Redemption (Book Two of the Shipwrecked Series) (11 page)

Sarah swayed into
him, clutching Mairi securely against her breast.  She parted her lips to allow
Quinn entry to her mouth.  His tongue stroked hers and she met his passion. 
She was so glad to see him, so happy that he and Mairi were safe.  The desire
burning in Quinn’s kiss made Sarah’s knees feel weak and as if sensing her
weakness, Quinn dropped the reins of his horse and encircled her fully in his
strong arms.

He growled low in
his throat as he deepened the kiss, thrusting his tongue into her sweet mouth
with all of the pent up longing that had built within him while he was away. 
Sarah tasted so good, so sweet.  Quinn forced himself to end the kiss and
lingered just beyond Sarah’s lush, parted lips.

“I’ve missed ye,”
he said, smiling down at her and tracing the backs of his fingers slowly down
the curve of her jaw line.

Sarah flushed.  “I
missed you too,” she admitted, still shaken from their passionate kiss.  “I was
so worried about you,” Sarah confessed as she savored the warmth of Quinn’s
loving embrace.

Just then, Mairi’s
eyes flew open from the chill of the crisp autumn air against her skin.  Her
large brown eyes darted around and when they settled on Sarah, she let out a
wail.  She was hungry and she wanted everyone to know about it.

Quinn laughed
heartily and fumbled to help Sarah gather the blankets back around Mairi.  He
picked up the horse’s reins and took Sarah’s hand in his, threading his fingers
in between hers.  Together they walked towards the cabin, content despite
Mairi’s frantic cries.

“See, she missed
ye,” Quinn chuckled softly as he squeezed Sarah’s hand.

Sarah sniffled and
looked appreciatively down at her daughter.  She jostled her and shushed her,
and gradually the baby calmed.  Her cries were less frantic now and she
gradually became quiet, content with her tight swaddling and the movement of
her mother’s steps.

“Thank-you,
Quinn,” Sarah said again, squeezing his hand.

“Yer verra
welcome,” he said softly as he leaned down and kissed her soft hair.  Her sweet
scent flooded his senses, stirring desire deep in his belly.  Oh how he had
missed her.

“I had a long talk
with Mairi on the ride back and I warned her that if she ever ran off again or
even thought about making her Da chase after her, I’d…”

Sarah stopped in
her tracks.  “What are you saying, Quinn?”

“I’m saying in a
round about way that I want ye, Sarah.  Forever.  I want Mairi.  I want tae
keep ye both if ye’ll let me.”

“Quinn, you don’t
have to do this,” Sarah said in protest, tears welling in her eyes.  A thick
lump had settled in her throat and she feared that she was about to burst into
tears.  “I am not a charity case,” she said, refusing to make eye-contact with
him.

“Look at me,
Sarah,” he demanded, forcing her chin up with his hand so that her eyes would
meet his.

Her beautiful
green-brown eyes were filled with tears that she was fighting to contain.  She
bit her full lower lip in an effort to hold them back.  Quinn noticed that her
lips were still ruddy from his kisses.  He wanted to kiss her again, to claim
her fully, but first he would need to talk to her.  He needed to convince that
he did not want her out of pity for her, but he wanted her because he couldn’t
fathom living without her in his life.

“I want ye sae
badly that it hurts.  I never thought that I would feel like this again.  Ye’ve
awoken something in me that I thought was long dead,” he said tenderly as he
stroked Sarah’s cheek.  A tear cascaded down her face and he wiped it away with
his thumb before continuing.   “I love you, Sarah,” he said with conviction,
eyes imploring her to understand, to accept his vow of love.

Sarah looked up at
Quinn.  Her love for this man, her savior, her protector overwhelmed her.  How
had she ever been so lucky, so blessed to have found him?

“I love you too,”
she said softly, a smile tugging at the corners of her broad mouth as she said
the words aloud for the first time.

Quinn smiled
radiantly down at her and wiped away her tears.  “And I love Mairi.  I want tae
keep her safe, tae keep ye both safe for the rest of my life.  I want tae be
the father that she deserves.  God, I love ye woman,” he said as he pulled
Sarah in for a demanding kiss.  He was staking claim to her with his lips,
showing her his love as his lips slanted possessively over hers.

