Page 68 of Seduced By the Reckless Highlanders
Janice could not keep her gaze off the man beside her. Strong thighs hugging the saddle, powerful arms steering his horse, as well as a sharply chiseled profile, were having a strange and thrilling effect on her. Every inch of him was utterly male, and every inch of her was totally female, as if they were two halves of a whole…and suddenly she wished they could be.
She was startled out of her daydream when Bernard said, “You are a remarkable woman, Janice. I admire you more than I can say.” His deep-set, greenish-gold eyes were shining, and there was a soft smile on his face.
“Thank you.” Janice was tongue-tied again. Then, to her relief, she saw the loch looming up just ahead of them. “There it is,” she told him, pointing.
The loch was small, overhung by the drooping branches of weeping willow trees and fringed by bullrushes, their distinctive dark brown, rod-shaped flowers bobbing in the breeze. They dismounted and moved toward the water, where they saw a pair of swans with half a dozen fluffy cygnets following them. The entire family glided majestically across its surface, making both Janice and Bernard stare at them in admiration.
“Such lovely creatures,” Janice breathed. “So graceful and?—”
She suddenly gave a squeal as she stepped on a patch of slippery mud and her feet slid from beneath her. However, a moment before she landed on her backside in an undignified heap, a pair of strong hands shot out and gripped her armsin a tight, painful grip. She gasped as she found herself pulled against a firm, muscled chest, then she looked up and was lost.
This is madness,Bernard thought as he held her against him, but he could not seem to stop himself as he tightened his arms around her, his eyes fixed on her ripe, luscious lips. Common sense told him that he should not be letting himself be drawn under her spell like this. Yet at this moment the effect of common sense against desire was akin to the squeak of a mouse against the roar of a lion. Her nearness was scrambling his senses, and his whole world had been reduced to Janice and the current that was passing between them.
Janice watched him without realizing that she was doing so. All she could see were his green-gold eyes watching her mouth as though he could not take his eyes off her lips.
Bernard reached out a hand to cup her cheek in his big, rough palm, and Janice tilted her head sideways, leaning into him with a sigh. Her eyelids fluttered and her eyes shut as he curved his hand around the other side of her face so that his palms were surrounding her face. She could smell him now, an earthy, yeasty scent that was as primitive as nature itself. This was the aroma that came straight from his body, the animal part of him. She would never mistake it for another man’s.
Finally, their lips met. Bernard growled softly and felt himself harden almost instantly as he took the final step that brought them together. She was so soft, pliant, and willing in his arms. She was everything he had imagined she would be, but his fantasies had not done her justice because she was more—much more. He was in heaven.
Janice gave a little whimper as she wound her arms around his neck and tilted her head back to accommodate his greater height. She felt a sweet throbbing between her legs and a wetness there that she had never experienced before. She had noidea what it was, but she knew that Bernard was causing it. Then he did something utterly shocking.
Bernard pushed his tongue between her lips and began to stroke hers, then he swept it around her mouth and gently began to suck on her tongue.
Janice had no idea what was happening to her, but after the first shock, she knew that it was so glorious that she did not want it to stop. She thrust her fingers into Bernard’s hair, pulling his head closer to hers, and gave herself up to the plundering of her mouth, then began to imitate him. She knew nothing about kissing, but she wanted to give him the pleasure he was giving her. As well as that, she wanted to learn.
He gave another throaty growl, louder this time, feeling himself become almost painfully aroused. He knew he should stop. He knew he should not let this madness continue. But he felt powerless against his own desires.
Suddenly they heard the sound of voices and laughter approaching and saw some of the guests from the castle a short distance away. Janice reluctantly broke the kiss, stepping backward to put a few feet of space between them.
She was flushed, breathless, and too embarrassed to meet his gaze, but after a moment she looked up to find his deep eyes looking at her again.
“I am sorry,” he said softly. “That should never have happened.”
“Perhaps not, but I am very glad it did,” she answered with a shy smile. “It was the first proper kiss I have ever experienced, and I hope every one I have in the future will be just as wonderful as that one.”
But you will not be kissing me,he thought with a pang of regret.
He smiled at her. “I am glad you liked it,” he remarked. He was still desperately aroused, and he had to distract her. “Do theswans always come here?” he asked, talking about the first thing that came into his head.
“Yes, in the spring and summer,” she answered. She was also glad of the chance to change the subject. “Do you know that they mate for life?”
“I do now,” he replied.
Damn! How have we managed to arrive at the very subject I have been trying to avoid?
Mating for life was not something he wanted to think about.
CHAPTER 11
After that, Bernard felt too awkward to speak much, and Janice, unable to stand the silence, turned their horses’ heads back toward the castle. There, she went to bathe and spent the rest of the day in her chamber, reliving the kiss again and again. The feel of his rough palms on her cheeks, his lips so firm and yet so soft, and the completely unexpected but utterly pleasurable sensation of his tongue intruding into her mouth were all new to her. Nevertheless, she knew that she wanted to feel them again.
However, after their kiss, he seemed to have gone cold on her. He had turned his head away, and their conversation had become stilted and then stopped altogether. After a while, the silence had become so unbearable that she had reluctantly hastened their trip back to the castle, but she had been aware of him for every moment of the journey.
When they arrived, he gave her a brief bow and a “thank you” before disappearing as quickly as he could.
Janice went to her bedchamber and threw herself on her bed. She had been a hair’s breadth away from doing something that she should never have even contemplated doing, and yet the tugof attraction between them was so strong that neither had been able to help themselves.
She groaned at the thought of how wanton she had been. What must he think of her?
