“I can look if you can,” he whispered mischievously in her ear without breaking his easy stride. When he pulled away to look down at her face, he spoke in a more public tone. “Besides, might be tha I’ve done a great deal more than tha in the past… But tha’s a naughty tale for another time,” he said with a smug smile.
Skye’s jaw dropped open and she looked back and forth between him and Ailean for a moment. Her mind simultaneously tried and tried NOT to imagine the scene in vivid detail.
“You are so cruel,” she chided.
“Ooh, and ya love every bleedin’ second of it,” he declared with a cocky grin.
They entered the upscale lingerie boutique and Aodh took up a post outside the front door, much to the displeasure of the store’s staff. Eògan, Donnach, and Elijah patrolled the store’s exterior perimeter.
Ailean wandered the aisles, occasionally pausing as if looking at items when he was actually intently surveying his surroundings. Watching his every move with open interest were the boutique’s owner and three saleswomen. Ailean kept their attention – flashing the occasional sizzlingly sexy smile to the tall, fit, black man behind the counter. Ailean could feel his eyes on him from a distance and greatly enjoyed the attention. Once he was close enough to the group, he called out a heavily accented greeting. HEAVILY accented. Even by Ailean’s standards.
“Guid efternuin!” he greeted cheerfully in a low, rough voice and gave a wink to the shop owner.
“It for sure is now, honey,” the man answered as he winked back.
“Was that English?” one of the saleswomen whispered.
“Oh my God, girl. Who. The. Hell. Cares?” another insisted, clapping between words to punctuate.
“Right?! Like, did you not see his body?!” the shop owner laughed.
“He could be speaking Klingon and these panties would be coming OFF,” one of the other women declared.
“Preach,” the shop owner sighed before making his way around the counter to go personally greet the intriguing new clientele.
“Pfft, what panties?” Ciaran asked under his breath at the back of the store with a devilish smile.
Skye and Ailean laughed. The staff were unaware of: A) the supernaturally enhanced hearing of their current clients and B) Ciaran’s ability to detect a panty-less female within a 3-mile radius.
The shop owner came up beside them, leaning against one of the racks and striking a nonchalantly seductive pose. A smile came to his glossed lips as he greeted the trio. “Welcome to my very own little slice of heaven. I’m Luis and this is my boutique. I design all the merch and can customize just about anything to your… tastes.” His eyes slid to Ailean purposefully, starting at his boots and moving languidly up the length of his body. Luis brought a hand up to his face, leaning against his fingers and arching a brow as he met Ailean’s eyes again.
"Hi, Luis. It's nice to meet you," Skye greeted warmly as she shook his hand. She looked around the store and gave an impressed nod. "Hell of a selection you've got in here! I get the feeling we'll be stopping by on a regular basis. I'm Skye. This is Ciaran and... Ailean," she said with extra emphasis, noting that Luis had yet to take his eyes off of her pierced, ridiculously hot clansmen. She sympathized with his plight. Getting your eyes unstuck from Ailean could be very challenging.
“So… were you in here looking for anything in particular, or…?” Luis asked with a flirtatious smile.
Ailean grinned. He licked his lips and offered in a gravelly tone, “Och, I’m definitely lookin’ now, love.”
Luis bit his bottom lip as he held Ailean’s smoldering gaze.
Skye’s eyes widened at the instant, raging sexual tension. She half expected literal sparks to start flying between them. She was wholly unprepared for the experience of being subjected to the scent of Ailean’s arousal for the first time.
Ciaran perked right up and grinned ear to ear. With his eyes passing back and forth between Ailean and Luis, he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall, eager to see this play out.
Skye rolled her eyes at Ciaran’s unabashed nosiness and grabbed his elbow. She knew he thoroughly enjoyed anything relating to sex – whether the sex included him or not – but she wanted to give these guys the opportunity to chat alone.
“Yeah, we’ll just be…” she said with a smile, trailing off and pointing to the other side of the store.
“But-!” Ciaran objected. He dragged his feet (literally – his shoes actually squeaked on the floor) and sulked as she led him away.