Breaking away from
her, he trailed his fingers lightly down Sarah’s cheek and ran his thumb
delicately over her lower lip.  Slowly and gently, he lowered his lips to hers
and kissed her tenderly now.  He showered her with his love, with his pent up
desire and worshiped her with his lips and tongue.  He could have kissed her
forever.

“I love you,”
Sarah whispered as she broke away and cuddled against his broad chest.

“And I ye.  Ye’ve
pieced my heart back together in a way that I never thought would be possible. 
Ye and Mairi have been the redemption that my heart needed.  I plan tae work
the rest of my life tae repay ye for that,” he said, smiling as he took Sarah’s
hand.  He brought the back of her hand to his lips and placed a light kiss atop
her knuckles.

He stepped back
from her and dropped to one knee in the middle of the road.

“Marry me, Sarah,”
he said, his gray eyes soft and burning with love.

Sarah’s hand shot
up to her mouth.  This she had not expected.

“Yes!  I’ll marry
you, Quinn,” she said, beaming as her heart flooded with joy. 

“Ye make me sae
happy,” he said, rising up and capturing her lips in a tender kiss.  “Sae happy
and I want tae spend the rest of my life loving ye.”

..ooOoo..

Sarah jostled
Mairi about softly, trying to wake the infant from her milk induced slumber. 
Mairi’s mouth was open and milk dribbled down her lips.  She had been hungry
upon their arrival at the cabin and she had drunk herself into a milky
exhaustion.

“Mairi,” Sarah
whispered, caressing the baby’s face gently and trying to wake her.  When this
strategy failed, Sarah took her breast in her hand and offered the nipple to
Mairi, hoping that she might suckle in her sleep.  Mairi was out cold and Sarah
muttered in frustration as she threw her head back against the headboard.

“Still haven’t
gotten enough of her?” Quinn teased from his chair in front of the fire.  He
loved watching Sarah feed Mairi.  It was such an intimate, sweet ritual. 
Watching the woman that he loved feed their child was so different than when he
had watched the Indian woman nurse Mairi.  That had seemed so wrong, so
contrary to this beautiful moment between a mother and her daughter.

“I need her to eat
more!” Sarah huffed in frustration, as she unwrapped Mairi from her swaddle,
hoping to agitate her into wakefulness.

“She’s had plenty
tae eat.  I ken that they fed her,” Quinn said, thinking back to the Indian
wet-nurse.  He had seen her feed Mairi with his own eyes and he knew for a fact
that Mairi had not gone without while she was with the Indians.

“I suppose that
they did, but I
need
her to eat.  Now!” Sarah snarled in desperation.

Quinn raised his
eyebrows in surprise.  He could not understand why Sarah was so insistent. 
Mayhap she had missed the babe so much that she needed the fulfillment of
feeding her from her own breasts.

Quinn stood from
the fire and walked across the room to the bed.  He sat down next to Sarah, who
rolled her eyes heavenward and looked towards the wall.

“Can I help ye try
tae wake her?  If this is sae important tae ye, will ye let me help?”

“She’s out cold. 
I’ve tried everything,” Sarah said, exasperation heavy in her tone.

“Why are ye
crying, sweetheart?” Quinn asked, reaching up to stroke her dark hair.  It
bothered him to see Sarah so upset.  He hoped that talking about whatever
grieved her would help.

“They hurt,” she
said, glancing down at her engorged breasts that were shielded beneath Quinn’s
shirt.  She had taken to sleeping in Quinn’s shirts while he was away, loving
the comfort that his smell brought her as she slept.  “I need her to eat more
because they hurt,” she admitted.

Quinn reached down
and carefully took the sleeping baby from Sarah.  He leaned down and placed her
in the drawer that she used for a crib, gently settling her blankets around
her.  Straightening back up, he looked at Sarah.  She was still fighting to
restrain her tears and she looked so damn beautiful wearing his shirt, sitting
in his bed.

“I think that I
could help ye with that if ye’ll let me,” he smiled wryly and raised an eyebrow
in invitation.

“How could you
help me?” Sarah asked, annoyed that he seemed to find her predicament
entertaining.

“I’ve wondered
what it would be like tae…tae take ye intae my mouth and tae suckle ye,” he
confessed, a devilish smile playing across his handsome face.

“You have?” Sarah
asked incredulously.  She could not believe that Quinn had thought of such a
thing.

