The Highlander’s Promise, page 14
Even if she was still a maiden, Terin recognized what glittered in Jasper’s eyes. The heat inside her twisted in response as he gently stroked one of her breasts.
So simple a touch.
And yet, she shivered in response.
Sensation rippled down her body as he pulled the tie which held her bodice closed.
Jasper popped the knot open and pulled the lace free of the eyelets that ran down the front of her bodice. Terin leaned her head back, drawing in a deep breath. His scent was intoxicating. It touched off another sensation, only this one was deeper, going all the way to her core.
“Trust me, lass.”
His words weren’t necessary.
And Terin wasn’t sure she really understood them. He cupped her shoulders, smoothing his hands down her arms. She straightened her arms out behind her so that her bodice and sleeves fell behind her.
Her skirt and hip roll didn’t last very long either.
The air in the room was much cooler. It was a relief, really, because she was so warm. Her skin was far more sensitive than she had ever felt before.
Jasper seemed to agree. He scooped her off her feet, cradling her as he turned and placed her on the edge of the bed. He caught the back of her head, holding her in place as he pressed a kiss against her mouth.
This time, he kissed her harder, giving her a taste of his passion. She let out a little sound of delight as she threaded her fingers through his hair.
He broke away, hovering just above her as he contemplated her.
“I like seeing ye like this, lass,” he muttered darkly. “With yer lips wet from my kiss.”
It was a shameless thing to say.
Yet, she enjoyed hearing it.
Jasper made quick work of her boots, yanking them off her feet before he even reached up and undid her garters and stripped her stockings down her legs.
She’d been put to bed in her smock on her wedding night.
Terin suddenly giggled.
Jasper looked up at her, one eyebrow arched.
“I suddenly see why brides are stripped on their wedding nights,” she muttered. “This does rather take some doing.”
“Aye, that it does,” Jasper replied.
He was pulling off his boots. He stood up as Terin suddenly became shy. She turned, crawling up and onto the center of the bed as he unbuckled his kilt. She heard the fabric make a soft sound as it hit the floor.
She looked back over her shoulder, her teeth set into her lower lip as she tried to decide what to do.
“Ye are not afraid of me, Terin.” Jasper had his hands braced on the edge of the bed. Poised on her knees, Terin had never felt so much like prey.
His prey…
Yet, he was correct. She didn’t fear him. But laying down to wait for him was impossible for her to do. She suddenly grabbed a pillow and threw it at him.
Surprise flashed across his face before he was raising an arm to shield himself from the pillow. A second later, the bed shook as he bounded up and onto it. Terin let out a shriek as he clamped his arms around her middle and rolled over with her.
Jasper kept going until Terin was on her back. He settled alongside her, holding his weight on one arm.
“Ye are perfection, Terin.” He smoothed the hair back from her face.
“It’s too dark to see anything,” Terin objected.
It really was. The loft had a single window. The shutters were closed, allowing only a sliver of light through at the bottom. Jasper was a shadow. She lifted her hands, flattening them on his chest.
“I believe it’s perfect like this,” she said.
The darkness granted her permission. Or perhaps it removed the restrictions she had always had to adhere to. There, in the bed, she was alone with her cravings.
“Aye, lass,” Jasper growled as he lowered his mouth to hers once more. “The rest of the world may go on without us.”
He kissed her again. Terin smoothed her hands up his torso, delighting in the feel of their bare skin touching. The ability to think became irrelevant as Jasper’s kiss deepened.
She wanted to feel.
And Jasper didn’t disappoint her.
He shifted, brushing her smock down to bare one breast. She gasped as he cupped it, arching up because it wasn’t enough just to be held. She wanted more.
Jasper fed her cravings.
He grasped her breast and stroked the nipple with his thumb. The little point drew into a hard knot as he kissed her. Terin was twisting against him. She just couldn’t remain still. She didn’t want to be obedient.
Didn’t want to be taken.
Lovers…
The word burst into her mind as she realized that was precisely what she craved. Terin wanted to drive Jasper to the same level of intoxication that he was pushing her into. She wanted to dance with him until they both had sweat running down their sides.
So, she reached for him, stroking her hands along his chest. Delighted by the hard ridges of muscles her fingertips discovered. He had nipples, too. Flat and hard, she toyed with them as he pulled his head up and sucked in a hard breath.
“Harder lass,” Jasper encouraged her. “Show me yer claws.”
Claws?
Terin curled her fingers and drew her fingernails down his chest.
His breath rasped between his teeth.
“That’s the way…” Jasper said.
He leaned over and captured her exposed nipple between his lips.
Terin gasped, shocked by how hot his mouth was. Searing hot.
And she adored it.
Heat shot straight down her body to her cleft, where her clitoris was throbbing. Her thighs were spreading as Jasper pressed a knee between them.
It felt so natural.
She might have spared a thought for how correct it all seemed if she could have managed to get her mind to function.
Instead, she was drawing her nails down his arms as he nursed upon her nipple. He was like a flame in her embrace. His strength was pleasing her as much as the heat he seemed able to kindle inside her. Terin shifted, her thigh brushing against his cock.
