Devils Own (Clan MacAlpin 2)

Her heart was hammering, pounding her blood agonizingly close to the surface of her skin. She felt flushed, barely able to speak. “Indeed?”

“Aye. ” He took her breast again, quickly replacing his hand with his mouth, and she cried out. The feel of him suckling her was too much, too exquisite a pleasure to bear. It felt wanton and sinful, and her body quivered, feeling on the verge of some precipice.

He pulled away, leaving her wet skin chilled in his absence. “Because the only man you’ll be marrying is me. ”

She was panting now, an alarming heat thrumming through her body, and she felt as though she were enduring some frightful transformation, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. She looked down at her body. But seeing her meager breast shining damp, hardened to a sharp, aching point, she blushed. She was nude before him, and sudden shyness made her cringe inside.

“You’re magnificent,” he said.

Clamping her eyes shut, she blindly reached for the blanket to pull it over her body. “I’m thin as a post, pale as a ghost …”

Warm fingers gently pinched her ch

in, and she opened her eyes to his affectionate smile. “And silly as a loon. ”

He kissed her again, tenderly this time, until her shyness ebbed and she felt herself relax and kiss him back. He laved kisses down her neck, between her breasts, over and below them, murmuring, “Fool woman. Yours is the most beautiful, the finest of bodies. ”

She looked away, feeling fresh chagrin crumple her brow. “You’ve seen many, I’m sure. ”

He was quiet for a moment, and her heart broke with it. But then he tipped her face back to his and said, “Aye, I’ve seen women, Beth. And all of them pale compared to you. You’re the only one. The finest and the loveliest of them all. ”

His mouth found hers again, and she found herself believing that she was glorious and luscious and kissable, and those tender kisses quickly turned hungry and deep. The whole of her responded to him, and she wrapped her hands around his back, roved them eagerly up his arms, frantic to touch him.

The linen of his shirt kept getting in her way, and she bucked her body up to him, tugging at the fabric. She tore her mouth from his. “Get this off. ”

“Allow me. ” Aidan pulled away and did the work for her, ripping the shirt up over his head in one violent motion, then dove under the blanket to lie beside her.

Elspeth glimpsed his naked body, and she gasped, her muzzy gaze turning sharp. He was covered in scars.

He froze, uncertainty shuttering his features.

Inching the cover down, she gingerly touched a fingertip to the worst of his marks, the jagged, rippling brand that covered his left forearm. Though she wanted to look away, wanted his marks not to exist, she took in every last one, a map of his pain carved forever on his body. Broad swaths where shackles had rubbed him raw, thin bites of the whip, and the shining WP that named him property of some other man. “Oh, Aidan,” was all she could manage, her voice tight with unshed tears.

Shifting onto his side, he scooted as far from her as the narrow bunk allowed. “It’s who I am, Beth. ”

There was something foreign in his voice—some vulnerability, some trepidation—and her courage soared. Her dangerous rogue was just a man, and he needed her. She wrapped a steady hand around his forearm. “You’re more than this. ”

She looked at the scars again, facing them full on, her fear gone. She smudged her thumb over the rippling skin of his brand. To mark a man as though he were cattle—it was unthinkable. “How did you ever bear the pain?”

“Pain. ” He pulled his arm from her, and fisting his hand, studied it. “Some say it lights a fire within. ”

“And is that what you say?” Though too timid to press her body to his, she was eager to maintain contact, and slid her arm beneath the blanket, idly feathering her fingers up and down his side.

“It certainly fueled my rage. My anger. ” He inhaled deeply, as though that alone could clear the memories, then cupped her face in his warm, broad hand. “But no, Beth. You’re what’s kindled me to life. ”

She continued to stroke her hand up and down his body, and he grew still. She could tell by the wicked flash in his eyes that he’d become focused on her touch. “And you’re kindling more than that, I daresay,” he said.

Abruptly, he shifted his hand to her back and pulled her close. It was a shock to feel the naked stretch of him, pressed against her, scorching her with his heat. With a firm and confident touch, he shifted her into a position he liked, and his mastery sent a sensual shiver rippling up from her very toes. Leaning close, he nipped her ear. “You don’t know what you’re doing to me. ”

His member was hard, pressing into her thigh. For a moment, for her, it was the only thing in the room, this mysterious evidence of his maleness, of his want for her, and she tried to picture him in her mind. “Nor you to me,” she said breathlessly.

“I see I’ve shocked you. ” He chuckled, a low, seductive sound. Cupping her bottom, he pulled her closer still, until he was nestled in her cleft.

Her eyes grew wide. How that would ever fit inside her, she knew not.

He stilled, his every muscle taut and hard as sunwarmed granite against her. “Are you certain you want this?”

“Quite,” she said quickly, and his body eased. But then she hesitated. “It’s just that…”