“It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?” Angus said softly from beside her.
“Yes.”
“I often come here to get away from the tavern.”
“Then you don’t love the place?” she asked, laughter in her voice.
“I hate it.” He didn’t look at her as he put out his hand and took her small one. “Edilean,” he said.
She turned, her eyes looking up at him in the soft light. No words needed to pass between them as he slipped his arms about her and put his mouth on hers.
They were alone under a tree, sweet-smelling grass beneath them, and the woman in his arms wore nothing but a long shirt.
Her mouth opened under his. He could feel her inexperience, but he could also feel her eagerness to learn—and it was an irresistible combination.
As he pulled her into his arms, he kissed her neck. “If I begin, I won’t be able to stop.”
“No one asked you to,” she said, making him smile.
He put his arms under her legs, and lowered her to the ground as he lay beside her. “You must tell me if I hurt you,” he said as he touched a bruise on her shoulder and she winced.
He pushed the shirt aside and kissed the bruise. “Better?”
“Much,” she whispered. “But I have other places that need healing. My ribs were badly injured.”
He put his hand on her leg, and inched up under the loose shirt. “Any bruises here?”
Her eyes were closed and her head tipped to one side as he kissed her neck. He could feel that she was cautious and holding back. With regret, he remembered when she’d been open to him, her eyes full of love and desire. This time, he’d go slow with her. And afterward... He couldn’t allow himself to think about that, but somewhere in his mind was the thought that if she wanted him and he knew he wanted her, then why not? Love wasn’t something that could be based on logic and practicality.
“What of this?” he whispered. “Does this ache? What about here?”
He put his hand up her thigh, to the center of her, and he felt her intake of breath.
In the next second, he’d pulled the shirt over her head, and she was nude before him. He wanted to look at her with eyes of love and lust, not as he had before when searching her beautiful body for injuries. In the gathering darkness the bruises looked almost silver.
“I will kiss every one of them,” he whispered as his lips moved lower to her breast, then lower still.
It took a while but he began to feel her reluctance leave her and he felt her growing passion. He took his time, kissing her past the point where he was in agony with wanting her, but he knew he had to go slowly.
When she was moaning, her hands in his hair, he moved onto her, afraid he’d crush her tiny form, but she pulled him to her, her legs clutching him.
When he entered her, she started to cry out, but he put his mouth to hers and she quietened. Minutes later, they both came to ecstasy.
18
I WANT TO HEAR all of it,” Angus said. “Don’t leave out even one gesture.” They were in his bedroom, Edilean’s head on his chest, and it was nearly dawn. They’d made love most of the night, twice under the tree, and when it grew dark, they’d moved indoors.
“You mean you want to hear about the hair pulling and the kicking and the biting?”
“Biting?!”
“No, no biting,” Edilean said as she ran her hand over Angus’s bare chest. “I don’t think Tabitha wanted the fight, but then, she didn’t know the jewels were real.”
“And you believed her?”
Edilean raised up on one elbow. “Don’t you dare talk to me about believing Tabitha! I did not believe what she said about you and her.”
“What did she say?” he asked, and Edilean told him of Tabitha’s words about having slept with Angus and what he’d said about Edilean.