To Tempt Highland Fate (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (62 page)

             
“I couldna sleep”, he told her.  That was an understatement.  More like he had been burning so hotly with lust and need that he would have been willing to crawl out of his own skin to get to her.  He hadn’t been able to sleep, but he hadn’t been able to breathe either.  He needed to be inside her in a way he had never needed anything before in his life.  To bloody hell with honor and waiting for the wedding night.  He was evidently not that strong a man.

             
Willa held her breath as he stalked across the floor to her, his eyes sparkling in the pale blue moonlight streaming in from the window.  When he reached the foot of the bed, he crawled up over her on his hands and knees and held himself there, looking down into her eyes.

             
“Have ye put some sort of spell on me lass?” he asked softly.  “I had no intention of coming to ye this night and yet here I am.”

             
He looked calm and in control, but she could sense the slight tremble of his muscles as he struggled to hold back.  Or perhaps he was as nervous as she was.

             
She took a breath.  “No.  No spell, but I’ve been waiting for you.”  She dropped the sheet from where she had been holding it up over her breasts, arching her back a little to make it fall further.  Drust stopped breathing for a moment, and then, with a sound of desperation, he fell on her like a starved beast.  His mouth met hers with so much force that their teeth clashed, and still he pressed closer, harder, his tongue sweeping into her mouth again and again as if to pull her very breath into his body.  Without breaking contact with her lips, his hand slid between them, cupping a breast and squeezing.  He groaned, and his hips thrust against her, rocking his straining cock into the cleft between her legs.  She clawed at him, her nails sinking into his flesh, desperate to get closer.  This was not going to be a gentle mating. 

             
He gasped in a breath.  “I have wanted to do this since the moment I first saw ye.”

             
“I know.”  She smiled up at him.  “You weren’t exactly hiding anything.”

             
Drust grinned back at her, but he knew his control was slipping.  He had meant to stay away, to be so honorable as to wait for a wedding night.  When he gave up on honor and slipped into her room, he meant to make love to her slowly and tenderly, to show her with his body how precious she was.  Now he realized slowly and tenderly would have to wait for another time.  His body was burning, on fire.  His restraint had abandoned him.  He had already gone past any rules of decorum and straight into a frenzy of passion that demanded he claim his woman. 
Try not to hurt her… try…
  But she was digging her nails into his back, spurring him to even greater wildness.

             
When she reached for the hem of his shirt, he tore it over his head, loath to break away from the heat of her mouth.  His hands flew to the ties of his breeches, fumbling desperately for a moment before freeing the laces and kicking them off.  Now he knelt above her, naked, so overwhelmed by the intensity of his emotions that for a moment he couldn’t move.  He stared down at Willa, his chest heaving to take in enough air his limbs trembling with passion and anticipation.  She was beautiful, so beautiful.  And all his.  How had he ever come to deserve so much? 

             
Willa watched him as he loomed above her, all beautiful, wild male.  His cock jutted out before him, huge and full and throbbing.  He looked down at her, his eyes hazy with lust, his pupils black even in the dim light.  She reached out her hand to touch him, drawing her finger gently across the slit at the tip of his manhood.  His head fell back and he growled deep in his throat.  His hands closed convulsively on her breasts and his whole body shuddered. 
Never
had she felt more powerful than in this moment.

             
“Willa… God!  I canna… wait… I… need…”

             
Holding his desperate gaze, she let her legs fall wide, instinct taking over.  She was wet and ready for him, and overcome with the need to be claimed by the one man who would complete her.  He lowered his body to cover hers, the head of his cock slipping easily into her waiting body.

             
“Ah, Willa!  It feels too good!  I canna control it… I…”

             
With a groan of pleasure torn from his very soul, he drove into her hard, breaking her barrier and filling her completely in one long thrust.  She cried out at the stab of pain, but his mouth was on hers in an instant, stopping the sound with an insistent kiss.  Though he wanted to give her a moment to adjust to him, Drust was unable to keep still.  His hips began to rock against hers, instinctively seeking an even greater pleasure.  He thrust as gently as he could, sweat breaking out on his body with the effort of his restraint.  His mouth moved to her breast, suckling at a taught nipple until she arched her back and her hips began to move with his, seeking a rhythm that her body already knew.  Was born knowing.  Higher and higher he took her, until she was clenching him tight within her body, wrapping her legs around him to draw him back to her again and again.  Almost… so close!  So much pleasure…

             
Drust felt her body tighten. 
Hold
on… not yet… too soon!
  He could not wait much longer.  The pressure was building low in his spine, his balls unbelievably tight and aching.  He was going to come so hard… harder than he ever dreamed possible.  He slipped a hand between them, one finger finding that sensitive place just above where their bodies met.  He touched it gently, once, twice, and was rewarded with Willa’s soft cry of ecstasy as she came around him, squeezing him, milking him, and sending him even closer to the edge.  Desperate for release, he pounded into her faster and harder, losing himself, out of his mind with need.  There was only instinct left.  Everything around him faded until there was nothing but the frantic joining of their bodies, only the torturous pressure building, tightening in his loins.  Until it came to the very peak, and then he was exploding, falling.  A pleasure so intense it was almost pain.  He threw his head back and roared. 

