Highland Hellion (Highland Weddings #3)(80)

She liked the way he looked, too. All hard, with his member rising as need built between them. It was strange the way her senses became keener when he was near. Now, she could feel her heart accelerating and hear the way his breathing began to rasp between his teeth.

That was another compliment that might be savage, but it suited her well.

“Touch me,” he said. “Come to me because ye want to be here.”

She’d never heard him sound so needy before. It hit her in the heart as she struggled to accept that beneath his hardened exterior was a person with doubts, just like her.

“We are more alike than ye think, lass,” he explained. “For all that I appreciate ye seeing me as a man who is capable, the truth is I wonder if I will ever please me father, me clan, or anyone else in this life. And I wonder why I can nae seem to do so.”

She ended up smiling at him, moving toward him and feeling as if she was approaching the only safe haven in a storm. He cupped her shoulders, smoothing his hands down her arms. She reached down and handled his member, teasing it with soft strokes of her fingers. For a moment, they stood there, petting each other and fanning the flames of desire.

“We should make a habit of retiring early.”

He grinned at her through gritted teeth. “Aye…” he groaned.

A sense of victory went through her, for drawing that tone from him. So many times, she had writhed beneath his touch; now she wanted to prove that she was every bit as much his match.

So she slid to her knees.

“Kat.”

He didn’t get another word out before she’d opened her mouth and licked the top of his member.

He jerked, but he’d caught a handful of her hair and kept her in place as she licked him again and again before opening her mouth to seal her lips around the head of his cock.

“Christ almighty…”

He was hissing as he strained and arched, pushing his member farther into her mouth. She took it, using her tongue to stroke it as he did when he lapped her slit. It seemed to reduce him to the same state of mindless pleasure, so she continued sucking, licking, and using her hands to stroke him. His breathing became rougher, his member hardening even more. She tasted the first drop of his seed and licked it away from the slit on the top of his cock.

“Nae…” He pulled her away, tightening his grip when she tried to resume. “Ye’ll unman me.”

“You do so to me often,” she argued.

Rolfe bent down and scooped her off her knees. That quickly, control shifted between them once more. He cradled her, proving how much stronger he was, but the look in his eyes when he came down on top of her—she’d put that glitter there.

“But I’ll no’ leave ye unsatisfied, lass.”

He sank into her body. She arched and purred with pleasure, reaching up to lock her hands on his shoulders. He pulled free and thrust into her with a slow, unhurried motion that left her eager for more friction.

“Nae, never unsatisfied…” he muttered in a tight voice.

She realized he was fighting back the urge to pound her hard, taking the time to build the urgency until she was bucking beneath him, every bit as eager for a hard ride as he was.

Pleasure shook them both, like trees in a summer thunderstorm. They had no choice except to dance under the power of the wind as they shuddered and collapsed in a breathless heap.

Rolfe rolled back toward her sometime later, after they had both cooled enough to touch. Now, he folded her against him as he lay behind her, his hand cupping her breast like it was a treasure.

“When you touch me, I forget why this cannot work.”

He rose up and looked down at her. “Does that mean ye are nae going to swing that pitcher at me?”

She snorted and sent a jab at his lower belly. He curled up, faking fear.

“It would serve you right if I did.”

Rolfe left the bed, stopping to put on his shirt before he went across the bedchamber and into the outer one. He looked back at her. “I want to show ye something.”

There was a serious note in his voice. She left the bed, plucking her chemise from the floor as she went. He’d pulled something from a leather case hanging near one of the wardrobes. It was a rolled parchment that crinkled when he opened it. He kept it flat on the table by setting the pitcher on top of it.

Katherine read it through twice before she looked up at him. “My stepmother offered a dowry for me?”

“Marcus as well,” Rolfe confirmed. “Ye are quite the heiress, lass, and interestingly enough, worth more in the Highlands than in England. Yer stepmother made it a condition of this dowry that I take ye north and keep ye here.”

“But…” She walked a bit away from him, unable to stand still. “Why haven’t you told your father? It would quiet him.”

“I know.” Rolfe answered her swiftly and in a tone that made it clear he had no liking for the fact. “Yet if I did so, ye would always doubt I wanted ye for my wife no matter what ye brought me.”

She stood there stunned, feeling as though he had plunged a dagger straight through her heart. Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes, falling down her cheeks in hot drops.

“Oh Christ.” He looked toward the ceiling but then back at her, jumping forward to wrap her in his arms. “That was meant to please ye. I swear it.”

She wiggled against him, pushing until he released her with a frustrated snort.