Tender Feud

Innocent, he reminded himself. She’d never known the intimate touch of a man. But she would presently. A long uncontrollable shiver of anticipation and passion passed through Raith before he once more reminded himself that somehow he had to manage some restraint....

Briefly he raised his head to glance down at Katrine, at her beautiful face flushed with the pleasure of his kisses, her copper-hued hair, silken-wild. Her lips were wet and parted, her eyes closed, her expression a grimace of taut expectancy that set his pulse pounding with the need to satisfy her and give her the fulfillment her quivering body so obviously craved—the fulfillment that his own body craved.

“I actually dream of this,” Raith whispered in a voice as raw and sensuous as silk. His glance dropped to the slender thighs bared to his urgent stroking fingers.

In response, Katrine moved against him restlessly, straining her hips against his caressing hand, even though she wasn’t certain she could bear the sweet torment. She had dreamed of this, too, but her dreams paled in comparison to the actual experience of surrendering to this beautiful, hard, dangerous man. She felt helpless, dazed, yet her senses had never been more acute. The staccato of her racing heartbeat was loud in her ears as it mingled with the erratic sound of their ragged breaths. Raith’s masculine essence surrounded her with the fragrance of wild heather and sweet muskiness. The prickly straw of the mattress stabbed her tender skin, which had become acutely sensitive in the past few moments, yet even that gave her more pleasure than pain, reflecting and intensifying the flaring excitement of his maddening caresses.... Katrine thought she would perish from the agonizing delight of it.

“Raith!” she whimpered, reaching for him and curling her fingers in the soft, springy hair that furred his chest.

Willingly Raith allowed himself to be drawn into her arms, shifting his weight till he had settled himself in the silken cradle of her thighs. Instinctively Katrine tried to wrap her legs around his hips, trying to draw him into her more deeply. “Slow, love…slow,” he warned with rasping breath, all the while praying he could find the will to keep from plunging into her like a randy lad with his first lass.

Yet that was how Katrine made him feel…as if he

had never made love to a woman before. This experience was fresh and new, like seeing the sunrise with her for the first time. Like being part of the sunrise. Ribbons of color danced behind his eyelids, while his enraptured, jubilant spirit took flight.

“Katrine,” he murmured against her flaming hair as his probing fingers found the secrets of her femininity. Opening her to him, he entered her carefully, by infinitely slow degrees. The exaltation he felt only intensified.

Beneath him, Katrine caught her breath as Raith filled her with exquisite slowness. She experienced a single instant of pain as the fragile barrier of her femininity gave way, yet she scarcely felt it, so caught up was she in the rapture of this incredible moment. She was dazed, lost in a sensual, flame-shot darkness—yet Raith was there with her, giving her a feeling of completeness, a oneness of spirit that she had only known in her dreams. She moaned softly at the aching fullness of her heart.

Raith immediately ceased all movement. “Am I hurting you?” His tone was anxious, agonized, as it penetrated the daze of her mind.

“No, no!” Katrine murmured, her hands moving restlessly over the warm, satin skin of his sinewed back. “Don’t… stop…please.”

Reassured by the husky passion in her voice, Raith resumed his long slow thrusting. When he was sheathed fully in her tight, silken heat, he gave a ragged sigh, as if this were a sanctuary he had long sought. Letting his head droop, he rested his forehead on hers while bracing his weight on his elbows. He didn’t know if the trembling he felt was coming from his body or hers, nor did it matter, as long as he could manage to control his desire long enough to satisfy the burning need he sensed in her. He took a deep breath, willing himself to stillness.

Katrine stirred fretfully beneath him, not knowing why Raith was remaining so motionless. How could he when this fever was building inside her, like a slow fire igniting, licking at her senses? The heat was almost too intense to bear.

“Raith,” she entreated, desperately moving her head from side to side, as if she might escape, but not wanting to at all. Then, when she thought she could stand it no longer, Raith slowly began to withdraw from her.

“Raith!” she cried again, clutching at him, frantically arching her hips upward, trying to keep him from leaving her.

