Beyond A Highland Whisper (22 page)

Nipping a blazing trail of kisses down her jaw, Latharn’s voice grew hoarse as he nuzzled at her ear. “We need to slow down, Nessa. I mean to pleasure ye well. I’ve been waiting for this moment for centuries.”

Nessa moaned as his mouth trailed down her throat, then worked its way even lower. She bucked against him, pressing even tighter, nudging impatiently against his erection. She gasped when he took her nipple into his mouth, and cupped her breasts with his delightful hands. His thumb teased at her other nipple until it peaked, hard with need. He nipped and suckled at them both until she writhed beneath his touch. She tickled her fingers down his chest, encircling his shaft until he shuddered within her stroking hand.

She moaned when he left her breasts, his tongue burning a teasing trail down her stomach. She caught her breath as he cupped her buttocks in his hands, and lifted her to his mouth. He traced the valley of her inner thigh with his fingertips and teased his breath against the dark curls of her inviting center.

A satisfied laugh rumbling from deep within his chest, he smiled as his eyes locked with hers. With his eyes never leaving hers, Latharn lowered his mouth to suckle her awaiting folds. As he tongued her aching nub deep into his mouth, he buried a rapturous finger into her depths.

“Latharn!” Nessa moaned in ecstasy and buried her hands in his hair. She clutched his head against her body and wriggled beneath his mouth. Head thrown back, back arched in delight, Nessa lost the ability to do anything but feel. She screamed as she exploded with delicious rapture, not caring if her cries shook the house.

Latharn raised his head. He used his tongue to tickle delicious circles on the skin running up her side. He turned her. He took his time and licked his way up her back, reaching around to cup her breasts in each of his hands. He pulled her back against him, nuzzling her neck as his hands once more tantalized her nipples into aching peaks. His inviting erection prodded against the back of her thighs, a promise of what was to come.

As she turned in his arms, Nessa nibbled at his throat, her voice a husky whisper. “Now it’s my turn.” She ran her fingers down his chest joining them with her tongue. She nipped and teased until Latharn groaned and struggled to catch his breath.

She worked her way down to his straining shaft. She cupped him with one hand while circling his tip with her tongue. She glanced up at the tortured look of pure bliss on his face. Nessa purred with satisfaction. She licked and teased the length of his erection, then swallowed him down to the hilt. Latharn clutched the sheets of the bed as he gave himself over to the delicious magic of her mouth.

It was time. Latharn grabbed Nessa and rolled her beneath him.

“Now, Nessa. ’Tis time for us to be truly joined as we were always meant to be.”

He slid into her welcoming depths; her wet folds guided him to her heated center. As Latharn slid his arms beneath her, he settled his hips and groaned, “By the goddess, I’ve waited for this moment forever. I love ye, Nessa, with all of my soul.”

Her breath coming quicker, Nessa smiled into his eyes as she wrapped her legs around his body. “I love you, Latharn, my Highlander of my dreams. I’ve loved you since the first time you came to me.”

Nessa arched her back and matched Latharn’s slow grind, thrust for delicious thrust. The rhythm quickened; they drove into the dance. The bliss heightened into a luscious frenzy.

His head thrown back, Latharn’s throaty roar mingled with Nessa’s ecstatic cries. His release found, he poured into Nessa, shouting out her name.

All mine.
Latharn raked his gaze over her shuddering body.
Forever, all mine.
The connection he’d sought, the elusive joining he’d needed, Latharn felt a melding of his soul. He groaned with the contentment he’d never hoped to find and curled his arms tighter about her. Taking care to stay deep inside her, Latharn rolled and pulled Nessa to lie atop him. Collapsing back against the pillows, he ran his fingers through her short curls, as she lay snuggled against his chest.

“I love you.” Nessa exhaled with a contented purr, wriggling even closer against his body.

“Love doesna begin to describe this feeling,” Latharn murmured, kissing the top of her head. “Holding ye in my arms is tonic to my verra being. Finally joining with ye has healed the rift in my soul.”

Nessa propped her chin on his chest and traced a finger across his lips. “I never thought something like this would ever be possible. I thought you’d only be in my dreams.”

A contended smile tickled at the corners of his mouth as Latharn exhaled in pure satisfaction. “’Tis taken quite some time to make it to this point. There were times when I thought madness would surely take hold, especially after I found your melody dancing in the mists of time. It seemed an eternity for your soul to decide to join me upon this plane.”

He captured her hand and placed a kiss in her palm, pausing to add a seductive tickle with the tip of his tongue.

Nessa gasped as his passion returned to an inviting hardness inside her. Her own heat answered in more than willing reply and she slid up to straddle him. She moaned with abandon, blissfully gyrating as Latharn continued to grow.

“I’m glad I found the way to you. If I’d known about this, I think I would’ve tried harder to find you before now.”

Latharn wrapped his hands around her waist and stroked her body with his heated gaze. “We’ve only just begun, my dear, sweet Nessa. I’m about to show ye all that ye’ve been missing.”

Nessa didn’t hear anything else he said after that, she was too busy groaning in mindless release.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Coffee. The rich aroma of a fresh brewed pot wafted across her nose. Nessa inhaled; her stomach growled. “Latharn. We have got to surface. I need coffee.”

Latharn pulled her closer against him, spooning his knees into the back of hers as he nuzzled the back her neck. “We’ve only been in here for three days, Nessa. Have ye tired of me so soon?”

