Part 47 (1/2)
Gaelan cupped her b.u.t.tocks and ground her to him. Her eyes flared and he ducked, bending her back and taking her nipple into his mouth. He laved and suckled, teased and licked, his velvet-rough tongue slicking a narrow band over her warm flesh. Vapor hovered over her skin like a fragrance and he spread his knees, spreading her thighs wider and dipping into her softness. Moist flesh slid over his touch and she gripped his arms, gasping.
”Knock knock,” he growled, circling the bead of her s.e.x over and over, slick and ready.
”Oh Gaelan,” she moaned darkly. ”Do come in.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and, cupping her bottom, he lifted her. Her legs closed around his hips as he drove into her in one swift stroke. She moaned, fused with him, feeling him pulse through her to her soul. She met his gaze, her fingers sifting through his hair. ”I love you,” she choked on a breath.
He rubbed her sides, fingered the curve of her spine as his gaze rapidly searched her face, followed the drape of her hair and wished she wore the bells, before coming back to meet her gaze. His eyes glossed.
And her expression crumbled. ”Oh, Gaelan.”
”I ... was lost...” His throat worked. ”Without you, I am naught but a stray mongrel without a place to belong. I need you so badly. You've shown me what living is and without you, I merely exist.”
”I live to love you, Gaelan.” She stroked his hair from his temple. ”Come, welcome me home.” She laid back, taking him with her, her gaze locked with his.
Braced above her, he withdrew fully, the moment suspended, his arousal brus.h.i.+ng, taunting. He plunged and retreated, never breaking eye contact. It was more intimate than they'd ever shared, though bodies melted, yielded, hearts sang and opened wide for the pour of new love. Gaelan made love to her soul as well as her body, exquisitely, with great care to her pleasure. His every touch spoke of how much he adored her, how he missed her smiles and the sound of her voice, that he never wanted to be apart from her like that again.
And she heard him, heard the sound of his heartbeat, felt it pulse with every smooth stroke of his body into hers. Strong and ruthless, in her arms he was gentle, in their bed he let himself be vulnerable, shedding the cape of his t.i.tle and be the man she loved. The man who filled a room full of jewels to please her and left her heritage untouched in a dusty chamber. The man who let her challenge him with a javelin and so easily loved a lonely little boy.
Her eyes teared as she smiled up at him, touching his lips, the column of his throat, felt the power hidden beneath the bronzed skin layered over his wide chest. And still she wanted more, and lured him in ways only she could, in the possession in her eyes, with the heat of her pa.s.sion.
She felt the motion of his hips, hers tilting to greet him, her legs wrapping him in her supple warmth. The mist rose, curling around them, coc.o.o.ning them in the ma.s.sive bed, her ancestors' bed, s.h.i.+elding them from the outside world, from the treachery and lies that could yet tear them apart. In love and fear and desperation for the spine-tingling rapture, Siobhan clung to him, her breathy gasps spilling like spiced wine into his mouth.
He drank of her, pus.h.i.+ng, pus.h.i.+ng, slick and strong. Savage.
Her body clawed for him, voluptuous pleasure flexing around him.
He chanted her name, called her daughter of the mist, his gaze never leaving hers as he drove her across the sheets-as her body bowed beneath him in feminine splendor-as rapture exploded across her incredible face.
She cupped his jaw, holding his gaze, and he shoved once more, disjointed Gaelic tumbling from his lips as the exquisite thrash roared through him and into her. He held her tightly, suspended in the dance, blood and sinew and muscle quaking with raw pleasure.
His breath escaped in a long rush of pure masculine completion.
Tender mercy in her eyes, she smiled, pulling him down for a kiss, and he came to her, rolling to his back, cradling her head in his rough palms and ravis.h.i.+ng her mouth.
”G.o.d above,” he rasped. ”I lose a piece of my soul every time that happens.”
”'Tis not lost, 'tis given in love.”
Slipping a coverlet over them, the lord of Donegal snuggled his lady in the protective sh.e.l.l of his body, and together they sank into needed slumber. For a few precious hours, they ignored the world beyond and the secrets not yet uncovered.
Tucked to his side, Siobhan watched him sleep, her heart smiling to be near him and whole again. Tears wet her eyes as she looked out over the chamber, spa.r.s.e for its lack of use. 'Twas time to confess. Would he banish her here?
He stirred, sitting up as she did, then frowning. ”Why do you weep?”
”I've a confession, my love.”
His heart skipped a beat. ”Speak of it, love. I'll have no secrets atween us now.”
She looked at him then, and he knew that whatever she concealed, he would not be pleased.
”I know why O'Niell tried to kill me, of the accident with the cart... 'Tis because of Connal.” She lifted her gaze. ”He is not Tigheran's son.”
”I know.” Her features pulled. ”I suspected as much when Driscoll said he was born in the abbey in late winter. Tigheran had only died in the spring, Siobhan.” After a few false starts, he said, ”Connal is Ian's son.”
Her lips quirked a fraction, almost in amus.e.m.e.nt. Therein lies the dark seeds of his jealousy, she thought. ”Nay, he is not.”
His brows drew tighter.
”He's Rhiannon's.”
He surged to his feet. ”What! This cannot be. He is not even yours?”
Flinching, she turned her face away, crus.h.i.+ng the bedclothes in her fist, and instantly contrite, he sank to the mattress again, taking her hands, bringing them to his lips.
”Forgive me, love. Speak what you will.”
”Rhiannon was betrothed to a laird in the north, in Antrim, but he died unexpectedly. She'd already left to meet him and did not learn of his death till her arrival there. She was escorted back by the overlord's captain of the guard. And she fell in love with him. When she reached the abbey he was summoned to return. She found herself with child and abandoned. 'Twas then she sent for me.”
His gentle smile soothed as he said, ”I thought there were no b.a.s.t.a.r.ds in Ireland?”
”Aye, but there must be a claim, Gaelan, support and acknowledgment in the honor price, or she is shamed by the lack.”
”Did she not try to send him word?”
”'Tis much to trust anyone with such information when 'twas secret still. But aye, she sent word without response and a.s.sumed he did not want her or the child. He denied it, insisting he'd gone to the abbey, but the sisters would not speak to him. Because they had already given their faith and secrecy to me.”
”He told her? Then they have corresponded.” A horrible sensation slithered through him.
”He is here, Gaelan, wanting to claim Connal as his son and Rhiannon as his woman.”
”Connal is my son!” Gaelan stood abruptly, turning away from the bed and jamming his legs into his braies. ”And I will be d.a.m.ned if I let that traitorous b.a.s.t.a.r.d get near him!”
”Gaelan, remain calm, please.” He turned back to her then, sweeping her off the bed and into his arms. For an instant he simply held her, seeking peace in the sudden turmoil of his mind. ”You know of him, how?” she said, cupping his face and holding his gaze.
”'Twas the eyes that were familiar, so like my lad's.”
My lad's. He loves him so, and she did not know how to break his heart over this. ”He was the man in the glen, my love. The Fenians, the false ones you thought were Maguires.”
His features tightened and slowly he released her. ”Aye, and I suspect we owe him a debt with a runaway cart.” He pushed his fingers into his hair, then rubbed the back of his neck. ”But he is also a traitor.”
Siobhan's eyes widened. ”Nay,” she whispered, falling back on her calves.