Highland Magic (14 page)

He groaned as if in pain but settled when she
straddled him.

* * *

Lifting his hands to her
straight hair, Callum tugged on it, bringing her down to meet his
mouth. She tasted of raspberries and smelled of the wild pink roses
that grew on the edge of the forest. So sweet.
Branwenn.
Her taste and smell
intoxicated him. And her sighs sounded like the ocean breeze in the
sea cave. Still believing himself dreaming, so groggy was he from
the sleep tonic and exhaustion, he ran his hands down Branwenn, the
sea nymph’s, neck and chest to cup the soft, full mounds of her
breasts, enchanted by the feel of the nubby tips teasing his palms.
Moving further still, he explored her small waist and nicely
rounded bottom before stroking his fingers against the wet curls of
her labia as he moved his mouth to the nipple of one breast and
began to suckle.

* * *

On fire from Callum’s hands and mouth and
afraid he’d waken, Branwenn reached down and took his engorged
phallus in her hand and positioned him at her entry, pressing down,
not knowing if she was doing it correctly.

But, thankfully, Callum evidently knew
exactly what to do and was clearly more than ready to fully comply,
for he levered his hands on her hips and pushed her down onto him,
lifting his own hips up at the same time, which forced her to take
him in one harsh push.

“
Owwww!!
” That hurt much more than
she’d expected.

“Hhmmg?” he answered.

Too painful, in fact, Branwenn decided. She
leaned forward and placed her hands on the headboard for support as
she strained to disengage from him.

Callum wouldn’t allow it. He rolled over on
top of her, moving slightly out of her and keeping most of his
weight on his elbows. He stroked the hair away from her face,
clearly not fully awake. He moved into her again, this time as deep
as he could go.

“
No, don’t. Oh, God, it hurts!
”
Branwenn pressed her palms against his chest, bowing her
back.

* * *

Callum’s eyes flew open.
His breath harsh, he shook his head to clear the fog and gazed down
at the woman he was now fully sheathed inside. “Blood of Christ!
What the hell are you doing—have you done?!” Callum tried to move
off of her, but, perversely, now Branwenn threw her arms around him
and pressed her pelvis up as he tried to withdraw from her. “Nay!
The damage is already done. Let us finish this. I
want
to finish
this.”

God, she was so beautiful. And lush—those
tightly pebbled peaks of her breasts teased through the hair on his
chest. And she smelled of woman. He’d been fighting his attraction
to her for so many moons now, first because he’d been wed, and then
because he knew he must wed her to bed her—and she was not old
enough to take on the kind of responsibility that would require.
For, with the title of wife, instantly came the title of mother as
well. And there had also been the niggling doubt that she held any
soft feelings for him. But, this certainly proved he’d been wrong
about that. And, the deed was done; the tide had turned; fate—or
Branwenn—had stepped in to change everything. And, they would wed.
It had to be. A thought struck him then: She had both his mother
and his grandmother to aid her in mothering Laire. All at once,
those self-imposed shackles of dissent fell away, and his heart
soared. He grinned in the darkness.

And then, at last allowing himself to rejoice
in the feel of her tight sheath around him, and wanting desperately
to taste every portion of her, the temptation proved too great and
he acquiesced.

“You’re not ready yet. Let me prepare you
first,” he said as he leaned down and kissed her mouth, rubbing his
tongue along the inside of her bottom lip before stroking it
against her tongue.

“Aye,” Branwenn breathed into his mouth.

He remained inside her, but didn’t move,
determined to make her so hot for him, he wouldn’t hurt her again
once he began to truly take her.

He trailed kisses across her flushed cheeks
and kissed away the cool, crystal-wet teardrops that clung to her
lashes before making his way to her ear. Nibbling her earlobe and
breathing heavily, he tensed when he felt her canal flex around his
arousal. She was so good. Better than his imaginings. Moving down
to her breasts, he took one of the rigid peaks into his mouth and
laved it with his tongue as he softly suckled. Feeling her sheath
softening with hot moisture as he pleasured her, he learned her
curves with his hand and slowly rocked into her in shallow
movements.

