Текст книги "Only With A Highlander"
Автор книги: Джанет Чапмен
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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 19 страниц)
Matt finally slid his weapon into the sheath on his belt and nodded. “Finish introducing me,” he softly commanded.
Winter ran her gaze over his plaid, momentarily stopping on his half-naked chest before continuing up to meet his determined eyes. She stepped closer. “I think they’ve figured that out already,”
she whispered tightly. “But what I can’t figure out is why tell them this way?” she asked, waving at his plaid.
Matt reached up and ran his knuckles over her angry red cheek. “Keeping secrets from your family will only make you sick with worry,” he told her. “They need to know, lass, so they can decide how they should react.”
“How theyshould react?” she hissed, grabbing his plaid and balling it in her fist. But whatever she intended to say next was lost when Greylen MacKeage spoke.
“Come here, Winter,” the aging but still-imposing laird softly growled.
Other than letting go of his plaid so she could turn to face her father, Winter didn’t move. “I can
’t, Papa,” she said, holding a beseeching hand out to Greylen even as she lifted her chin. “He’s my husband, and I must stand beside him now.”
Matt felt some of the tension ease between his shoulders.
“He tricked ye,” Greylen ground out. “Ye thought ye were marrying Matt Gregor. We’ll have the marriage annulled. Now come here.”
Winter dropped her hand. “D-don’t make me choose between you,” she softly petitioned, looking at her mother, then back at Greylen. “I don’t want an annulment. I knew exactly who I was marrying yesterday.”
“But ye don’t understand what you’ve done,” Grey whispered, his anger turning to desperation.
“You’ve thrown away yer calling without fully knowing the consequences.”
“No,” she said. “I’ve embraced my calling.”
“Ye can’t have it both ways, Winter,” MacBain interjected, frowning at her. “If ye have a bairn, your calling is lost. And even marrying another drùidhwon’t change that.”
The knot of tension in Matt’s shoulders returned, this time with alarm, when his wife folded her arms under her breasts and smiled at her cousin. “Are you positive about that?” she asked. “Surely two powerful drùidhscan give good old stuffy Providence a much-needed shake-up.”
MacBain paled, Greylen swore rather crudely, and Matt could only gape at his wife.
“Winter!” Grey snapped. “Three days ago ye didn’t even know ye had a calling, and now you’
re daring to challenge Providence? That’s damn near blasphemous.”
“This is serious, Winter,” MacBain said, stepping away from the hearth toward her. “The continuum is dying.”
“Dying?” Winter echoed. “Or merely shifting?” She also stepped closer. “What if I told you there’s a way to bring the energy back into balance and save mankind without any of us risking our souls?”
“That’s not possible,” MacBain argued, shaking his head. He waved toward Matt. “Your husbandhere has messed with the energy so badly it may never recover. Ye need to renounce your marriage and get on with the business of saving the pine.”
Unable to dispute nor defend his naively optimistic wife, since her boast was news to him as well, Matt could only watch in silence as Winter looked at her mother. “Tell them, Mama,” she said softly. “As a scientist, explain to these stubborn men that nothing in nature is ever completely predictable.
Tell them how everything must continue to evolve in order to survive, including the very energy of life.”
Grace MacKeage frowned at her daughter, then finally nodded. “Actually, she’s right,” she said as she looked at her husband. “Just because something has worked for centuries, or even for millennia, doesn’t mean it will continue to work indefinitely. Sometimes it’s subtle and sometimes it’s catastrophic, but change is constantly occurring.” She looked at Winter, her face relaxing in a smile. “Ultimately, even the energy must change right along with us.”
“Yes,” Winter agreed as she turned to Matt. “As my husband, you have to trust me.” She turned to her papa and cousin. “And I expect no less from either of you. I’ve accepted my calling, and now you must trust me to get us out of this mess.” She pointed a threatening finger at the two men.
“Without holding Matt to blame,” she added in warning. She turned just enough to include him. “While I’
m learning how to control the magic, I want the three of you to figure out who cut the top off my pine tree. There’s an unknown player in this maddening game, and that’s where the danger truly lies.”
Matt folded his arms over his chest as he stared at Winter, finding his first smile since she’d demanded he make Wanda Farley his new quality control manager. It seemed his bride was a bossy little thing, if not downright fond of giving orders.
He’d have to do something about that, he decided…say in another ten or twenty years, just as soon as he figured out how to make himself immune to her magic.
