Highland Song

by Young, Christine

  "It's too soon," he said.

  "I wasn't a virgin. We both know I'm ready for you. Lie beside me. Help me erase the feel of Bertram's hands on my body."

  The thought of Bertram brought a curse to Slade's lips.

  "It's cold without you," she whispered. "Slade you make me dizzy from wanting you--so dizzy all I can do is feel. Help me forget."

  Slade swallowed the lump of fear in his throat and willed himself to control the sudden burn of desire deep in his loins, a knife turning, bringing hungry need.

  "You're sure you're fine?" he asked.

  She nodded, running her hands across his chest, lingering and exploring all of him.

  He held back for a fleeting instant then touched the thicket of hair that guarded Lainie's hidden secrets. Her breath came in raggedly, a warm echo of the fire that swept into him.

  "Little darling, talk to me. Tell me what you like?"

  "I like all that you do, everywhere you touch. I want to touch you too. I want to make you feel all hot and dizzy and aching with the need to have me."

  "Oh, I do ache with the need," he told her.

  Slade's laughed and bent down to kiss the hardened tips of her breasts. And when he did, they tightened even more.

  She pushed against him, writhing beneath his touch. Please Slade.

  "Please what?" he queried softly, close to her stomach. She raked her nails down the length of his back. "Tell me."

  "Please, I need you. I ache everywhere."

  "Need me to do what?" he teased, loving the intense passion he evoked from Lainie. Still Slade hesitated, remembering the flatness of Lainie's voice the first time he took her.

  That wasn't what I thought it would be.

  He would never forget her words. He wanted to make this perfect for her. He wanted every time to be perfect for her. When he left her, he needed for her to remember how it felt when they made love.

  With tender concern, he caressed Lainie, smoothing over the cloud at the apex of her legs that looked bright in the moonlight. He heard the catch in her breath, the break, the ragged sigh as his fingertips sought and found the soft satin petals and felt the liquid heat spill from her.

  "Is this good for you?" Slade whispered.

  She nodded. "May I touch you?"

  He inhaled swiftly just the thought of her fingers folding around him sent flames shooting through him. His body jerked with anticipation.

  "No, not right now."

  "Why?"

  "Later."

  Instinctively, she opened her legs for him, He watched with hunger and patience. When he traced the dark crease between her legs, he felt her pleasure as a sultry kiss wept over his fingertips. The heady scent of her response sank into him, sending him into an arousal that was pain and pleasure fiercely combined.

  Suddenly and without thought to the consequences, Slade slipped out of his pants. Then with more clarity than he would ever give himself credit for, he realized how close he had just come to taking Lainie. The sirens call had lured him, and he had followed so completely he had no control of his actions. He pushed away from Lainie and to his feet in a single quick movement.

  Fists clenched at his sides, he breathed hard and fast, as though he'd been riding hard for days. He watched the girl lying below him, who was staring back at him with wide eyes and a hunger that was both raw and deep with burning desire. The quick rise and fall of her breasts with each breath she took made him want to tear off his few clothes and sink into her.

  The fierceness of Slade's need was greater now that it had ever been. With each passing day, the need grew rather than diminished. He didn't understand, and he didn't like it. Once a long time ago he'd made a vow he meant to keep but Lainie MacPherson was making maintaining that promise to himself harder every moment.

  I do not want her with an ache so intense it's like a fist in the heart.

  "Slade?" Lainie whispered.

  "I'm afraid of hurting you. No one should want another so much."

  She sat up and held out her arms. "Please love me."

  "Lainie…sweet Jesu…you don't know what you're asking."

  Yet Slade was powerless to stop. His hands stripped away his remaining clothes even as his mind told him to turn around, walk back into the forest and stay there until the ache for her vanished and he was more certain of his control.

  With wide eyes, Lainie watched Slade undress.

  "You're beautiful," she whispered.

  He stopped, surprised at her comment. No one had called him beautiful before. She reached out as if she wanted to touch him, but drew back.

  "Don't be afraid," he told her.

  She nodded. "I am though. Not of making love," she countered quickly. "But of giving you…"

  "You should be afraid," he told her. "I've never felt like this before and certainly never wanted anyone as much as I want you right now."

  Lainie's only reply was a sinuous movement of her body. Her breasts swayed provocatively. Her hair tumbled around her, catching the moonlight.

  Slade knelt down beside her, his grip on control vanishing.

  "You don't understand," he said. But he couldn't finish.

  "Then help me," she whispered. "Help me understand what it is you need. I want to give you pleasure."

  With a muttered word that was both wicked and awed, Slade pulled Lainie into his arms. He forced himself to control his body and move slowly, but it was nearly impossible. With each pulse of his heart and each breath he inhaled, his body responded more violently to her and needed her more fiercely than he'd ever remembered needing anyone.

