Page 52 of A Celtic Longing
She thought when she told him she couldn’t bear children, it would turn him off, yet he seemed the opposite. Completely different than Gavin. Instead, he appeared mesmerized. As though he unwrapped a gift as he peppered kisses in the wake of where he’d just touched before he pulled back and lowered her dress even more.
Having resolved herself to a life of caring for animals rather than intimacy with a man, she felt uncharacteristically shy when he pulled her dress down around her waist and took in her breasts. When he inhaled with pleasure and touched one. For a split second, she swore she saw him as he’d been in their last life. Saw him when they gave into the forbidden and crossed over into something else.
Gave into temptation they had fought for so long.
She’d expected a great many things when it came to Liam after meeting him but not this. Never this. Not feeling like they were finding each other again. Or realizing he wasn’t a womanizing villain. Nowhere near it.
He never said a word as he touched her, admired her, but he didn’t need to. She felt his thoughts. Drowned in his regard. Felt desirable when she had felt anything but for so long. How could she when Gavin had grown so despondent at the end? Could barely make love to her?
Liam didn’t care, though. Truly did not see her as less than. She not only saw it but felt it as he pulled her dress lower still. As his lips kept traveling in the wake of his eyes. He kept stroking flesh that only seemed to grow more sensitive. So sensitive, hot, and throbbing, she groaned his name and pulled his mouth back to hers.
“Shh,” he managed after he gave in to her kiss. Then another. Then another until he groaned, “Ye’re not making this easy, lass.”
“It was never easy,” she murmured against his lips, feeling for a flicker of a moment his mouth in another life. How intense the chemistry between them had been even then. “But it was,” she yanked her skirts up until they were bunched around her waist and brought him between her thighs, “always passionate.” She ran her hands up under his tunic. Felt his hard, hot chest. “Alwaysthis...”
“’Twas,” he groaned in her ear, pressing his erection against her. His breathing increased along with hers. “’Twas always...”
His hooded gaze drifted when he looked at her. When their eyes connected and she knew he couldn’t deny her now any more than he could then. Any more than he could in a life they had forgotten.
“I’m not sure when it happened, but I love ye, lass,” he whispered before he kissed her deeply. He didn’t bother chanting away his clothes, just pulled himself free and thrust deep. Filled an ache that had become so strong both emotionally and physically that pleasure rocketed through her, and she climaxed.
He was incapable of moving when she clamped down hard on him, and bliss blew through her like wildfire. Rather than moving to find his pleasure like any guy in his right mind would do, he stilled and continued kissing her. Kissed her and stroked her. Ran his hand up her side, along her jawline, and around the back of her neck.
Kissed her until she had floated down from her pleasure just enough when he thrust again, all she could do was groan in approval. Feel every long, thick, hard inch of him. Move with him. Take him as deep as she could. Drown in the sensation of him filling her over and over.
There was nothing more erotic than feeling a man like she did Liam. From the inside out. From the outside in. She felt his physical pleasure as well as his emotional pleasure right along with her own. How lost he was in how they made each other feel.
The crescendo they raced toward.
There were no words to describe it other than a rampant need to see the other satisfied rather than find their own gratification. A craving to fulfill the throbbing of each other’s flesh. It was, in its own way, perfect synchronicity. Love and lust and unabashed desire rolled into one.
Because shedidlove him and felt it in that moment.
Felt it as much as he did.
Heat continued building between them. Grew steamy, then blazing. Sweat coated their skin. A pristine ache became an untamable inferno. So much so that when he groaned in her ear that she joined him and thrust one last time, she had no choice but to sail over the edge with him.
Lose herself like never before.
They stayed that way for a time, simply enjoying the sensation. Immersed in it until he rolled her on her side, facing the fire, and spooned her. After that, they talked for a time about everyday things, eager to get to know each other beyond whatthey sensed in one another’s mind. Soon enough, however, his wandering hand got the better of her, and all talk fell away until much later that night.
She lost count of how many times they made love before she must have drifted off because the next thing she knew, she was dreaming about another place and time.
Dreaming about Liam in their last life.
A moment that clearly took place after he confronted her at the bridge for taking his sister’s life. Riona’s life.
“Why do ye keep visiting me when ye know better?” she asked, her heart in her eyes when he approached her. She had been kneeling in front of a tree, praying. “Why, when ye must hate me after what I did to yer sister?”
“I could never hate ye.” He appeared disgruntled. “I now know the facts about my sister’s passing. Know she agreed to it. Begged for it to follow her love. That ye had no choice.” His voice grew softer. “That ye did yer best to be merciful.” He shook his head, his gaze tortured when he looked at her. “But most of all, I cannot stay away from ye. Will never be able to stay away.”
Not expecting his forgiveness but grateful for it, she blinked back tears. “’Twas the hardest thing I have ever done.” She blinked back more tears as the enormity of what he’d said sank in. How much the look in his eyes reflected what she had denied herself for so long. Must continue to deny herself. “’Twould be unwise for us to cross paths again, my king. Surely ye see that.”
“I only see ye.” He held out his hand to help her up. “And that will never change.”
The dream faded only to be replaced with another and another, then yet another. In every one, they were together. Walking. Talking. Spending time together. It was clear their friendship was strong. It was also clear they played a dangerousgame being around each other so much. That their feelings for one another only intensified.
Seen clearly when she found herself immersed in one of the dreams. Inside the woman she had once been as they walked through the sunlit forest together.