The front door suddenly opened and closed with a window-rattling bang. “Did I get here in time!” Megan called out, rushing into the living room. She came to a halt by running into Matt’s half-naked chest, jumping back with a gasp. “Who the hell are you?” she said, only to gasp again.
“Matt?” Her expression turned from surprise to horror as she realized what he was wearing, her wide eyes stopping on the sword hanging from his belt. “Cùram,” she whispered, taking another step back.
“It’s okay, Meg,” Winter said, rushing to her sister at the same time Grace did, both women reaching out to support the pale young woman. “He’s not a monster like everyone thinks. He’s just my husband.” Winter shot Matt a look. “Say something,” she demanded.
Matt bowed and gave Megan a warm smile. “Hello, sister.”
Apparently not quite ready to have Cùram de Gairn call her sister, Megan tried to take another step back but seemed to go weak in the knees. Winter gave Matt one last scolding glare before she all but carried her stunned sister toward the stairs with her mother. “Come on, Meg,” she said. “You can help me pack a few of my things.”
“Y-you married Cùram?” Megan whispered as they mounted the stairs. “But why?”
Matt didn’t hear Winter’s answer as the three women rose out of sight, but he certainly heard the silence left in their wake, its center emanating from directly behind him. Matt turned to face Greylen and Robbie, holding his hands behind his back as he waited for the storm to arrive, which it certainly did, and with predictable impact.
“Ye have more balls than brains, ye bastard,” Grey snapped, taking a step toward him. “I’m going to kill ye for what ye’ve done to my daughter.”
Matt held his hands out from his sides. “You may try,”he said softly. “Though making Winter raise your grandchild without a father might not be your wisest decision.”
That stopped his father-in-law’s advance much more abruptly than his sword could have. “She’
s pregnant?” Greylen said, his face paling.
“If you believe in miracles, then yes, Winter’s with child,” Matt told him. He tucked his hands behind his back again. “It’s done, Laird MacKeage. I’m sorry I didn’t ask you for Winter’s hand in marriage, but I think you understand my position.” Matt inclined his head. “You have my word as a warrior and guardian that I will do all in my power to keep her safe and happy.”
“She was already safe and happy, Gregor! Why in hell are ye here?”
Matt glanced at Robbie, then settled his gaze back on Greylen. “I’m here to right a thousand-year-old wrong,” he said softly, “and then simply live out what time is left with my wife and child.”
“According to Daar, there is no time left because of yer arrogance and treachery.”
“I’m well aware what I’ve put into motion,” Matt agreed. “But Winter is capable of even more than Pendaär can know. She can certainly buy us enough time for you to build a relationship with your brother.”
“Ye leave Morgan out of this!”
“I’m referring to your other brother, Michael MacBain,” Matt said, deciding he needed to shift the laird’s anger.
Grey took a step back, paling again.
“Ye know about my father?” Robbie asked, stepping forward.
Matt nodded, still keeping his hands behind his back. “I’ve known since the day Michael was conceived.” He looked at Greylen to explain. “Your mother, Judy MacKinnon, had an identical twin sister named Blair. When your mother died, Blair came to help Duncan MacKeage raise you, even though she was promised by contract to wed Angus MacBain. But when she went to Angus a year and a half later, she was already carrying Michael. Which means you and Michael are true brothers, both of you having the same father and identical twin mothers.”
Greylen turned his appalled gaze on Robbie. “You’ve known about this? For how long?”
“For two and a half years,” Robbie admitted. “From when I went back to your old village to get the tree root. But I kept it a secret because of Cùram,” he said, nodding toward Matt. “I didn’t know what he was up to, and I didn’t want him to find out there was another lineage that shared Winter’s calling. Protecting my brother and sisters was more important than telling ye, Grey. Ye made peace with my father over thirty years ago and have had a good friendship since then.” Robbie looked at Matt. “If ye knew about Blair, why did ye fight Pendaär so hard back then for Judy MacKinnon?”
Matt shrugged. “I only fought hard enough to let the old fool think he’d won, so he wouldn’t suspect that it was Winter I wanted all along.”
“But why?” Greylen whispered. “What in hell do ye want from my daughter?”
“Her compassion,” Matt said. “It’s Winter’s only weakness.”
“Ye think that’s a weakness?” Grey asked in surprise.
Instead of answering him, Matt decided it was again time to redirect the conversation. “She’s right, you know. There’s another entity here who’s messing with the magic. I didn’t cut the top off Winter
’s pine, and like you, I haven’t been able to discover who did.”
