The Chieftain's Yule Bride - a Highland Christmas novella (Clan MacKrannan's Secret Traditions #10) (11 page)

"Callum..." she called softly.  He couldn't mistake her intent.

And there he stood, filling the doorway, watching her.

"Now," she said urgently.  "I want you now."

She walked over and took a fistful of his hair, nestling her body against his, confident they'd be grappling on the bed within seconds to the sound of ripping garments.

Instead he set her aside and reached for the spare quilt that lay on the armchair.

"Calm yourself, lass.  Playing the Morrigan with me will no' work."

Oh my god... he knew what she was doing! 
She'd read chapter after chapter on that Celtic goddess of sex and battle, so sure any man with a room full of such deities would love it that way.  What man wouldn't...

And then he kissed her so briefly that she accepted it as a kindly let-down.

Trying to reclaim some dignity, she said, "You don't want to go that far, Callum.  I understand.  It's okay." 
Except for the humiliation. 
She stepped back and found his arms pulling her back in.

"It's no' like that.  Trust me, aye?"

"Why should I?"  Her emotions were running riot again. His hand had been up her jumper in Monlachan, he'd invited her to Orkney and rented a cottage so they could be alone, she'd been screaming hot for him for nearly three days now, and now he was going all platonic?

"Because your way would no' be half as enjoyable for either of us.  And I've told you already... your feet would no' be touching the floor."

"Oh!"
  Freya was hoisted up and carried to the fireside, the quilt trailing purposefully in their wake.

The open fire suited his needs better than that poky wee bedroom, they'd had a ritual cleansing in the pure rainwater, and the final two elements of air and earth were around them in this setting. He set her down while he spread the quilt out wide, his cock raging under the folds of his kilt.  Then he pulled her into his chest and kissed her to within an inch of her life, letting her feel his need before he laid her down fully clothed and joined her there.

"Ah lass, what were you thinking..."

Propped up on his elbows, he ran his fingers through the pale gold strands, fanning them out in the fireglow and marvelling at how they glistened.

"That you'd changed your mind?"

A catch in her voice there, and those pale blue eyes looking a bit damp.

For all her corporate manner with the rest of the world, with him she'd been at her most vulnerable.  Her senses had been overloaded with things she was unprepared for, starting with the Turret of the East.  Fainting.  Hours in his car with the portrait niggling at her psyche.  Secrets kept from her without reason given.  Feelings for him that she did no' know what to do with, barring the obvious.  All topped off now with thinking he'd rejected her.

He made her look at him, showing her his honesty, making her believe it when he said, "I could no' want anyone more, Freya."

Her arms came round his back as he kissed her with everything he felt.  She was squirming against him already, wanting this done.  There was far too much urgency in her, the sign of a hurried life where priorities had got lost.

Going the whole way meant different things to each of them.  A quick tup was out of the question, did she but know it.  Miss Freya Harper was about to get the whole way in a manner she'd no' forget.

He stripped his woollen sweater over his head.  Let her begin with the scent of a man ablaze with want for her.  A primal thing.  The basis of procreation.  He'd noticed she wore no perfume today for the first.  Oh aye, she knew what the right way was, and whether she'd learned it for herself or read it in some book was of no matter. It was for him alone that she'd done it this day, same as her diamond ring had been left off.

She ran her hands up his forearms and cupped his biceps.  "Look at you!  I never asked what your Saturday hobbies are..."

"Then do no' keep going if you expect an answer."

So she did, and the hairs on his arms prickled as she explored every other bit of muscle he owned from his shoulders down to his navel.  That quick tup was becoming more appealing, for her breathing had already upped along with his own.

He reached under her own jumper and twisted the back clip, dispensing with all that covered her top half with one fell sweep and seeing her hair fan out again.

"My turn..."
he said thickly, and watched her take in a shuddering breath.

The bounty that lay before him was exquisite but it was her hands that he reached for, clasping them tight and taking her arms wide to keep her from touching him.

He started in the middle of her brow, right where her extra senses had pained her so much, latching on with a kiss and tonguing it until he felt her opening to a better kind of ache.  Her throat next, nuzzling along her chin and licking his way down and round to her neck.  A wee moan told him she liked that.

Those pert wee nipples were begging for his mouth.  He gave one of them the briefest touch with the tip of his tongue, wetting it in the firelight, just enough to say he'd noticed.  Her back jerked off the quilt.

"Callum, you're teasing!  Let me touch you..."

"No' happening."  He licked his way right down her front to the band of her low-cut trousers and traced along the edge before he finally released her.  "Leave your hands out of this, you hear me?"

His own went straight to her waist, spanning it with a feather touch and stroking at her creamy skin with his thumbs.  Openly worshipping those bonnie mounds, he sat astride her legs, taking his weight on his knees.  His kilt bundled over her bottom half, his cock throbbing something hellish under it.