It was hard and ready, and she suddenly realized she was too needy to wait any longer.
“Easy, Terin,” Jasper muttered against her lips. “We have the entire night.”
“I feel in a hurry,” Terin confessed.
He lifted his mouth off hers, his breath hitting the delicate surface of her lips.
“I will nae fall upon ye, Terin.”
He smoothed his hand along her thigh and into the curls which covered her mons. Her clitoris was throbbing, begging for a touch.
Jasper didn’t leave her wanting.
He sent his fingers into her cleft. Her folds had become wet, allowing him to slip easily inside. He found the spot which throbbed, teasing it with a single touch.
Terin cried out.
Jasper held her still. He teased her little pearl, toying with it as he kept her in place on her back.
She was burning alive…
Terin withered, twisting and straining toward something that she had no idea just what it was. There was only the need tearing at her insides and the way his fingers made her feel so very good.
She was arching up toward his hand, seeking more of the pleasure. Her heart was thumping so hard, it was possible she wouldn’t survive, and yet, Terin didn’t care. The craving for more was pounding through her. It was the only thing she cared about, and Jasper appeared to understand. He pressed her down, gripping her hard enough to prove his strength to her.
And then there was the hand he had in her cleft. His fingers were rubbing faster and harder as she lifted her hips up, seeking even more from him.
The end came without warning.
One moment she was withering in the grip of need, and the next, a burst of pleasure seared through her.
“That’s the way, lass,” Jasper muttered against her head. “Now ye know what can be between us.”
Terin was gasping.
She opened her eyes, realizing that he’d taken her to the pinnacle while maintaining his control.
“I don’t…want a master,” she growled at him.
Her body was trying to go lax, but she rolled over, her frustration taking the place of passion. Jasper gave way, allowing her to push him onto his back.
He let her do it, of course, and that knowledge only infuriated her further.
“Ye wanted what I gave ye, Terin,” Jasper said as he looked up at her.
She’d sat up, her breathing still coming in little bursts.
“I wanted ye to be my lover,” Terin corrected him.
“Lover?” Jasper inquired softly.
“Yes.”
He tucked one of his hands behind his head, appearing completely relaxed.
“A lover sees to his partner’s pleasure, lass,” Jasper told her. “As I just did.”
“Well…” Terin paused, trying to think of what it was she was frustrated by.
“Did ye enjoy it?”
Terin felt her cheeks heat. She looked away, but the bed moved as Jasper sat up and cupped her chin.
“Tell me, lass,” Jasper insisted as he brought their faces back together. “Tell me ye enjoyed it.”
“I did,” she admitted.
His lips parted with a satisfied grin.
“But I wanted ye to enjoy it, too,” she admitted what was bothering her.
“I did enjoy it.”
Terin realized there was more than one facet to the face of passion.
There was the hunger she’d felt gnawing at her insides, and then, there was also the need to drive him toward that peak of pleasure. Perhaps that was the true meaning of the word lover. Understanding that there was more than one sort of satisfaction to gain in bed.
She leaned down to kiss him.
It took more confidence than Terin had realized. She hesitated as she closed the final few inches between their lips, suddenly doubting whether or not he found her skills lacking.
A coward never achieves their goal.
Jasper was waiting for her. Terin pressed her hands onto his chest and stroked up to his face. The sides of his neck were corded as he held himself in check, allowing her to take the lead.
Most men wouldn’t have done such a thing.
“Why are ye letting me take control?” she asked.
There in the dark, Terin realized she might ask the question she never would have voiced otherwise. Goron would have slapped her for even suggesting he was at her beck and call.
Jasper threaded his fingers into her hair, holding her still when she began to sit back up.
“Can I not be enticed by the idea of ye wanting to see to my desires?” Jasper asked.
“A wife is meant to satisfy her husband.”
“Which accounts for why so many men prefer their mistresses,” he offered with a chuckle.
“Jasper Chattan,” Terin admonished him.
He was suddenly rising up and rolling her onto her back once more.
“Should I not be honest, Terin?”
“Of course,” she replied.
He had his hands flattened on either side of her face. His arms were straight as he held himself above her.
“I would like ye to strip away yer smock and let me see yer bare breasts.”
Terin felt her eyes go wide. Her face heated as Jasper rolled onto his back and settled his hands behind his head.
“I was very honest just now,” Jasper informed her with a chuckle.
“Ye are being shameless.”
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug, but his expression was pensive. “How can ye be my lover, Terin, if I do nae allow ye to take the lead from time to time?”
“Oh.” She found herself worrying her lower lip once more as she thought through what he’d said. Her mind offered up a perfect recollection of him nursing upon her breast. Behind the soft fabric of her smock, her nipples drew into taunt little points once more.
It wasn’t the first time the thought of Jasper had lit a flicker of need inside her.
So would it be the same for him as well?
She wanted to know.
Her confidence suddenly bloomed. Maybe it was due to the fact that Jasper was waiting for her to decide what to do.
Back at Larks Point, there was a bed for her in a chamber where she might sleep shrouded in dignity and correctness.
