Shy Innocent In The Spotlight by Melanie Milburne
CHAPTER SEVEN
ELSPETHSTAREDATher reflection in the bathroom mirror, wishing she hadn’t told Mack the truth. But how could she have slept with him as her sister? It would be taking the charade way too far. She hadn’t been able to go any further without him knowing the truth. But now he knew who she was, he was pulling away. Was that because she wasn’t enough on her own? That the layer of confidence she’d adopted while pretending to be her twin had been the allure—the only thing about her he had found irresistible? She wasn’t enough as herself, but then, she never had been. She had always been lesser than her outgoing, talented twin. She had always compared herself to Elodie and felt she didn’t measure up. Not just because of her allergy, which had limited her life so much, but because she lacked her twin’s assertiveness, her audacity and energetic enthusiasm for adventure.
So where did that leave her now?
It left her feeling ashamed and alone and frustrated. Frustrated physically, because Mack’s kiss had awoken her flesh and made her hungry for more of his touch. She lifted her fingers to her lips, tracing where his lips had pressed so firmly, so urgently. Her cheeks were still flushed, her body still throbbing with a low, deep, dragging ache.
Her hand fell away from her lips and she released a ragged sigh. How was she going to get a wink of sleep knowing he was only a few feet away, scrunched up on the sofa?
Elspeth came out of the bathroom after freshening up to find Mack had left the crofter’s hut, presumably to give her some privacy. Unlike the castle, the walls here were thin, the rooms small, which would have made it the perfect love-tryst location.
Love?
She frowned at the word her brain had sourced at random. No, this wasn’t love. This was lust. She was experiencing her first full-on body crush. Yes, there were lots of things about Mack besides his body she found enormously attractive. He had known who she was and had brought her up here to keep her away from the press. It was a kind and thoughtful gesture, but it didn’t mean she had to fall in love with him because of it. No, she was attracted to him physically.
But then, who wouldn’t be? He had drive and ambition in spades, a strong work ethic and he genuinely cared about doing the right thing by people. Which was why he was refusing to sleep with her. Was it because he was worried she would read more into the encounter than was warranted? That he had somehow assumed she would fall instantly in love with him and complicate things for him? She might be a little inexperienced in the ways of the world, but she wasn’t a fool. She could handle a sensual encounter without losing her heart to him. One night with him would have been a perfect solution for her. A way of losing her virginity with a man she liked and respected and one who liked and respected her. Why wouldn’t he accept the invitation? Was it because he didn’t think she could handle a casual hook-up?
Elspeth sat on the sofa and cuddled a scatter cushion against her chest. She hadn’t considered herself the casual-dating type. In spite of her sheltered background, she had quietly dreamed of one day finding the right person to settle down with and make a family. But the older she got, the more remote the possibility had become. Who would want her with her faulty immune system? What if she gave one of her children her allergy? There would be a lifetime of worry for her and her partner, not to mention her child. And then her mother would have double the worry. It was easier not to hanker after things other people took for granted. Easier to settle for less than to crave more and be disappointed. And wouldn’t she be craving more than she could have by wanting more time with Mack? Wouldn’t she be setting herself up for bitter disappointment? For Mack was not the settling-down type. He had stated it baldly—he was a hardened playboy. A man who moved from casual lover to casual lover without long-term commitment on the agenda.
The door opened behind her and Elspeth turned to see Mack coming in with some blocks of peat for the fire. The late summer twilight had brought with it a cool change, the wind was whistling outside in an eerie tone that sounded almost ghostly, ethereal.
‘I think we might get a storm in a bit,’ Mack said, bending down to attend to the fire.
Elspeth put the scatter cushion to one side and got off the sofa to peer out of the nearest window. She suppressed a tiny shudder. Storm clouds were gathering, the sky so ominously broody it made the back of her neck prickle. ‘It certainly looks a bit wild out there...’
Mack must have sensed something in her tone, for he turned from his kneeling position in front of the fire to look at her over his shoulder. ‘You don’t like storms?’
She grimaced and wrapped her arms across her middle. ‘Not much.’
He closed the firebox and straightened, dusting off his hands on his jeans. ‘This hut has withstood plenty of savage storms, so you’ll be safe here.’
‘What if I don’t want to be safe?’ She must have been playing her twin too long for the words just popped out as if she had oodles of natural confidence. She was taking a gamble, stepping way outside her comfort zone, terrified he would reject her hands down, but she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she didn’t make the most of this opportunity.
She was alone with him, totally alone and might never have the chance again.
Why shouldn’t she be bold and brazen about what she wanted?
