His lips found the back of her neck. His warm mouth, the rasp of his whiskers—her skin prickled with a delicious wave of pleasure. He administered tender, suckling kisses down the slope of her shoulder as he untied the back of her kirtle and lowered her sleeve to expose her shoulder.
Her heart raced with anticipation. She wanted her clothing off faster, and his too for that matter, to experience the press of their nakedness together.
She had never been curious about what went on between a man and a woman. She knew the basic details, of course. She’d seen drunks rutting behind taverns with the wenches who served them their ale. Never before had she wanted it. She did now—with every primal part of her being.
But William didn’t strip her clothes off her. Instead, he kissed her exposed shoulder and eased his hand into the neckline of her kirtle. His warm palm found her naked breast beneath as his deft fingers rolled and worked over her nipple until she was crying out.
Slowly, he moved the other breast, repeating the intimate massage as he kissed his way up her neck to her earlobe.
She moaned, panting with need, sounds far too loud in the otherwise quiet room, but she didn’t care. Not when her need was so great. She would do anything at that moment to get a release from the building tension at her core.
Anything.
He eased his hand from her breast and shifted outside her kirtle, moving lower, past her navel. Kinsey’s heartbeat snagged. Was he going to touch her? There?
She parted her knees as his fingers brushed over the juncture between her thighs. Her body jerked instinctively, twitching toward him. His hand curled inward, gliding between her thighs. Her pulse raced with wild delight.
No longer caring about anything but the bliss of his touch, she spread her legs as he rubbed her sex through her clothing.
“I want to bring ye pleasure.” His spicy breath was hot against her ear.
She moaned.
He gave a little growl in reply and inched her skirt upward. His arousal pressed against her bottom, heavy with lust. She wanted it thrusting inside her to sate the driving need in her core.
Her hips arched back toward him, grinding him more fully. His hand fisted in the fabric of her skirt before continuing to draw the garment higher. He didn’t stop until her legs were bare, and the triangle of red hair between her legs was just barely hidden by the hem.
William’s breath came faster in her ear.
“Touch me,” she whispered.
He groaned and his feather-light touch inched up her inner thigh to sweep over her sex. Pleasure blossomed between her thighs, making her center burn hotter, pulse deeper.
He gave a low curse. “Ye’re so wet,” he said hoarsely.
His finger stroked over her again, more firmly, toward a place so sensitive, she immediately cried out.
“Aye, there.” His teeth gently caught her earlobe, his breath heavy in her ear. “Ye like that?”
“Aye,” she gasped.
His digit circled the spot, and her frantic breath became husky with moans. Just when she thought she might die from the intensity of it, his hand slid lower, and something carefully nudged inside her.
It was so close to the fire burning inside her. A tease, really. She needed more. Her hips arched upward to encourage him deeper. His shoulder shifted against hers as he repositioned his hand.
His finger eased into her as he also rubbed at the sensitive place above her sex. “Like this?” he murmured.
She spread her thighs wider, moving her hips in time with the careful pumping of his hand. Pleasure was everywhere. Building inside her. Pounding through her blood. Tightening into a brilliant ball that would soon shatter. She couldn’t even speak to reply.
He kissed her below her ear, his breath as frantic as hers. “Come for me, lass,” he ground out in a thick Scottish burr. “I want to hear ye cry out with yer release.”
His ministrations quickened, his hand almost vibrating against her. Too much. All of it.
Her body tensed.
He growled in her ear, and it was her undoing. Euphoria exploded somewhere inside her, clenching around his finger as he continued to thrust it into her. She clung to his arm and squeezed her thighs against his hand.
It might have lasted for a second or a lifetime, she couldn’t tell, but when she finally floated down from the heaven she’d been sent to, she was depleted of energy. Her thighs dropped, and she sagged back against William, his arousal still rock hard at her back.
He kissed the spot below her ear, just behind her jaw. “That was beautiful.” He brushed a strand of hair from her face and tucked it back. “God, ye’re the bonniest lass I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
A languid smile curled over her lips. “Ye needn’t flatter me.” She rolled toward him without bothering to cover her exposed lower half. “I want this.” Her gaze held his as her fingers trailed over his strong chest, down the bands of muscle at his abdomen, discernible even through the linen of his leine. She framed the column of his ready prick with her hand. “I want ye.”
His eyes closed. He drew in a deep breath before opening them again. “Nay, lass. That was for ye.”
There was a place deep inside her that didn’t want his refusal, something that needed the rest of him.
But he plucked her hand gently from his body. “Ye need rest.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but he leveled a stern look at her. “I believe ye said ye wanted to be a warrior and no’ a leman.”
Heat touched her face.
“And a warrior follows instructions,” he continued. “Right now, ye need rest.”
She didn’t want to go to sleep. Nay, that wasn’t completely true. Her body was heavy and liquid. If her eyes fell closed, slumber would easily carry her away.
She didn’t want him to go.
“Please don’t leave me,”
