by Anna Durand
"No, but thanks for the offer."
"Anytime." He straightened. "I'll leave you to it, then."
"Stay. Please."
Without a word, he ambled around the bed to crawl across it and snuggle up behind me. He draped one arm over my belly, his face pressed to my neck. I felt… protected. Contented. Happy, in spite of everything.
Did I love him? Not yet. But the slippery slope had morphed into an easy slide down a warm and welcoming path that led straight into Aidan's arms.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next afternoon, the four of us — two Douglases and two MacTaggarts — sat around the picnic table in the backyard finishing up the last bits of our meal. Aidan and I had escorted Gavin and Jamie on a tour of the local area this morning, which mostly involved visiting gift shops where Jamie could pick out souvenirs for her siblings and parents. Gavin had helped her choose gifts for her brothers while Aidan and I observed the pair's flirtatious interactions.
Did I look like that with Aidan? Giggling, smiling, touching his arm.
I didn't giggle, not in public. As for the rest, I couldn't be sure. Gavin had assured me I mooned over Aidan and went gushy at the sight of him. Gushiness had become an epidemic among the four of us.
Aidan's hand settled on my thigh under the picnic table, pulling me out of my thoughts. He massaged my flesh gently, seductively.
My breaths quickened when his hand glided higher.
He announced, "Calli and I are going to take a drive. Alone."
Might as well have said we were sneaking off to have sex somewhere away from my brother and his sister. Because that's what we were doing. Aidan had confided his escape plan to me while we prepared lunch, and I had agreed by saying, "Oh God, yes, please. As soon as possible."
Two entire days without Aidan inside me had made me antsy.
Gavin aimed a hard look at Aidan. "I'm watching you."
The slight twitch of his lips belied his vague threat. My brother was teasing my lover. Couldn't decide if that was good or bad.
Aidan removed his palm from my thigh to take my hand. He glanced at his sister, then back to Gavin. "Got my eye on you too."
The squint of his eyes was more humor than threat.
Male bonding accomplished, Aidan led me across the yard and through the house, out to the convertible waiting for us in the driveway. Before I had time to ask about his specific plans, he was whisking me away on a mysterious drive down the highway.
As the scenery zipped by and my hair whipped around me, I gazed at him with an adoration I could no longer deny. "I'm all for a sex getaway, but where exactly are we going?"
His smile was smug and secretive. "It's a surprise."
"Since you're new to the area, do you even know where you're going?"
"You doubt me?" He feigned taking offense, then added, "I researched it online. And I've got supplies in the boot."
"In your boot?" I leaned over to peer down at his feet. "You're wearing tennies."
He rolled his eyes. "Not in my boot, in the car's boot."
"What's the boot?"
"The trunk." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder, toward the trunk in question. "What are tennies?"
"Tennis shoes. Sneakers." I gestured at his feet. "Those."
"Ah."
I relaxed into my seat, one arm on the center console, the other on the door's armrest. "Guess the culture clash has hit us at last."
"No, it hit us when I spoke naughty Gaelic to you."
"Oh yeah, how could I forget that?" I smiled at him, recalling the day he'd arrived in Michigan. "You can talk dirty to me in Gaelic again if you want."
"Best wait until I'm not steering a fast-moving vehicle." He threw me a sidelong glance, complete with a suggestive smirk. "Talking dirty to you tends to get me excited."
"Doesn't seem to take a lot to get you excited."
"You either, mo chridhe." He winked.
"Three times you've called me that. What does it mean?"
"My heart."
I had no response to that. He called me his heart? Way too serious, better to ignore it.
We passed the remainder of our trip in casual discussions of our respective siblings, the scenery, cultural differences, and countless other things. After two hours, we reached our destination.
I surveyed the motel as Aidan parked the car. "This was your great plan? A motel?"
"Told you I wanted you alone so I could have my way with you."
"Sure, but I kind of assumed there'd be romantic gestures involved."