Both men frowned. Greylen suddenly ran a hand over his face with a weary sigh, turned and sat down in the chair beside the hearth. But MacBain, it seemed, wasn’t yet ready to drop either his anger or his guard, and continued to stand facing Matt.
“If you didn’t cut it, and we certainly didn’t cut it, then it likely was only a logger wanting the seeds,” Robbie said.
Matt mimicked Winter’s cousin by folding his arms over his chest, and shook his head. “Would a thief have wasted the time it took to climb the tree? And through your guardianship, have you not sensed a strange energy humming through the air? Even with my own power, I haven’t been able to pinpoint where it’s coming from, nor could I recognize its vibration.”
“Aye,” Robbie admitted, also giving a weary sigh as he sat down in the chair opposite Greylen.
“I’ve felt it, but I thought it was you I was sensing.”
Matt nearly burst into laughter when he suddenly realized what MacKeage and MacBain were just realizing themselves, that the three of them were going to have to be allies instead of enemies if they hoped to help Winter fight this unknown threat. Talk about irony. His compassionate little wife, he suspected, had known for two days that this moment would come, and had laughed her pretty little head off all the way to Utah and back. Hell, she was probably upstairs right now, bragging to her mother and sister how she’d managed to bring three lethal warriors to their collective knees.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Y ou knew he was Cùram de Gairn,and you married him anyway?” Megan whispered, hugging Winter’s old rag doll as she leaned against the headboard of her sister’s bed, looking small and lost amid the pile of pillows. “But why? Why would you knowingly marry an evil drùidh?”
Winter turned from her closet with a sweater in her hand and frowned at her pale and sincerely confused sister. “There’s not an evil bone in Matt’s body,” she softly scolded. “He’s just…he’s merely lost his way, is all.”
“And you intend to help him find it again?” Grace asked, coming back into the room with a small cloth package in her hand. “Winter, since humans have lived in caves, women have been trying to help men find their way, and in all this time we still haven’t come close to civilizing them.”
Grace set the small bundle on the end of the bed, walked up to Winter and took hold of her shoulders. “If you’ve entered this marriage with the notion you can change Matt, I’m afraid you’re in for a big disappointment. The best you can hope for is to smooth out his rough edges, but you can’t ever change a man’s true nature.”
“But his true nature is good,Mama. Matt is noble and honorable and compassionate, and he’s only trying to fix the mess he’s made.” Winter dropped the sweater and took hold of her mother’s hands.
“And I will fight even Providence if I have to, to prove to Matt that his soul is not lost. He’s given up, Mama,” she whispered, tightening her grip. “And I don’t care what it takes, I’m going to give him back the gift of hope.”
“You love him that much? So much that you’d risk your own soul to save his?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I love him more than life itself.”
“You’ve known him two weeks,” Megan said from right beside them. “You can’t fall in love in only two weeks.”
Grace MacKeage pulled free with a laugh and turned to face Megan. “I fell in love with your father in less than nine days,” she said as she led them both back to the bed. “If Winter says she loves Matt, that’s all I need to know to give her my full support.”
“But does Matt love her?” Megan asked, climbing back on the bed and grabbing up the doll again to clutch to her chest. She looked at Winter with turbulent, worried green eyes. “What if he’s only using you?”
It was Grace who responded before Winter could. “Of course Matt doesn’t love her, Meg.
Men don’t think in terms of love at first. They only think of possessing.”
Both girls frowned at their mama, and Grace smiled warmly and patted Winter’s arm. “Matt Gregor won’t be able to help himself from falling in love with you, baby girl, but you’ll need to be patient with him.” She turned to include Megan. “It seemed like forever for your father to figure out that he loved me.” She looked at Winter and lifted one pretty arched brow. “What did Matt say when you asked him if he loved you?”
Winter felt a blush rise to her cheeks at the realization that her mama knew her so well, and darted a look at Megan before she looked back at her mother. “He…ah, he said he couldn’t ever love me because his heart had died a long time ago,” she softly admitted.
Grace gave a quiet laugh as she turned to the bed with a shrug. “He’ll eventually come around.
You just keep loving him unconditionally, and one day Matt will finally realize that he also loves you more than life itself.” She picked up the package she’d gone to her bedroom to get and turned to Winter. “You don’t change a lifetime of suppressed emotions in two weeks, especially when that lifetime has spanned centuries.”
Winter smiled. “Will I ever be as wise as you, Mama?”
Grace snorted. “You’ll get wise real quick, baby girl, because you’ve fallen in love with a stubborn warrior,” she said, unfolding the velvet corners of the tiny package she was holding. “This is your wedding present from your father and me.” She held out the open cloth to reveal a beautiful locket.