He took his hands nearer her breasts with each touch and then palmed one suddenly, watching her.  Her breath caught as he leant down, cupping it and squeezing gently while his tongue slowly circled her rosy nipple.

Freya was tormented with the pace of it now, and still he took his time, even when she whispered
"Please..."

The rough of his tongue turned that into a groan when he began suckling her hard and kept going, loving the way it made her whole chest heave.  Her fingers came into his hair and trembled as she held his head as if affeared he would stop.  He did no'.

Obvious it was that she was unused to laying back and receiving this amount of unhurried attention.  Such impatience came from frenzied couplings done late at night with one eye on the clock.  No' happening here.  Freya would be getting a good long loving and his hand stole across to her other breast, palming it and watching the stiffened peak come even prouder, wanting its turn.  He wet his thumb and stroked it over, sucking all the harder on the first as he did so.

On and on he went, letting the outside world go away and the passing of time be a meaningless thing.  Her skin grew damp in the heat of the fire and her need, and she was writhing to get more than this, begging him to let her join in.

And then she began squeezing her legs together underneath him and he worked her mounds and nipples with all he could give her.

"Oh... oh my god Callum... I'm going to come!"

The shock in her voice told him everything.  He milked her with every bit of strength in his mouth while she shimmered and her fingers went rigid on his head.

She fought to get up but stopped when he moved to her other nipple, keeping the blaze high in her.

"How did you... I've never...
oh..."
and her hands were all over his shoulders then, and talking about it didn't matter.

Only then did he take his mouth off her breast, hold her face in his hands, and kiss her as if his life depended on it.  Which most of it did.

This was so wildly different than anything Freya had ever known.  How could she possibly have come when her knickers were still on and he hadn't even touched her down below?

She pulled away, just enough to say, "Okay, I trust you, I believe you... and I'm taking your kilt off."   

Her hands reached for his belt buckle but he scrambled to his feet.

"Time yet.  Put another log or two on the fire, aye?"

It was the kind of chore Callum would have insisted on doing himself, so she sneaked a look at him while she was sitting up to do it.  He unzipped the side pocket of his overnight bag and brought out a packet and something else she couldn't see.  Her stomach flipped at the thought of him being inside her.  Her knickers must be sopping, so ready was she, so aching for him to join with her.

Before he came to her he took off his boots and kiltsocks.  More muscle on view.  She hugged her knees and ogled him like a lovesick teenager.  Never had she seen a man who looked like this except at the Highland Games.  That
caber-tossing lover
remark came back to her and she shut it out all too easily when Callum stood looking down on her and clenching his jaw.

"Freya... I have to ask... are you sure?"

"Yes."
  She nearly yelled the word.  He seemed to expect more, so she gave him the only truth she knew about this.  "I don't know why this needs to be done between us.  I just know it does.  Come here..."

He nodded once and put a little bottle into her hand.  "This is made at the herbery.  A sort of oil.  All safe and natural and compatible."

"Okaaay..."  She glanced at the few ingredients.  "Looks interesting... am I going to get that long and very thorough massage I missed?"

"A bit of you is, aye."

No guessing game where it would be when she found herself on her back again and the waistband of her trousers disappearing past her toes.  The heat coming off the freshly-stoked fire was nothing to the burning going on all over her.  When he braced himself over her and widened her legs with his knees, the little bottle nearly snapped in her hand.  He took it from her and set it down on the hearth.

Her breasts were still tingling from her climax and his mouth on her nipples again drove her crazed.  Callum had a way of sucking and nibbling and licking all at once that sent shockwaves through her, his huge hands sweeping over her skin as if they knew all her secret zones in advance and many more that were new to her.  He was awakening her to sensations she hadn't known were there.

She lifted her hips, needing more of him, grinding herself against his chest and clutching at his shoulders in desperation as the shimmering started up again, but he wouldn't let her come.  A kiss instead, filling her soul with his want and moaning against her lips as he held her head.  And then he was the one lifting her hips, and her knickers were as gone as if she'd worn none.

Three times she'd been at this point, with two boyfriends and then Zavier, and they'd all stopped to make crass comments about real blondes.  Not Callum.  He just reached out for a plump cushion and stuffed it under the quilt to raise her up to him.  Never had she been so aroused, and Callum's touch was fast losing its steadiness too.

His hands moved all the way up her legs to spread out on her thighs, pushing them apart, and his thumbs gently caressed her, moving closer and closer until they were both in her wetness and she thought might faint all over again... and then his mouth was on her there, and his tongue flicking at her clit, and she was sure she couldn't help passing out when her climax began to hit and he took his mouth away, leaving her high and buzzing.  But his fingers came inside her then, curling round and moving in the most incredible way which sent her higher yet, and her own fingers curled into the quilt as she whimpered.