Bride For A Knight Page 0,23

own, in dire times, when my father and his men have been off warring or visiting allies. And" - she fixed him with a level stare - "I am knowledgeable in the healing arts and do not grow faint at the sight of blood and broken limbs. I - "

"You are everything a man could hope for, and more than this one e'er dreamed of making his own," Jamie vowed, three quick strides taking him to her. "You misread my displeasure in the hall. Your father and I had manly matters to discuss. They had naught to do with your lady skills."

She blinked. "Then you weren't speaking of me?"

Jamie pulled a hand down over his chin. "Och, we had other issues to resolve," he said, hoping she'd leave it at that. "But you were on my mind, aye."

"If not my abilities, then what were you thinking of?"

"This," Jamie said, leaning down to kiss her.

A gentle kiss, so soft and light as he could make it. Until she melted into him and sighed with what could only be called pleasure. Clinging to him, she parted her lips - lips every bit as luscious and honeyed as he'd known they'd be. Unable to help himself, he angled his head, deepening the kiss he'd been burning to give her ever since glimpsing her in the wood. He let his tongue tease hers, his heart hammering when she slid her arms around him, holding fast to his shoulders and tangling her fingers in his hair.

Hair just as thick, rich, and silky as she'd imagined. Falling free to his shoulders, the cool, smooth strands spilled through her fingers as seductively as the slow, sensual glides of his tongue against hers. Fine, liquid heat began streaming through her, making her feel dizzy and yet wondrously alive. Shivery and breathless.

Her heart began to pound and she pressed closer, welcoming his kiss, her own greedy woman's need reveling in how she could feel every thundering beat of his heart echoing through her entire body.

Her nipples tightened against his chest and her knees quivered, the hot strokings of his tongue unleashing a maddeningly delicious swirl of fluttery sensation deep inside her.

A wicked, incredibly pleasurable pulsing she was quite certain she shouldn't be enjoying.

Not here, in her father's privy solar and the door not even bolted. But he was her plight-trothed husband and his sapphire ring did wink on the fourth finger of her left hand. So she took courage from that ring and gave in to the wonderment, letting her tongue tease and tangle with his, again and again until such white-hot fire raced through her she was certain she'd find herself singed when the kiss ended.

There could be no harm in allowing him to kiss her.

Or in kissing him back.

After all, wasn't this what she'd yearned for when she'd slipped away to St. Bride's Well the other night? Hadn't she stripped naked in the wood? Bathed in sacred water and moonbeams just to ensure a pleasing, passionate match?

And hadn't St. Bride rewarded her with a glimpse of him?

Though, at the time, she'd thought the handsome, strapping knight she'd seen sitting on his horse and staring at her had been a figment of Highland magic. A moonlit whim of St. Bride to console her lonely, aching heart. Indeed, garbed in naught but the night mist, his wind-tossed plaid, and gleaming mail, he'd looked too resplendent for her to mistake him for aught else. Yet now he was here and kissing her. Aveline sighed into his mouth, opening her own wider, silently willing him not to stop, to keep up his bone-melting assault of her senses until she could no longer bear the exquisite friction of her naked breasts rubbing against the rough warmth of his plaid. Her naked breasts?

Her eyes popped open, the languorous heat that had been pulsing through her gone in a flash. "Oh, no," she gasped, looking down to see her left breast peeking over the top edge of her bodice.

Not the whole of her left breast, but her nipple was fully exposed. Dusky pink, tightly ruched, and pressed flush against James Macpherson's chest.

"Ach, dia!" She reached to adjust her gown, but he moved with lightning speed, gently capturing her wrist and lowering her hand to her side.

"Dinna fash yourself," he said, touching just the tip of his finger to her thrusting nipple. "I have ne'er seen a more fetching sight and willna have this day end with you distressed. I want you e'er certain in