she was gazing up at him when she spread her legs wider and whispered, 'Oh, God! Yes, Hugh!'
He savored even this agonizing pressure. Another slow push over her sex.
'Jane,' he groaned. Each time his shaft slid over her, he could feel his sack tightening until it ground against her wetness too. She made some unintelligible sound at the contact.
The pleasure was too great. He was going to come, and he was going to come hard.
He dropped his head and rasped, 'Arch your back for me. Have tae taste you again.' When she rushed to do so, he sucked her nipple between his lips, then tugged it with his teeth until she moaned.
Was she telling him she was about to come again? He'd make her. He'd hold on until she did once more.
The pressure had nearly turned to pain when she cried out his name and thrashed beneath him in her orgasm.
Lost, he ground himself determinedly up and back against her. 'Ah, God, Sìne, I have tae…come,' he groaned, beginning to ejaculate. He gave a brutal yell each time the hard spurts lashed across her belly…over and over until he'd finally emptied his seed.
His body wracked with after-shudders, he sank onto his elbows with hoarse exhalations of breath against her damp neck.
He couldn't believe he'd been thrusting over her like that. He closed his eyes in shame—he'd spilled his seed on her.
Drawing away, he tucked his sensitive shaft back into his pants, then rose to grab a towel. When he returned he couldn't bear to look at her, even as he wiped her skin and pulled her gown into place. He tossed the towel away and sat on the edge of the bed, head in his hands. Never had he felt so ashamed, so low. How was he going to face her tomorrow? Didn't matter, he'd have to.
No matter how badly he needed to leave, they couldn't be separated.
'Jane, I doona know what happened. I'm sorry.' He should be humiliated to be near her, and yet it was she he wanted to be with in the face of his shame—so that he didn't have to take it alone. It was enough to drive any man mad.
'There's nothing to apologize for.' She sat up on her knees behind him. 'Nothing.'
'No, I should have had more control.'
'Hugh,' she murmured, rubbing his back, 'it's just me, remember? It's just your Jane. We were always comfortable around each other.'
'This should no' have happened,' he insisted.
Just when he'd decided to rise, she said, 'Stay. Sleep with me, please.' She coaxed with light touches and soft words until he somehow found himself out of his pants and in bed with her. When he'd resigned himself to staying like this, he drew her back to his chest, his arms smoothly crossing over her as if he'd locked her against him thousands of times before.
As he'd imagined that last summer again and again, she was finally naked in his bed. He'd stared at this very ceiling and fantasized about touching her, kissing her. He'd dreamed of holding her as she slept.
The reality was so much more. He'd known he would love the scent of her hair. He hadn't known he would want to groan and shove a handful to his face. Or that he would realize her hair was long enough to brush his legs if she threw her head back while she rode him.
He'd known he would love the feel of her, but he hadn't realized how round her arse would be or that it fit like a puzzle piece to his lap.
'No more nightmares, Hugh,' she whispered drowsily. 'Or we'll have to do that again.'
He already wanted to dothat again, was even now growing hard against her bottom. When she sighed in contentment, he frowned as he tried to recall how he'd ever thought living with her was bad.
Chapter Twenty-four
When she woke the next morning, Hugh was sleeping soundly. She lay staring, fascinated with the man before her.
With his jaw unclenched, his face looked changed, younger even. The gashes on his cheek were healing, giving him a roguish look. That made her smile. Hewas a rogue—a mercenary—but he wasn't arake .
She skimmed the pad of her forefinger over his bottom lip, remembering how he'd kissed her last night— deeply, desperately, like it was the last kiss he'd ever take from her, and he had to make it last.
Everything in her had responded, and she'd let herself go. She shivered just recalling how he'd rocked his massive body over her, sliding his shaft against her sex until he'd brought her twice to orgasm. And then to see him take his pleasure as well, to see him spending over her flesh…wondrous. Though judging by his discomfited reaction last night, she doubted she'd ever be seeing it again.
Which was a problem, as she'd all but decided Hugh MacCarrick had to be her first lover.
If she'd ever needed her cousins' advice, it was now.
Today. Surely, today they would arrive.
When she tenderly brushed a lock of black hair from his forehead, his gorgeous dark eyes eased open. Seeming still half-asleep, he reached his hand up to stroke her cheek. When she smiled, his brows drew together in puzzlement.
Then he shot away from her.
After stabbing his legs into his pants, he paced for long moments, the muscles in his upper body growing more and more tensed. 'This should no' have happened, and it canna happen again,' he finally said.
His tone implied that they were discussing a tragedy, something akin to a death in the family—not the most mind-boggling pleasure she'd ever imagined. She couldn't help but feel insulted, and sat up, drawing the sheet up to her chest. 'Honestly, Hugh, you're making a mountain out of a molehill.' She waved her hand dismissively. 'We… trifled a bit.'
Instead of being grateful as she'd expected—after all, she could have called him a cad and pressed to stay married—he appeared furious. 'If we'd 'trifled' an inch lower, there could be dire consequences. Have you forgotten that we both agreed no' to do this? We agreed at the outset. Do you want to get stuck in this marriage?'
'I wish you would stop living in terror that you might get trapped in marriage with me. We didn't make love. Now, it's very simple. We put this behind us and never speak of it again.'
'I've never met a woman who could skewer a man's sense of self-worth like you can. Whoever marries you in truth will need to be a better man than me.'
She glared up at him. Skewering had never been her intention, but at that moment, she didn't regret the outcome. 'You are making too much of this,' she insisted. 'Why are you so angry when nothing permanent occurred? You're acting like a provincial.'
'Maybe you can easily put it behind you, but thattrifling affected me.' Suddenly his eyes narrowed as he lunged forward to grab her elbow. 'You're no' a virgin, are you?'
She drew back her head in bewilderment. 'Why would you askthat question?'
No, no, Hugh. Don't be like this.For ten years, he'd been out sowing his wild oats; yet he probably expected her to have been waiting for a husband. Of course, shewas a virgin, but, as was often the case, right now she wished she weren't.
Such a narrow-minded expectation was galling.
'Answer me.'
Her tone cold as ice, she said, 'Darling, I've been as celibate asyou have been since we last saw each other.'
He released her, but kept his hands raised as he backed away, as if he couldn't believe he'd touched her.
'Why would you care if I bedded a dozen men?' she asked in confusion.
He raked his fingers through his hair. 'Because women like you doona get 'easy annulments.' No' based on lack of consummation.'
Women like me.
He hit the wall, making her jump, then turned to her with the air of some trapped beast who knew the end
