Bound by Wish and Mistletoe (Highland Legends #1.5)(30)

On another drawback, he swiveled his hips, eliciting a moan from her so low, the sound resembled the purr of a cat. With her eyelids half-fallen in drowsy sensual pleasure, she gave him a tender smile.

“Does it please you, Susanna?”

“Aye, Robert. It pleases me greatly,” she said, sliding the palms of her hands along his sides, over his hips, and onto his buttocks. She dug her fingers into his skin, pulling his hips toward her as he thrust into her again.

Susanna threw her head back, crying out when he thrust hard at her urging. She lifted her other leg, pressing her heels into his ass. He pulled back faster and drove in deep. She arched her hips up and met his thrust. The timid lass he’d laid upon the rug only moments ago had vanished, a lustful woman taking her place.

She placed her lips at the base of his throat, drawing on his flesh with a hard suck. A low moan vibrated against his skin as she released her mouth and latched higher onto the side of his neck. Her fingernails pricked his hips, pulling and releasing in time with his movements.

He groaned as pleasure raced through him, shooting a demanding ache deep into his loins. As her exhalations came on low moans, each growing louder than the one before, perspiration dampened his brow from the enormous effort it took to hold back. He focused on his forced-slow breaths, waiting for her impending release to come first.

The pressure increased with her slightest movements, and he used his final, unraveling threads of strength to withstand the fiery heat surrounding his cock as her sounds turned to untamed cries. On a last torturous plunge, he held firm, rock hard and straining, as she careened toward the edge. He felt it, her hard spasm clamping around his shaft, as she gasped for air.

In that split second, sparks fired before his eyes, his entire body tightened, and he thrust deeper with a primal growl. Her scream echoed off the stone walls before he captured her lips in his, muffling their sounds. Her hands shot behind his head and pulled his hair at the scalp as she kissed him with renewed fervor, her hips grinding against him as he settled against her, deep within her. While his pulses ended, her tight spasms continued around him, one after the other, and she sobbed into their kiss.

A long sigh escaped his lungs as he stroked her tongue gently with his, her body relaxing beneath him. Their chests rose and fell hard, connecting their pounding hearts together with each gasping breath.

He broke their kiss and dropped his head, lightly touching her dampened forehead. With great tenderness, he stroked her cheek with his right thumb.

She leaned into the touch. “Robert?”

“Aye, my love,” he whispered, kissing her temple.

“Is it always like that?” she asked.

“Nay, no encounter has ever come close,” he replied.

“Why?”

His deep chuckle rumbled out. “Weel, for many reasons. I’ve never taken a maiden, I’ve never felt such deep emotion for any woman I’ve been with...and I’ve never been with a woman I intended to keep.”

The shift of her entire body drew his face away from her neck, and he looked into her eyes. Her brows furrowed as she stared up at him.

“You said that earlier...that you own me.” Her scowl deepened.

The hellion had returned. He smiled. “Aye. I do. I’ve owned you from the moment I laid eyes on you. Before you knew it—before I even knew it—you were mine,” he said.

Susanna gaped at him. He forced himself not to laugh, understanding that everything she’d recently gone through was a considerable adjustment for someone who’d been so sheltered—and emotionally abused.

She squirmed beneath him, unintentionally tightening her inner muscles around his still slightly engorged cock. He groaned.

“I’ll not be owned by anyone,” she growled. “Get off me.”

He did as she asked, slipping slowly from her. She let out a soft moan as they parted, but he groaned loudly as her slick body slid across his charged nerves. While their unrestrained sounds faded, she scowled anew—as if it were his fault she’d felt more pleasure—and flipped over on the rug.

“Oh, hell,” he grumbled.

“What?” she huffed, turning her face to the side, causing the waves of her dark hair to slide across her porcelain skin.

Unable to stop himself, he rolled over her, covering her body once again. “If you thought to punish me by showin’ me your flawless backside, you were gravely mistaken.”

She bucked back, resisting his hold, but he pinned her hips down onto the bearskin rug, immobilizing her. He brushed his lips alongside an exposed portion of her neck, exhaling across her skin. She shuddered, her body clearly affected by his touch, regardless of what her rebellious mind wanted.

“How much do you know about weddin’ and handfastin’?” he asked.

“What? I...I doona know anythin’ other than a weddin’ is a ceremony to bind a husband and wife.”

“Aye,” he replied, dragging his lips higher to rest right beneath her ear as he shifted his hips, his shaft aligning with the cleft of her pert little ass. “When a maiden and a man unite physically, one for the other with heart and body, they’re handfasted in the eyes of the church. Our clan recognizes those sacred laws.”

“What...what are you sayin’?” she shook her head, arching her neck away from his lips.

He moved a hand up to her head, letting his hips continue to pin her body, and brushed her hair over her left shoulder, gripping it tight within his fist. He dropped his lips back to her ear, sucking the lobe into his mouth. “Aye, you belong to me. But I also belong to you. We’re now husband and wife.”