             
“Willa!  Ah, God!”  He heard her name on his lips as he pumped his seed into her, until finally he dropped his forehead down to hers, his hips still thrusting, though more slowly, more gently now.  It was several more moments before his breaths slowed enough that he could gather her into his arms and roll to his side with her. 

             
“Och, Love, did I hurt ye too badly?”  He reached a hand up to push damp strands of hair away from her face.  She gave him a tender, contented smile, and he smiled in return.  Truly, he felt as if he had just conquered the world. 

             
“No, only good pain.  That was… that was more than I could have dreamed and more.”  At  loss for words, she leaned closer to place kisses along his jaw and he held her even tighter. 

              They woke to the light of early dawn, and the sounds of the castle waking.  Drust feathered soft kisses over her lips, determined to ignore his raging morning erection, at least this once.  After they were wed, he would be taking advantage every day, but today, he needed to slip away before someone found him here in Willa’s bed.  Namely her brother. 

             
It was all he could do to pull himself away from her drowsy warmth.  She sat up as he left the bed, letting the sheet fall to reveal her perfect breasts.  Looking at her like that, so ripely feminine, he almost wished he could one day see her suckling his child there.  But no!  He would never take the chance.  Last night he had spilled himself within her, so far gone with lust he couldn’t have pulled out if he wanted to.  But that had been their first time, his passionate claiming of her as his woman.  Next time it would be easier.  He would not make the same mistake twice.  To lose her now… no, he could not even think of it.

             
“Where are you going?” she asked, stretching her graceful arms above her head.

             
He grinned at her.  “I’m sneaking out of yer bedchamber before I get caught.”

             
She laughed and peered under the sheet.  “I think someone is bound to know you were here.”

             
Pulling the pale linen away, she revealed the tell-tale smudges of blood.  “And that you deflowered your bride before the wedding night”, she told him brightly.

             
She watched as his face split into a wide grin.  He looked almost proud of himself, the arrogant man! 

             
“I’m verra happy to have been the lucky man to deflower ye lass.”  He leaned in for another lingering kiss.  “And I’ll send Glenna up after the bedding.  She seems verra discreet.

***

              Or perhaps not so discreet.  He had to wonder by the way James had been sending him killing looks all through dinner.  Maura kept elbowing him in the ribs and scolding him, but it didn’t seem to help his temper.  And then there was the way all the maids were looking at him and tittering to each other beneath their hands.  He sighed, glad that they would be leaving soon.

             
As soon as the meal ended, he stole Willa away.  They walked through the gardens near the keep, because Drust thought it would be an unnecessary risk to go any further.  He looked down at her, squeezing her small hand in his.

             
“I can hardly believe that I will have a wife.  Ye are everything I never kenned I needed, lass.”

             
She smiled up at him.  “And you are everything I always
knew
I wanted.”

             
“Ye wanted a stubborn, damaged man who kens no’ a thing about being a husband?”

             
“No.  A strong, honorable man who will be a wonderful husband and father.”

             
Drust suddenly went still beside her.  “Husband, aye, I will do my best.  But I willna be a father.”

             
“Oh”.  Willa could hardly keep the hurt and disappointment from her voice.  He didn’t want children?  What man didn’t at least want strong sons to stand by his side?  She couldn’t believe what he was saying. 

             
“You do want children someday, though?”

             
“No, never.”

             
Those two words tore through her like a knife.  Willa had always wanted a family and children of her own, and she had spent considerable time over the last several weeks imagining what Drust’s babies would look like, and what a good father he’d be.  How could she not have known he didn’t even want a family?  She had just assumed…

             
“But… why not?”

             
She thought that his eyes took on a faraway look, as if remembering something from long ago.

             
“I have no desire to be a father.  I am a warrior, and right hand to my brother Bren.  He will have the heirs.  And his wife is already expecting.”

             
He looked down at her then, and he must have seen the hurt in her eyes, because he softened his stance and pulled her closer.

             
“Lass, I want to spend the rest of my days with ye, just ye and I together.  I would give ye the world.  Ye have me so deep under yer spell that I could never break free.  But I canna give ye my child, so dinna ask me again, I dinna wish to speak of it.”

             
Willa looked at the ground and narrowed her eyes.  She knew there was more to all this than he was telling her; he was afraid of something.  And she also knew that she had time to convince him otherwise.  She would let it go, for now.  Besides, with any luck, she could already be carrying his child.  And if her dream last night was any indication, she was.  She had heard women often had dreams just after they conceived, as if to welcome the new life that their body nurtured.  Last night she had dreamt of a sweet baby boy, with his father’s fathomless eyes and wavy brown hair.  Her heart melted at the thought.