Page 91 of Highland Spy

Nervous excitement left her pulse ticking through her veins with almost enough energy to leave her trembling.

She was naked in front of Connor Grant.

Not as she’d been before, with her back to him while they both quickly dressed, but slowly, carefully. And with glorious intent.

Chapter 22

Ariana was even more beautiful in the nude than Connor had imagined.

And he’d imagined it many more times than he should have. Still, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

Hours of training had left a hint of muscle along her flat belly and her long legs. Her body was firm and supple all at once with the softness of a woman and the evident strength of her determination.

Never had anything been more exquisite than the beauty of Ariana Fitzroy.

Her cheeks flushed a deep red and her eyes sparkled with desire. The stubborn tilt of her chin remained, even in the absence of her clothing. As if she were daring him to find her anything but stunning.

Connor rose to his knees and caught her hands in his. Her fingers trembled, belying the facade of confidence she so defiantly wore.

Her skin was flawless in the low light and pulled him toward her with the temptation to run his palm over its silky surface.

He brushed his lips over her lower stomach, close to her sex, and breathed in the heady scent of her arousal. Its tantalizing lure made his mind swim and left everything hazy with lust.

He wanted to part her slick folds with his tongue and lose himself in her taste.

And he would.

In time.

For now, it’d been too long since he’d had a woman. Hearing the sultry cries of her climax again might very well undo him before he even had the chance to enter her.

It was all he could do to keep himself above the cloud of his lust. He circled her navel with the tip of his tongue and kissed higher and higher, while rising to his feet.

Ariana responded to his kisses with soft sighs of appreciation, minor mirrors of the husky sounds she’d made earlier.

He wanted to hear those again.

While inside her.

He rose completely to his feet, heedless now of how his cock pressed against her body. Nay, not heedless, for he reveled in it. The teasing pressure of her against the head, so swollen with want, it pained him. The coarse wool of his kilt rasped against the sensitive flesh like nails.

His hands moved to remove his belt and found hers already there. Her fingers jerked at the buckle, freeing it from the leather so it fell to the floor with an audible clank.

His kilt followed suit, though it made considerably less noise.

Or so he assumed.

In truth, he wasn’t paying much mind to sounds, only to the beautiful woman standing in front of him and the burning hot desire in her eyes.

She didn’t sit there and stare at him wide-eyed or suddenly become shy, as he’d heard most virgins were wont to do. Not his Ariana. She dragged her hand down the edge of his stomach, her touch so tantalizingly slow that his stomach instinctively flexed.

Her fingers still trembled, but evidence of any apprehension or nervousness was not apparent on her face. She leaned forward and kissed him. It was an aggressive kiss, with tongue and the slight grinding of teeth against lips amid heavy breathing.

Then, finally, her fingers wrapped around the length of him and squeezed.

Pleasure fired sharply and echoed through him like a pistol’s report.

He couldn’t think anymore, not when the only thing in him was want.