Love Beyond Compare (Book 5 of Morna’s Legacy Series) (20 page)

I moved in to kiss him again but was stopped as he reached to grab onto both of my wrists, pulling me away from him as he all but ran out into the hallway, his breath ragged and loud as he walked.

 
“What are you doing?”

He stopped and spun toward me, glancing back and forth down the hallway to make sure we were alone before moving his hands to my face. He gripped my cheeks roughly, holding my face but an inch from his own.
 

“I’ll have ye in my bed lass, no in a common room of the castle. Ye doona…ye canna know what ye’ve done.”
 

He paused and his lips quivered with need, sending a current of sparks down my core and out through the bottom of my toes. My heart sped up in response to it, my chest lifting and falling rapidly in time with his own.
 

“To touch me as ye did, to kiss me and move so surely, lassies rarely do that, Jane. Ye’ve unleashed a sort of beast within me. I…I doona think I can be gentle with ye.”

I didn’t want gentle. I wanted to be consumed by him, to have everything around me dissolve but the feeling of him. I let out a shaky breath and turned my face to kiss the inside of his palm before moving to look surely at him.
 

“Then don’t be.”

CHAPTER 25

My permission released Adwen from any restraint, and my back met with the wall in an instant. He clawed frantically at the robe. With one pull it fell open, revealing my entire front to him. One of his hands moved to the back of my neck and the other slipped between my legs, briefly cupping me before two of his fingers slipped deftly inside.

I gasped at the sensation, my hips moving against him as he worked them in and out of me, making me slick and ready, causing me to arch against the stones behind me. He thumbed at my breasts as he kissed me, bringing up the beads of my nipples as his kisses traveled downward.
 

I cried out in pleasure as he bit at one of my nipples, pulling it deep into his mouth, groaning as he moved between them. Teasing me until my breasts ached with desire for him, he grasped onto either side of my hips, pushing them hard against the wall before he dropped to his knees to press his lips against the inside of my thigh.
 

Slowly he moved upward. When his tongue finally lapped at my center, my knees gave way as I slumped against the wall. The only thing that held me upright was the pressure of his hands against me, and I squirmed and writhed in response to him. I relaxed, allowing the sensation to spiral me upward.

I peaked quickly, crying out as I climaxed, my heart thumping so rapidly that I could hear the blood pumping in my ears despite the intensity of my scream.
 

At the same moment, laughter reverberated off the walls around us, joined by the sound of approaching footsteps. In the midst of my pleasure, a keen sense of terror set in.
 

I could think of nothing more horrifying than the thought of Cooper running around the corner and finding us in such a position. There would be no explaining our way out of it, and therapists just weren’t available in the seventeenth century. I didn’t want to be responsible for that sort of childhood trauma.
 

“Adwen, stop. You have to stop.”

He pulled away from me slowly, shock spreading across his face as he looked up at me from his knees. His eyes remained glazed with lust, but they changed the moment he heard them, his eyes narrowing in panic as he stood and scooped me up, running with me in his arms the short distance to his bedchamber.
 

Once inside, he lowered me to my feet but kept a firm grip on both my arms.
 

“They heard yer screams lass, but as long as they dinna see ye, I doona care, for I have no doubt that they’ll hear them again. Get in the bed.”

“Nu-uh.” I pulled away. “I’ve had my moment. It’s your turn, I think. You look like you’re in pain.”

He laughed and kissed me quickly before leaning into me and pressing his forehead against my own. “Aye, I am in pain, Jane. Pure agony. I need to be inside ye.”

I stood on the tips of my toes as I moved my lips to his ear, allowing my lips to brush his skin as I spoke. I could tell by the way his breath caught that it stirred him.

“Then take off your clothes and get on your back, Adwen.”
 

His whole body jerked in a needy quiver. Without hesitation, he stepped away and removed his clothing.
 

“God, you’re beautiful.” The words tumbled from my mouth effortlessly. Taut muscles lay beneath smooth skin that was far darker than my own.

My eyes travelled curiously downward. I swallowed hard as my eyes rested on him. It was one thing to feel him with my hands; it was another thing altogether to see the size and length of him standing in front of me.
 

He grinned as he saw where my eyes landed.
 

“Is it too much for ye, lass?”

I looked up, regaining my composure as I walked over to him. He stood with his back facing the bed. Placing one hand on his chest, I pushed him backwards.
 

I raised both brows and glanced down at him as he scooted back on the bed, and I crawled on top of him.
 

“I think I can handle it.”

He reached for me then, pulling me so that our naked bodies spread across one another in heated fury. Our lips met as we tasted one another, our lips and tongues moving with such haste that we could scarcely breathe on our own.
 

I moved his hand in between my legs, and he groaned in acknowledgement of my readiness, lifting my hips so that I could sink down over him. Slowly, I lowered myself onto him and cried out as my out-of-practice body shifted to accommodate his length. He filled me completely.
 

He moved to pull my head down to meet his lips as he tried to roll me over so that I would be beneath him. I protested, rising up to push him down with my hand.
 

“No. Lay back.”

Our pace built quickly as we moved together. Before long, we were both lost in the sensation of the other. He held on, waiting for me to cry out before releasing himself inside me. Shaky but happy, I collapsed next to him and he pulled me into his arms.
 

 
We lay silently for a time, each of us catching our breath as the aftershocks of our pleasure coursed through us. I glanced over at Adwen and smiled, curious at his expression.
 

“What is it?”

“What do ye mean, Jane?”
 

