Unwanted (8 page)

How puzzling, nay,
alarming
that she should be so aware of it now.
 
A feeling of restless emptiness that bordered on a stinging ache had settled there.
 
With each brush of his mouth against her ear or neck, with each exploration of his fingers, the awareness increased until she felt the need to squirm.
 

His hands drew away from behind her, following the curve of her hip to dip between their bodies.
 

Though she could see nothing in the absolute darkness, she squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the humiliating intrusion of his rough fingers.
 
Instead, he paused at her stomach, tracing the small swell that had never disappeared after her child’s birth, then the indent where her hip met her thigh.

 
“What are you doing?” she asked, unable to stand it any longer.

“Learning the feel of you,” he murmured, his hot breath teasing the fine hairs at the nape of her neck.

“Why?”
 
According to previous experience, he should have pushed her onto the bed by now and pried her legs apart, thrusting between them until he spent himself.
 
“Shouldn’t you just… get on with it?”

“Nay.”
 
His fingers trailed against the curls above her sex and a jolt of charged energy sliced up her spine.
 
“I need you ready to take me inside you.”

She couldn’t see his face, but the dark need in his voice caused a shudder to quake her very bones.
 
The words spoken in his deep tones did something disturbing to her insides.
 
Didn’t he understand?
 
She’d never be ready.
 
She’d never want this.
 

“Please.
 
I don’t—”

His finger snaked between the folds of her sex. He hissed a breath through his teeth and groaned.

But
Rhona
had forgotten how to breathe entirely.
 
A stab of sensation jerked every muscle she possessed tight as a bow string.
 
It was a lightning slash of pleasure that disappeared as soon as it registered.
 

Finn hadn’t lingered in that spot, but dipped lower to the very entrance to her body.
 

Rhona
bit her lip.
 
A small amount of slick moisture encountered his exploration.
 
She vaguely remembered her husband asking her why she couldn’t get wet for him.
 
It had been his only complaint in that regard, but it seemed to irritate him to no end.
 
 

 
“Not enough,” he rumbled.

Her heart pounded.
 
Finn was already displeased with her.
 
Oh God.
 
How had she thought she could do this?
 

The mountain that was his chest lowered beneath her hands.
 
He was kneeling?
 
Did he mean to take her on the cold floor?

She clenched her legs together, suddenly very aware of the cold now that she was not pressed into the heat of his skin.
 

More fingers invaded the lips of her sex, parting her and exposing her core.
 

Rhona
whimpered, suddenly feeling very lost and vulnerable, as though the storm raging outside was about to break in and batter her exposed skin.
 
Did he mean to humiliate her?
 
Would he hurt her now?
 

“I must taste you,” he growled.
 
“You’re so fucking beautiful.”

There was not light by which to see her.
 
How could he know she was beautiful?
 
Taste her?
 
He couldn’t mean to...

 
“No—”

Her protestation died on a strangled breath as a long, strong lick split apart the very center of her.
 
A foreign, frightening needle of pleasure shot through her with such incredible force that her knees weakened.

As if sensing her imminent collapse, Finn’s strong hands gripped her hips and held her aloft.
 
His mouth remained where it was, buried within her core, his lips exploring the pliant ridges of her sex, teasing around the center of her burning loins.
 
 

This was nothing like she’d ever experienced.
 
Rhona
couldn’t be certain it truly was happening.
 
Was this lethal stranger really on his knees before her, tasting of her womanhood?
 
No one had ever done such a thing.
 
The very thought scandalized her.
 
The action nearly sent her into conniptions.
 

 
In contrast to his callused fingers, his tongue was smooth, hot, and deliciously wet.
 
It slipped among increasingly slick flesh leaving sweet trails of pure, aching pleasure in its wake.
 

Shocked beyond comprehension,
Rhona’s
fingers sought and dug into his muscular shoulders.
 
Her toes curled in on themselves and a trembling began so deep that it must have come from her soul.

A tide of need and pressure released from her belly as she felt her sex bloom and open beneath his expert mouth.
 
It was as if all her blood and awareness surged there, to be part of this dangerous, delicious experience.
 

His moan was muffled by her skin, and his fingers dug almost painfully into the meat of her hips.
 
He left no question that he was pleased by her body’s innate reaction.
 

Now, more than ever, she was grateful for the cover of darkness as she couldn’t seem to process the absolute intimacy of what he performed on her.
 
Instead of recoiling from his wicked mouth as she was first inclined to do,
Rhona
pressed herself forward against him.

Heat and instinct melded somehow within her, pulsing pleasure through her blood with the beat of some ancient rhythm.
 
