crinkle as his gaze warmed. “I already care.”
Nora wondered if she were hearing things. “If you mean to be kind, I am grateful, but—”
His finger touched her lips, silencing her. “Nay. Of course ye deserve kindness rather than shame, yet much more as well. Ah, Nora, this does not change my feelings.” The currents of emotion in his voice warmed the hidden recesses of her heart. He lifted her hand and kissed her fingertips then the tender base of her wrist. “The only stain is in your mind, lass. Together, we can wash it away.”
A flurry of emotions began inside her, like the beating of a thousand tiny wings. Meeting Lennox’s gaze, Nora could not bear to say one more hard thing.
“I want that,” she whispered. “Very much.”
“I know ye are strong and spirited, Nora Brodie, but today, in this bed, I would ask that ye surrender to me.” The smoldering desire in his eyes made her heart leap. “Trust me.”
“I will.” She spoke the words like a vow. “But what shall I do?”
For an instant, his brow arched in invitation. “Your body will know.”
Terrified and exhilarated all at once, Nora went into Lennox’s arms. It was heaven, feeling the strength and tenderness of his embrace. The intoxicating scent of his skin, the texture of his hair, the hunger in his sea-green eyes, all combined to ignite a flame of arousal inside her. He kissed her with practiced lips, slowly drawing out each exquisite sensation, while his fingers found the laces on her gown.
“I want us to be naked together,” he said in a ragged whisper.
Slowly, Lennox removed each piece of her clothing, his fingertips brushing her skin just enough to make her ache for more. When she lay under Lennox’s gaze clad in only a silk smock, he levered himself on an elbow and lightly caressed from her knee upward, under the smock to graze Nora’s sensitive inner thigh. Their eyes met, and she felt the heat in her face.
“Does that feel good?” he whispered.
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, nodding. Warmth surged between her legs, building with each brush of his fingertips, and yet he avoided the place that ached most for his touch.
Please…
Instead, without moving his hand from her thigh, he kissed her, a deep, sweet kiss that only intensified Nora’s ache. His mouth moved down the column of her neck, burning, until he reached her breasts, still covered by her smock. Her nipples puckered just thinking about his mouth, so close, and then she felt his tongue, hot and wet, through the whisper-thin silk. The erotic sensation was a shock.
“Ye are perfect, so beautiful,” he murmured. He covered her nipple with his mouth and sucked it in, the silky barrier adding to the sharp currents of pleasure. At the same time, his hand lightly stroked inside her thigh, closer, closer.
Nora arched her neck, every nerve in her body alive. His fingertips brushed the curls between her legs and she moaned aloud, opening to him, lifting her hips to try to bring him in contact with the wet, congested bud that needed his touch so desperately.
“Ye were made for love,” Lennox said softly. “Can ye feel it?”
She nearly sobbed when he finally touched her there, lightly pinching in a way that drove her mad. His fingertip moved in gentle circles, not quite giving her what she needed until her arousal became unbearably heightened. Nora had pleasured herself before, to the point of release, but these feelings went far beyond her imaginings.
Her eyes were closed in concentration when she felt him gently pushing her smock up and over her head. She barely had a chance to register her own nakedness, for Lennox was now kissing her hip, her abdomen, her inner thigh. Nora gasped aloud, daring to look. To her shock, she saw Lennox’s unruly golden head, there, between her legs.
“Let go, lass,” he murmured, sending her a faintly roguish smile.
It should have been shameful, but the sight of him there only intensified her arousal. When he replaced his fingertip with his mouth, she gave a low cry. He licked, swirled, flicked, and explored until the sensations grew wilder, insistent, nearly unbearable. Nora reached out for his hair, grasping what she could, trying to get closer to him. On the verge of insisting that he stop, she had to have more.
He was driving her completely mad. As Nora hovered at the precipice, he pushed a finger deep inside her, tipping her over the edge. A glorious