Midnight's Kiss (26 page)

And the night was just beginning.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

Arran couldn’t look his fill of Ronnie, couldn’t touch her enough. Her skin was warm and smooth as down. The soft sighs coming from her swollen lips only made him yearn for her more.

He massaged her breasts and watched her pale pink nipples harden. Already he had pushed himself to the limit by holding back with her, he wasn’t sure how much longer that control would continue.

Her head rolled to the side, granting him access to her slender neck. Arran wasted no time in kissing along the column of her throat.

With a flick of his hand, he shed his kilt. He rose to his feet and leaned over Ronnie so that she was lying back on the bed.

“I want to see you,” she whispered.

“We have all night. Right now, you’re mine.”

Arran slid his hand beneath her back as he straddled her. Then he gave a tug and scooted her up, and just as he’d hoped, her gown slid off her legs.

He let his gaze run down her body and spied the little strap of lace between her legs.

“I think, lass, you have too many clothes on.”

She smiled, her eyes heavy-lidded and her lips swollen. “Don’t you like my thong?”

“Thong?” he repeated slowly before turning her onto her side so he could see the strap of material disappear between the globes of her ass. His cock jumped at the sight.

“I take it you like it?” she asked with a knowing smile.

“Is that what you normally wear?”

“Yes.” She rolled onto her back and watched him.

He tried to swallow. He’d never be able to look at her again without knowing about the thong. Which was her intention.

“How much do you like this … thong?” he asked.

She ran a hand down his chest, stopping just short of touching his hard, aching rod. “They’re just panties”

“Good.”

He held out a hand and let one white claw extend from his finger. She gasped, but there was no fear in her hazel eyes. Her gaze never wavered as she followed his hand down to her hip, where Arran slid the long claw beneath the material and sliced. With barely a pause, he repeated it on the other hip and watched the thong fall away.

Her hand was suddenly over his while one of her fingers ran along the top edge of his claw.

“Careful,” he cautioned. His claws were sharp, and he didn’t want to cut her.

Her eyes met his with determination and need, and what little restraint Arran had snapped. He kissed her hard and fast, his desire riding him relentlessly. Tenaciously.

Ruthlessly.

He held himself up by one elbow while his other hand ran down her body. Arran had gotten a look at her lithe form in the gold gown, but it was nothing like touching her.

He caressed down her side to the hollow of her waist, and then over the soft swell of her hips down to her toned legs.

Those gorgeous legs parted so that she was open to him, the pale gold curls hiding her sex from him. He cupped her, a growl sounding deep in his throat when he found her wet and ready for him.

Her fingers dug into his back as she sucked in a quick breath. He watched her face and every emotion that passed over it. She held nothing back, kept nothing from him.

For the first time, Arran believed that a woman was giving all of herself to him. And something strange happened in his chest, almost as if something moved.

He thought no more about it as he delved a finger inside her. Her hips rocked against his hand. How he wanted to thrust inside her, to feel her walls hold him.

But Arran wasn’t ready for this to be over anytime soon.

He held himself in check and leaned down to wrap his lips around a turgid nipple. His tongue swirled around the bud before he suckled.

A cry wrung from Ronnie’s lips, her body stiffening for an instant before she arched her back. He smiled and moved to the other breast.

The way her body reacted to his every touch only made Arran want to give her more. He wanted her screaming his name, her body flushed and languid.

He kissed down her stomach and around her navel until his mouth hovered over her wheat-colored curls. He added a second finger to the one inside her and kept the slow pace of his fingers sliding in and out of her.

With a shift of his shoulders, he put them between her thighs that spread even more. He licked her slowly, sensuously.

Her hands fisted in the bedspread and her legs stiffened against him. But he was just beginning. He put his mouth against her sex and flicked his tongue back and forth over her clitoris.

The sound of her cries grew louder, longer, the more he continued to tease her. She said his name, her head moving from side to side.

He felt her body tightening, knew she was close. And just before the climax took her, he pulled back. She gave a frustrated cry that brought a smile to his lips.