Mack rubbed a hand down his face. ‘Elspeth. We’ve already had this conversation.’
‘No, Mack. A conversation is where two people express their opinions and listen to each other, each taking on board what the other says.’ Elspeth approached him, stopping within touching distance. ‘You told me what you wanted without really listening to what I wanted.’
His eyes locked with hers. ‘What do you want?’
Elspeth closed the distance between them, sliding her hands up the hard wall of his chest. He sucked in a breath, his body jolting as if touched by a live wire. The same electricity that fired through her own acutely aware flesh. ‘I think you know what I want. It’s what you want too.’
Mack placed his hands on her hips and brought her flush against his hardened body. ‘You don’t strike me as the casual-lover type. And that’s all I can be right now.’
Elspeth snaked her arms around his neck, tangling her fingers in his windswept hair. He smelt of the outdoors—fresh, wild, untamed. She lowered her gaze to his grimly set mouth. ‘What if that was all I wanted right now? A casual lover?’
He tipped up her chin with one of his hands, his gaze searching. ‘Are you sure about this? You might regret it in the morning.’
Elspeth leaned into his rock-hard body, her feminine flesh tingling with anticipation. ‘I promise I won’t regret it. I want to make love with you. I want it so much I can hardly believe I’m saying it. For all these years, I’ve ignored the needs of my body. It’s like it’s been asleep until I met you. Now, all I can think about is how it will feel to be in your arms.’
Mack framed her face in his hands, his gaze still locked on hers. ‘You’re making it so hard for me to resist you.’ His voice was rough around the edges, his body against hers signalling the struggle he had to maintain control.
She smiled and stroked a finger down the length of his nose. ‘Look who’s talking. You’ve been making it impossible to resist you from the moment I met you.’
He gave a low deep groan and covered her mouth with his in a passionate kiss that set her blood racing and her heart pumping. His arms came around her, holding her to his body as if he never wanted to let her go. His tongue slipped between her lips and she was lost to the overwhelming force of desire that swept through her like a fast-running tide. Her lips clung to his, her tongue tangling with his, her need matching his. A ferocious need that threatened to consume her.
Mack kissed his way from her mouth down the side of her neck, his lips and tongue teasing her sensitive flesh into a frenzy of want. She tilted her head to one side, shivering and gasping with delight as his tongue caressed the shell of her ear. ‘Your skin is so soft...’ he said in a husky voice that was like a caress all of its own. ‘So soft and fragrant, I think I’m becoming addicted to it.’
‘I think I’m developing my own addiction,’ she said, stepping on tiptoe to press a kiss to his lips. ‘I can’t seem to get enough of your mouth.’
He made another guttural sound and deepened the kiss with a commanding thrust of his tongue, the sensations rioting through her body until she was quaking with need. The kiss went on and on, an exchange of passion that fired every nerve of her body into excitement. Warm humid heat pooled in her core, her lower spine trembled, her breasts tingled, her breathing became laboured.
He raised his mouth from hers, his own breathing heavy, and, kicking open the bedroom door with one foot, he led her to the bed. He ran his hands down the sides of her body, his touch light but electric. ‘Are you sure about this? It’s not too late to change your mind.’
Elspeth gripped the front of his shirt with both of her hands, her lower body pressed tightly against his. ‘I’m not changing my mind. I want you. And from what I can tell, you want me too.’
He gave a wry smile and grasped her hips once more. ‘It’s not like I can hide it.’ He brought his mouth back to hers in a long drugging kiss, his tongue playing with hers in a sexy tango that made her blood sing through her veins. Heat bloomed between her thighs, hot damp primal heat that threatened to engulf her. He began to remove her clothes, slowly, gently, anointing her naked skin with his lips and tongue as he went. He left her in just her underwear, his gaze running over her hungrily. ‘Your turn.’
Elspeth worked at his clothes but she was trembling so much with need it became almost beyond her capability. ‘How do they make this look so darn easy in the movies?’ she said, fumbling with his shirt buttons.
Mack smiled and finished the job for her, hauling the shirt to one side. His chest was broad and toned and lightly dusted with rough hair. He had a light tan and flat dark brown nipples. He kicked off his shoes and pulled off his socks and stood in just his jeans. ‘Think you can manage the rest?’
Elspeth disguised a gulp and went for the fastener on his jeans. ‘I’ll give it a go.’ Her fingers tingled as soon as she touched his hard, flat abdomen, heat racing up her arm like a live current. She lowered his zip and ran an exploratory finger across the tented bulge of his arousal. ‘Wow, pretty impressive.’
