the maddening drag of his knuckle. “I wore it for ye. Only ye, Gregor.”
He made a strangled sound, like a feral animal caught against its will. Then he was upon her.
He captured her mouth in a demanding kiss even as both his hands closed over her aching breasts. She didn’t know whether to exhale in relief at the longed-for contact, or suck in a breath at the arrows of sensation that shot straight to her core.
Either way, she didn’t want it to stop. Her fingers dug deep into the corded muscles of his shoulders, wordlessly demanding more.
He was all too eager to acquiesce. He dragged his thumbs over her beaded nipples, first circling then pressing. She quaked in pleasure, feeling as though she would come out of her skin if he kept up his ministrations.
But when he slipped one hand into the neckline, his fingers skimming across her bare breast, she knew she needed even more.
He closed his palm around her breast, lifting it free of the constricting velvet. When the chilly night air hit her skin, her nipple drew impossibly tighter. Then suddenly his mouth was on her, hot and tormenting.
She sagged against the bluff, her legs turning to porridge under the blazing flick of his tongue. To keep her from crumpling, one arm snaked around her waist and held her steady against his clever lips.
She squeezed her legs against the damp heat mounting there. No one had ever explained such a reaction to her before, yet some base instinct told her it was right. It was part of this ferocious, animalistic hunger that had driven them both mad.
He tore his mouth from her breast on a ragged growl.
“If ye were mine, I’d take ye here and now.”
She moaned in frustration at the image that conjured. Without realizing it, she’d lifted one leg over his, her ankle hooking behind his calf.
His hand seemed to follow the direction of her awareness. Releasing her waist, he trailed his palm over her hip. Abruptly, he hitched her leg higher, so that her knee rested on his rock-hard thigh.
“Feel how badly I want ye, lass.”
He pressed his pelvis into hers, rotating his hips slowly. Even through the heavy layers of her gown, the hard column of his manhood was unmistakable.
She’d felt it before, when they’d kissed on the battlements, but not like this. Then, they’d both been trying to avoid treading further into the waters of temptation that had beckoned them. Now, he wanted her to feel the evidence of his desire, wanted to pull her deeper with him.
He ground into her, notching his thick length just where she ached the most.
“Oh God.”
“If ye were mine…”
His hand slid lower, to where her gown bunched around her raised leg. He pushed the heavy fabric up. Cold air rushed across her bare thigh, but she hardly noticed or cared, so lost was she to the moment.
The calluses on his coarse palm rasped against her sensitive skin as he moved up her leg. Gooseflesh erupted in the wake of his hand, making her shiver.
When his fingers teased the inside of her thigh, she tensed, but not in denial of his touch. Nay, never that. But the need was coiled so tight within her that she feared she would explode.
“If ye were mine, I’d fall to my knees and kiss ye here,” he breathed.
Then he dragged a finger along the wet seam of her sex, and she nearly came undone. The provocative image in his words collided with his touch, turning her belly to liquid fire.
“I’d stroke ye with my tongue until ye screamed my name.” The finger parted her, dragging through her damp folds. He circled slowly, tracing every delicate contour. He settled at the crest of her sex, teasing the tight bundle of nerves there.
Oh. God. And if that were his tongue… Birdie’s knees began to shake uncontrollably.
“Then, when ye’d shattered against my mouth, I’d rise and take ye. Slowly.”
His thumb took over the lightning-hot pressure at the top of her sex, while his finger slid to her opening. He eased the tip inside.
She started at the invasion, an entirely new sensation, yet under the persistent stroke of his thumb over that aching point of pleasure, her muscles relaxed.
So exquisitely gradually, he pushed deeper. Birdie panted, her head falling back against the rocky bluff. It was strange, this slow, throbbing penetration. She felt stretched and full in a place she’d never known was empty. And every moment she thought he’d reached the limit, he pushed