Midnight's Warrior (27 page)

They shared another smile. She glanced at his hands, remembering how well they moved over her body, knowing just where to touch to bring her ultimate pleasure.

His gray eyes darkened, and a moment later he said something to Broc who sat beside him, and left the hall.

Tara followed Ramsey up the stairs with her eyes. Excitement drummed through her when he reached the top and looked back at her.

A heartbeat later she excused herself and followed him up the stairs to his tower. She walked the circular steps toward the top of the tower, her breaths coming faster and faster at the urgency to have Ramsey’s arms around her again.

When she reached the top and found the door slightly ajar, her stomach flip-flopped. Gently, she put her hand on the door and pushed it open.

Ramsey stood with his back to her as he looked out the window. “I didna think you’d ever get here,” he said and turned to face her.

“I practically ran here.”

“I know. You took too long. I almost threw you over my shoulder and carried you.”

She grinned. “Now that would have been something.”

“You’ve no idea.”

Tara stepped into the tower and closed the door behind her. She leaned back against it, content to let her gaze roam over Ramsey for the moment.

“If you continue to look at me like that, we’ll have another episode like the last two, and frankly, I want to take my time with you.”

Tara bent and unzipped first one boot and then the other, dropping them to the floor as she tugged them off her feet along with her socks. “Is that so?”

“Aye,” Ramsey said with a nod. He jerked off his shirt and tossed it aside, his silver eyes blazing with need.

Her jeans were next, and her blood heated when she saw how his eyes watched the denim slide off her legs. “What do you have in mind?”

“Hours of me touching every inch of your body. Slowly. I want my touch branded upon you.”

His voice, warm and deep and husky with need, caused her to shiver in anticipation while he removed his jeans. She licked her lips and grabbed the hem of her sweater. She had to force herself to take her time in removing it. Because though she didn’t care how they came together, she knew it meant a lot to Ramsey for them to go slow.

Their passion, already simmering, grew with each garment that fell to the floor.

“You’ve already branded me.”

He growled deep within his throat when she stood in nothing but her bra and panties before him. “Nay. No’ like I will this time.”

Tara fumbled with the clasp of her bra. Not from nervousness, but from the desire spreading through her swift and sure. Finally she unhooked it and let the straps fall over her shoulders.

With a little shake of her arms, the bra tumbled to the floor amid the rest of her clothing.

“You seem to have forgotten something,” Ramsey said.

The smile was slow as it pulled at Tara’s lips. There was no doubt Ramsey wanted her, no doubt his desire for her exceeded anything she’d ever experienced before.

It was there for her to see in his silver gaze, the way his hands fisted and flexed with each piece of clothing she pulled off. In the way his arousal stood thick and engorged.

Tara had never felt more confident or beautiful in her life. And Ramsey was the one who gave that to her. She’d give him anything in return.

With deliberate leisure, Tara hooked her thumbs in the waist of her peach cotton and lace panties and moved them down her hips and over her thighs. Then, she let them drop around her feet before she stepped out of them and walked to Ramsey.

She’d taken two steps before he closed the distance and crushed her against the hard, lean lines of his body.

“You’ve no idea what you do to me,” he whispered.

Tara’s gaze was locked with his silver ones. “Oh, I think I do.”

Their words faded away as passion and desire swirled around them. Tara glanced down to see wherever she touched Ramsey that the white ribbons of magic seemed to glow beneath his skin.

Being with him scared her. It frightened her how much she needed him, how much she yearned for him. He was everything she knew she should stay away from, but she couldn’t.

All thoughts fled when his hand moved seductively down her back to rest upon her buttocks. She sucked in a breath when he pressed her against the hard length of his cock.

She knew what it felt like to have him inside her, to feel him sliding in and out of her.

The stones beneath her feet were ice-cold, but the blood in her veins was boiling from the passion.

She didn’t protest when Ramsey tugged her hair off her shoulder, then gently moved her head to the side. A sigh left her lips when he lowered his head and placed his lips on the sensitive skin of her neck.