He cupped one side of her face in his hand. ‘Don’t be nervous. I’ll go slowly.’
His gentle tone made it hard for her to keep her emotions out of the situation. ‘I’m not nervous. I want you.’
‘I want you too.’ He spoke the words against her lips, then kissed her deeply again. His hands lowered the straps of her bra, then he unclipped the fastener at the back and it fell away to the floor. He lifted his mouth off hers to gaze at her nakedness, his pupils flaring. ‘You’re so beautiful.’
‘Small, you mean.’
‘Beautiful.’ He brought his mouth to her right breast, his lips soft and yet like fire on her flesh. His tongue traced around her nipple in a fiery pathway, making her shudder with delight. He took her nipple in his mouth and drew on it gently, the tingling sensation making her toes curl and her spine loosen. He moved to her other breast, exploring it in the same exquisite detail, sending shivers through her body.
His hand moved down to cup her most intimate flesh. The sensation of his warm palm against her, even through the barrier of lace, was nothing short of electrifying. She moved instinctively against his hand, yearning for more contact. He stroked a lazy finger down the seam of her body, a light, teasing touch that sent a shock wave through her. The come-and-play-with-me motion of his finger created a firestorm in her flesh and she groaned out loud.
‘More...oh, please, more...’
Mack peeled away her knickers and she stepped out of them. She would have overbalanced if he hadn’t had hold of her. His eyes were dark and lustrous with want and he drank his fill of her, his breathing rate escalating. ‘I can’t take my eyes off you.’
‘As long as your hands are on me as well, I don’t mind what you do with your eyes.’ Elspeth pressed a hot kiss to his mouth, pushing herself against him, aching for him in a way she hadn’t thought possible. A burning ache that heated her flesh to boiling point. He returned the kiss with a deep groan, his lips and tongue wreaking further havoc on her already dazzled senses.
She was impatient to touch him skin on skin and so, with a boldness she hadn’t thought she possessed, she peeled his underwear from his lean hips. She touched him and was rewarded with a deep groan of pleasure that seemed to come right from the centre of his body. It emboldened her to be more daring. She stroked his powerful length, a vicarious thrill of pleasure passing through her own body at the feel of him under the pads of her fingers. He was velvet-wrapped steel, potent and yet strangely vulnerable. She wrapped her fingers around him and squeezed and he sucked in a harsh-sounding breath, a shudder of pleasure visibly rippling through him.
‘You’re a natural at this,’ he said.
‘I don’t know about that... I’m just feeling my way here.’
‘Feel away.’
Elspeth ran her thumb over the head of his erection where some pre-ejaculatory fluid had formed. ‘You really do want me, don’t you?’ Her voice came out in breathless wonder.
‘Like I said, I can’t hide it.’ He pressed her down on the bed, stopping only long enough before joining her to get a condom. He applied it with a complete lack of self-consciousness and she wondered if he had lost count of the times he had performed the task with other lovers. She was annoyed with herself for thinking about his life as a playboy. What did she care about any of that? He was here with her at this moment, not with anyone else. That was all that mattered.
He came down beside her on the bed and stroked his hand down from her waist to her thigh and back again. ‘Are you still okay with this? We can stop at any point.’
Elspeth traced around his sculptured mouth with a slow-moving finger. ‘I’m okay. I want this. I want you. This is what I believe is called enthusiastic consent.’
‘I wouldn’t settle for anything less.’ His tone had a note of gravity in it that assured her of his nobleness all over again. Playboy he might be, but he wasn’t the sort of man who felt entitled to a woman’s body. He was respectful and considerate and Elspeth was glad beyond measure that he was going to be her first lover.
‘I know that,’ she said, running her finger across his fuller lower lip. ‘That’s why you’re the perfect person to coach me.’
He captured her hand and pressed a kiss to the end of her finger, his gaze holding hers in an intimate lock that sent a frisson through her body. ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’ His voice was low and husky.
‘You won’t.’
‘Sometimes the first time can be painful for some women.’
‘How many virgins have you slept with?’
‘None.’
Elspeth raised her eyebrows. ‘Really?’
He caressed the curve of her cheek with the back and forth movement of his thumb. ‘You’re the first.’
A thought suddenly occurred to her. ‘Are you nervous?’
He grimaced, then squeezed her hand and planted another kiss on her fingertip. ‘I’m nervous about you placing more significance on us making love than what’s necessary.’
