Page 50 of The Highlander's Auctioned Wife
“If I show ye, ye’ll run screamin’,” he told her in a low voice, pushing himself up. “Ask yer questions instead.”
“Take off yer eyepatch, I’ll take off what I have left to remove,” she countered defiantly, her words severing the ropes that were holding him back.
What did I teach ye about bein’ specific?
He would give her what she had requested, but he would not be the cause of her nightmares, nor of any drawings of an eyeless monster with a broken bride in its arms.
“Very well.” He discreetly reached for the strip of fabric that had held the luncheon basket shut. “Close yer eyes.”
Anna frowned. “Why?”
“Close yer eyes,” he commanded, brooking no argument.
With a sigh, she sat back, her hands braced against the sand, and slowly closed her eyes. “They’re shut, though I really daenae see why?—”
He moved swiftly, looping the strip of fabric around her closed eyes, his fingertips tying a tight knot behind her head so she wouldn’t be able to peek. Kneeling before her, gazing down at her blindfolded face, his stomach tightened as her lips parted, releasing the softest, breathiest gasp.
“What are ye doin’?” she whispered, her chest rising and falling with sharper breaths.
“Removin’ the eyepatch,” he replied. “Just as ye asked.”
“But… I cannae see!” she protested.
“Ye dinnae ask to see, only for me to remove it.”
And being a man of his word, keeping his good eye on her in case she attempted to lift the blindfold, he lifted the patch from his ruined eye. It had been a while since he had felt the wind on it, and though he couldn’t see anything through it, the caress of the warm, salt air was a pleasant thing indeed.
Anna muttered something rude under her breath, but there was a smile on her lips. “Ye’re slyer than ye let on, Gordon Shaw.”
“I believe in detail,” he insisted. “Without it, ye can never be sure of what ye might get.”
As she tilted her head up slightly, her teeth grazed her lower lip in another tormenting bite. “And what is it that I stand to receive? What reward from me betrothed?”
“I’m still waitin’ foryeto fulfil yer part,” he replied, fighting to contain the desire to rip her stays and shift away from her, to strip her bare until she lay naked on the blanket, letting the crash of the waves along the coast snatch away the sound of her pleasure.
“I cannae see,” she repeated, chuckling nervously.
“Ye daenae need sight,” he said, his voice demanding. “All ye need is touch.”
She hesitated. “I cannae undo me stays alone.”
It was the permission he had subconsciously been waiting for, his arm sliding around her waist, while his other hand worked quickly on the knot of ribbon that held the stays closed. That done, he pulled the bothersome undergarment apart, tossing it to the sand.
Now, all that remained were her stockings and her shift.
“Fulfill yer promise,” he whispered, close to her ear.
Swallowing down his surging ardor, he took hold of her hands and settled them on the light fabric of her shift, where the hem gathered halfway up her shins. Her grip tightened on the material and, in kind, his hands curved around hers, both of them undressing her in a slow, maddening reveal of soft skin and the most divine figure.
He helped to tug the material under her backside, his blood thundering in his ears as they worked together to ease the shift upward. He absorbed every teasing second, taking in the majestic sight of her, uncovered bit by scintillating bit, like the most exquisite piece of art ever created.
She’s… perfection.
His throat tightened as his gaze skimmed along the elegant line of her lower legs and over the muscle of her thighs, which were pressed firmly together, denying him the singular bliss of admiring what lay between. No matter; he liked the anticipation.
Letting his gaze wander higher, he delighted in the slight rounding of her stomach, leading up to pert breasts—two perfect teardrops of supple flesh that seemed made for the mold of his hand—and the pink peaks of her nipples. Groaning in the back of his throat, he denied himself the satisfaction of closing his mouth over them.
Nae yet.