Ramsey’s hot mouth left a trail from her shoulder up to the spot behind her ear. “I’ve never felt such beautiful magic, or held such a stunning woman in my arms.”

Tara had no words in answer to such a compliment. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him and held him against her. With him she felt as if she’d found the other part of herself, a part she hadn’t even known was missing.

He slowly maneuvered them until they were at the bed. With a movement so quick, so smooth, Tara found herself atop the bed and Ramsey next to her. Limbs tangling, hands searching, they rolled skin to skin.

“No rushing this time,” he warned her.

She started to shake her head in answer, but his finger circling her nipple scattered her thoughts. Tara moaned and arched into his hand, silently begging for more.

Her breasts swelled, her nipples tightened. Tara fisted her hands in the covers while Ramsey’s fingers played with one turgid peak and his mouth claimed the other.

Liquid heat rushed through Tara’s body. She gasped at the intense desire, but that gasp turned into a cry of pleasure when he pinched her nipple.

The pleasure-pain only intensified the need pulsing through her and centering at her sex. Her hips lifted, seeking Ramsey. And suddenly he was between her legs, his rock-hard body atop hers.

Tara was on fire. Each flick of his fingers, each tug of his lips upon her breasts, only fanned the flames.

And then his hands were on her thighs. He held them apart and stared at her sex before he licked her.

Tara sucked in a breath that quickly locked in her lungs when he parted the soft folds of her sex and put his mouth to her curls.

Ramsey licked and laved, he probed and explored. His assault upon her senses and her body was devastating.

She was helpless to do anything but ride the waves of pleasure as he took her higher, wound her body tighter with each stroke of his tongue.

Tara could feel her body constricting, knew she was close to peaking. Just when she was about to go over the edge, Ramsey drew back.

She reached for him as fiery need filled her. Her hands stroked the muscled expanse of his chest.

Silver eyes met hers, his lips softened into a crooked smile as he rubbed the head of his engorged arousal against her sensitive sex.

Tara looked between them to his cock. No one had touched her as he had, both body and soul. This was different. Not just the way they were making love or the magic between them.

It was more. Something she couldn’t put into words.

Something she didn’t dare put into words.

She reached between them for his rod. It was hot and hard and so flagrantly male. Her other hand joined the first, and together they stroked and lightly squeezed.

He stilled, his entire body going taut. His chest expanded with a breath that he held within him as her hands continued their exploration.

With a nudge he wasn’t expecting, Tara had him on his back and turned the tables on him.

“Tara,” he whispered, his hands fisting in her hair.

She waited for him to stop her, to pull her away. When he didn’t, she wrapped her lips around his smooth flesh and took him deep in her mouth.

She sucked, she licked, she laved.

The sound of his ragged breathing, the way his hands clutched at her only drove her to push him closer and closer to the edge. She sensed the tension in him tighten.

His hips bucked beneath her in time to her mouth moving up and down his thick length.

In a fluid motion, he had her on her back as he knelt between her legs. His gaze never left hers as he gripped her hips and lifted them.

Tara drew in a shaky breath filled with need and urgency as she looked at his cock poised at her entrance. The broad head of his member pressed in.

Seeing him fill her, watching the way her body stretched to accommodate him only sent her need, her desire, spiraling higher.

He steadily pressed deeper to fill her. Her spine arched, her body tingling with sensations.

Ramsey looked down at her, at her blue-green eyes filled with blatant desire, her luscious curves beneath him, her long legs wrapped around him.

And his cock buried deep within her.

His fingers tightened on her arse as he drew out of her only to plunge deep and hard. She moaned, her lids closing over her incredible eyes.

But Ramsey wasn’t close to being done with her. He had tasted her, touched her, learned her. Yet it wasn’t enough. The hunger for her inside him was only growing, consuming him.

With her ankles locked around him, he released her hips and cupped her breasts. He rolled her nipples until they were tiny hard buds, throbbing and straining.

She gasped and squirmed, shifting along his arousal with simple movements that caused sweat to break out over his skin.