“We had planned to give it to you to wear at your wedding, but since we…ah, missed the ceremony, I’ll just tell you what we told the other girls when we gave them theirs.” Grace lifted the gold locket from the velvet. “This is to remind you that even though you have married and are now a Gregor, you will always carry our hearts with you, no matter where life leads you.”
Feeling the sudden sting of threatening tears, Winter reached out and took the delicate locket made of spun gold threads loosely woven in the shape of a plump heart. Inside the heart were two loose little beads also shaped like hearts, made of shiny black stone that Winter instantly recognized as the rock that ran in fissures throughout TarStone Mountain. No matter where she went, she would always carry a piece of home with her, as well as her parents’ unconditional love.
Grace leaned forward and gently kissed a tear running down Winter’s cheek, and Winter threw herself into her mama’s arms. “I’m sorry you and Papa weren’t at my wedding,” she sobbed into her mama’s shoulder as she held the locket in her fist.
“Shhh,” Grace crooned, tenderly stroking her back. “I can see it was more important you prove your love to Matt by giving up a fancy wedding to marry him on his terms.”
“But I want Papa to be okay with it, too,” Winter said with a lingering sniffle, leaning back to look at her mother. “I want him to understand why I ran off without telling any of you.”
Grace squeezed her shoulders. “You just leave your father to me. I’ll make sure he understands why you did what you did.” She reached down and took the locket from Winter and stepped around behind her. “Now we need to talk about birth control,” she continued as Winter lifted her hair so her mama could clasp the locket around her neck. “You have enough to deal with right now without adding a baby to the mix.”
“Too late,” Winter squeaked, grinning at Megan when she gasped. “I’m already pregnant.”
Winter felt her mama’s hands still momentarily before she finished locking the chain around Winter’s neck. Frowning, Grace silently walked back around to stand in front of Winter. “You can’t possibly know that yet,” she said. “You just met Matt two weeks ago.”
Winter fingered the locket at her throat. “I—I don’t understand how I know, I just know that I’
m pregnant,” she said. “It happened the first time, just three nights ago.”
“Okay then,” Grace said with a slow nod. “Then I suggest we keep this from your father for a while. Grey’s going to need some time to adjust to having a drùidhfor a son-in-law without adding a magical grand-baby into the mix. Does Matt know?”
Winter dropped her gaze to her locket. “Yes.”
“And has he told you that having a baby will cause you to lose your powers?”
“Yes.”
Her mama lifted Winter’s chin to look at her. “Is that why he came here, to seduce you into giving up your calling?” she asked softly.
“No,” Winter told her. “He came here so I can help him right an old wrong,” was all she said, not yet willing to tell anyone about Kenzie. “He seduced me to gain my loyalty, so that I will be honor-bound to help him.”
“So he isusing you,” Megan interjected, once again standing beside them. “And you’re just letting him. But why?”
“Because she loves him,” Grace said before Winter could, reaching out and brushing Megan’s hair from her face.
Megan finished tucking her hair behind her ears and glared at Winter. “You said Wayne Ferris was only using me to further his career, and that I should want him to burn in Hades, but you’ve gone and married a man just like him.”
“Wayne was merely selfish,” Winter argued. “But Matt’s motives are…they’re…” She sighed and shook her head. Despite not liking the idea of Matt’s brother hanging around her sister, Winter couldn’t bring herself to explain that the panther Meg slept with most nights was really a man. At this time in Megan’s life, Gesader was her only comfort. “Matt doesn’t want my help for himself, but for a greater good.”
“And that would be?” her mama asked.
Winter shook her head again. “I can’t tell you what it is without breaking Matt’s trust,” she whispered, turning and walking to her closet and picking up the sweater she’d dropped.
“Then we’ll just have to trust you,” Grace said, taking the sweater from Winter. “And you’ll trust mewhen I tell you that you and Matt are staying at Gù Brath tonight. You can decide tomorrow where you’re going to live, once things have settled down.”
Winter gaped at her mother. “Here?” she squeaked. “You expect us to stay here, in my bedroom?” She shook her head. “We’ll go to Matt’s hotel suite.”
“Family does not stay at the hotel.”
“But I can’t, Mama,” Winter whispered, fingering her locket again as she looked around her childhood room. “This is my…this is my bedroom.”
Grace set the sweater back on the shelf in the closet. “Your sisters stay in their old rooms when they visit with their husbands.” She turned and lifted a brow. “Why should it be any different for you?”