Once he was finished pouting, he helped Skye find a few teddies, chemises, and negligees that were sure to send Taran’s head spinning. Despite having largely sworn off dresses, in this particular situation, Skye decided to go the typically-dreaded route of ‘soft and feminine.’ She loved the way Taran made her feel in bed. Cherished. Beautiful. Precious. Delicate. She wanted to dress up to his tastes and watch his reactions. The luxurious, richly-colored satins and laces she found would be right up his alley.
She looked up a few times to gauge Ailean’s location. She was disappointed to find that he had returned to wandering the store, doing as Taran had requested and keeping an eye out for trouble. Seeing that Luis had returned to the front counter, she frowned. Thinking it through, she realized Ailean must have told him that he was working right now… She hoped they had at least exchanged numbers. Somebody needed to be getting a piece of Ailean, damn it! She was really rooting for Luis here.
She made a mental note to find an excuse to get Ailean back here ASAP while he was off duty. Maybe she could custom order something… ask Ailean to come pick it up? She smiled to herself at that plan.
While she was busy plotting, Ciaran flopped down into an ornate, pink, French armchair at the center of the store. He put his feet up on the ottoman and took in his surroundings. His fingertips idly stroked the arm of the overstuffed chair, appreciating the varying textures of the smooth velvet, rough lace, and cool, smooth wood. This whole place was like a tactile Candy Land and he was all about sensory stimulation. He glanced up at the giant chandelier overhead and the way the sun made its crystals shine. His eyes passed over the numerous displays, then made their back to where Skye was carefully considering a long, white, satin gown that was sure to make her breasts look utterly edible.
He bit his bottom lip and squirmed in the chair. When Skye turned and gave him an apprehensive look, clearly having caught the scent of his growing arousal, he held up his hands. “What?” he laughed in feigned innocence.
“Oh, you so know what,” Skye answered.
“Eh, so maybe I do. Might be tha comin’ here was a bad idea on me part,” he declared. He bit down even harder on his bottom lip, shifting in the chair again in an effort to make room in his increasingly tight pants. “Quickie in the dressing room?” he suggested hopefully.
Skye gave him a mock scowl and pointed at him. “Be-have,” she ordered, managing to turn it into two words.
Ciaran sighed and got back up onto his feet, but he was all riled up now. He amused himself by joking with the staff – asking for thongs and negligees in his size, holding them up to his body, and asking whether the color brought out his sparkling blue eyes. The naughty glint in his gaze was enough to send all temperatures soaring in response.
“Check out Lucky Charms with his sexy self!” Luis laughed and fanned himself with a folder for dramatic effect.
“Mmm… I bet he is just ‘magically delicious’, too,” one of the saleswomen sighed appreciatively.
They all tilted their heads to the side to watch Ciaran’s ass as he walked away.
“If he wants something that’ll look good on him, he can try me on,” one of the women purred.
“Ooh, Ella, you bad!” the last one laughed.
“And wrong – McSexyPants over there would most definitely be trying me on first,” the first saleswoman declared.
“Bitch, don’t you make me take out these earrings,” Luis teased.
As they la
ughed and cracked jokes at the far end of the store, Skye snickered. She smacked Ciaran’s chest when he made his way back over to her. “Keep that up and they’re liable to drag you into the back to have their way with you.”
“There’s only one woman in here tha’s allowed to do tha… and one man,” Ciaran teased with a wicked puckering of his full lips. His eyes wandered over to Ailean.
Skye blushed crimson. “Stop it!” she pleaded anxiously.
“Aww, why?” he whined. “You’re just too damned adorable when ya get all hot-and-bothered-like and try to hide it,” he goaded as he followed along after her down the aisle. “I can tell ya what he’s like, if ya want,” he teased as he ran his fingers slowly and suggestively down the cold metal rod of a clothing rack. “Show ya how he shags. Share me memories of a few of his more public conquests, if ya think ya can handle it. What drives him mad. What he screams when he gets off…”
“Ciaran!” she chided in disbelief with wide eyes, playing right into his goading. Just like he wanted, she was simultaneously insanely turned on and terribly awkward. She did still have to LIVE with Ailean as a family member, after all. As it was, it already took an insane amount of effort not to openly gawk at the ancient, all-too-often shirtless or flat-out nude stud. The last thing she needed was additional pervy thoughts swirling around her head about him.
