Page 41 of In Love With the Wrong Highland Sister
“And to your marriage!” called Gavin, but he was talking to empty air as James had once more scooped Laria into his arms and was heading for the staircase to the bedrooms.
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“Alone at last!” Laria breathed as James set her down on the floor and kissed her softly.
“I will never become tired of kissing you,” he murmured as he cupped her face in his hands and looked into her silver eyes. “You are the whole of my life now, Laria. You are everything to me.”
Laria smoothed her hand over the rough skin of his face, as always, loving the bristly tingle of it under her palms. She ran her thumbs over his high, sloping cheekbones, then reached around his head to tug the leather thong from his dark shining hair. It fell around his shoulders like a curtain, and when he shook it out, she plunged her hands into it and pressed her lips to his as if she would devour him. She heard him groan and felt herself being pulled against him so tightly that she could hardly breathe.
James was so ready to give expression to all the love and desire that he had been holding at bay ever since he had first met Laria. He had told her how he felt; he had said “I love you” plainly, honestly, and without reservation, but she had never said it back, and he would never ask her to. All he could do now was show her how much she meant to him.
Desire throbbed through his whole body, and his erection was almost painful in its intensity, but he had promised himself that tonight would not be about him. He wanted their first time together to be the best experience of Laria’s life, and if that meant holding his own desires in check until she was satisfied, then so be it.
“Let me see you,” he said huskily. “I have waited so long for this moment.”
Laria smiled at him and turned around. “Unlace me, please,” she said, trying to sound calm when, in fact, she was quaking inside. She felt his fingers moving down her back slowly from her shoulders to her waist, their touch as gentle as a moth’s wings. She heard him breathing heavily, felt the heat of his body as he stood close to her, and a pool of hot desire settled between her legs. She no longer wanted to wait. She simply could not.
She slipped the shoulders of the garment down her arms, but the lacing was too tight for it to move down to the waist. Impatiently, she shook her head and grabbed the bodice, pulling each side apart until it tore down the middle with a harsh, rending sound, then she stepped out of it.
James gasped in astonishment as he saw her standing in front of him wearing nothing but her filmy chemise. She was silhouetted against the light of the blazing fire, and every curve of her shapely figure was outlined against it. He felt himself stiffen even more until he was as hard as a broomstick. This was torture. He began to rip off his clothes as if they were burning him until he was standing proudly naked in front of her.
Laria took a deep breath inward and held it as she gazed at the magnificent male form before her. She had seen him naked to the waist, of course, and he was not the first man she had seen completely unclothed, but James was completely unlike her former husband. The combination of his broad chest and shoulders, the rippling muscles of his stomach, strong arms, and large sinewy hands had always had a powerful effect on her. Now, however, as she gazed at his powerful thighs and calves and the length and width of his shaft, she was mesmerized.
She slid her chemise from her shoulders slowly so that he had time to gaze at every inch of her, then suddenly she pushed him back onto the bed and landed on top of him.
James was surprised as the wind was knocked out of him for a second, then she kissed him so hard that his teeth were pressed against his lips, and he tasted blood in his mouth and had to turn his head away.
“Laria,” he said hoarsely. “My God, woman! You are an animal!” However, he was laughing as he said it, then rolled her over on her back. “Now you are mine,” he growled. “Only mine…forever.” He grasped both of her hands in one of his so tightly that she could not free herself.
Laria looked into the eyes that were the color of a summer sky and whispered, “Not yet, Husband. You will have to make me yours.”
He laughed, a deep rumble in his chest, then he kissed her once on the lips and grinned at her, his eyes twinkling. With that, he began to kiss, lick, and nibble his way down her body until she was writhing with delight. He paused to pay homage to her nipples, which were as hard as little pebbles. He suckled and nibbled each breast in turn until Laria was almost mad with pleasure.
Her body seemed to have a will of its own as he took her to a place she had never been before. Robert had always been attentive to her needs and had never done anything to hurt her, but in some ways, he had been too careful and had sometimes left her wanting more from their lovemaking. It had always been tender but never passionate.
This was as different as night was from day. James’s hands were everywhere, exploring every inch of her with both tenderness and roughness. As Laria ran her hands over his warm, smooth skin, she could feel the contours of his hard, lean muscle under her palms and moaned. This beautiful, powerful man was all hers—hers to love and possess forever.
James had been with many women, but none as tender and responsive as Laria. Every inch of her was exquisite, from her soft, full lips to her slender neck and firm, warm breasts, which had a flavor and aroma that was all her own. He knew that he would never get enough of her taste.
His mouth moved down to the tiny pit of her navel, where he paused to run his tongue around, causing her to giggle and lift her hips from the bed as her hands clutched his hair tightly. James returned to her lips briefly to devour her mouth again, thrusting inside and tangling his tongue with hers. “Mine,” he reminded her, before kissing his way down her body again. “All mine.”
This time, however, he did something that shocked her to the core. He buried his face in the nest of soft, fair hair at the top of her thighs and inhaled deeply. He had never smelled a more fragrant perfume, and it was making him feel quite dizzy. “God, you smell wonderful, Laria,” he whispered. “I wonder if you taste as good?”
When he pushed his tongue inside her, she instinctively clenched her thighs together, but he held them apart with the strength of his two big hands while he thrust his tongue in and out of her, giving her a foretaste of what was to come.
Laria had never felt or imagined anything so wonderful. Her previous experience of lovemaking had not prepared her for this. It was glorious, and when he moved his mouth back to kiss her lips again, she almost begged him to stay where he was.
“More?” he asked, looking into her eyes. She nodded frantically, unable to speak.
James moved down to her vulva again, then swept his tongue up and down over her soft folds, overwhelmed by the experience of touching, smelling, and tasting the woman he had loved and desired for so long. When he pushed first one, then two, fingers inside her and teased the sensitive nub of flesh that was the core of her womanhood with his thumb, she screamed. It almost sent him to the edge of his control. His shaft was so hard he did not know how much longer he could stay in command of himself.
Laria had never felt anything like the bolt of ecstasy that had shot from between her thighs to every nerve ending in her body. Nothing in her previous marriage had prepared her for an experience like this, and she realized that although she had known love and contentment before, she had never known love and passion.
James was kissing his way up her body again, and after he had pressed his lips softly to hers again, he asked huskily: “Are you ready, love?”
“Oh, yes, Jamie,” she breathed, wrapping her arms around him as she welcomed him inside her.
James gave a great sigh of relief as he buried himself inside Laria, and they began to move in unison in a sensual rhythm that was as old as time itself. He groaned in pleasure as every thrust brought him closer to the fulfillment that he had not shared with a woman for a long, long time, but he was using every ounce of his willpower to hold himself in check. Laria’s pleasure was everything.