"Why?" He gave a stellar impression of a clueless man. "You said we're not dating and you won't fall in love with me. Why would I bother with courtship?"
He kept up the clueless act a little too long, so long in fact, I almost started to believe it. Finally, he grinned and kissed my cheek.
"We're here," he said into my ear, "because I wanted privacy. Your surprises are in the trunk, remember."
"Surprises? Plural?"
"Aye."
He hopped out of the car, coming around to my side to open the door and usher me out, offering me his hand. I accepted it. He led me to the motel's office, where we checked in — he'd made a reservation this morning — and then made our way to our room. It was situated on the far end of the long, one-story building. Aidan let me into the room, then hurried off to move the car.
When he returned, he was carrying an insulated cooler bag and a plastic grocery sack filled with items I couldn't make out. He set both on the table near the window. Closing the curtains, he sat down on the bed next to me, buttressed with one arm on the mattress behind my butt. He leaned in close.
"Your surprises," he said, "come in stages. Just like you will."
"What does that mean?"
"Means I'm going to make you come for me over and over, harder every time."
Excitement shimmered through me. My skin came alive as if he'd skimmed his hands over every inch of me. "Will any part of this plan involve me on my knees? You did promise."
"And I keep my promises." He curled his tongue around my earlobe. "But I'm not giving anything away. You'll need to be patient, mo leannan."
Had no idea what the last part meant and right now I didn't care. All I could think about was how much I wanted his hands on me, his mouth on me, his cock inside me.
Aidan kicked off his tennies and laid back on the bed, propped up on his elbows. "Strip."
"Excuse me?"
"Strip, Calli." His smoldering gaze settled on me. "It means take off your clothes."
"I know what it means. Not used to being commanded to undress."
"You like it when I command you."
Heaven help me, I did. Which meant I trusted him. Which I'd already told him. The reality of it hadn't quite sunk in, though, until this moment.
I rose from the bed and began to undress. "You've seen me strip before. This is hardly a novel experience."
"But I love watching you unveil that luscious body."
He watched me with glittering eyes and parted lips, his gaze tracking my every movement. By the time I got to my underwear, a lump had started to swell inside his jeans. When I shed my bra, he reached one hand down to stroke himself through the denim. A hunger erupted within me, a desperate need to unzip his pants and free his erection so I could swallow it whole. My mouth watered.
I shimmied out of my panties.
Aidan exhaled a ragged breath. His hand stroked more firmly as his cock swelled bigger and harder before my eyes.
On impulse, I knelt between his knees and took hold of the zipper on his jeans. My hand brushed against his. He moved to push mine away but then hesitated and withdrew his hand to support his body on both elbows once again.
I dragged the zipper down with exquisite slowness, loving the rough and strangely erotic sound of it. My breasts tightened, but at the sight of his erection revealed inch by inch, the peaks shot hard.
"Christ," he sai
d, his voice rough, "I want to suck those little nipples until you shudder."
"My turn first." I spread the flaps of his jeans, freeing his cock. It waved over his belly, the tip red and glistening. I closed my fist around the base, thrilled by the feel of silken skin and the tiny ridges of veins. I pumped his shaft slowly, relishing the way his breaths grew shallower and quicker. Emboldened by his response, I pumped harder and faster, my palm gliding up and down his cock as I took in the expression on his face. Lust. Awe. And a tenderness that plucked at my heart even as it amped up my own arousal. I worked him harder, bending to lap the moisture from his crown. When he gasped, I grinned. "Mm, I do love the way you taste."
The awe overtook his entire face. "Calli Bethany Douglas, you are a goddess."
"You've earned your Viking name." I pressed my lips to the head of his penis as I milked him with my hand. "You are magnificent."
Letting out a long and resonant groan, he fell back onto the bed. His fingers clenched the bedspread.
My hand still on his cock, I swept my tongue over the tip in one long lick.