Ciaran laughed wickedly and blew her a kiss.
Much to Skye’s chagrin, Ailean came over then, drawn by the unidentified distress he could sense in her. He smelled intense arousal, of course, but that was pretty much standard between her and Ciaran. A worried frown was on his handsome face as he looked the pair over appraisingly. He turned to Ciaran, speaking in Gaelic (which always left Skye guessing what the hell was going on, but it made it easier for him to communicate.)
“We’re fine,” Ciaran answered in response to Ailean’s question. “Just teasin’ the girl mercilessly, is all. She’s still a bit of a prudish pup, I’m afraid. Just tryin’ to loosen her up a bit.” After considering it for a second, trying to decide how far he wanted to push Skye, Ciaran finally turned and asked Ailean in Gaelic, “Want to help me get her all flustered?”
Skye looked back and forth between them worriedly when Ailean’s mouth formed the mirror image of Ciaran’s mischievous smile. The men spoke for another moment before, without warning, Ailean walked past her, gripped the back of Ciaran’s head, and kissed him passionately.
A strangled sound escaped Skye’s throat as her eyes went wide.
Ciaran played it up for her benefit, moaning in appreciation, grabbing the beltloops of Ailean’s jeans, and pulling his body flush with his own. Ailean growled into his mouth in response before pressing Ciaran back against the wall, gripping him by the hips, and grinding against him.
It was inescapably clear that Ciaran had not been bluffing about his past encounters with Ailean just to get a rise out of Skye.
Ya ought to feel this, a stóirín… Ciaran taunted in her mind before doing the unthinkable and actually sharing with her all of the physical sensations he was experiencing.
“Holy FUCK,” she whimpered before clamping a hand over her mouth. Her other hand gripped the closest clothing rack for support as her legs nearly gave out from beneath her. They were going to need to set up a ‘wet floor’ sign if things kept going at this rate.
Mercifully, the sound of ceramic shattering on the floor drew her attention away from the spectacle. She turned and found the staff at the front all staring slack-jawed and wide-eyed at the scene playing out before them. One of them was still holding her hand out in front of her, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she had dropped her coffee mug.
Skye looked back just in time to watch Ailean slowly sucking Ciaran’s full bottom lip before pulling back from the kiss. They stared into one another’s eyes for another moment, each panting with their mouths barely an inch apart.
Everyone else in the store was leaning forward expectantly.
With a heated, playful smile and a light slap to Ciaran’s cheek, Ailean muttered something roughly in Gaelic that sounded like a challenge. He turned and gave Skye a wink, then met the eyes of Luis. He chuckled and gave the man a wolfish grin, licking his lips for good measure and running his fingertips across them as he walked away.
Ciaran looked every single bit the part of the cat who ate the canary. He knew damned well that their little display had just rendered the entire store speechless.
Skye shuddered at the scent of their combined arousal. Regardless of whether the kiss had been for her benefit, the two had definitely enjoyed themselves. Her primal instincts made it incredibly difficult not to give in to the olfactory invitation and promise of pleasure. But then, tormenting her had clearly been Ciaran’s goal.
“You…” Skye began shakily. She closed her eyes, shook her head, and cleared her throat. “…are GROUNDED!”
Ciaran burst out laughing in response. “How’s tha goin’ to work exactly? Will it involve these?” he asked hopefully as he held up a pair of fuzzy handcuffs.
Skye scowled and crossed her arms over her chest, now annoyed, embarrassed, and extremely sexually frustrated. “No. It will involve you not being present while I try any of these on,” she declared as she held up the items in her hand.
“But–!” Ciaran cried, his expression instantly that of pure misery.
“It also means that you aren’t allowed to help me pick out any more outfits,” she added. “You can go wait outside. Consider this a time out.”
