Page 18 of Her Highland Destiny

Cassandra shook her head. “You won’t fail me.”

The thought disappeared and the fire of lust took its place, white hot and ravenous. His heartbeat thundered under her fingertips. She stared up in his eyes, lost in the dark depths there, drawn into his power and the force of their desire.

“If I kiss ye, I willna be able to stop.” His lust was only barely restrained. She could sense the difficulty he had in maintaining himself even now, and she pried against it with her own will, her own want.

He cupped the back of her head in his large palm and tilted her face up to his. “Ye undo me, Cassandra.” His mouth lowered to hers and he kissed her with all the heat of his desire.

7

Cassandra’s world lit in the glow of raw energy mingling with beautiful passion. Her own yearning melded with his and roared between them. He caught her more tightly against him and slanted his mouth over hers.

His tongue swept between the seam of her lips, as it had done before, as she’d fantasized about since. She licked at his mouth, eager to match the pleasure he gave. Not only did he like it, she sensed his anticipation as tangibly as her own.

Her hands still rested against his chest, her palms humming with the strength wavering off the stone and whirling about them like brilliant starlight. His mouth ravaged hers in the most delicious of ways. His lips ground against hers, as though he wanted to consume all of her with their kiss. But she knew there was more to what they did than a kiss. She could feel it in the heaviness of her breasts, the heat pulsing between her legs, the hardness of his groin straining against her stomach.

He broke off their kiss and stared down at her with glittering black eyes. His lip curled in a lopsided smile, arrogant and so handsome it caught her breath. “Ach, aye, lass. There is much, much more.”

He ran his thumb over her mouth, still tingling from their shared kisses, and ran the digit down her throat. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to her neck. The skin there was far more sensitive than she’d ever realized. Her whole body prickled to life at the simple, intimate kiss. She cradled him in her arms and curled him closer to her.

His hands skimmed down her shoulder, over her back and to the sides of her breasts. She moaned with an innate need and thrust her chest forward. He groaned and swept a finger over her nipple. Sharp pleasure shot through her and she sucked in a breath.

His beard rasped against her neck while the heat of his mouth trailed from her earlobe to the juncture between her shoulders and neck, and down to her neckline. He massaged her breasts in his palms and the blunt ends of his fingers circled the hard points of her nipples, again and again and again until she thought she might die of want.

He chuckled. “Impatient.”

Cassandra closed her eyes and focused on the energy between them. She found the thread of his lust and followed its source to what he longed for. Her fingers raked down his chest past where his tight stomach flexed with each hard breath, and to the rigid staff jutting against her.

He hissed an exhale between his teeth and his hips jerked. Sexual delight sizzled through him and filtered through her by her touch. She molded her fingers around the hard bulk, measuring and teasing all at once. He thrust forward and his eyes closed in obvious enjoyment.

She nuzzled his ear, the way he’d done with her and spoke against his ear lobe so her breath whispered hot against his skin. “Who is impatient now?”

He grasped her bottom with both hands and the hem of her skirt lifted. The chilled air of the room swept over her knees. She grasped his shoulders to keep from falling while her world spun. He settled her pelvis against his and the hard length of his maleness nudged against her center.

She gave a little cry without meaning to. A flicker of arrogant pride flitted through him and she might have cast him a teasing chastisement had he not taken that moment to rub against her intimate place once more.

The friction built a decadent heat to what was already warm and aching. She found herself arching against him in a helpless rhythm that only seemed to leave her more frustrated.

Please.

Though she said it only in her mind, his eyes lit with intent. He fisted the fabric at her bottom and raked his hands upward, drawing the tunic and the linen together in one fluid sweep that left her entirely nude. The sudden loss of their touch, their connection, rendered her bereft and alone.

Cassandra’s body heated at the vulnerable exposure and her hands lifted to cover herself. Fergus took her hands and shook his head without ever drawing his gaze from her.

With that simple, innocent touch came a barrage of his thoughts. How perfectly lovely he found her. A goddess.

She flushed and had only begun to think how she longed to see him when he jerked the hem of his tunic over his head. The breath fled Cassandra’s lungs and every bit of moisture fled her mouth. She shifted her legs together, discovering where the wetness in her body had gone in a pulsing madness of need.

Fergus’ back had been glorious and impressive. But the front of him…

Cassandra’s mouth parted in awe. The massive span of his shoulders rippled with strength that ran over his powerful chest. His stomach clenched with bands of muscles with each breath. The stone was a deep green gem which hung from a gilded chain against his chest. Her gaze lingered there briefly before curiosity drove her onward. A sprinkling of dark hair covered his torso and ran in a tantalizing line from the indent of his navel.

On his hip, the opposite one of her own, was the mark of a dagger, pointing the other direction. Her match. She gasped and met his eye. He nodded in silent agreement. “We are both bound to the stone. To each other.”

She put her hand to her own hip and let her fingertip skim over the mark there. Even as she caressed it, curiosity pulled her stare lower still, down, down, down to—

She jerked her gaze away. The column of desire she’d felt beneath the tunic had seemed large, but not quite so long, nor so…alive. It ticked in time with his heartbeat, the head massively swollen as though it were to the point of bursting.

“It’s a flattering assessment,” he said playfully. “But I assure ye, I’ll keep it from bursting until I’ve felt ye climax around me.”