"I'm sor--" Saidh's apology died in her throat as he kissed her again, his tongue thrusting into her mouth and demanding a response. After a brief hesitation, she slid her arms around his neck and kissed him back. It seemed she wasn't going to get a scolding. At least not from Greer. Her brothers were another story, but she could worry about that later: right now her husband's hand had found her uninjured breast and was kneading eagerly as his mouth worked on hers, his tongue whipping her into a frenzy.
Moaning, Saidh shifted slightly in his lap, her upper body twisting just a bit to press more firmly into his caress and her hands digging into his long hair to urge him on. The man could make her burn so easily, a kiss and light caress and her body went up like tinder.
She felt him tug at her chemise and released her grasp on his hair to help him. But she paused and grunted into his mouth with pain when he began to wrench the cloth off of her shoulders, sending pain through her injured back and chest. Greer broke their kiss at once and eased back from her with concern.
"I'm sorry, I forgot. Are ye all right?" he asked, turning his head to peer at the bandages revealed by his actions.
"Aye," she breathed and forced a smile. "I'll just . . ." She didn't bother to finish the sentence, but gently eased herself out of the chemise and let it pool around her waist. Saidh glanced down at herself and grimaced then. Her bandages crisscrossed over her injured breast, going over her shoulder, under her arm and around her waist above and below her other breast, leaving little more than the nipple of her uninjured breast on view. Not very attractive, she decided, and then gave a start when Greer suddenly bent his head and claimed the nipple poking out from between the strips of linen.
"Oh," she breathed with surprise, leaning back over the supporting arm he had around her waist. She then gasped and wiggled in his lap as liquid fire slid through her body, dripping down to pool between her legs.
"Husband," she moaned, clutching at his head with one hand and his shoulder with the other as he drew on the sensitive nipple and then flicked it with his tongue. She felt his free hand sliding up her leg under her skirt and began to find it difficult to catch her breath. By the time his hand reached her thigh, she was panting shallowly and wiggling like mad, but when his hand finally found and cupped her between the legs, everything in her seemed to stop.
Greer let her nipple slip from his mouth then and raised his head to kiss her again, and Saidh let out her breath into his mouth and kissed him back, then gasped that air back as his fingers spread the soft folds they'd been covering and slid in to find her warm, wet depths. Saidh shuddered and moaned wildly as he began to caress her, her body involuntarily moving in response to his touch, eager for more.
When Greer thrust a finger into her, he thrust his tongue into her mouth at the same moment and, in her excitement, Saidh nearly bit down on it. She managed to stop herself in time and satisfied herself by sucking on it instead until Greer withdrew it and broke their kiss. He withdrew his invading finger at the same time and returned to letting them lightly dance over her flesh, the touch more teasing than satisfying.
Saidh blinked her eyes open only to find him watching her face.
Biting her lip, she clutched at his shoulders, her hips moving to the music his fingers were strumming. But after a moment, she couldn't bear either his stare or his teasing touch anymore and she groaned, "Husband, please."
He immediately slid a finger inside her again and Saidh arched and bore down on the invasion, "Aye. Please."
Greer withdrew his finger and bent to nibble her ear before whispering, "Promise ye'll no' slip yer guard again."
Saidh stilled with confusion, slow to understand. Blinking, she peered at him in bewilderment.
"What?" she asked uncertainly and then sighed and closed her thighs around his wrist and arm as he slid a finger inside her once more.
"Promise ye'll no' slip yer guard again," he repeated, nipping at her ear.
"Aye," she groaned, riding his wonderfully talented hand.
"Promise," he insisted, his fingers stilling.
Saidh blinked her eyes open, scowling with frustration. "I--"
"Promise," he repeated. "I'll no' lose ye, Saidh. I'm happy with ye to wife. I want ye here, in me arms, like this. So vow ye'll no slip yer guard and put yerself at risk again."
Saidh shifted unhappily. "The falling stone was no' an accident?"
He shook his head solemnly. "And nor was the arrow. We found proof."
"What proof?" she asked with a frown.
"I'll explain later," he said solemnly. "For now, promise me that ye'll no--"
"I promise," she interrupted. "I'll no' slip me guard and put meself at risk again."
Greer breathed out a relieved sigh and kissed her forehead. "Thank ye."
"Ye're welcome," Saidh whispered, then gasped in surprise when he caught her about the waist and lifted her off his lap.
"What--?"
"Straddle me," he instructed, holding her aloft.