Ciaran quirked a brow. “Ya can’t be serious. I’ve strict orders to stay next to ya the whole time, lest Taran break me arm when I get home. Tha was our agreement.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Skye declared. “You go out, send Eògan in. An ancient for an ancient. Same security detail just rearranged. Off you go.”
Ciaran stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and shuffled out of the store petulantly.
Skye fought to slow her heartrate as she went back to perusing the enumerable outfits. A smile slowly came to her lips when she decided that part of Ciaran’s punishment should involve something in red, faux leather… with studs and metal rings… ooh, and a matching cat o' nine tails! She redirected her hunt through the garments accordingly.
“Ah hiner he isnae in tay much trooble fur 'at wee stunt,” Ailean said from behind her, startling her from her search.
“Mother f–!” she began to curse under her breath before pressing her lips together tightly. Her whole body went rigid and she squeezed her eyes shut, mentally counting down from 20 in an attempt to calm her hormones. He really did not seem to understand the effect he had on people.
Seemingly oblivious to her struggle, Ailean went on fretfully, “It was jist meant tae be a bit ay fin. Ah woods nae hae gain alang wi' it if Ah hud knoon it woods make ye radge, mah Queen.”
Skye attempted to steel herself. She glanced back at him and immediately fought off the unfair level of arousal the man inflicted with his presence. Thankfully, the sincere concern in his eyes was enough to sober her from any lingering perverse thoughts. She could still recall the devastation on Ailean’s face when Taran had been slain. She could still remember in perfect detail the way he had wept openly at her feet and begged for her forgiveness. Those memories had planted the seeds of devotion in her heart for this ancient. Brutal sexiness aside, she absolutely loved Ailean.
Skye waved a hand and smiled reassuringly, meeting his gaze to be certain he knew the truth of her words. “I’m not seriously mad, Ailean. I promise. I mean, I’m flustered, yeah…” she admitted awkwardly and averted her eyes.
Visibly relieved, Ailean grinned. “Aye, tha wis his intention.”
“I figured,” she laughed. “So, since he’s playing games, I’m playing back.” She held up an outfit and tried not to blush that Ailean was seeing something so intimate that would soon be wrapped around her body. “I think this will be sufficient for punishment.”
Ailean let out a long whistle of app
roval before taking the garment to get a better look. He gave a lopsided grin and cast her an amused sideways glance. “It wid ainlie be punishment if ye didnae let heem titch ye while yer sportin' it, lassie. Ye hud better mynd yersel'. Thes type ay penalty’s liable tae make heem misbehae waur than ever.”
The bells over the front door chimed as Eògan entered.
“What’s the prince of perversion done to earn himself an eviction?” he called as he made his way through the store. “He’s out there lookin’ like ya just kicked his puppy.”
“More like the puppy who was kicked, and it serves him right,” Skye said with a smile. “I’m gonna go try this stuff on.”
“Well, I’ll be out here mindin’ the shop then. Seems Ailean’ll be wantin’ to try tha on while you’re at it,” Eògan teased, pointing to the entirely too small faux leather corset in his brother’s hands.
“Nae, it isnae mah style,” Ailean declared as he followed along after Skye.
It was a bit disconcerting to try on lingerie with Ailean right outside the door. Especially with the memory of him and Ciaran grinding together so fresh in her mind. Worse still when she knew that he could catch the scent every time her dirty little mind replayed and rejoiced in the memory. In an effort to ease the tension, she chatted with the ancient beyond the door.
“I hope Eògan’s not gonna make the staff jumpy by hanging out at the front door like a bouncer. It’s bad enough Aodh’s doing that outside,” she commented as she pulled on a corset and pettiskirt.
“Na, he is likelie asking fur claes lik' yers fur his-sel,” Ailean joked from outside the dressing room door.
Skye squinted and scrunched up her face, working out what he had said before laughing at the mental image of big, burly, tough-guy Eògan attempting to squeeze his massive form into this very same outfit. He was more of a weathered denim, leather, and flannel kind of guy.
She smoothed out the ribbons and white floral lace of the negligee and smiled to herself that the garment was almost bridal. Appropriate since, by all rights, Taran was her husband now. She could not wait to see what his reaction to this one would be.
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