* * *

Overcome with the fulfilling sensation of
sharing her naked body with the man she loved and taking his into
her own, Branwenn opened her eyes to see her lover’s expression.
Were his feelings as acute? She gazed through the darkness and,
seeing the intense look of pleasure on his countenance as he made
love to her, hearing his soft murmurs of pleasure, his jagged
breathing, she thought they might be. He moved his hand between
them and stroked a place that sent shivers of pleasure through her.
“Oh, God. Aaahhh, what are you doing to me?” she said, her voice
strained with need, as he continued manipulating her with his
fingers while he began to take deeper strokes into her.

Callum pressed his lips against her ear and
murmured, “I’m giving you the pleasure you so generously gave me a
moment ago.”

The sharp pain of that first entry and the
slight sting of having him motionless inside of her as he kissed
her had now been replaced with a pleasurable ache, a straining need
for what, she knew not. But it would come from Callum and it would
come from this coupling. Moving her hips up to meet his strokes,
she raised her hands over her head and arched her back, pressing
her breast against his mouth.

* * *

Taking the hint, Callum opened his mouth wide
over her lovely, soft-skinned breast—the same breast he’d been
craving to devour those dire hours in the great hall earlier—and
suckled forcefully, knowing she was close now to her very first
release. As he sucked and laved her nipple, he rotated his fingers
over her clitoris and began a faster rhythm of entry into her.
‘Twas not long before the muscles of her body tensed. Finally, when
her thighs began to tremble powerfully and she met his thrusts with
those of her own, he took her over the edge with one final deep
push.

* * *

Branwenn shattered, unaware that she’d called
out his name. Her whole body quaked with the intense pleasure that
the release caused in her, centered around the movement and
manipulation by him of her womb and breasts. She felt as if she
were bursting into thousands of small stars of ecstasy, each one
floating off into the night sky, but reverberating along her nerve
endings for long minutes afterward.

* * *

Hearing his name on her
lips, and feeling the tight muscles of her canal milking him,
Callum felt himself begin to come and quickly pulled out of her,
using his hand to bring himself to his final completion. They would
wed, but he didn’t want her pregnant before they did so—he wanted
no raised eyebrows regarding
this
match.

Wiping his shaking hand on the coverlet, he
lay between her spent thighs and stroked the hair from her hot,
damp cheek before kissing her gently on her mouth. They didn’t
speak, but she ran her hand up and down the side of his rib cage as
he kissed her. Incredibly moved by the gift he’d just received, he
left her mouth and placed soft kisses on her cheeks, nose, chin,
and brow. Rising up a bit on his elbows, which were braced beside
her upper arms, he ran his fingers through her hair and grasped her
head in his hands before leaning down to place a tender kiss over
the lid of each of her beautiful eyes.

Her contented sigh broke the silence.

“Will you wed me, Branwenn?” he whispered
softly into her ear, a grin on his face, for he was sure of the
outcome.

Branwenn took in a slow deep breath, still
dizzy, her eyes closed as she floated on a cloud of contentment.
She answered on the exhale. “Naaaayy.”

* * *

“
What mean you, Naaaayy!
” Callum
leapt from atop her and stood, hands on hips, beside the bed. He
turned and quickly lit the taper atop the bedside table.

Branwenn rushed to cover herself with the
sheet.

Turning back to her, he said, “Well?”

She couldn’t help it, she
allowed them to skim down his long, muscular frame.
“
That
is what was
just inside me? But, it felt
much
bigger when I held it in my hand.”

Callum’s cheeks turned ruddy. “The thing
doesn’t stay that size all the time, you sharp-tongued temptress,”
he replied, clearly abashed. “Else, it’d be a nuisance, not a
pleasure.”

Shrugging, Branwenn closed her eyes and, with
a big smile on her lips, said, “Ohhh. I see.” Then another thought
struck. Her lids flew open and her gaze settled upon him again.
“Why did you not stay inside me to...finish?”