“But Papa will throw a fit having a drùidhsleeping in his house. And Matt will…he’ll…he won’
t agree to stay here.”
“We’ve had a drùidhsleeping in this bedroom for twenty-four years,” Grace said, laughing at Winter’s startled look. “And Matt is part of this family now, so he might as well get used to it. And so must your father.” Grace took hold of Megan’s hand and led her out of the room, but stopped at the door and looked back. “Begin as you intend to go on, Winter, and establish your authority in this marriage. If you don’t set the tone right from the start with these ancient men, you may never catch up.”
“You make marriage sound like an ongoing battle.”
“No, baby girl, not a battle, but a wonderful and exciting dance,” Grace said with an utterly feminine smile. “And you’ll find it quite pleasant if you’re the one leading.”
With her mother’s final bit of wisdom still echoing in her mind as she lay in her childhood bed beside Matt that night, Winter decided it was definitely time she took over the lead in this marriage. Matt hadn’t made love to her since their first night in the cave, nor touched her in an intimate way, not even a kiss. For newlyweds, there hadn’t been much honeymooning going on, and Winter was feeling insulted.
She didn’t care if Matt thought he was being noble by not bothering her that way, or if he was feeling guilty for railroading her into this marriage, or even if he felt uncomfortable making love in her childhood bed with her father sleeping just down the hall. Curses, if she could get over that last fact, so could he!
But the problem with her leading the dance, Winter realized, was that she didn’t exactly know all the steps. How did a woman go about seducing her husband when her entire sum of experience was one single night of salacious bliss?
Winter frowned up at the dark ceiling. Wearing her old flannel pajamas to bed probably hadn’t been her brightest idea, considering they made her look about as enticing as a bag lady. And she probably should have left her hair loose instead of braiding it like she always did. Matt seemed to like playing with her hair, and she could have subtly draped it over his naked chest.
He’d undressed in the dark once she’d climbed into bed, but there had been enough moonlight coming through the windows for Winter to watch him strip down to his pants. He’d started to take them off, too, but had stopped suddenly, then climbed into bed with them on.
Matt had changed from his ancient clothing sometime while she’d been upstairs with her mama and Megan, apparently thinking it wouldn’t be wise to sit down to dinner in his plaid. Dinner had been interesting, with her mama asking Matt questions about his company and her papa alternating between listening, glaring at Matt when he wasn’t looking, and trying to disguise his discomfort by smiling at Winter. Megan had been unusually quiet, but Winter had caught her eyeing Matt more than once, apparently trying to reconcile Matt Gregor and Cùram de Gairn as one and the same.
The dishes had barely been stacked in the dishwasher before Matt had come into the kitchen and told Winter it was time they went to the hotel. Her mama had hustled Megan out of the room, leaving Winter alone to inform Matt they were spending the night at Gù Brath—in her room, in her childhood bed, not three doors down from her papa.
Winter had then patiently explained to Matt that her sisters didn’t stay in the hotel when they came home with their husbands. She’d explained that he was part of her family now, whether he liked it or not. And then she’d grown impatient and told him she was staying in her own bed tonight, and he could sleep in the barn for all she cared if he wasn’t up to claiming his rightful place as her husband in her papa’s eyes.
Pride was a surprisingly effective tool when dealing with stubborn men, Winter had quickly discovered. Matt hadn’t cared to discover he was married to an equally stubborn woman, but he had gone to his suite, showered and gotten a change of clothes, and returned to her bedroom aftereveryone else had retired for the night.
And now he was lying beside her, pretending to be asleep.
Winter reached down and slowly slid her pajama bottoms off, then used her feet to cram them down between the sheets. Then she unbuttoned her pajama top, sat up, shrugged it off, and dropped it on the floor.
“Why are you tossing about?” Matt asked, turning just his head over his shoulder toward her.
“I’m hot. You’re like a blast furnace.”
He rolled onto his back, took one look at her, and quickly looked up at the ceiling. “Put your clothes back on,” he growled. “If you’re hot, throw off the covers.”
Still sitting up, completely naked, Winter pulled her braid over her shoulder, took off the elastic, and slowly ran her fingers through her hair to unbraid it.
“Now what are ye doing?” he hissed, his brogue growing pronounced. “Winter,” he whispered tightly, “get dressed.”
