He groaned his assent, and in a flash, everything turned to pleasure and excitement. He caressed her breasts, squeezing and stroking, and taking the hard peaks of her nipples into his mouth. She cried out as sensation after sensation speared her, and the yearning ache between her legs sharpened to the edge of pain.
Astonishment faded, and she began her own journey of discovery, running her hands over the hot skin of his chest and shoulders and back. He pushed her backward with a few nudging steps, and she tumbled onto the bed, falling in a tangle of arms and legs and drifting hair.
“Make me yours, Brody.” Dazed, enthralled, she stared up at him as he stood by the bed. “Don’t make me wait any longer. I’ve already waited forever.”
“Elspeth…” That proud, hawkish face softened so that if ever she’d doubted his love, she could never doubt it again. He stared at her as if she made the sun rise every day. Love shuddered through her. Love, and curiosity about how that love would find physical expression.
Her lips curved in a smile of welcome and to her amazement, the hand she extended toward him was steady. “Show me, my darling. Show me everything.”
***
Brody’s hands shook as he unbuckled his belt and unwrapped the kilt from around his waist. He was hard and heavy and ready for his wife. He watched Elspeth’s eyes grow so large that they threatened to swallow him altogether.
His lips twitched. “Och, say something, lassie, or I’ll think I’ve terrified ye into silence.”
Her gaze still focused on the thick column of flesh rising between his thighs. She licked her lips with an unconscious sensuality that sent arousal thundering through him.
“My goodness me.” Her gaze flickered up to meet his, then returned to his cock. “Will you fit?”
He laughed in delight and kneeled over her on the bed. “Aye, mo chridhe. With a bit of skill and a lot of care, I will indeed fit.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said doubtfully, even as she buried her hands in his hair and brought him down for an urgent kiss that set his heart pumping.
Through the heat igniting his blood to fire, Brody remained aware that he was a large man, and his bride was a small woman, and a virgin besides. He was proud to be the first man to possess her, but he owed it to Elspeth to see that her first experience of a man was everything she hoped for.
While his mouth was demanding on hers, his touch retained a hint of gentleness as he explored the hills and valleys of her luscious body. By the time he stroked between her legs, she was quaking and gasping. Feminine arousal weighted the air with evocative perfume.
She was wet and slick under his fingers, and when he touched the center of her pleasure, she released a husky moan of encouragement. He took his time, although holding back nearly killed him. His balls were tight and heavy, and every beat of his heart shouted for him to take her.
He used his fingers to penetrate her and introduce her to the rhythm of love. She tightened, and her hands dug into his biceps. Her lovely face was flushed, her eyes turned black with desire, and her small white teeth sank into her full lower lip.
“Please…” she said in a strained voice. “Please, Brody. Don’t torture me anymore.”
“I dinnae want to hurt ye,” he grated out, scraping his teeth down her neck, as she pulsed around the fingers he’d pushed inside her.
“It hurts me to want you this much. Don’t make me beg.”
Elspeth sounded on the verge of tears. He wasn’t proof against her distress. Almost roughly, he parted her legs and shifted until he lay cradled between her thighs. He kissed her once more with every ounce of love he felt, before tenderness sank beneath his overwhelming need to claim her as his wife.
He pulled her knees up, hoping that might make what was to come easier for her. Then he tensed his hips, pulled back a fraction, and pushed forward with a steady ruthlessness that belied the storm of turbulent emotion in his heart.
She whimpered and went rigid under his invasion. By God, she was tight. He pressed onward, and felt her sharp flinch as he claimed her virginity. She didn’t cry out, but her shaky moan made him wince. The need to thrust into her was a pounding drum behind his eyes, but he made himself proceed slowly and carefully.
“Breathe, Elspeth,” he said on a broken gasp. He rose on his elbows to look at her. The creamy skin clung to the bones of her face, and her lips were thin with discomfort.
“If you think it will help,” she said in a constricted voice.
“I do.”
She closed her eyes and released a breath, before she snatched another. Her muscles eased around him, drawing him further inside her. With an incoherent murmur, she shifted and tilted her hips up. The change in angle seared him like lightning.
“It will get better,” he said, dipping his head to kiss her.
After a hesitation that made his heart cramp, she kissed him back. “It’s not too bad,” she muttered against his lips.
“Wee liar,” he said and kissed her again, longer this time. Her deathly grip on his arms softened, turned into a caress. With a sigh, she shut her eyes, and he felt her body loosen. He slid forward until she’d taken his full length.
Satisfaction flooded him, satisfaction and an ineffable sensation of homecoming. Possessing Elspeth was new and exciting and fresh, but it also felt like an act ordained from the beginning of time. When she squirmed with luxuriant enjoyment, he settled more snugly. She opened eyes alight with pleasure and love.