by Stone, Jenna
Oh how I’ve missed you!
Rowan wore a white homespun linen shirt that was unbuttoned at the neck, giving her a glimpse of his suntanned skin and muscled chest. His hair was loosely tied back, but a few of the chestnut strands had escaped from their restraint. Rowan had tucked the errant strands haphazardly behind his ear, lending him a rugged look.
Oh how she loved this man.
“Will you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” the priest asked, snapping Anna back to the present.
Her heart thundered in her chest.
“Aye, I will,” Rowan said, beaming as he looked down at Anna with love in his eyes.
Anna smiled sweetly and felt her face flush with color.
“And will you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I will,” Anna said, unable to contain the smile that spread from ear to ear as she looked into Rowan’s sparkling green eyes.
Rowan growled low in his throat and used Anna’s hands to pull her into his embrace, settling his lips over hers possessively and kissing his wife soundly.
Anna moved her fingers up his chest and settled her hands behind his neck, leaning into her husband as he kissed her senseless.
“You may kiss the bride,” the priest said quietly.
“That’s precisely what I’m doing,” Rowan paused, smiling against his wife’s lips before he claimed her once again, sliding his tongue into her mouth, possessing her completely. He reluctantly ended the kiss and placed one more gentle kiss on Anna’s lips. “I love ye,” Rowan whispered, holding his wife against his chest and smiling down at her, eyes filled with happiness. “My wife.”
“I love you too, Husband,” Anna said, leaning her head against Rowan’s chest and squeezing him tightly.
The priest cleared his throat, reminding the happy couple of his presence.
“I’ve a small croft behind the church if you…if you are in need of a place to stay the night. It’s late, and…” he trailed off, wishing to be hospitable, but uncomfortable about the intricacies of relationships between men and women.
“That’s very generous of ye,” Rowan said, still holding Anna contently in his arms. He kissed the top of her head and regarded the priest. “But we need tae be moving on.”
Anna was suddenly glad that Rowan wasn’t looking at her because she knew that her face was a very unattractive shade of crimson. The priest was asking if they needed a place to consummate their marriage.
“I’d like to stay!” Anna blurted, surprising herself.
“Would ye now?” Rowan asked quizzically, pulling Anna away from his chest and looking down at her. Her face was flushed and his brave girl wouldn’t make eye contact with him.
She was nervous.
“Alright, we’ll stay then. Thank ye for the generous offer,” Rowan said as he swooped Anna into his arms and elicited a surprised giggle from his wife.
Chapter Fifteen
Rowan unlocked the door of the croft behind the chapel. Tucking the key into his pocket, he turned around and whisked Anna into his arms, sealing her protest with a kiss as he stepped over the threshold.
“Ye ken that I’m nothing if not traditional,” he chuckled as he set Anna lightly onto her feet in the dark room. “And its supposed tae be good luck tae carry yer bride over the threshold. We need all the luck that we can muster at this point, Anna,” he said eyes stern, alluding to the consequences that they would soon have to face.
Anna stood in the middle of the small room, rubbing her hands over her arms in an effort to get warm. Rowan knelt down at the hearth and expertly kindled a few sparks into a roaring fire. The fire cast an inviting glow on the small room, revealing gray stone walls and a simple four poster bed covered with a white muslin quilt.
Anna followed Rowan’s gaze and turned to look around the room, eyes settling on the bed. Her face flushed with color when she thought about what was about to happen in that bed. The room pleased her. It was quaint and cozy and she was thankful that they would not have to spend their wedding night out in the cold, dark forest.
“Come here, love,” Rowan said, extending up his hand towards her. He pulled Anna gently down onto his lap in front of the fire. “Let’s get you warm,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her and nuzzling at her neck. It felt so good to hold her, so right to have her safely in his arms.
Safe for now, he reminded himself.
He placed light kisses across her delicate collar bone and worked his way slowly up her neck. Liquid fire coursed through Anna’s blood as Rowan’s lips touched her skin. She reached her arms up behind his neck and held on tightly, reveling in his sweet torment.
