hurt. Nay, he needed her tonight. There were a dozen reasons not to take her to bed, but he didn't give a damn about any of them. Ilysa wanted him, and that was all the reason he needed.
* * *
Ilysa swallowed at the naked hunger in Connor's eyes. She had started this, and she was not going to lose her courage now. When she reached back to untie her breid, the cloth tied over her hair, he stopped her.
"Let me."
When he stood, he towered over her. She fixed her gaze on the vee of his shirt as he untied the knot at the back of her neck, lifted the breid off her head, and drew her braid over her shoulder.
"Ye look so pretty," he said as he cupped her face between his hands. "This time, we'll go slowly - and we will most definitely be naked."
Naked? Ilysa's breathing grew shallow as he kissed her cheeks, her nose, the point of her chin, and the sensitive spot beneath her ear.
Connor released her and said, "I'll bar the door."
He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it into a chair as he walked across the room, at ease in his body and unconscious of his beauty. And Connor MacDonald was beautiful. Ilysa's head felt light as her gaze traveled the lines of his broad, muscular back and down to his narrow waist. The muscles of his buttocks and long legs flexed beneath his trews as he moved with the sure grace of a warrior.
When he came back toward her, Ilysa's body prickled with awareness and her chest felt too tight. Without taking his gaze from her face, Connor stripped off his trews - and Ilysa stopped breathing altogether. Her brief look at him naked when she had barged in on him that first day after his bath had been wholly inadequate.
When she dropped her gaze lower, her mouth fell open. His staff was standing straight up, and it was far bigger than she expected. She had not seen it the first time. Though she had not ever gotten much of a look at her husband's, either, she was certain it had never been like this.
After realizing she was gaping, she dragged her gaze to his face. O shluagh! The heat in his eyes singed her skin and made her pulse leap wildly. Everything about the intimidating warrior before her was overpowering - his nakedness, his wolf-hungry eyes, his erect shaft. She had to remind herself that this was Connor, and she could trust him.
She did trust him. More than that, she loved him.
When he pulled into her arms and kissed her, she soon forgot her nervousness. For such a hard-muscled man, his lips were soft and pliable. While he deepened the kiss, he ran his hand from her hip up to the side of her breast. Her head spun as their tongues entwined. All the while, she was excruciatingly aware of his shaft pressing against her stomach through the layers of her skirts.
She felt the tension of his taut muscles beneath her fingers as his kisses grew more urgent. Connor groaned into her mouth as his hand covered her breast. When he rubbed his thumb across her nipple through her gown, sharp sparks of pleasure shot through her, and she had to break the kiss to gasp for air.
Connor moved to her neck, giving her a sucking kiss that pulled sensations all the way from her toes. Then he grew gentle again, and she sighed as he ran his tongue along the skin above her bodice.
When he pulled back, his black hair fell over his eyes, making him look dangerously handsome. "Let's take your gown off and get into bed."
A squeak of assent was all she could manage.
Connor's hand shook as he slowly pulled at the loose end of the bow at the top of her bodice. She watched the rise and fall of his chest as he unfastened the laces that held the front of her gown together, revealing her chemise beneath it. Then he pulled her against him and kissed her until she could not think at all. One hand supported her back, while the other was inside her bodice kneading her breast. When he found her nipple again, he sent shivers of pleasure spiraling through her body until she was breathless. And far too warm.
Once he took his hand from her breast, he was remarkably quick at removing her gown. Ilysa was uneasy, but at least she still