So why did she feel as if what she was doing here was more honest?
“What are ye thinking, Terin?”
He was watching her.
“I’m thinking I am acting more naturally now than I have ever done in my entire life.”
It was a bold thing to voice.
“I understand what ye mean, Terin,” Jasper answered. “My mother says fate brought us together. It’s the truth that I agree with her more and more on the matter.”
Fate.
“I’ve heard that word used a great deal,” Terin said. “And all of those times that word was meant to chain me to the duty others planned for me.”
“Yet ye survived,” he remarked.
“I did.” She smiled at him.
And now? Well, now she was free to do as she pleased.
It was a potent idea.
Terin was poised on her knees. She found the hem of her smock and drew it upward. It was an action she’d performed countless times, yet today it was new. Her mind offered up a recollection of the way Rhona had been so at ease as she flirted.
Terin wanted to be that way as well.
She wanted to be Jasper’s lover.
As she drew the garment over her head, she heard Jasper’s breath rasp between his teeth. As she tossed it aside, he was rising up, his attention on her breasts.
“I am going to wed ye, Terin,” he declared as he cupped her breasts.
Terin might have argued, but the feeling of having her breasts handled was too extraordinary.
Why had she never noticed how sensitive her breasts were?
Jasper was massaging them, teasing the nipples with his thumbs. The passion he’d sated roared back to life like fresh tinder being touched to a bed of coals. One moment hunger was merely gnawing at her insides, and the next, she was so needy, she let out a gasp when he rolled her onto her back.
His weight satisfied her in a way she’d never realized possible. She shifted, her thighs spreading as he settled between them. He caught her mouth in a kiss as Terin tried to mimic his motions and kiss him back.
The last motion wasn’t awkward at all. Terin felt his member against her inner thigh. Hard and hot, it seemed so natural for him to adjust position, so the head of it nudged against the open folds of her body.
Jasper kissed her again. This time it was slow and deep. He teased her tongue with his own, making her unconsciously aware of how much she wanted to have him fill her.
“Easy, lass,” Jasper rasped against her hair. “I would nae hurt ye.”
“And ye must,” Terin lifted her hips, so the head of his cock sunk inside her. “I am not a girl anymore, Jasper.”
He lifted his head, and their gazes locked. In the semi-darkness, he was a creature of shadow and lore.
Yet, he was hot against her, and she burned to have him complete the moment.
“Aye,” Jasper rasped out, his tone edged with need. “Ye are a woman, Terin…my woman.”
He thrust forward. His cock gliding smoothly into her passage. She gasped, pain burning along her insides as she was stretched. For a moment, it didn’t feel like her body would accept him. Terin gulped at the air, determined to manage.
In the next instant, everything eased.
Jasper pulled out of her, leaving her begging for his return. When he thrust back into her, his length penetrated easily.
And now, there was nothing but delight.
Terin left out a breathless sound.
Jasper echoed it.
The unity she seemed to seek in him gained new depths as he began to move back and forth. She lifted her hips, needing him deeper. Her body responded to his as pleasure began to mount inside her. The release he’d given her with his fingers paled as he thrust harder and deeper into her. Now, she danced in the very center of the flame, straining toward completion that she knew without a doubt would wring her.
Terin hurled herself toward it.
Jasper growled as he kept pace with her.
He seemed to have been waiting for her to reach the zenith. As she cried out, he ground himself deeper into her and let out a hoarse cry. Terin felt his seed pumping into her.
And then they both dropped to the surface of the bed.
Spent.
Satisfied.
Terin couldn’t think beyond single words.
So she didn’t even try to. She let her eyes close as she drifted off into a blissful slumber.
*
“Ye’ve proven yer worth sure enough.”
Cannons Row had many dark shadows. Lonn looked at the scrap of a boy who had earned his next meal by watching Jasper Chattan and reporting his location. The boy was young and newly arrived, so he didn’t yet know most people refused Lonn because they’d didn’t dare risk angering the chief of Larks Point Tower.
The lad was precisely what Lonn needed to claim his revenge against Jasper Chattan.
“Ye will eat,” Lonn informed him.
“I work for me sister’s meals,” Arth insisted.
Lonn looked at the boy. “I have a use for yer sister.”
Lonn dropped a bundle at Arth’s feet. The boy shifted from side to side. He wanted the food, but his dedication to his sister was admirable, for he tightened his fingers into fists and didn’t reach for the food.
“Eat what ye have earned,” Lonn ordered the boy. “Do nae argue with my arrangements. Yer sister will eat so long as she minds me orders and serves me well. As ye have done.”
Arth needed no further urging. The boy dropped to his haunches and tore open the bundle. Lonn looked back up at the loft room where Jasper was.
At last.
Patience was often the key for dealing with everything in life.
I’ll take revenge for ye at long last, Owen…
Lonn felt his rage boiling. His brother’s name always brought a bitter taste to his mouth as he recalled how Jasper Chattan and the Bitch of Larks Point Tower had strung Owen up on their execution platform.
So what if his brother had tossed a maid’s skirts?