“Aye, I have. 
Many times.  When I see ye feeding Mairi and yer breasts are sae full, sae
round, I’ve thought about…I’ve wondered what it would be like tae touch them,
tae hold them in my hands and tae suckle them…” he trailed off, as he kissed
Sarah lightly on the neck and traced his fingers delicately beneath the
neckline of her shirt.

Sarah giggled in
mock protest.  “I can’t believe you!” she said as Quinn nuzzled her neck and
crawled onto the bed so that he was lying next to her.

“Believe it,” he
said huskily as his hand slid under the hem of his shirt and ever so slowly
trailed up Sarah’s side.  His lips settled on hers and gently he kissed her. 
He traced her bottom lip with his tongue, begging for entrance to her sweet
mouth.  She parted her lips in response and his tongue touched hers, sending
shivers racing down her spine.

“Would that be
proper, Quinn?” she asked suddenly, breaking the kiss and looking up at him as
she bit her lower lip.

Quinn trailed
kisses down her neck in answer.  “Aye, it is proper.  And just when have ye
cared about what was proper?” he asked as he chuckled and continued to trail
kisses down Sarah’s neck and across her collarbone.

“Have ye nothing
on under my shirt?” he asked as his hand slid further up her side and met no
barriers. 

Sarah giggled and
he nuzzled her neck further, his whiskers causing her to squeal and squirm
against him.  “No,” she admitted boldly.

“That is most
certainly not proper,” he smiled against her olive skin and nipped playfully at
her collarbone.  His hand slid gracefully up her rib cage, and goose bumps
broke out on Sarah’s skin in response to Quinn’s expert touch.  He leaned up
and captured her lips in a gentle kiss and his hand found what it was looking
for.  Ever so cautiously, his palm came to rest around Sarah’s engorged right
breast.  He cupped her gently as he kissed her lips, delighting in the feel of
the taught round orb in his palm.

He shook with
desire as he contemplated what he was about to do.

Let me do this
for ye, Sarah.  Let me help ye.

Pulling his lips
away from Sarah’s reluctantly, Quinn looked into her eyes.  She gazed up at him
with so much trust, so much adoration.  Quinn smiled down at her and slowly
pulled the neckline of his shirt down so as to expose Sarah’s ripe breast.  He
took in a shaky breath as he admired her.  She was so beautiful, so perfect. 
His eyes flashed to Sarah’s again, needing her permission for what he was about
to do.

“Will ye let me,
sweetheart?” he asked tenderly as he stroked her full breast gently with his
palm.

Sarah nodded in
response and the corner of Quinn’s mouth turned up into a delicious smile.

He lowered his
lips to her engorged breast and placed tender kisses on her sensitive, heated
skin.

Sarah leaned her
head back against the headboard.  The skin of her breasts was so sensitive as
it was stretched to the limit from engorgement.  Quinn’s light kisses sent
nerve impulses from her aching breasts down to the junction between her
thighs.  His kisses stirred new feelings of arousal within her.  She wanted him
to kiss her.  She was surprised to discover that she
wanted
him to
suckle her, to give her relief.

Quinn gently
settled his lips on her nipple and his cock pulsed in response to the sweet
sensation of holding Sarah in his mouth.  He groaned with pleasure as he began
to suckle her.  She tasted so good and this felt so right.

Sarah moaned in
pleasure as the pressure began to release from her engorged breasts.  Her hands
ran through Quinn’s hair and she held him to her breast.  His lips were gentle
but insistent and they brought her the sweet relief that she had needed so
desperately.  Never had she imagined that her breasts could be so stimulating,
so erotic.

Quinn’s hands
worshiped her breasts as he suckled her gently.  Touching her this way was so unbelievably
pleasurable.  He longed to be inside of her, to claim her fully and his cock
strained at the constraints of his linen pants.  He shifted his attention to
Sarah’s left breast.  He was so overcome with passion that before he knew what
his hand was doing, it was sliding over Sarah’s belly and he was touching the
heat of her womanhood.

Sarah moaned with
pleasure and held him more tightly against her. Her body thrummed with the new
sensations that Quinn’s touch aroused.

 His fingers
parted her and he groaned loudly when he discovered that she was wet.  She was
ready for him.  His cock pulsed in response and he continued to suckle her
sweet breast. 

His fingers toyed
with the nub of her desire and Sarah called out his name.  He growled in
response and slid a finger inside of her sheath.  Sarah moaned beneath him,
writhing as he tormented her sweetly with his lips and fingers. She had never
experienced feelings so intense, so all-consuming.