Highland Destiny by Hannah Howell Page B

flush upon his high-boned cheeks all told her that his passion was barely controlled, yet he did not act upon it. She slid her hand down his side and over his hip. He shuddered and closed his eyes, lightly touching his sweat-dampened forehead to hers.
    “Why have ye grown so still?” she asked, hearing the same tremor in her voice that was washing over her body.
    “I wished to let your pain ease,” he answered, looking into her eyes and catchinghis breath when he saw the gleam of strong passion there.
    “My pain?” She wrapped her legs around his lean hips.
    “I heard ye cry out from it.”
    “Ah, and that soft noise brought ye to a halt?”
    “Aye.” His eyes widened slightly when she gave him a slow, distinctly sultry smile.
    “Then do tell this poor wee innocent what noise she must make to get ye to continue.”
    He laughed unsteadily as he touched his lips to hers. “A wee moan of delight?”
    Maldie complied, then gasped when he began to move inside of her. She clung to him, enfolding him tightly within her arms and her legs. He kissed her, his tongue mimicking the slow, deep thrusts of his body. The last clear thought Maldie had was that Balfour was still keeping a tight rein on himself, then she lost herself in a maze of emotion. Something inside of her grew taut, so taut it was almost frightening, and then it snapped. She heard herself cry out even as she tried, nearly frantically, to pull Balfour more deeply inside of her. The way he suddenly began to move with more ferocity only enhanced the feelings bursting throughout her body. She cried out again, in fierce encouragement, when he grabbed her by the hips and plunged deep within her, groaning out her name as he shuddered. Maldie pressed her face against his strong neck, shivering with pleasure as she felt him empty himself inside of her.
    For a long time Maldie continued to hold him close, fighting to cling to the feelings his loving had filled her body with. She savored the way he felt in her arms, the gentle touch of his hand as he stroked her side, and even the way their bodies still faintly trembled. When he began to move away she murmured her regret, hating the way he seemed to take all warmth with him. She closed her eyes, covering her face with her hands, when he returned to their bed with a damp cloth and washed them both off. By the time he crawled back into bed and pulled her into his arms, she was clearheaded again, thinking again, and she was not sure she wanted to be.
    When Maldie said nothing, just curled up in his arms and frowned, Balfour began to grow nervous. He had pushed her into bed, had used her passion for him to get what he ached for faster than she may have wished to give it. It was not simply passion that had driven him, either. Nigel’s blatant interest in Maldie had made Balfour desperate to mark her as his own. He could never tell her that. Nor could he tell her that his less than honorable plan had turned back on him. Not only had he marked her as his, or so he hoped, but she had innocently left her mark on him as well. He was hers. Completely. The moment their bodies had been joined as one, he had known it. All the feelings he had struggled to ignore or deny had been confirmed as truth. It was a grave revelation, one he neither wanted nor had the time to deal with at the moment. The longer Maldie remained quiet, the more he began to fear that she had somehow guessed what he felt. She had already revealed a true skill at sensing what others felt. He prayed that this was not one of those times.
    “How fare ye?” he asked, tilting her face up to his.
    Maldie stared up at him and idly wondered what would happen if she told him exactly what she had been thinking. She loved him. She had known it the moment their bodies had become one. If passion had not held her so tightly in its grip, she suspected she would have fled the room, perhaps even fled Donncoill. Balfour did not ask for love,only passion. That was all she had