The sounds of the angry storm outside retreated until she could only hear the desperate pant of her breath and the soft, wet sounds he created.

She seemed to be reaching for something, something she couldn’t name and didn’t understand.
 
Her body strained for it, her hips searched for it, riding his mouth as though she were a woman possessed.
 
In truth, she couldn’t recognize herself as she was now.
 
Reduced to a creature of wanton need.
 
Bereft of pride or fear or dignity, begging to be set free from this passionate torture.
 

As the warrior rolled his tongue over her and his lips nipped at her flesh, he seemed to be aware of what she required, but unwilling to allow her to have it.
 

“P-Please,” she whimpered.
 
“Finn… I can’t…”

He groaned again, and plunged his tongue against the sensitive bud that was at the center of her burning need.
 
As he ground against it, her entire body convulsed.
 
In that moment, she understood her fair-haired stranger was something other than a mere man.
 
As she shuddered and melted into the wave of pure, wet-hot pleasure that engulfed her, he supported her entire weight with his outstretched arms, all the while continuing his relentless conquest with his tongue.
 

Rhona
had to bite down on her tongue to keep from crying out.
 
The pain seemed to heighten the intensity of the pleasure pulsing from her sex and reaching to every recess of her being.
 
A few helpless sobs escaped her as the sensations rolling off of his tongue reached a peak so incredible that she wasn’t sure she could contain it.

Just as she felt as though she might be overwhelmed, his lips retreated from her.
 

It was all
Rhona
could do to inflate her chest and depress it.
 
She was naught a mass of throbbing, wet satiation and trembling limbs. She couldn’t seem to let go of his shoulders, and he didn’t release her hips as he rose in front of her.
 
If he did, she would surely sink into a puddle of boneless nonsense.
 

She’d had no idea her body had been capable of such bliss.
 
That in the right hands, she could be played like an instrument to crescendo to such a tremendous peak.

“You are ready for me now,” Finn informed her.
 
He seemed so certain.
 
His voice tight and laced with need.
 

Tension and dread crept back into
Rhona’s
pliant muscles.
 
He’d only just given to her the sort of pleasure that he wanted to take.
 
For that, she could be thankful.
 
For that, she would submit to anything he wanted of her.
 
He would be kind as he climbed on top of her and painfully slaked his lust.

And she would endure.
 

Finn wiped the taste of her from his lips.
 
Nothing could compare to the sweetness of her nectar.
 
Nothing.
 
As she’d trembled and pulsed in his arms, he’d taken as much pleasure from her release as he’d ever taken in his own.
 
He could have spilled his own seed with the lightest of touch, he was so fucking hard.
 

He needed inside her.
 
Now.
 

Bending down, he swept his arm behind her knees and lifted her.
 
He took pride in how her legs trembled.
 
In the astounded glaze covering her heavy-lidded eyes.
 
He loved how her breasts bobbed with her every move.
 

Depositing her on her back, he followed her down on the bed, covering her body with his.
 

Her eyes widened and her breath quickened.
 
Her muscles, once replete with pleasure became instantly rigid again.
 

Yes.
 
She was ready.

The urge to kiss her knocked the wind out of him.
 
He wanted to claim her with more than his body.
 
He wanted her to taste herself on his lips and understand the sweetness that was her essence.
 
He wanted to bind himself to this woman for the rest of his unnaturally long life.
 

He shook his head, focusing on beauty of her pink-tipped nipples instead of her parted lips.
 
What he wanted was a fool’s wish.
 
He couldn’t hope to have something as pure and beautiful as her for more than tonight.

But tonight he would have as much as she could give.

“Open your legs,” he prompted, unwilling to take his eyes from her glorious breasts.

She complied, creating the sweetest cradle for his body.
 
Her fragrance surrounded him, winter spices and musk.
 
He was about to sink into bliss and ride them both to the edge of heaven.
 
He positioned the head of his throbbing cock at her entrance; reveling in the abundance of moisture her body had gifted him with upon her release.
 

And then it hit him.
 

A cloying, sour note mixed in the bouquet of her intoxicating scent.
 
One that grew stronger with each moment he hovered above her.
 

Fear.

Finn drew back and truly looked at her.
 
Though it was dark,
Rhona’s
eyes were clenched shut.
 
Her hands burrowed into the mattress and clutched the faded, tattered linens in a white-knuckled grip.
 
The muscle of her delicate jaw flexed and her pulse leapt against the straining skin of her neck.

He’d been so mistaken.
 
She wasn’t ready for him to take her.
 
She was bracing herself against it.