Rowan drew away and looked down at his wife, his eyes clouded with passion. He placed a finger on her full bottom lip and when she parted her lips willingly in response, he settled his mouth gently atop hers. He kissed Anna slowly and tenderly, savoring her silky lips beneath his own. She tasted like sunshine and honey and as he slid his tongue into her mouth to fully taste her, he thought that he might die from the sheer pleasure. Anna met his kiss with enthusiasm. She spurred him on with her insistent tongue. She moaned softly against him and leaned into the kiss, driving him wild with desire. Rowan broke away from her and rested his forehead against hers before placing a chaste kiss on her lips and standing to his full height.
“Ye canna imagine how many times I’ve dreamed of that since we’ve been apart. Ye feel so damn good and I canna believe that yer mine…” Rowan trailed off, flooded with emotion.
“Stop talking and kiss me again, Husband,” Anna said impatiently as she fisted her hands in Rowan’s hair and pulled his mouth down atop hers.
Rowan growled again and obliged his wife’s request. He kissed her with all of the pent up passion and frustration that he had been harboring since she was taken from him. When rational thought returned to his mind, he broke the kiss and breathing heavily, looked down at his beautiful bride. Rowan was determined to make this night perfect.
Anna stared up at him, lips ruddy from his kisses and hazel eyes clouded with passion from his touch.
Rowan had never wanted something so badly in his entire life.
Slowly, he reached out and spun Anna so that her back was to his front. He kissed a trail down her graceful neck and ran his hands across her breasts and over her belly. Anna melted against him. She reached up her hand behind his neck to toy with the small hairs at the base of his skull. Anna felt Rowan’s desire pressing against her bottom, and she pushed against him, eliciting a groan of pleasure from Rowan.
Rowan ran his fingers over her breasts and cupped them through the fabric of her dress. Anna’s nipples stood in response to his touch and he flicked his thumbs playfully across them. His fingers traced the line of her narrow waist and found the laces at the back of her dress, fumbling to untie them. Her dress finally gave way, and he pulled the bodice away from her torso, sliding it inch by inch down her body and over her hips until it lay in a pool around them on the floor.
“Let me look at ye, Anna,” Rowan whispered into her hair as he spun her slowly around to face him.
Anna was clad now only in her silk chemise, its lace rimmed edges cresting the tops of her breasts and thighs. The fabric was so delicate that Rowan could see her up thrust nipples and the blonde hair shielding her womanhood nestled between her supple thighs. She was exquisite. His cock pulsed against the restraint of his pants in response to her body.
Anna bit her bottom lip and boldly took the thin fabric of her chemise between her fingers. She slid one arm out of the straps and then the other, clutching the cool fabric to her breasts for a moment as she held Rowan’s gaze. She slid the silky fabric over her breasts and down her body, pushing it over her hips and allowing it to fall to the floor. She stood unashamed and naked in front of her husband.
Rowan stood as still as a statue, eyes burning across the naked flesh of his wife. He knew that she was beautiful, but to see her in her full glory took his breath away. Anna’s ski
n was golden in the firelight. Her long blonde hair cascaded down her back, disheveled from his fingers running through it. Her breasts were full and crowned with taut pink nipples that Rowan knew ached for his touch. The skin of her belly was firm and tapered into a thatch of curls that shielded her intimate feminine parts, surrounded on either side by perfectly proportioned curvy hips.
She was heaven on Earth. And she belonged to him.
Rowan reached out slowly and traced the delicate curve of Anna’s side, causing goose flesh to break out on her skin. She took a step toward him and began unbuttoning his shirt, taking her time as she did so. When the last button was undone, Anna ran her fingers lightly across his chest, brushing his sensitive nipples and causing Rowan to shiver in response to her touch.
Anna felt powerful as she dropped Rowan’s shirt to the ground, knowing that her lightest touch could evoke such a strong reaction in such a huge man. Her confidence bolstered by his reaction, she slid her fingers slowly down his chest and beneath the fabric of his pants, pulling them away from his body as she unbuttoned them.