His mouth replaced his hands as he paid homage to first one breast then the other. Until she was a wordless pleading mass, until her body was damp and dewy.

Ramsey rose and gripped her hips once more. When he glanced up, he found her eyes glossed over with desire, her skin flushed with burning need.

Just as he wanted her.

He rotated his hips and heard her low moan. Keeping her hips still, he began to thrust slowly at first, then gradually set up a driving, gripping rhythm.

With his jaw clenched he watched as she cried out from the pleasure, her head thrashing from side to side, her hands fisted in the covers.

He lifted her higher, sliding deeper. And pounded into her.

Tara cried out Ramsey’s name, her back arching as the climax claimed her by surprise. It took her, swept her. Racked her.

The pleasure touched every part of her, but more than that, there was something special, something singularly different that filled her as well.

She grasped ahold of Ramsey as he released her hips and fell atop her, his breathing harsh and ragged. Yet still he pumped his hips faster, harder.

Tara wrapped her arms and legs around him, rocking her body to meet each of his thrusts until she felt his release take him—and her—on a glorious tide of bliss that left them reeling.

Together. As one.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Ramsey stared at the moon through the window as he held Tara cradled against him. Her breath had evened into sleep, with her head resting on his shoulder.

In all his life, he’d never been more content than he was at that moment. If everything stayed the way it was, he could be happy. He could be … satisfied.

If there was one thing he’d learned from Deirdre, it was that nothing ever stayed the same. Declan was out there, and he wouldn’t stop until he had Tara.

Why Tara was so important to Declan, Ramsey didn’t know. But Ramsey wouldn’t stop until he discovered what it was. He wouldn’t stop searching for Declan until the bastard was as dead and gone as Deirdre.

Yet, for the first time in a long time, Ramsey didn’t want to see battle. He wanted nights with Tara in bed beside him, to face the morning sun and see her bright smile. To share meals with her.

To share the future with her.

Ramsey glanced down at the top of Tara’s head and ran his fingers through the thick, cool strands of her golden-brown hair, marveling at the golden locks within.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about wanting Tara with him always. It seemed right, yet … he’d never had that feeling with any other woman before. Was it just that he was lonely? Was it just that his fight with Deirdre was over and he wanted someone to protect?

Or was it something much more?

His thoughts ground to a halt then. He wasn’t prepared to go further. Not yet, at least.

The sound of Tara’s stomach rumbled into the silence, causing him to smile. They had missed supper, and he was more than hungry himself.

Ramsey gently rolled Tara onto her other side and quietly left the bed. He pulled on his jeans without buttoning them and left the tower barefoot to wander down to the kitchen.

The castle was quiet in the dead of the night, but Ramsey knew that there were Warriors on guard. Until Declan was gone, they would remain guarding the castle and the Druids within.

Ramsey walked into the kitchen and flipped on the light to find Galen leaning against the counter eating a sandwich.

“Hungry?” Galen asked around his mouthful of food.

Ramsey grabbed a plate from the cupboard and set it next to the refrigerator. “Aye.”

“You and Tara missed a fine supper.”

Ramsey glanced at his friend before he opened the fridge door and began to pile the plate with cold meats and cheese. “That we did.”

“Is it serious?”

Ramsey paused while reaching for a bottle of water and turned his head to look at Galen. “I’m no’ sure.”

“There’s time,” Galen said. He wiped his mouth with a napkin before he wadded it up and tossed it in the bin.

Time. Ramsey certainly had an abundance of it. But Tara didn’t. She was mortal, just like all the other Druids in the castle.

“Do you think about what will happen if the spell to bind our gods is never found?” Ramsey asked.

Galen’s blue eyes darkened. “I prefer no’ to, however, Reaghan is a realist. She likes to think ahead. She says she’s all right with the way things are.”

“But you are no’.” It wasn’t a question.

“Nay.”

Ramsey grabbed the water and closed the fridge door. “As long as the Druids stay at the castle they’ll no’ age. Isla’s magic is strong. The spell survived four centuries. It can survive as long as it takes to find the spell to bind our gods.”