed her madly, passionately, rapaciously, and she met him every step of the way. This was how he’d kissed her on Bortha. As though even if the world slammed to an end around them, he couldn’t stop.

He only lifted his head when he dragged off her nightdress and flung it to the floor. His greedy hands shoved down the covers to reveal her body. When he kneeled over her, he caged her against the sheets.

This was a captivity she welcomed. Will’s love had set her free in all the ways that mattered.

With breathtaking ardor, he touched her in all the secret, magical places he’d discovered in the big bed in her tower, until she was writhing and gasping under his caresses.

She cradled his head between her hands, forcing him to meet her eyes. For a fleeting instant, her attention strayed to the simple gold ring that marked her as his wife for the rest of her life. “Will, I want ye. I’ve wanted ye too long. Make me yours.”

“It’s likely I’ll hurt ye.” Desperation lit his gaze and his answer was strained. “The first time anyway.”

Ellen bumped her hips up until they met his rampant virility. A shudder of bone-deep excitement gripped her, as she rubbed against him in brazen impulse. With a guttural groan, he closed his eyes. His face contracted as if he was in pain, but after Bortha, she knew that desire could hover as close to agony as to pleasure.

“It hurts wanting ye like this,” she forced out of a tight throat. “Nothing you do to me can be worse than suffering this need I have for ye.”

When he opened his eyes, she caught a flash of the devil-may-care rogue who had first stolen her heart. She’d soon realized that he was so much more than that seductive pirate, but something in her rejoiced to see that her pirate was still there. “Och, it’s no’ that bad, mo chridhe. I’m almost sure you’ll survive the experience.”

Ellen didn’t smile back. She was too close to the edge. “I dinnae damn well care if I don’t. Come inside me, Will. Come…home.”

His eyes softened. “Och, Ellen, ye break my heart, even as you make me the happiest man in Scotland.”

He shifted to lie between her thighs. He’d touched her down there already, caressing her into slickness. The scent of need tinged the air with sensual promise.

She ran her hands up his chest and hooked them over his shoulders. His loose auburn hair created a curtain about her cheeks, as he explored her mouth with an unfettered craving that thrilled her to the marrow.

Instinctively she pressed higher, closing her knees tight against his hips. He tilted forward, then raised his head and stared at her as if his world began and ended with her. She became aware of an unfamiliar pressure between her legs. When she couldn’t stifle a faint sound of discomfort, he tautened.

“Will, dinnae stop.” She appreciated his care for her – how could she not? But she was frantic to know what it was like when he moved inside her.

“I don’t want to hurt ye.”

“I want this. I’ve wanted this since ye first touched me on Bortha.” She bowed up to take more of him. “I need to be part of you. I need ye to be part of me.”

The connection of their eyes remained unbroken, so she watched her pleading find a place in his heart. His gaze turned dark with poignant emotion, and when he kissed her, she felt that his lips delivered his soul into her keeping.

“I love ye, Ellen.”

The words settled deep. Any lingering doubts about her fitness as a mate for this superb male vanished forever. She dug her fingers into his sinewy shoulders and raised her knees. “So show me.”

He changed the angle of his body and tightened his hips. Holding her gaze in a silent vow of adoration, he advanced.

Will was right. It did hurt. Ellen bit her lip to muffle a cry of pain, but even so, a whimper escaped. He stopped again.

He stretched her beyond capacity. She remembered holding his erect rod on Bortha. It had seemed large then. Right now, with him inside her, it felt enormous.

“Breathe, my darling,” he muttered.

Colored lights flashed in front of her eyes. She realized that she was holding her breath. Some of her pain came from lungs screaming for air. With a choked laugh, she sucked in a gulp of air, then another. Her tension eased, and with that, the worst of her discomfort.

“Better?” he asked.

“Aye, better.”

He shifted further. Shaking hands caught her knees and bent them higher. That felt better, too.

All this wasn’t nearly as unpleasant as it had been at first. Her body adjusted to his invasion. She might even say some of it was enjoyable. She loved being so close to Will.

Aye, this wasn’t too bad at all.

She might almost say…

“Will!” she gasped, when he thrust then withdrew with a leisurely care that sent a great wave of heat gushing through her.

As he pushed inside, he chuckled. This time, pleasure overcame any slight discomfort. At the end of the thrust, he lingered, then drew back with another sensuous glide. “Ye like this?”

“Oh, yes,” she sighed, as he joined their bodies yet again. She clenched around him, reveling in his growl of approval.

So often, she’d imagined what it would be like to give herself to Will. What they’d done already had provided a taste of fulfilment. But nothing they’d done before, however titillating, however delightful, hinted at this unparalleled intimacy. It was as if the physical expression of their love melded them into one being.

He set up a driving rhythm. Every time he slid into her, she felt as though his entire body said, “I love you.”

Soon delight transformed into the irresistible rise to bliss that she’d discovered in his arms on Bortha. She surrendered to the rapturous upward spiral and broke free into quaking, panting spasms, even as Will plunged hard and groaned his release. She clasped him to her trembling body as liquid warmth flooded her womb.

“Will, I do love ye,” she murmured.

Tears thickened her voice. Tears of surpassing joy. How close she’d come to missing out on this. The thought only made her hold her husband nearer, here in the radiant aftermath of that transcendent journey.

Will lifted his head to stare down at her with a light in his eyes that she’d never seen before. “After tonight, you’re no longer Fair Ellen of the Isles, but Fair Ellen, my dearest beloved.”

How she’d changed. How he’d changed her. That once-despised name no longer sounded like a snide jibe. Instead, it sounded like a vow of lifelong fealty.

“No, it’s even better than that, mo chridhe.” She summoned a tremulous smile and cupped his jaw in one shaking hand. “I’m now Ellen, lady to William Mackinnon of Achnasheen, my lord and my love.”

She saw how her fervent declaration moved him to the soul. As Will bent his head and kissed her, Ellen knew that this man’s love was all the freedom she’d ever need.