A few seconds later, he resumed his teasing. He loved the taste of her in his mouth, loved the feel of her sex contracting around his fingers as he once more brought her to the brink.

It took no time at all to have her body trembling with need, her chest rising and falling rapidly. But this time he didn’t stop.

Not when he felt her legs squeeze him. Not when her body stiffened. Not when her back arched off the bed.

A strangled cry tore from her throat as the walls of her sex clenched around his fingers. He pumped his hand faster as his tongue continued to lick.

He prolonged her climax until she was languid on the bed, her chest heaving. Only then did he rise over her, hooking one arm beneath her knee as he did.

Her eyes fluttered open and looked at him. She ran her hands up his arms and over his shoulders before pulling him down for a kiss.

Arran jerked when she wrapped her fingers around his cock and slowly caressed up and down the length. He groaned, rocking his hips in time with her rhythm.

He broke the kiss and clenched his jaw to keep from spilling. It would be so easy to give in, to let her take him there. But he held back. Somehow.

Her grip tightened a fraction, causing him to moan with pleasure. “Ronnie,” he warned.

Only then did she guide him to her entrance. His chest tightened at the first feel of her hot, slick walls. She was incredibly tight, and he eased his way into her until she finally took all of him.

Her legs wrapped around his waist as her arms draped over his neck. He slowly pulled out of her and held himself still for a moment. And then he thrust hard inside her.

Her lips parted with a moan. He set up a steady pace, plunging faster and harder each time. Their eyes met, their bodies moving in harmony.

No words were needed. Everything was being said through touch, through their joining.

Suddenly, Ronnie’s magic began to surround them. Arran might not be able to see it, but he could feel it through every inch of his body. It heightened his passion, driving him onward.

Ronnie clung to him as he propelled her higher and higher. The sound of skin meeting skin mixed with their harsh breathing. She couldn’t look away from Arran, and didn’t want to.

In his golden gaze was some deep, primordial emotion she couldn’t quite name. In his every move he claimed her, body and soul.

And she eagerly, willingly gave it to him.

Sweat glistened along their bodies. She could feel her desire tensing low in her belly once more, winding tighter and tighter.

Arran’s muscles bunched and shifted beneath her hands with each movement. Her skin felt too tight around her. Her nerves were stretched taut as she rose toward the climax.

As if Arran knew what was happening, he angled himself so that his arousal drove deeper, harder into her body. He was ruthless, unrelenting in his drive to bring her pleasure.

Her short nails dug into his skin as she felt the orgasm coming. There was no holding it back, no stopping it.

Just when she didn’t think she could stand it anymore, she was swept away on a surge of bliss so profound, so intense, she was blinded by it.

She gripped Arran’s arms in an attempt to hold on as the most powerful climax of her life ran through her body. It spun her, tossed her.

Consumed her.

And all the time, her gaze was locked with Arran’s. That connected them deeper than before. As if the invisible bond between them strengthened, intensified.

And when he gave one final thrust as his orgasm took him, her breath rushed from her body at the emotion she saw swimming in his golden eyes.

Feelings, strong and powerful, flowed through her and around them. They were sealed in a cocoon of passionate sensation that would forever alter them.

As if their souls had been marked somehow.

After several minutes, Arran rolled to his side and wrapped his arms around her. She tried to comprehend what had just happened, but she couldn’t find the words.

They stayed locked in each other’s arms, content in the quiet of the room and the peace in their hearts.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN

Arran looked at the ceiling as he ran his hands up and down Ronnie’s back. They’d lain just as they were for over an hour, and he wasn’t yet ready to move.

“Did it hurt when Deirdre unbound your god?” Ronnie asked quietly in the darkness.

He released a long breath. “Verra. It isna just the pain. It’s the god itself. Suddenly you have another voice in your head, and his demands are difficult to ignore.”

“But you did it.”

“Aye, and for every Warrior who does, four more doesna. You have to be strong, no’ just physically, but mentally, to take control of the god.”