When her fingers faltered with the buttons, Rowan took over, and with her hands atop his, they removed his pants.
Anna gasped involuntarily when she saw his erection break free from the confines of his pants. She took a step back and her eyes now held a distinguishable look of fear.
Rowan chuckled softly at her response to him. “Ye were made tae fit me, Anna. Doona fash yerself. I promise…ye were made for me,” he whispered honeyed words in an effort to revive the passion in her eyes.
“I don’t think…” she trailed off, eyes wild with disbelief and unable to find the right words to tell Rowan that there was no way this could possibly work.
Rowan pulled Anna towards his chest and wrapped her in his arms, shivering from feeling the expanse of her naked body against the length of his own. “If it makes ye feel any better…this is my first time too,” Rowan revealed his secret, the fact that he was also a virgin.
“How is that supposed to make me feel better? I thought you said you knew that it would fit!” Anna fretted, now alarmed.
Rowan’s chest shook beneath her cheek as he worked hard to suppress his laughter. “It will, sweetheart. I promise. And it will feel sae good that ye’ll be begging me for it next time,” he vowed, secretly hoping that he wouldn’t hurt Anna. He was a large man. Anna was petite and fine-boned. Rowan knew that he would need to be careful and controlled when he entered her for the first time. He would need to give her time to adjust to him and he only hoped that his willpower would be sufficient to restrain his instinctual movement.
Silencing any further protests, Rowan captured Anna’s lips in a passionate kiss. His tongue stroked hers and he bit her lower lip languidly, provoking her need until she was again wild with desire.
Anna’s nails scored the skin of Rowan’s back and his chest as she pulled him closer, seeking to claim him as her own. There was an aching between Anna’s thighs, dull and consuming. She knew that she needed something to quell the ache, but was unsure of just what it was.
Rowan lifted her in his arms, never breaking contact with her lips. He laid her on the bed, golden hair spilling around her in contrast to the white quilt. Rowan’s cock throbbed in anticipation of entering her. He fought to retain his composure as he beheld Anna’s beautiful body splayed before him.
And then she smiled at him, a lusty, wanton smile.
Rowan spread his fingers across Anna’s belly and held her gaze as he lowered his head to her breasts, groaning in ecstasy as he palmed her right breast and teased her nipple with his thumb. Slowly, he lowered his lips toward her rosy nipple, allowing the warmth of his breath on her sensitive skin to torment her as she writhed beneath him. When he took her nipple into his mouth and suckled, Anna came undone, emitting a wild moan of pleasure as she bucked against him.
Rowan slid his hand down Anna’s belly and through the curls between her thighs, his erection pulsing as he remembered how she had responded to him the first time that he touched her intimately beneath the shroud of the blanket in the forest. As he continued to suckle Anna’s delicate breasts, he parted her intimate folds and groaned with pleasure when his fingers met her slick, wet heat.
“Yer sae wet for me,” Rowan growled as his fingers explored her most delicate skin, teasing and coaxing her to further heights of pleasure. Knowing that Anna was so wet and so ready for him was more than Rowan could stand.
He slid one finger into her sheath and Anna exploded in response. She writhed against him and moaned his name, lost in the throes of her ecstasy. Tormenting her further and preparing her to take him, Rowan watched Anna hungrily as he inserted a second finger into her tight, wet heat.
Anna cried out now, mad with desire as Rowan’s fingers drove in and out of her, gently stoking the fire that was building between her thighs to a roaring blaze. Her hips arched to meet each thrust of his fingers. The delicious stretching fullness that they gave her was almost more than she could stand.
“Rowan!” she cried out desperately, begging him to satiate her.
Hearing Anna cry out his name was the last straw. Rowan needed to be inside of her now or he would spill his seed.
Drawing his mouth away from her nipple, he settled himself between her thighs and continued to tease the nub of her desire with his expert fingers. Anna was wild with passion. Holding his erection in his hand, Rowan positioned the tip of his manhood at the entrance to her sheath and with a groan of pleasure, he took her maidenhead with one powerful thrust.
