Page 49 of A Celtic Secret
Words it almost felt like she’d been dying to say forever.
She always thought when she helped fulfill this prophecy that it would be full of excitement, and she’d find a way to wiggle out of too much commitment, but it wasn’t like that at all. Instead, as they exchanged their vows in a language she barely understood, and a delicate crown was placed on her head, she felt wonderfully serene. In lust, certainly. Eager for things to come. But more than anything, in love.
In a calm, certain, untouchable love that had to remain very, very quiet.
“Because he’s near,”she whispered telepathically, even as she vowed herself to Declán.“Raghnall hovers, trying to get in. Trying to understand what we’re doing.”
“Yet he does not.”He pulled her close even as he recited his vows and tilted her chin so her eyes stayed with his.“You don’t see him, do you?”
“Hey, love bugs,”Madison said from somewhere far away in their minds.“You’ve got to finish reciting these vows before you lose yourself. Super important. After that, fair game.”
So they did without Declán ever letting her go. Recited them as they realized more by the moment that Raghnall wasn’t in her mind anymore. Not like he had been before, anyway.
“Not at all, I don't think,” she murmured after he cupped her cheek and finished saying his vows.
“Ye’re sure?” he asked, with barely restrained desire in his gaze. “Ye do not see his face when....”
“No.” She shook her head. “Somehow, some way, he’s gone.”
The revelation made her feel a hundred times lighter as she kept gazing into Declán’s eyes. So eager and excited that it took her a moment to realize their vows had been said, and he had swept her off her feet.
More than that, he was carrying her upstairs to many cheers.
“Shouldn’t we...” she breathed into his chest, inhaling his scent. Desperate to taste it. Feel it all around her.
“Shouldn’t we what?” he asked so deeply, his voice so thick with emotion that breathing became impossible.
“There is only one thing we should do now.” She heard the sound of doors being flung open but only saw him. “Only one thing....”
After that, there was nothing but the feel of his lips on hers when he lay her down. Nothing but his groan in her ear when they struggled at the material between them.
“Declán,” she moaned, half tearing, half chanting away the top of her dress without realizing it. Ripping her skirts down the middle without being the wiser. Desperate. Needy. Aching until she whimpered when he didn’t give her what she wanted right away.
Suddenly terrified he might be gone before he could.
Before he was never allowed to again.
“Declán,” she cried, arching against him, horrified by the fear she felt. The abyss ready to swallow her up. “Please don’t go. Don’t leave me. Don’t let—”
She gasped, both stunned and awash in pleasure, when he came between her thighs, thrust deep, and need became pain. Then, the pain washed away a breath later into something else.
“I should not have done that,” he choked, holding himself still inside her. “I knew better...I knew...” She felt him cup her cheek and press his forehead to hers. Heard the anguish in his voice. “I just did not want to lose ye to him again. I did not want to....”
She understood everything he wasn’t saying. His fear that Raghnall might interfere again somehow. His greater fear that he might not be able to perform. One he certainly didn’t need to worry about based on the stiff pulsing she felt inside her. His rampant need.
A need she felt just as strongly.
One that made her feel like she was going up in flames. Desperate to feel more. Experience everything she had been waiting for her whole life. Very likely, by the intense, seemingly unattainable desire that tore through her, her last life as well.
She cupped his cheeks, urged him to look at her, and brought his lips to hers. Kissed him with all the passion she felt. Opened her mouth to him and met his tongue while she shifted her hips and welcomed him deeper.
Following her lead, or perhaps creating his own, Declán ripped away the remaining material of her shift between them, kissed her harder, and drove deeper. Once, twice, then he tore his mouth away, met her eyes, and thrust into her so hard she cried out.
She had imagined losing her virginity a thousand different ways, but nothing quite like this. Nothing like the sharp spiral of pleasure she felt as he held her gaze. As that same lustful gaze roamed over her bare breasts yet whipped back to her eyes as though it couldn’t stand to stay away too long.
Had to watch every little way she responded.
How her lids drifted when he shifted his hips just so. When he rolled them before thrusting so deep, her mouth fell open, but sound was impossible. Absent in blissful gasps as he thrust again. Long, slow, so deep shivers rippled through her. Consumed her.