He sprang up, hugged me tight, and flipped us both over so I wound up on my back beneath him. Breathing hard, his face pinched, he stared at me for several seconds. My heart raced, my skin tingled, I couldn't tear my gaze away from him. He crushed his mouth to mine, forcing me to open for him, his tongue invading my mouth with searing, demanding thrusts until my sex pulsed and wetness rushed over my folds.
He jumped to his feet.
I gasped, the breath stolen from me.
He stripped off his clothes in a rush, then fell to his knees at the bedside, between my legs. Both of his hands grasped my hips, pulling me closer until the edge of my ass lay on the bed's edge. He frisked his hands down to my inner thighs and pushed my legs apart.
"My turn," he said in a silky, sizzling tone that matched the fire in his eyes. Moving his hands to the bed at either side of my legs, he angled in until his mouth hovered millimeters from my sex. "Taking it slow this time. You'll beg me to hurry up, but I willnae."
His mouth descended on my clitoris, surrounding it with his ravenous lips and tongue. He suckled with such gentleness I was on the verge of begging him already, but when his tongue lapped at my rigid nub I lost all capacity for speech. He lapped in languid strokes, maddening strokes, while his teeth nipped at my sensitized skin. One strong finger found my opening, teased it, then slid up my cleft with aching slowness, only to glide back down at the same speed.
"Aidan," I whimpered, desperation triggering my voice. "Faster, please, faster."
He groaned against my clit and an electrical jolt fired through it. Rather than speeding up, though, he pulled my flesh into his mouth to lick and suckle it as if in slow motion. Pleasure coursed through me, almost an orgasm, but not quite. Not quite. Oh God, not quite. My knees pulled up on their own as if a wire running the length of my body had been cinched tight. His tongue rasped over my flesh in a ferocious lash and I thrashed my head, my hands fisted in the covers, my breaths sharp whimpers.
Aidan shoved a hand under my ass and boosted it up. The angle gave him better access, letting him rake his tongue up and down the length of my cleft once, twice, before he thrust his tongue deep inside my sex. Every muscle inside me tensed in anticipation, spurred by the ever-increasing pressure of an impending release. His tongue flicked inside me, tormenting my flesh.
My back arched, and I let out a wailing cry.
He withdrew his tongue, scraping it up my swollen skin. Just as his mouth consumed my clit and his tongue lashed it fiercely, he delved two fingers inside me.
Ecstasy rocketed through my body, making me shudder and convulse under him. I shouted and whimpered, overpowered by the climax, while my sex clutched at his fingers in undulating spasms. When at last I fell limp on the covers, he sat back on his heels to drink me in.
With a lust-darkened expression, he slid his tongue over his glistening lips. "You taste so good I could feast on you all night. But this was only stage one."
I gaped at him, panting from the release he'd coaxed out of me. "You'll make me come harder than that?"
His smile was devilish, his chuckle dark and full of erotic promise. "Yes. I. Will."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"On your knees," he said. The way his lips kicked up at the corners belied his commanding tone, and the rock-hard penis curving up toward his belly made it difficult to take him seriously. He turned one hand palm up and lifted it in a get up gesture. "Donnae lie there, love, being lazy and satisfied. We're not done yet."
I pushed up onto my elbows and stuck my tongue out at him.
He moved his hand upward again. "Knees. Now. Or do I have to spank you?"
"Like to see you try."
He gave my thigh a playful slap. "Get up."
I got up. On my knees on the bed, inches from the edge, I reached out to fondle his chest. He flapped his hands, wanting me to back up. I dutifully waddled backward on my knees until he held up a staying hand.
He retrieved a cardboard package from the plastic shopping bag he'd brought. A box of condoms. He ripped open the box and plucked out a single foil packet.
The cool draft from the air conditioner tickled my skin, but it wasn't the chill making my nipples harden again. It was the fully aroused Highlander stalking around the foot of the bed, climbing onto his knees on the mattress, jostling the bed as he moved behind me.
Excitement stirred low in my belly, a sweet current of desire and anticipation. Already drenched from his oral ministrations, my sex burned for more.