Elspeth gave him a playful punch on the arm, not all that surprised his muscles were as hard as stone. ‘Will you stop trying to make me out as some sort of romance tragic who can’t tell the difference between casual and committed sex? I have my feet planted firmly on the ground, although not right at this moment because I’m lying here with you—which feels amazing, by the way.’ She ran her finger down his sternum to his belly button and back up again. ‘I’m not going to beg you to marry me, Mack. After my twin’s and Sabine’s cancelled weddings, I’m starting to think weddings and me are a terrible combination.’
He gave a crooked smile and captured her hand once more, holding it against the throbbing heat of his body. ‘So, we’re clear on the rules, then there’s nothing to stop me doing this.’ He brought his mouth down to hers in a blisteringly hot kiss that made her skin tingle all over. He lifted his mouth from hers and continued, ‘Or this.’ He placed his lips on her breast, stroking his tongue around her nipple until her back arched off the bed.
Elspeth gasped and moved closer to the heat of his body, searching for him instinctively, aching for him with a primal ache that was uncontrollable. He moved down her body with a series of kisses that made her nerves twitch with need. He finally came to the heart of her femininity, the warm moist cave of her body that was preparing in secret for his possession. He brought his mouth to her folds, separating her with his tongue, his lips playing with her sensitised flesh, sending waves of tingling pleasure through her body. Delicious tension began to build in her swollen tissues, tension that grew to a crescendo. A storm of sensation that threatened to erupt at any moment. His tongue flicked against her in a repetitive motion, fast and yet gentle flickers that triggered an explosion in her flesh. Her back arched, her legs stiffened, her toes curled as an orgasm rippled through her in giant waves. It went on and on, sending bright starbursts off behind her tightly closed eyes. Her body thrashed beneath the ministrations of his clever mouth, the sensations carrying her away to a place where all conscious thought was pushed aside.
Mack stroked the length of her thigh in the aftermath, his gaze warm and tender. ‘It gets better.’
Elspeth let out a fluttering breath. ‘You have to be joking. How could anything be better than that?’
He planted a soft kiss on her mouth, one of his hands cupping her breast. ‘I’ll show you.’
‘I can hardly wait.’
He smiled a sexy smile that made her toes curl all over again. ‘I won’t make you wait too long.’
Elspeth kissed him back. ‘You’d better not or I won’t be answerable for the consequences.’
‘Should I be afraid?’ Mack gave her a teasing look, his eyes twinkling.
‘Very.’ She lifted her face for his kiss, losing herself in the sheer magic of the erotic choreography of their lips and tongue.
He moved over her, separating her legs with a gentle placement of his hand on her thigh, his strong body positioned so as not to crush her with his weight. She clasped him tightly to her, wanting more contact, wanting the closest contact of all. He nudged her entrance, testing her readiness, his gentle sounds of encouragement helping her to relax. He slid in a small distance, waiting for her to get used to him, one of his hands softly stroking her face.
‘Are you okay?’ His eyes were dark, his tone gentle, his touch magical.
‘I’m fine. You feel...amazing...’ She found herself whispering the words in wonder. Her body was so ready for him, so hungry it welcomed him without a twinge of discomfort.
‘So do you.’ He kissed her on the lips and went a little deeper, his body thick and strong. He began slowly thrusting, allowing her time to catch the rhythm of his body within hers. Her flesh tightened around him, accepting him, wanting him, needing him as she needed air to breathe. The pleasurable sensations began to build within her core, the tension ramping up until she was desperate to fly free once more. But she wasn’t quite able to get there with just the movements of his body within her. She arched her spine, needing more friction at the heart of her flesh but not sure how to get it.
Mack slipped his hand down between their bodies, touching her swollen tenderness with expert precision, the coaxing movement of his fingers against her sending her into the stratosphere within a heartbeat. The orgasm rocked through her like a storm, tossing her about in a sea of sensation that left no part of her unaffected. Her body tingled from head to foot, all her nerves and tissues in rapturous pleasure unlike anything she could have ever imagined. The ripples continued in pulsing waves that triggered his own release. Elspeth held him as his body shuddered with the power of it, his final deep thrusts sending another wave of pleasure through her. It shocked her a little to think she had given him such a thunderous release. She, who had had no experience of sex until now. She hadn’t considered herself a sensual person at all and yet here she was lying in Mack’s arms in the aftermath of a blissful encounter. Who knew her body could be so in tune with his?
Or maybe it was always like that for him. All of his lovers had a good time in his arms.
She was nothing special. How could she be? They were keeping their relationship casual.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful to be his special someone? The person he chose to be with for longer than a night or two. Elspeth tried not to allow her mind to wander down that path...the path of happy ever after. But how could she not after experiencing such tenderness, such passion and excitement in his arms?