  Reverently, he ran his fingers from her ankle to her inner thigh, hesitating at her knees circling, seducing, enticing the sensitive flesh and parting her legs even more. He closed his eyes, desperate to resist the temptation offered him, but he was helpless to deny his need.

  He was a man well and truly damned.

  To Slade, Lainie felt warmer than satin, and so hot he thought he would surely melt. She shivered with desire as he caressed her. Liquid heat swept over him as he slid inside her.

  Carefully Slade withdrew then entered her again, a gentle penetration and then withdrawal again and again. His body trembled, caused both by his restraint and the pleasure she evoked in him. He wouldn't stop. He hadn't expected the passion in her to be so vivid and so damn hot. She was ready for him. Her response surprised and pleased him.

  "I promise you, little darling. If it's the last thing I do for you, I will give you pleasure so great you will never remember anything else," Slade said through clenched teeth, praying she would forget what had happened to her.

  Or anyone else.

  "You've already erased the memory and the shame. I will always be in your debt forever," Lainie said. "You've taught me what it can be like between a man and a woman. You gave me pleasure I didn’t believe existed. I will never forget what you."

  He grinned despite the sweat sliding down his spine from the violent tension of his body and the overwhelming passion.

  "No debt. I only expect our bargain to be fulfilled. You've given me the sweetest delight." Then, his voice harsh, he added. "Help me."

  "How?"

  "Bring up your knees."

  Her legs shifted to accommodate his wishes.

  "Higher. Yes. Like that. Sweet Jesu," Slade said huskily, "I wish I could see all of you."

  Lainie made a tiny, stifled sound as he smoothed and parted and caressed her satin petals. "That's it, purr for me. Let me know you like what you're feeling--what we're doing."

  He wanted to memorize every part of her, hold on to the memories for when they were no longer together.

  Carefully, Slade caressed the velvet nub he had found hidden within her moist slick folds.

  Lainie's breath rushed in with a raspy noise that could have been pain or pleasure.

  "That's it darling girl," he said in a soft whisper. "Feel for me. Feel everything I give you."

  He teased the sensitive knot with his fingers before he c
aptured it and plucked gently.

  Lainie's body tightened and she cried out again, sending a wave of liquid heat across him. His own body tightened, heated. A fire so hot he thought he would surely melt swept through him.

  "Lainie?"

  She didn't answer. All he heard was a shattered breath, a muffled gasp. She arched into him and writhed beneath his caresses, twisting and turning with wild abandon.

  Her reaction was all the answer he needed. In her own way, she told Slade that she wanted him as overwhelmingly as he wanted her.

  He slid into her one more time to experience the intense satisfaction of feeling how much she desired him, and knowing what he could give her. The mercuric burst of her response clung to him, shimmering in the vague light, making him faint with the surge of the lightning pulse response. He shifted slightly, bringing his aroused flesh very near her, testing, exploring, and seeking to know her ability to take him inside.

  The exploration was also a caress. Lainie made a sound of surprise. Sensual heat swept over Slade's fiercely aroused skin, pulling a harsh groan from him. His hips moved in a primal dance, instinctively parting her sweetness, seeking a more intense joining.

  "Tell me," his voice rasped.

  Slade needed more than anything to hear her cries of pleasure. And he wanted to know more, to discover her feelings but he couldn't. He was feeling Lainie too intensely. She watched him, her eyes heavy lidded, as he took her and gave himself to her.

  Slade had never known such a sensual merging of body with body, heat with heat, breath with breath. Nothing stood in his way. There was no memory of rape and fear of the joining. There was no pain, no attempt by Lainie to reject him. She wanted him, her body arching wildly against his.

  She gave herself to him completely, luring and surrounding him as he made love to her. No matter how deeply he pressed there was only a liquid heat and a velvet constriction caressing him, teaching him what it meant to be fully, passionately joined with a woman.

  The sheathing of himself so slowly and carefully within her undid him. Blood pulsed through his body, filling him until he thought she would surely be the death of him.

  "Lainie…"

  Slade's voice had splintered. Flames licked up from the spot where Lainie's body joined with his. Her mercuric, convulsions brought a pleasure to Slade that was so great he felt each silky pulse distinctly. With each pulse, his way was eased even more, welcoming and caressing him.

  And with each pulse, Slade's control was ripped away, shattered by a power greater than anything he'd known before. He drove once then twice within her, before the firestorm within burst in sweet relief. He arched into her welcoming heat and gave himself to her in a shuddering rush that left him spent.

  Lainie made a sound deep in her throat and writhed against him as her body pulsed wildly telling Slade he had pleasured her completely.