“God…Katrine…don’t....” The words were wrenched from his throat as he reached down to grasp her bare hip with one hand. “Be still…or I can’t…”

He never finished his plea, for her lips were seeking his feverishly. Silently Raith swore. He had meant to be gentle, but all her responses cried out against gentleness. He had wanted to go slowly, to explore with leisure and savor every incredible moment of loving her, but she was hot and excited and oblivious to anything save his passion.

With a groan of long denial and depleted restraint, Raith fitted his mouth over hers, plunging his tongue hungrily into her mouth as he buried his rigid fullness more deeply into her body. The hard sensual thrust was all it took to ignite her completely. With a gasping sob, Katrine surged against him.

Raith felt a twinge of pain in his scalp as her fingers gripped his hair, but it mattered not at all. He heard her sobbing breaths of pleasure with satisfaction as he felt himself aroused and absorbed by her in a way that stunned him. She was a wild sweetness in his soul, a dark fire burning in his blood. He felt the exquisite shuddering of her body an instant before he himself went violently out of control.

Incoherently he called upon a deity as his lean, powerful body clenched in turbulent convulsions that matched her frenzy, and then he cried her name. Yet the only thought he could summon as he poured himself into her, as he possessed her body and heart and soul, was simply amazement that need and desire and joy could merge and become one. And then all thought fled as the hard racking tremors of pleasure caught him in a swirling maelstrom of feeling.

Night had fallen totally by the time their passion was spent and the shuddering of their damp bodies subsided. As Katrine slowly came to her senses, she became aware of her surroundings…the desperate way she still clung to Raith, the cohesion of their hot moist skin, the mingling of ragged breaths and pulses, the crushing pressure of Raith’s powerful arms as they wrapped around her, the heaviness of his sleek body, the throbbing between her thighs where they were still joined so intimately. Yet she didn’t mind the discomfort. She was too busy wondering and marveling at the shattering ecstasy she had just experienced.

She had never realized such a sensation as that existed, where desire was a brilliant heated glory, a hurtling sense of pleasure. She felt cleansed by fire, by the heat of the sun, yet at the same time, complete. Loving Raith had satisfied all the longings she had held in the secret places in her heart. The restlessness of spirit she had known the past few weeks had vanished, to be replaced by a serene joy, a certainty that she and Raith belonged together, belonged to each other, despite their differences.

When Raith shifted slightly in her arms, Katrine gave a murmur of protest and clung more tightly. But he didn’t leave her, merely resettled his body to relieve her of some of his weight. Katrine sighed with gratitude and pleasure. Languid and replete, she lay against him, thinking of the man she loved. He was a bold leader, a man of purpose, brave and daring, yet kind. Raith was someone she could look up to, whose verbal sharpness was a match for her own. She imagined telling her sisters, this is the one, this is my soul mate, the man I want to marry. The man whose children I want to bear. Whose life and joys and burdens I want to share. She had found him in the Highlands, just as she had hoped.

She sighed again as she felt Raith’s lips press against her temple. “Are you all right?” His voice, low and husky and concerned, penetrated her reverie.

“Mmm,” Katrine murmured. A moment later she elaborated. “I’ve never…never felt so right.”

His head lifted. In the darkness she could feel Raith’s gaze searching her face, but before she could even open her eyes, his lips fused with hers in a gentle bonding. The unbelievable tenderness of his kiss made her breath cease, and kept her thoughts occupied as Raith untangled their entwined limbs and slowly eased his body from hers.

“Where are you going?” The question, asked with an edge of alarm, was startled from Katrine when Raith rose from the pallet.

“Nowhere,” he soothed. “I’m not leaving.”

She heard him moving around the small chamber, then heard the striking of a flint in the tinderbox as he lit a candle. Katrine blinked in the sudden glow, then caught her breath as the flame illuminated Raith’s beautiful, hard, exciting body, etching and defining rippling sinews and male nudity. He looked starkly masculine in the amber light, with a lock of tousled midnight hair falling recklessly over his forehead…a ruthless brigand who had stolen her heart.