Aidan slipped his hands around my waist, skimming them up my belly, pausing when they brushed the undersides of my breasts. "Turn your head."
I rotated my head to the right, toward the wall.
"No," he said with laughter in his voice. He laid a hand on my cheek and gently urged me to look the other way. "See us."
My gaze fell on the mirror attached to the dresser. It provided a full view of us on our knees together, our naked bodies separated by a matter of inches, his erection almost touching my backside. I drew in a deep breath, captivated by the sight and the knowledge of what he intended to do next.
He pushed the hair away from the left side of my neck with his long fingers, feathering his warm, damp lips over the skin at the hollow of my throat. "I want you to watch while I take you. Watch yourself come."
Breath, stolen. Pulse, racing. I tipped my head back a little, silently begging him to touch me more, more, more. When his cock grazed my backside, I threw my head back against his muscled chest.
"Will you watch?" he asked.
"Yes."
With my head still on his chest, I turned it to the side far enough that I could glimpse the mirror. My gaze became riveted to the vision of him sheathing his engorged shaft with a condom. When he caught me looking, he gave himself a long, languorous stroke.
I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Big and brawny. Tanned skin seeming to glow in the golden light from the bedside lamp.
He took my waist in both hands, rocked his hips back, and drove into me in one fluid thrust. His cock consumed me, penetrating so deep and filling me so thoroughly I gasped. As I gazed at the mirror, transfixed by the sight of us — his intense and determined expression, the need and pleasure on my face, my breasts quivering as his hips rocked into me and he found a steady, firm rhythm. His shaft sank deeper inside my body, awakening hidden places within me, stimulating a passion so fierce I shuddered from the bliss of it. He splayed one hand over my belly, holding me to him, while his other hand drifted up to cup and squeeze my breast, making me arch against him, my mouth falling open on quick, shallow breaths.
Dimly, I noted the hush in the room — broken only by the susurrations of our breaths, the faint creaking of the bed, and the brushing of skin against skin.
I focused on the mirror again, observing in rapt delight as he pinched my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, sending a shockwave d
own the nerve that connected to my clitoris, stunning a gasp from me.
Our gazes connected in the mirror.
There in his eyes, I glimpsed my raw lust reflected in those beautiful blue irises. More than passion, though, I saw an aching tenderness, a deep yearning for more than a physical bond. And in my own eyes… the same longing, the same tender and almost painful need for connection.
He tore his gaze from mine to dip his head to my neck, nuzzling my throat and grazing his teeth over my skin, as his cock thrust harder.
I flung my arms over my head, locking my hands behind his nape, but I couldn't wrench my focus away from the mirror. My need mounted higher, the pressure built, spurred by the image of our writhing bodies and of his cock sliding out a few inches only to slam back into me. His measured thrusts escalated into a pounding that made my breasts bounce.
My gaze gravitated to his face. He turned his head toward mine, his expression full of a sweet longing that made my heart ache even as my body tensed in anticipation of release. I couldn't look away from the mirror, from his face, trapped by the emotion in his eyes and the matching pang in my chest. I wanted to stay with him. To be with him.
I couldn't hold on to that thought, or any thought. The climax overtaking me erased everything else, obliterating reason with a stunning ecstasy that sent my head spinning and unleashed a wild cry.
Even as the orgasm faded, I clung to him, reveling in his frantic thrusts as he barreled toward his own release. In the mirror, he threw his head back as he plowed into me one last time. I felt his cock pulse, and for a crazy moment, I wished he hadn't worn a condom, so I could experience the full force of his climax deep inside me.
He pulled out, panting, but held me against him with his hands linked over my belly.
"You did it," I said. "You made me come harder than the first time."
"Mirror helped, eh?" He murmured the words against my throat as he trailed little kisses down my skin.
Oh, the mirror had turned me on. But the reason for my head-spinning orgasm had nothing to do with observing his gorgeous body taking mine. It stemmed from the dizzying mishmash of emotions whirling through me even now. I wanted to be with him, to marry him, to have his children.