She lay back on the pillow, fanning her hair toward him, and folded her hands over her bare stomach with a sigh. “If I’d known sleeping naked against flannel sheets felt this wonderful, I’d have done this years ago.” She wiggled deeper into the sheets, accidentally letting her leg brush Matt’s thigh. “I understand if you can’t…ah, if you can’t be husbandly tonight,” she said to the ceiling. “Or if you don’t really want me, now that I married you. Good night, then.”
“Dammit, ye don’t understand,” he snapped in a whisper. “I want ye, just not here.”
She reached over and patted his arm. “I understand. Mama explained how men’s…ah, plumbing works to all us girls growing up.”
Heavens, she was going to fry in Hades, she knew, stifling a laugh when she heard a warning growl beside her. Winter ran her hand down Matt’s tautly muscled forearm and tried to lace her fingers through his. But finding only a fist, she simply patted his hand. “We’ll go to sleep then. Mama also explained how sometimes stress can be…how it can be debilitating.”
He was on her before she could gasp, his hands gripping her hair to hold her face only inches from his. “That is not the problem,” he softly ground out.
“I can feel it’s not the problem,” she breathed as Matt’s anything but debilitated anatomy poked her thigh through his pants. She reached up and ran her own fingers through his hair until she freed it from its tether. “I want to make love to my husband,” she whispered. “But I don’t know how.”
He closed his eyes on a groan and dropped his forehead to hers. “You’re going to drive me mad, lass.”
“That’s my plan, just as soon as you teach me how,” she whispered, tilting her head back until her lips brushed his. “I’m guessing we should start by taking off your pants?”
“Does your door have a lock?”
“N-no,” she said on a shiver when Matt moved his lips down her chin toward her throat.
“W-why?” she breathed, digging her fingers into his shoulders.
He leaned away to look at her, and Winter could just make out the slash of his grin. “Do you really want your papa running in here when I make you scream?”
“I won’t scream. I’ll be as quiet as a mouse.”
“Just like last time?”
Winter frowned up at him. “I did not scream.”
“Aye, ye did,” he whispered, leaning down and kissing her nose. “Loud enough to wake the entire forest.”
Winter felt herself blush. “I—I screamed?”
He kissed her mortified cheeks. “With abandoned pleasure, wife.” He kissed her chin. “Several times. ’Twas a wonderful sound.”
“Screaming is good, then?” she asked on an indrawn breath when his lips found the pulse on her throat and lingered and suckled gently, causing every nerve in her body to tighten with desire.
She was just sliding her toes up his legs when he was suddenly gone, leaving only the cool air of the room to rush over her heated skin. She scowled, hearing what sounded like Matt hopping from one foot to the other as he moved away. Her bathroom light snapped on, and Winter pulled the blankets to her chin as she watched her husband—utterly, beautifully naked now—walk over to the hall door and shove a chair under the knob. He walked back to her, his form in silhouette but lit just enough for her to see there wasn’t one debilitated inch of skin anywhere on his body. Saints and curses, she needed to be careful what she asked for.
“You forgot to turn out the light,” she whispered as she stared at the beckoning hand he held out to her.
“I didn’t forget.” He wiggled his fingers. “Have you changed your mind, then?”
“No,” she whispered.
Apparently tired of waiting for her to take his hand, he wrestled the blanket from her fists, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her out of bed.
“Where are we going?” she squeaked, scrambling to catch up.
“You said you wanted to learn how to drive me mad, and I’ve promised to teach you anything you want to know,” he said, dragging her into the bright bathroom even as she tried to dig in her heels.
He pulled her up in front of him, standing them both facing the wall-to-wall mirror over the sink.
Winter stared into her own wide eyes, her gaze moving to Matt’s broad, tanned shoulders behind her, then up to the taut planes of his face broken only by his tight smile. She sucked in her breath and looked down when his hands slid around her waist and slowly rose to cup her breasts.
“All ye have to do, wife, is whisper that ye want me,” he said gutturally, his own gaze watching his thumbs trace circles around her aroused nipples. “A woman’s desire is a man’s greatest weakness.
All she has to do is say she wants him, and he’ll move mountains to please her.”
Winter couldn’t speak, couldn’t respond other than to stare in wonder as his hands continued to caress her, lifting the weight of her breasts, covering them with his sensuous heat, rolling her puckered nipples until Winter thought she’d melt with pleasure.
She tore her eyes away and looked up, going weak in the knees when she saw the raw fire of passion burning his own cheeks as he watched not what his hands were doing, but her face. Then, with his eyes locked on hers, he wrapped an arm under her breasts and turned her to face him, lifting her up until she was sitting on the counter.