  Watching her, he moved slowly within her, enjoying her throaty cries and the melting of her body around him. He had never known a woman to enjoy so clearly his presence within her. He had never guessed how much pleasure there could be in watching his smallest movement changed into passionate feminine pulses and a silent, pleading for more.

  Nor had he known what his own body was capable of doing.

  "I hope you felt the transformation as profoundly as I did, little darling."

  Lainie opened pleasured filled eyes and stared at Slade. She moistened her lips giving a sensual promise Slade doubted she was aware of doing.

  "I--" she responded dazed.

  Her voice shattered before her answer was finished because Slade was moving slowly inside her filling her again.

  "Do you like this? Tell me what I can do." he asked, withdrawing and returning once more.

  "Aye,"

  "It doesn't hurt?"

  Feminine laughter was the only answer Lainie gave Slade. Her delicate fingertips caressed the length of Slade's back and then up to his neck, pausing for a moment to slide through his hair. Then she ran them back down, exploring every part of him she could reach. She stopped when her hands reached his buttocks which brought a stifled groan from Slade.

  "Stop…" he said, pausing to watch her smiling face.

  "Why?" she asked hesitating, more question in her voice than he wanted to acknowledge.

  "Because," he began. "If I get any harder, I'll explode." He moved inside her. "And I want this to last a long time."

  "Oh, my."

  He brushed his lips across hers. The heat of her amazed him. Everything about her surprised him.

  I'm not what you think. She was right about that.

  "Is that a blush I see on your cheeks?" he asked, teasing her and enjoying every moment as he caressed the heated softness.

  Shaking her head, Lainie buried her face in his chest and hit his shoulder lightly with her fist.

  "I'll never understand how you can be so passionate and yet so shy…" Slade's voice faded into a soft laugh.

  She didn't answer.

  "With time you'll get over it."

  A muffled sound made him realize she didn't agree with him.

  "Look at me,"

  "Nay," she whispered.

  He gently pried her face from his neck.

  "Shy, little darling," Slade said, feathering light kisses over Lainie's hot face. "If you knew how much your passionate generosity means to me, you wouldn't be embarrassed."

  He saw the gleam of Lainie's sky blue eyes as she peeked through lowered lashes at him.

  "You are a rare woman," he breathed against her lips.

  Very rare and as beautiful as this wilderness.

  "Slade, I'm…"

  Lainie's words were lost when Slade covered her mouth with his own. The tiny, throaty cry she gave affected him the way a wildfire rips through the countryside. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth, retreating and returning with exquisite control.

  Darling girl, I just can't get enough of you.

  With a ragged cry that was Slade's name, Lainie arched her hips against him trying to reclaim what he teased her with. Slow measured sensual torture was his answer.

  "You make me feel as if I'm riding the storms on jagged bolts of lightning," Slade said in a low voice, watching her.

  He moved gently against her, leaving none of her untouched, rocking with calculated cadence of a wicked, summer storm that has a lifetime to generate power.

  "Pain?" he asked softly, knowing he would stop in a heartbeat if she gave any indication he was hurting her.

  Her answer was a murmuring sigh of pleasure and the arching of her hips to take him more fully inside within her velvet warmth.

  "Tell me if there is any pain," Slade said, challenging her to tell him only the truth, always the truth. "Promise."

  Tenderly, he shifted, slipping his arms beneath her knees, bending and lifting her legs, pressing them gently back against her body, moving in slow motion, joining them more deeply than ever before.

  "Lainie?" he whispered. "Stay with me."

  "Sweet Jesu," she said, trembling. As Slade moved and then for the briefest moment held still.

  Then he withdrew, slowly, making her beg for him.

  "Nay," Lainie said.

  "I thought I was causing you pain."

  "Only when you left me."

  She made a low, ragged sound as Slade slowly returned, rocked against her and then retreated as deliberately as he had taken her.

  "I think…" Lainie whispered.

  He drove in again. She writhed against him but said no more.

  "What do you think?" he coaxed.

  "I think there is magic in the world…with you…"

  She moaned and clung to him more tightly, sweet nails biting into him, claiming him as hers.

  Slade heard the echoes of ecstasy in Lainie's voice, felt it in the pulsing shiver of her body, and he needed to cry out his victory, and tell the world of her sweet surrender.

  But he had no breath to cry out. The flames that he had nurtured in her were spreading outward,
licking over him in the silken tempo of her release. He held himself utterly still, fighting against the need to join her. He didn't want that yet, not before he had plumbed the depths of her ability to respond to him.

  The lure of Lainie's body was too great to withstand. When she arched slowly, repeatedly, against him, Slade felt the world unravel in a series of ragged explosions. With her name breaking on his lips, he came undone a single heartbeat at a time, giving himself to her in a long, rippling current of fire.