Page 80 of Hard-Hearted Highlander
He took her hand and laced his fingers through hers, curling his around her hand.“Mo maise,”he said.My beauty.
Bernadette’s smile made his heart ache with it. She lifted up to him to kiss him. Her arms went around his neck and she pressed her breasts against him, and Rabbie could feel himself untangling, as if his heart and lungs and limbs had been pulled into a knot with every trial over the last few years and were finally, at long last, letting go. He pressed the tip of his body against her. His pulse was beating too fast, his heart pounding too hard. He moved to her breasts, his hand floating down her side and across her belly, then down again, between their bodies, stroking her as he slowly pushed into her.
Bernadette growled and arched her neck as he entered her. She was warm and wet, her body welcoming. Rabbie began to move, straining to hold back and take his time, but his restraint was rapidly eroding as need built in him. It had been years since he’d felt such desire. He’d forgotten what it was to feel alive, to feel his body erupt into flames.
Bernadette was moving against him, her body rising to meet his, urging him to move harder and faster. Her hands gripped at him, clutching him, holding on to him. He was so hard, so hot and moving in her with such force that he had the fleeting thought he might harm her in his eagerness. But Bernadette kept pressing back, kept digging her fingers into his hips, pushing him deeper inside her. She was panting, nearing her climax, and he covered her mouth in a kiss as he thrust powerfully into her. She cried out nonetheless, her body shuddering against his, and the waves of pleasure crashed over Rabbie, submerging him in carnal bliss.
He collapsed beside her, completely spent. Her breathing was as ravaged as his, and a few moments passed before he became aware of her fingers in his hair, and then sliding along his spine.
Rabbie lifted himself up. Her eyes had gone soft, the color of autumn leaves. He thought of how it would be to wake to her each morning, to walk with her along the loch. To give her children, to grow old with her.
“What is it?” she asked, and casually brushed his hair from his forehead.
He shook his head, his heart still affected by their lovemaking, his mind still swimming in images he’d not allowed himself to see until this very moment.
She kissed the corner of his mouth, then pushed herself up to sitting. Her hair had come undone from the braid. When had that happened? He put his hand on her back, caressing her skin as she braided her hair with swift efficiency. When she was done, she smiled at him over her shoulder, her gaze full of contentment, a woman well pleasured. “What are you thinking?” she asked, her smile turning playful.
That she was so artless in her beauty. That she was the sort of woman he could spend his life with.“Mo nighean dubh,”he said.My dark-haired lass.
She gave him a sultry smile as she pushed the bed linens off her legs. “I haven’t the slightest idea what you mean,” she said. She reached for a plaid at the end of his bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, then moved as if to stand.
“No,” he said, and put his hand on her arm. “Stay here, with me.”
She smiled and laid next to him, her back to his chest. He slipped his arm around her middle and held her tight.
“Imagine how it could be,” he said into her fragrant hair. “You and I. The two of us.”
“The two of us?” she murmured.
“Aye. The two of us,leannan.Imagine it—waking to each other each new morn, filling this house with children, the future of the Highlands—”
She stiffened. And then abruptly sat up and pulled the plaid tighter.
Rabbie was startled by her reaction. “What have I said, then?” he asked. “Am I wrong? Now that the betrothal is ended, is it no’ true that we—”
“What are you saying?” she said frantically, and stood up from the bed.
Rabbie rose up on his elbow, confused by the sudden change in her. “You know verra well. What I meant when I brought you into my bed, aye? We can be one now.”
“No!” she exclaimed, shaking her head. “How can you think it? Ofcoursewe can’t, Rabbie.”
He was confused by her reaction. “Why no’? I am no longer betrothed and you—”
“I am still a lady’s maid to the woman who was your fiancée.”
He couldn’t understand her. “Diah,Bernadette, I am offering for you hand. I want to marry you, aye?”
Her eyes widened with alarm.“No,”she said frantically.
The tender emotions he’d been experiencing began to disappear. “Why in bloody hell no’?” he demanded, coming to his feet.
“We scarcely know each other!”
“We donna?” he asked, gesturing to the bed, to his nakedness.
She flushed. She avoided his gaze by stooping down to gather her clothing. “I mean that we’ve not spent sufficient time in one another’s company—”
“I donna care. I know that I’ve no’ felt as strongly for someone as I do for you, Bernadette.”