She rubbed her cheek against his chest. “It sounds risky.”

“It is, but it isna like we had a choice. Deirdre didna give us one. One day we’re men, and the next, we’re Warriors.”

“Are you sure Larena is the only female Warrior?”

Arran grinned. “Nay. But she has a goddess, no’ a god.”

“I’m surprised there aren’t more goddesses.”

“Hmm. I wouldna be surprised to learn that there are.” Arran tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “The goddess isna the only difference with Larena. We all turn a certain color, as I’ve told you, but with Larena, she turns almost iridescent.”

“I want to meet her.”

“I want you to meet her and the others.”

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll tell someone about you?” she asked as she folded her hands on his chest and rested her chin on them.

“Nay.”

“Very trusting of you,” she said with a grin. “What does this mean for me, being a Druid?”

“It means you’re special.”

“I mean, I don’t know the first thing about being a Druid.”

“There’s nothing to it. You already know what your magic is.”

Ronnie laughed and ran her hand up his spine as he flipped her onto her back. “That I do. So that means you won’t be leaving anytime soon?”

“Nay.”

How one little word could make her so joyous, Ronnie didn’t know—nor did she care. She’d been prepared, and afraid, for Arran to depart from her life.

“You thought I was leaving?”

She shrugged and lifted her head to kiss his shoulder.

“I’m no’ done with you yet, Dr. Reid,” he said with a heart-stopping smile. “No’ nearly.”

She groaned in need when she felt his hot, hard arousal against her. He smiled slyly before he kissed her.

His hand skimmed down her side as he ground his hips against her. She gasped as he suddenly flipped her onto her stomach.

Ronnie’s eyes closed, her blood heating so that it sizzled as it flowed through her. Arran’s breath was warm on her neck, an instant before he placed hot, wet kisses along her shoulder.

All thought halted. She couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but feel Arran’s hands and mouth on her body. His caress incited her, catapulted her into another world, a world where only the two of them existed.

He whispered her name, the sound its own caress as it sank into her skin and through her bones, into her very essence. In Arran’s arms, she became the woman she had only ever dreamed she was.

Ronnie didn’t stop the wanton from rising within her. She reached for it, embraced it.

Welcomed it.

Her breasts ached for his touch as he shifted and pulled her up on her knees. A deep fiery need pulsed within her. For Arran. For the passion he wrung from her.

From the yearning only he could quench.

Arran had never known anyone so passionate, so fervent in her lovemaking. The urgency within him to take her once more, to mark her as his, burned inside him.

It was all-consuming, this wild, untamed need to have her. It was a new experience for him. But one he couldn’t turn back from.

He buried his face in her neck and inhaled the sweet scent of her hair as she pushed back against him.

With breaths coming in panting gasps, her body shook with need. He plunged inside her, her scalding wetness clutching him, holding him.

It was as if he hadn’t just taken her an hour before. He realized then it wouldn’t matter how many times he was with Ronnie—it would never be enough.

Her magic felt like bliss, but it was more than that. It was her. Her smile, her laughter, her tenacity, and her kind heart.

She had gotten into his psyche without him even knowing it. Or maybe he had known it, and didn’t care. None of that mattered now, though. Not when she was in his arms.

Arran withdrew and thrust again. He drove into her deeper, harder, faster. Her soft cries only pushed him onward. He wanted to hear her scream her climax again.

He needed to feel her sheath clamping around him.

With his hands on her hips, he held her as he pounded into her relentlessly.

Ronnie couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move because of the desire coiling through her. She wanted to tell him to stop, to wait because she wasn’t ready to peak yet, but Arran didn’t give her a chance. He drove her higher, the passion consuming her.

With his name on her lips, Ronnie shattered.

Every sense had been crushed, every thought splintered. Into a blinding cascade of ecstasy.

*   *   *

Arran smiled when he felt Ronnie’s climax. Her body had stiffened, and her scream had been glorious to his ears. The roar of his blood grew until release swept him. Once more finding the contentment in Ronnie’s arms.