He turned so that we lay facing one another, leaning in to kiss my cheek.
 

“You look…I don’t know, your expression is surprised or something.”

 
“Aye, I think I am.” He turned and lay back so that he stared up at the ceiling.

“About what?”
 

“I am no a good man to either say or think this, but I’ll tell ye. With every woman before, when I would lie with them, I dinna look at them as I should have. I dinna see the color of their eyes or take in the shape of their mouth as they peaked beneath me. They were a blur of flesh and heat but little more. And afterwards, I dinna want them beside me, dinna wish to see them again.”

He paused and stared up the ceiling. It was a vulnerable confession and one I knew wasn’t easy to admit with me lying right next to him. He twisted once again, facing me as he placed one hand on the side of my face, gently brushing my cheek with his thumb.

“That is the way it has always been for me, lass. But now, as I lay next to ye, all I can see is the bright flecks of blue in yer eyes and the way yer lower lip trembled as ye cried out. I believe I’ll remember every curve of yer body until I die, Jane, and I’m more likely to chain ye to my bed so ye never leave it than I am to escort ye out of it.”

I leaned in to kiss him, my heartbeat picking up pace in response to his words. I ran my hands down his chest as I leaned into him. “I was afraid you were going to say something about the sex. Normally ‘surprise’ isn’t a good thing in the bedroom.”

“No, lass, I verra much enjoyed bedding ye, though that was surprising as well.”

“Was it? How do you mean?”

“I am accustomed to lassies behaving as if they doona know what to do inside a bedchamber, though ’tis evident verra quickly that they are no as pure as they’d have me believe. Still, they behave as if they are. Ye dinna do that, Jane.”

I shook my head in acknowledgement. “No, of course not. Why would I?”

“Does it no bother ye that I knew ye were no a virgin?”

“No. In my own time, I don’t think it would ever be assumed that I was. Do you wish that I was?”

Adwen sat up and leaned over me, pressing his body hard against my own as he bent to kiss me, his tongue plunging deep into my mouth before he answered.

“It seems I have been surprised many a time this afternoon for while I doona mind that ye are no a virgin, I doona wish to think of another man touching ye.”

His lips touched mine once again, and I sighed into his mouth as he pressed his hard length up against my abdomen. I opened myself to him, ready to be claimed again despite the unfamiliar ache in every muscle.
 

As he entered me, the door to the bedchamber flew open, and the expression on Orick’s face immediately brought a lump to my throat.
 

All I could see was the terror and fear in his eyes as he screamed in our direction.
 

“The lad’s gone. Cooper. He’s vanished!”

CHAPTER 26

I knew where he was. There was only one place Cooper would have gone—only one place he would have wandered without permission.
 

Adwen jumped off me in an instant, dressing as quickly as he could, panic in his every movement. I scrambled to cover myself but didn’t move from the bed, addressing Orick as calmly as I could.
 

“He found it, didn’t he? He was right. There’s a portal here.”

Orick nodded. As I looked at him, I thought he might cry. He was worried–terrified that Cooper had fallen prey to some horrid fate. Before I could speak up to comfort him, Adwen threw my robe onto the bed, shouting at Orick to step outside.
 

“Get out and let her dress, Orick. We will join ye promptly.”

Orick stepped outside right away. Once the door was closed, I stood from the bed and shrugged into the robe.
 

“How did ye know about the portal, lass? We dinna tell anyone. I dinna believe it possible when Cooper first mentioned it, but Orick found it after the snow. We should have told ye but I could see Cooper’s curiosity, and I know too well the trouble curious lads can get into. He must have found it, Jane. I knew it possible that he would, though he swore to me he wouldna go through it. Doona worry. We’ll get him back.”

“I know. I’m not worried.”

He continued on as if he’d not heard me. I realized then, listening to Adwen ramble incessantly while Orick paced the hallway loudly enough that I could hear him through the door, that I was far more equipped to handle this situation than these seventeenth century Highlanders. And I hated it.
 

I hated knowing that neither man, despite their numerous travels, was prepared for what they would see and experience. They wouldn’t allow me to travel through alone, and they weren’t likely to leave the other behind. It would be a group affair.
 

Their worry was understandable, but I didn’t share the sentiment. I knew that the incessantly nosy witch, Morna, wouldn’t let anything happen to my nephew. No matter how much I disliked her, I was certain of that—she’d saved his life more than once. Cooper would be fine—until I got to him, at least. Once I did, his impression of his fun-loving aunt was in serious danger of being altered forever.
 

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After running to my own room to put on some real clothes, Adwen and I followed Orick to the outside stairwell. I don’t know what I’d expected, but I found the magical staircase to be far less impressive than I’d imagined it to be.
 

Morna liked flashy, painful, ridiculously nonsensical forms of time travel—like throwing a rock into a pond. This was far too simple—clearly, not her work.
 

I stared down into it with both men at my side.
 

“Is it still…active?”

“Aye.” Orick nodded, walking down the steps until he stood only two steps from the wall where the stairway ended. “From here ye can see the wall ripple if ye look closely. I’m so sorry, lass. I dinna know he knew of it. ’Tis difficult to find. I canna imagine how he managed to pull the door open, but he must have done so while I was counting for him to hide. When I opened my eyes, he stood at the stop of the stairwell, waiting for me to watch him run. He wanted me to see him pass through. Then he just ran down these steps and…” Orick paused and took the remaining two steps toward the stone wall. The moment his foot touched the last step, his shoulder bumped into the wall and he disappeared.