Anna’s breath caught in her throat. An involuntary cry of pain fell from her lips, crashing Rowan back down to reality from the heights of his pleasure.
“It hurts, Rowan,” she protested, eyes searching his face, passion dissipating from her eyes. “Can you…can you make it better? Can you make it stop hurting?” she begged with tears welling in her eyes.
Rowan fought hard to regain his composure. Never had he felt something so wonderful, so erotic and pleasurable, as being inside of his wife. His muscles quivered with the restraint that it took to hold himself still inside of her. All the while his breathing was ragged and his chest heaved with the effort of holding still. Every instinct in his body told him to move, to drive into her, to spill his seed deep within her womb. Anna was so tight and wet. She felt so exquisite around him that he knew he could not hold off much longer.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Rowan whispered tenderly through gritted teeth. “Can ye bring yer knees up a bit…make more room for me tae…” he trailed off as she obeyed his suggestion, bringing up her knees and sending waves of ecstasy up the length of his cock as her muscles hugged him.
Rowan couldn’t hold out much longer. He needed to move, to thrust into her, to claim her fully. His slid a finger down between their joined bodies and gently stroked her, coaxing the passion back into her eyes. He kissed her mouth, suckled her breasts and worked his fingers against her sensitive nub until he felt her tension begin to dissipate and Anna was again moaning against him.
Ever so carefully, he withdrew himself slightly from her wet sheath, and then, using every ounce of restraint that he possessed, he slid himself back gently into her wetness, shuddering with pleasure.
When Anna cried out in response and lifted her knees higher, pulling him deeper inside of her, Rowan came undone. All shreds of his control had evaporated. He thrust into her powerfully now, withdrawing his full length and then sinking himself to the hilt with each thrust.
Rowan felt Anna tighten around him. He increased the rhythm of his fingers, working her in time with his thrusts. She called out his name loudly and her legs began to quiver against his as the first waves of her orgasm overtook her.
“Let go, Anna…ye feel sae good…” Rowan coaxed as a growl of pleasure overtook his ability to speak. His orgasm was earthshaking as he spilled his seed inside of a woman, his wife, for the first time. Never had Rowan felt such pleasure. He thrust deep inside of Anna one final time, then collapsed
on top of her chest, exhausted and overwhelmed with such unflagging joy that he thought he might combust.
“Och, lass, are ye well?” Rowan asked suddenly, feeling like an oaf for dropping his full weight onto his petite wife’s chest. He rose up on his elbows and ran his hand through his unbound hair, now concerned at the lack of response from Anna. He looked down at her tenderly. Anna’s eyes were closed and there was just a hint of a smile lingering on her face.
“That was amazing,” she whispered, eyes still closed and a faint blush now covering her cheeks.
Rowan’s chest shook with laughter. He lowered himself down to nuzzle her neck, smiling against her flushed skin. “Aye, it was,” he said, still smiling at his wife’s open admission. Feelings of relief flooded over Rowan. He had not hurt her when he had lost his control.
“Did you know that’s what it would be like?” asked Anna, still basking in the glow of their lovemaking.
Rowan chuckled again against her neck, fearing that if he looked at her and she opened her eyes, she would lose her boldness. “Well, I’d hoped that it would be, but I’ve never experienced such pleasure. I thought that I was going tae die!” he confessed, secretly proud that he had pleased his wife and had the self-control to hold off his own pleasure until she had found hers.
A moment of silence fell between them, and Anna’s fingers traced lazily up Rowan’s chest, causing goose bumps to rise in their wake.
Rowan brushed his fingers up her belly, spreading his palm out to cup her full breast and toying with her nipple using his thumb.
“Can we do it again…so soon?” Anna asked tentatively, her husband’s touch stirring a new wave of desire deep within her belly.
“Aye,” Rowan whispered huskily as he rose above her and claimed her lips in a passionate kiss. “As we’re both new tae this, I think that we’ll be needing lots of practice tae get it just right,” he said, smiling against his wife’s eager lips.
Chapter Sixteen