Three days. Nessa couldn’t resist his lips against the nape of her neck and snuggled tighter against him. “The others must think we’re dead.”

Latharn chuckled and cupped her breast as he suckled at her earlobe. “I think we’ve been loud enough for them to know we’re still verra much alive.”

Oh, great. She’d never hear the end of that from Trish. She did seem to remember a few times when she’d gotten a little loud. Nessa groaned and unwound herself from Latharn’s arms. “I need coffee. And if this is day three, we need to emerge because there’s no telling what’s being said about us.”

Pulling her back down into the bed, Latharn kissed the end of her nose. “First of all, I dinna give a damn what anyone says about us and neither should you. Second, I know exactly what they’re saying. I can hear them and I can allow ye to see and hear them as well. Watch.”

With a wave of his hand the bedroom wall wavered, then became clear as crystal. He and Nessa had front row seats of everything going on in the other room.

“They’ve been in there for three days. Ye’d think they’d surface by now for a bit of food and drink.” Fiona fussed about the table to set the steaming scones on the trivet and turned to fetch the pot of coffee off the warming plate sitting on the back of the buffet.

“You put a fully stocked refrigerator in there, remember?” Trish shot her a knowing look above the rim of her coffee cup as she tried working the kinks from her neck. “By the way, I think it’s somebody else’s turn to take the couch in the drawing room. That thing’s just for looks. It’s definitely not for sleeping.”

Brodie winked at Fiona as he held out his cup for a refill. “Have ye already forgotten our honeymoon, dear wife? The only time we saw the lobby of the hotel was when we arrived and when we were checking out.”

Fiona clucked her tongue as she filled her husband’s cup. “Aye, my love. Don’t be distressed. I promise ye, I’ll ne’er forget those days. But we had room service, full meals at our beck and call, in order to keep up our strength.”

“This isn’t right, Latharn.” Nessa waved at the wall as though she were shooing flies. “Make it go away.” There was just something weird about watching your friends as though they were in a fishbowl.

“As ye wish.” Latharn waved his hand and the wall darkened, resuming its inherent state. “Then we’d best be joining them to get your coffee. I’m a bit hungry now myself.”

Latharn emerged first, his arm curled around Nessa’s waist, nodding a solemn greeting to the trio at the table.

“Good morning,” Nessa murmured with a yawn. “Is it okay if we join you for breakfast? The coffee and scones smell fabulous.”

“I’m surprised you’re able to walk to the table,” Trish retorted under her breath. With a wicked grin, she slid the plate of scones down the table to Nessa.

“Trish!” Nessa scolded. A surge of heat flushed to color her cheeks as she accepted a cup of coffee from Fiona.

“Trish,” Latharn intoned, with a nod of his head. “I apologize for keeping ye from your bed.” Then with a steaming look his gaze slid back to Nessa as he reached over to caress her cheek. “But I’m sure ye understand Nessa and I had a calling we couldna possibly ignore.”

With a giggle, Trish lifted her cup in silent salute and gave Nessa a saucy wink. “Oh, I’m not angry, Latharn. I’m just jealous. She’s topped any record I ever held.”

“Record?” Latharn gave Nessa questioning look.

“Never mind.” Nessa handed him a well-buttered scone and kicked Trish under the table. “Don’t you want me to fix you some eggs or something?” Maybe if she plied him with food, he’d ignore Trish’s banter.

“No thank ye. Fiona’s scones are fine,” Latharn responded with a perplexed frown. “Brodie, I’ll be needing the paperwork for the trust. I’m anxious to return to my home.”

Setting his coffee aside, Brodie rose from the table to access the safe on the wall. Within moments, he’d returned with a worn leather envelope bound with a cord of shimmering gold.

Latharn accepted it and pulled out a weathered parchment clipped to a sheaf of more recent-looking papers. His eyes scanned the pages and he turned each one, checking to ensure nothing was amiss.

“You can read?” Without thinking, Nessa said the words, regretting them as soon as they left her mouth.

Latharn slowly raised his head from the papers he held in his hands as though struggling to control his choice of words. “Ye will discover that I am not an uneducated man, Nessa. I’m quite learned in a great many things.”

Regret swelled in her throat like a lump of rising dough. She’d unintentionally wounded his Highlander pride. “Latharn, I didn’t mean that I thought you weren’t smart. It’s just that most men from your era, most lairds, didn’t know how to read.” Nessa tapped on the thick sheaf of papers. “Especially not legal documents like those.”

“My mother ensured we all knew how to read. She understood the power of the written word.” Latharn flipped back another page, his shoulders still held stiff as he resumed his reading.

“What sort of trust?” Nessa asked. She had to change the subject. Men were so sensitive. She’d never hurt him for anything in the world. Leaning over his shoulder, she looked over the papers in his hand. They appeared to include the deed to some land.

Fiona emerged from the kitchen with a fresh pot of coffee and inclined her head toward the papers Latharn held. “MacKay Castle and all the surrounding lands have been kept ready for Latharn’s return. His father proclaimed it so centuries ago, when his mother found the way to break the curse.”

Fiona made her way around the table and refilled everyone’s cups. With a proud smile, she gave Latharn a gracious nod of her head and hastened to add. “Latharn will now be the first real laird of clan MacKay since the Battle of Culloden.”