Page 39 of The Story of his Highland Bride
“I’m not sure mine will, either,” she confessed quietly, slipping her arms around him. “I went to the Cairns brokenhearted, thinking that all men were bastards, but then… you came along. I know we haven’t known each other for very long, and all of this is insane, but… you’ve come to mean so much to me.”
He kissed her, if only to silence her for a minute. “Daenae dare confess before me,” he whispered playfully, as he pulled back.“That’s what I came here to do, and I will do it before I kiss ye any more, and me words start to get muddled.”
“Then, I won’t interrupt.” She drew a line across her lips, which he assumed meant her lips were sealed.
“I’ve always believed in the magic of the Old Gods, though I cannae pretend to understand their ways. Me grandmaither used to say there was nay use in tryin’ to understand them, as they daenae make a jot of sense,” he began. “But I ken they sent ye through those stones, and that ye were supposed to meet me on the road that night. I ken it because I feel like ye’re the love of me life. It wouldn’ae matter if we’d met an hour ago—I’d feel the same.”
“Ye’ve brought light into me world at a time when everythin’ is usually at its darkest,” he went on, his heart pounding. “Nae once have I wallowed in me customary grief, because bein’ at yer side hasnae allowed sorrow to sneak in. Me heart is yers, Eloise, and I ken there’ll never be another like ye. And though I ken that ye have to return, me heart hurts every time I think of losin’ ye. Mercy, I’d marry ye tomorrow if I could, but… in this short paradise of kennin’ ye, I somehow left it too late.”
Tears filled Eloise’s eyes as she gripped the collar of his leine, her lips trembling as she looked away, like it was too painful to meet his gaze. “Can I speak now?”
“Aye.”
She swallowed loudly. “I feel the same, Jackson, and… it’s tearing me in half. It should be impossible that I feel so much for you, in so short a time, in so mad a situation, but I can’t help it. Besides, we’ve both learned that the impossible is possible, and that you should believe what’s right in front of you.” She gasped, choking on a sob. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone, and I’m terrified that when I leave here, I’ll be forced to forget you. I never want to forget you. I’m not even sure I want to leave. No… I know I don’t want to, not if I can’t ever come back, and we don’t know if I can. It’s ripping my insides to pieces, Jackson, and I don’t know how to fix it.”
As she collapsed into him, sobbing into his shoulder, he held her so close that he did not know where she ended and he began. He kissed her silken hair and her smooth brow, drawing his lips down to kiss away the tears that fell. It was an agonizing situation, and as a Laird and a lover, he knew he was supposed to have the answers to soothe her, but he had nothing to offer. He could not promise her that she could return, or that they would see each other again. He could not even promise tomorrow, in case those starlings came that very night.
Nevertheless, as he caught her mouth with his, he whispered against her lips, “I’ll wait for ye, Eloise. If there’s a way for ye to return, and ye find yerself missin’ me, I’ll be waitin’. Years from now, ye’ll still find me there, standin’ at the Cairns, willin’ ye to come back to me.” He kissed her fiercely, pausing only to add, “For that’s what ye do for those ye love.”
22
Charged with emotion, the atmosphere shifted as Eloise and Jackson held one another in the bubble of her bedroom. His kiss was magic in itself, moving against her lips like they were casting a spell of hope together. Her kiss answered his call, her hands running up the hard muscle of his chest to feel his beating heart. It raced, like it, too, was thudding out the brief time they had left.
“I don’t want to go,” she whispered, kissing his neck, his chin, his chest, his shoulders, every bit of him that her lips could reach.
He found her mouth, walking her back toward the bed as he crushed his sorrow against hers, making sweet wine of their situation. “I cannae even think of it,” he told her.
The edge of the bed knocked into the back of Eloise’s knees, buckling her. But she didn’t have to fall far, as the stuffed mattress caught her backside. From there, she gazed up at Jackson, knowing what she wanted, seeing that he wanted thesame. And thanks to the small packet of pills in her handbag, which she’d still been taking diligently, there weren’t too many complications to consider. At least, she hoped not.
“Come here,” she purred, taking hold of his leine and pulling him down.
Instead, he sank to his knees, his fingertips unfastening the ribbon that gave some shape to her dress. Never allowing his gaze to leave hers, he gathered up her skirts and slipped them out from under her, drawing them up slowly. She raised her arms to help him, grateful for the heat of the fireplace as he tugged the dress away from her, dropping it to the floor.
As he leaned in to kiss her, he slid her underwear down her legs, letting them join her dress. As for the modern contraption of her bra, he still didn’t understand how it worked, so she saved him the hassle and removed it herself until she was naked in front of him.
“Ye’re… beautiful, Love,” he murmured, his gleaming eyes taking all of her in, savoring her figure the way he’d done so many times before.
“And you’re not playing fair,” she replied, bending forward to grasp his leine.
Within a minute, he was stripped bare, and though she had seen him naked before, the thrill of it never wore off. He was the kind of man that shouldn’t exist in real life, his entire body rippling with hard-won muscle, his abdomen like a mountain range, hischest broad and peppered with soft hair, his thighs so sculpted she’d have believed they were carved from marble. And as for his manhood—it wasn’t a disappointment.
Rising up to kiss her, Jackson pressed his body forward, pushing her back onto the bed. His kisses traversed a familiar path, his lips and his tongue dancing all the way down from her neck to her chest, where he paused to taste her pert nipples, sucking gently until she bucked with longing. Hearing her gasps of bliss, he chased her pleasure over her stomach and around her hips, savoring the soft skin of her thighs until, at last, he reached the source of her greatest ecstasy.
His tongue rolled against that swollen nub, knowing precisely what she liked. Meanwhile, his fingers slipped inside her, moving in slow strokes that, this time, guaranteed the promise of more. There was no way she was leaving the bedroom, or 1701, without knowing him intimately. It was the only way, in her mind, she could be certain of not forgetting him.
My heart will know. My body will know. Even if I can’t picture him anymore, I’ll remember… and I’ll know he’s waiting, and that’ll spur me on to find him again,she told herself, as she writhed to the rhythm of his expert symphony.
It wasn’t long before she felt her body climbing to the highest heights of her ecstasy: her muscles tightening, her breath quickening, her blood rushing, her skin tingling with feverish heat. Forever listening to the sounds of her pleasure, translating the language of it, Jackson sucked gently on her pulsing core, before returning to exactly what he’d been doing before. Thesensitivity in her skyrocketed, every touch of his tongue tipping her over the edge, into her euphoria.
When it came, it tore through her, her back arching up off the bed like she’d been possessed by the spirit of pleasure itself. She grasped handfuls of blanket, her head thrown back as the pressure of that bliss pulsed in her veins, ricocheting through her like a thundercrack.
Closing her eyes, she cried out his name. “Oh, Jackson! Jackson! My love, yes! Yes!”
He tended more softly to her secret nub and the hot depths of her until the bliss ebbed. With a knowing smile against her skin, he kissed his way back to her lips, his arms slipping underneath her to pull her further back onto the bed.
There, among the woolen blankets and soft furs, she felt the first graze of his manhood against her eager sex. Her legs bent at the knee instinctively, her fingernails raking lightly down his back before settling on the powerful muscle of his backside. She stole a cheeky squeeze that accidentally brought his hips forward, giving her a delicious taste of what was to come.
“Oh—” Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment.
