dance, giving herself to the delicious sensations she had never dreamed existed. As he pounded into her, her world exploded into blissful shards of pure raw pleasure.
Sutherland rumbled with a deep roar, then held fast. Shuddering with his arms locked around her. After a long span of thundering heartbeats, he relaxed on top of her, panting and gasping as he buried his face in the crook of her neck. “Yer mine, mo ghràdh. Never forget that ye’re mine forever.”
She smiled as he locked his arms around her to keep from crushing her. “As ye are mine, my precious love.”
He hoisted himself up and locked eyes with her. “I am going to tell ye something, something I have never told any woman ever before—and that ye must believe.”
“Aye,” she encouraged. “What is it ye would tell me, my husband?”
“I love ye.” The look on his face touched the very center of her heart. “I love ye so much it frightens me, ye ken?”
Tears welled free and a horde of emotions knotted in her throat, making it impossible to speak, so she nodded and softly touched his face. Swallowing hard to regain her composure, she managed a tremulous smile. “And I love ye as well. Love ye more than ye will ever know,” she whispered.
After moments more precious than she ever thought possible and several nuzzling kisses, Sutherland slid out of the bed, cradling her to his chest.
“What are ye doing?” she asked, intrigued and more than a little excited at such brazen behavior.
He treated her to a long, slow kiss. “It is time for our bath, m’lady.”
*
He emerged from the depths of sleep with Sorcha softly snoring on top of him. Her head was nestled in the center of his chest, and her delightful body sprawled down the length of him. The fullness of her breasts and softness of her belly hardened him immediately, reawakening the insatiable ache to return to her sweet warmth. His need for her was unquenchable. No amount of loving this precious woman would ever be enough.
As he smoothed a hand down her shoulders and rested it in the small of her back, she stirred slightly but didn’t awaken. That brought him a smile. She enjoyed the sleep of the well-loved and fully sated. Good. He had done well for his wife’s first pleasuring.
From the looks of the window, they had loved away the day and on into the night. Sutherland bit the inside of his cheek to keep from chuckling at the memory of the wide-eyed chambermaid backing out of the room and quietly closing the door behind her. Sorcha hadn’t seen the girl who was probably coming to light the evening candles and stoke the fire. With her head at the foot of the bed and her legs wrapped around him as he held onto the bedposts and pounded into her, his lovely wife had been entirely too busy to notice anyone entering the room.
Sutherland swallowed hard. Damnation, he throbbed to take her again but felt guilty at even considering it. They had loved over and over for hours. His poor, formerly virginal, lass would probably be so sore she wouldn’t be able to walk. He ran his other hand down her back and linked it with the other, lacing his fingers together as he pulled her tighter against him.
She stirred again, wiggling her legs between his with a soft sigh. As she smoothed her hands down his arms, she lifted her head and pressed a kiss to his chest. “My bed shall never be cold again as long as I have this lovely warmth to sleep on.”
“I should say I’m ashamed to have awakened ye,” he said as he filled his hands with her buttocks and squeezed. “But it would be a lie.”
“It never stops—my needing ye,” she murmured as she scooted up higher for a long, tender kiss. Breasts flattened against his chest, she straddled him, rocking and rubbing with every teasing flick of her tongue. “I never knew it would be this way.” She rose up and buried him inside her with a satisfied groan. She suddenly stopped moving, her head tilting as she looked down at him with worry knotting her brow. “Has it been like this with every woman ye’ve been with?”
Her innocent question stabbed him straight in the heart. Damn his wandering ways all the way to hell and back. If he hadn’t been such a thoughtless rogue, not treated women in such a callous way, she never would