Saidh hesitated, glancing to the bed. "Should we no' just go to bed and--"
"Ye can no' lay on yer back or front," he pointed out. " 'Twill be easier here fer ye. Ye'll ha'e to ride me."
Saidh peered at him at that suggestion. She would ride him. She would control how hard or fast they went and how deep he went. The idea was an attractive one. Smiling, she spread her legs to straddle him as he eased her back onto his lap again.
"I'm no' sure I like that smile," Greer said with amusement as she tugged his plaid up out of the way. He then closed his eyes and sucked in a sharp breath when she shifted forward until his hardness pressed against her damp flesh.
"Ye feel so good," Saidh breathed against his mouth, rocking against his erection so that it caressed the nub his fingers had toyed with earlier.
Greer growled against her lips, then claimed them with his own and thrust his tongue into her and Saidh sucked on it eagerly as she rocked against him again, caressing him with her body, even as she pleasured herself with his. She felt Greer's hands clasp her bottom, but resisted when he tried to shift her so that he could slip inside. She quite liked this and wasn't willing to stop now. She was in charge this time.
"Wife," he protested, breaking their kiss to trail his mouth to her ear and then her neck.
"Husband," Saidh breathed, urging his head to continue down until he clasped the nipple of her uninjured breast again. "Aye," she groaned, moving more firmly against him as he began to suckle. That made him groan around the nipple and then nip at it, and Saidh began to shift against him more urgently, chasing the release she wanted.
It was an accident when he suddenly pushed inside her. Saidh rose just that little bit too much and his erection was suddenly pressing into her as she lowered herself. She stopped briefly with just the head inside and then raised herself again and lowered just that little bit, teasing him as he had her before she dropped until the bottoms of her thighs slapped the top of his.
Greer released a guttural groan then and held her in place briefly, but then reached one hand between them to caress her as the other hand began to lift and lower her again. She realized only then that he could have taken control at any moment, but had allowed her to tease him. She didn't care. She stopped thinking altogether then, stopped worrying about rhythm, and teasing him. Her body was in pursuit of its pleasure and left her mind to take a hiatus as it began to move of its own volition, pressing into his caress and thrusting into his invasion with an eagerness that matched the tightly wound need building inside her. When it exploded inside her, she clawed at his back and froze with him deep inside to ride the waves. She was unsure which triggered Greer's release, but in the next moment his cry joined hers and they rode the waves together.
Chapter 15
"Ye said ye found proof that the arrow was no' an accident?"
Greer lifted his head from Saidh's uninjured shoulder and sat back in the chair to peer at her. The quaking that had taken over his body as he'd poured himself into her was just begin
ning to slow, but she already looked fully recovered. He couldn't help thinking it was damned unfair how women came away from such passion feeling energized and frisky, while a man, at least this man, came out feeling as if he'd been run over by a full contingent of mounted warriors and was in need of recovery time and a nap.
"Aye," he said finally. "We found a spot where the grass was pressed down. Obviously someone had been laying there fer a good while. But ye had to be shot from a standing position for the angle the arrow entered ye."
"So they laid in wait and then stood to shoot as I rode into view," she murmured quietly.
Nodding, Greer caressed her cheek, marveling that he had been lucky enough to find her. With most women he would have had to explain what it meant. He also would have had a terrified, sobbing woman on his hands. Not Saidh. She looked annoyed rather than weepy and afraid.
"And the merlon that fell?" Saidh asked now.
"There are chips at the edges of the stones and in the bits of mortar that remained behind," he said solemnly.
"So, someone chiseled the stones free and pushed them off," she said on a sigh.
"Aye, but then we already suspected that was the case anyway ere we went to double-check."
"Why?" she asked with surprise, and then guessed, "Because ye kenned the arrow was no accident?"
"Nay, because when Aulay was carrying him above stairs, Alpin told him that he saw someone on the battlements, pushing at the stones just ere they started to fall," Greer explained, and then added, " 'Tis the only reason he managed to get ye both out o' the way in time. Had he seen it e'en a heartbeat later we might ha'e lost both o' ye."
"Did he see who it was?" she asked quickly.
"Nay." Greer sighed unhappily. "The sun was in his eyes. All he saw was a black figure. He could no' say if 'twas man or woman or even a child."
"Oh." Saidh lowered her head with disappointment, and then turned her gaze to where her fingers were toying with the hair on his chest and whispered, "I am sorry. Had I realized, I ne'er would ha'e taken Alpin and--"