“Because, I want no scandal attached to this
marriage. I won’t have you with child before we exchange our
vows.”

That made sense, but, for
some reason it hurt her feelings that he didn’t want to make a babe
with her now. Branwenn narrowed her eyes at him and sat up, her
hands on her hips. “So, ‘tis fine to make my poor stomach take it
in, but not to give it into my womb—
where
it belongs
!”

“You have, by far, the
sharpest tongue of any lass I have ever met! And carnal bliss seems
to hone it, rather than dull it—
as ‘twould
be the case with
most
people
, I trow!” Callum couldn’t
believe it, but he could actually feel himself becoming aroused
again. He prayed she didn’t notice, else she’d no doubt make some
acutely embarrassing comment about that as well.

Branwenn shrugged again, pleased—and she
couldn’t say why—that she’d gotten his hackles up. She settled back
on the pillow once more and closed her eyes, a smug smile on her
face.

She heard him take in a few deep breaths, no
doubt to calm his wrath. Then he said in a much more level voice,
“Why say you ‘nay’ to wedding me, Branwenn?”

She opened her eyes and looked at him, the
smile falling from her lips. “Because,” she answered softly, “I do
not want to endanger this clan as well.” This much was true, but
the real, true, bottom of the heart reason was much more
complicated. ‘Twas because he didn’t love her. And she wanted that,
desperately. To have what Maryn and Daniel had. And Bao and
Jesslyn. She’d seen for herself how strong the bond that kind of
marriage could have and, with Callum, at least, ‘twas that or
naught.

“But, this clan is already involved, should
the Norman come for you and attempt to take you from Bao and
Daniel. You know the terms to which we agreed.”

She sat up and the sheet
dipped before she could catch hold of it, revealing her left
breast. Callum’s gaze dropped. His lids widened slightly, his
pupils dilated, and his nostrils flared in the brief instant it
took for her to yank the sheet more snugly around herself, making
sure to cover her nakedness.
Had he seen
the horrid freckle?

“Well, what be your answer?”

It took her a second to
recall his last volley.
Mayhap he hadn’t
seen it, then?
“Aye, I know the terms,”
she replied at last, her eyes dropping down to study the soft wavy
sworls in the draped blanket, “but, if he comes, he will come to
Bao first. That holding will be the one to be laid siege to again—a
thing that breaks my heart—not this one. I cannot be the cause of
yet another clan’s fortress being attacked, another clan’s lives
and livelihoods being threatened.”

“Branwenn. I will protect you, fear not. My
clan is strong, we’ll win the day, I swear it.”

Her eyes misted and she forcefully blinked it
away before turning them up to him. “Aye, but at what cost? After
how many lives have been lost?” She sighed and shook her head.
“Nay, ‘tis much better that we enjoy each other while we can and
then agreeably part ways if the threat of a siege does occur.” She
straightened her spine, and her resolve then. “I will go back to
the Maclean holding and, if I must, I will return to Cambria with
Gaiallard.”

“Nay, you will not. You will wed me, and I,
and your brothers, will keep you safe from Gaiallard’s
clutches.”

She shook her head.

“Braanweennn.” ‘Twas a warning.

Silence.

* * *

Callum threw his hands up in the air. “Aargh!
You surely test even the most saintly of saints!” He grabbed his
braies and quickly tied them on, then threw his shirt on over his
head. He walked over to the door and opened it before turning back
to her, saying, “Stay here.” ‘Twas a demand.

He strode the several paces to the stairs and
took them two at a time—thank heaven his ankle was no longer a
problem—and then he pounded his fist against Bao’s door. When the
door swung wide, and a grim-faced Bao answered, Callum said, “I’ve
just bedded your sister, but she refuses my troth. Go tell her she
must wed me.”

Bao roared with laughter—a reaction even he
was surprised he was having—and said, “So, ‘tis like that, is it?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his shoulder against
the doorframe. “Why won’t she wed you—did you not please her well?”
His words sinking in, he straightened and asked again much more
seriously, “Did you not please her? You weren’t a brute with her
were you?”