Chapter Twenty-nine
That night after they'd eaten, shared a bath, and were both naked in bed, Ethan proved Maddy's theory again and again.
Though he plied her with champagne, he was brusque and distant with her—which amused her because she viewed this as the desperate, last-ditch defense of a rattled bachelor.
She could handle his moodiness. It wasn't difficult because the idea of sharing a life with him appealed to her more and more, especially after a day like today—she'd left food on her plate and had enjoyed tea without hauling water up to her window; tonight, after their light, teasing touches in the bath, the promise of complete pleasure lingered between them.
'Ethan, I've noticed you're cross with me tonight for some reason,' she asked innocently. 'Have I done something to offend you?'Besides threatening the wall around your heart.
'I want to take you,' he said curtly. 'You're supposed to be mine, and I've already claimed you. Tonight I mean to be inside you again.'
'Honestly, Scot, your moods confuse me so. I can hardly keep up with them. Maybe it's the champagne and I'm overly sensitive, but your treatment of me is very erratic—'
He pressed her shoulders to the mattress, levering his massive body over hers. But she wasn't afraid in the least. 'Just lie back, wench.'
She snickered. 'Did you call mewench ? Well, you certainly dated yourself there, didn't you? Sometimes I forget how old you are. What's your age, anyway? Thirty-seven? Thirty-eight?'
'I'm thirty-three.' Looking completely at a loss, he released her. 'Am I…do you think metoo old for you?'
'Not at all, Ethan,' she answered honestly.
'Then admit it, you will no' sleep with me because of my scar. I'd never had any trouble seducing before I received it—'
She laughed then, clutching her stomach, rolling on the bed. 'You're fishing for a compliment!'
'Are you mad? Stop bloody laughing!'
After several tries, she finally did. 'I'm sorry, I just didn't imagine you would be so vain.'
'I was no' fishing for a compliment.'
'Then how would you explain your comment, when you know very well why I won't sleep with you, and you know it hasnothing to do with your appearance? And so, to appease your hungry vanity—'
'Damn you, witch, I am no'—'
'—I will tell you that I find you utterly attractive, handsome, and virile.'
His words seemed to die in his throat. His brows drew together as if he'd been confounded.
'I was going to tell you that morning in Paris,' Maddy said, 'but you kept ridiculing my poverty, and I didn't want to relinquish the one chink I'd uncovered in your armor.'
He looked away when he asked, 'And the scar?'
'I'm sorry you were hurt, in whatever mysterious fight you were in.' She brushed her fingertips along it. This time he accepted the touch, his eyes briefly sliding shut. 'But the mark highlights the fact that you're a strong man, who's been honed by a hard life.'
He scrubbed his hand over the back of his neck. 'I doona understand you.'
'This is all a test, isn't it? You want to see how deep my affection for you goes or to determine if I'll be able to put up with your surliness and tolerate you in marriage.'
'Aye, if that's what you believe. And only one thing can prove it—and that's for you to let me have you now.'
'Scot, that's not fair.'
'Do you no' want to convince me?'
She nibbled her lip, wondering how he would react if she attempted something she'd seen again and again and had always been curious about. He certainly didn't seem the type to chastise her for being overbold.
'I wonder if'—she pressed a kiss to his chest—'there might be something else I could do to prove my affection.' Another kiss lower. His entire body tensed, and his thick erection pulsed. 'Something I've been imagining.'
'You canna be talkin' about,' he shook his head hard, 'aboutthat —' He hissed in a breath when she nuzzled the trail of hair below his navel, letting him feel her hot breaths. His hands shot out to cradle her face, and he rasped, 'Ah, you beautiful lass, you are….'He shuddered, drawing his knees up around her. 'You've been…you've been thinking about this?'
'Uh-huh,' she murmured, kissing the rigid indentations of his stomach. 'When I watch you shave.'
'You canna tease me with this.' His brows were drawn as if he were in pain. 'You doona know how badly I want it.'
'I've always been curious to try this.' She slowly rubbed her cheek along his shaft, making his knees fall wide open.
'Pull your hair aside. I want tae see you takin' me.'
Once she'd pulled her hair over one shoulder, she leaned down again, letting him feel her breaths against the slick crown before she flicked her tongue over the slit.
His eyes rolled back in his head.
His reaction emboldened her. He needed this, truly ached for something she could gladly give him. When she circled her tongue around the smooth head, closing her eyes in bliss, she discovered that she ached for it, too. Enthralled with this new delight, she teased and played, wanting to do this all night.
'Ah, God, that's it,' he grated. 'Now take it in your mouth….'
She hesitated, then ignored his command, beginning to feel a kind of power with the act. Again and again, she lapped at the moisture on the crown until he was arching his back, seeming in anguish.
'I have no' had this in a verra long time,' he said, choking out the words. 'Play later.' He grasped her head in his shaking hands, easing her down.
But she drew back. 'I want to savor my first time.'
'Indulge—me,' he growled.
'What if I said no?' She pursed her lips and blew against him, making him shudder and buck his hips. 'Looks like I hold all the cards—'
Like a shot, he grabbed her by the waist, tossing her to her back. As she sputtered and cried out, he pulled her around, positioning her so he could repay her in kind. He appeared menacing over her as he clutched her wrists under her back, pinning her so she couldn't move.
'Looks like wee lasses should no' play with men like me.' When he took his time settling between her legs, she gasped helplessly, knowing she'd never been more aroused. 'Especially no' in bed.'
Ethan sidled his shoulders under her knees until her legs rested over his back.
Then he merely grazed his lips up her satiny inner thighs, making her pant, her breasts rising and falling fast. He lazily placed wet licks against her belly, slowly descending from her navel.
'Spread your legs.' She did, opening her sex to him, and his cock pulsed, wanting to be buried inside it.
Though he'd only planned to tease her as she had him, when he saw how visibly luscious she was, he couldn't stop himself from pressing his opened mouth directly to her core. He slid his tongue out to taste her for the first time and found her so deliciously slick.
Instantly, he groaned, his fingers biting into her soft thighs. She cried out at once, undulating against his mouth. As he delved harder with his tongue, flicking her clitoris, her heels dug into his back in total abandon.
Then he somehow made himself draw back.
She raised her head and opened her eyes, brows knitted in confusion. 'M-more,' she panted. When she looked at him so hungrily, he nearly wasn't able to deny her.
'Now do you ken how I felt?'
'Yes, yes.'She tried to free her hands, writhing with her legs spread, until he didn't know how much longer he could keep his mouth from her. 'Ethan, I-I won't tease you. I promise.'
'Good, Maddy.' He forced her legs wider to take her more deeply, to get more of the exquisite taste he'd only sampled.
