With dazed eyes, he saw her tug the nightdress over her head and discard it on the wooden floor. When she stood naked before him, his breath stopped and his voice jammed in his closing throat.
Her skin was still as white as milk, and the fiery hair on her head matched the fiery triangle of curls below her flat belly. Her breasts were fuller than he remembered, and crowned with beaded rose-pink nipples he’d never forgotten.
As his eyes feasted on her, his blood pounded like a wild ocean. She was beautiful, rounder and softer than the girl she’d been. But how he loved the womanly shape of her. He wanted to stare at her until he filled his memory with every inch of her lovely form.
Her cheeks turned pink, as she stood trembling under his hungry gaze. It turned out that she still blushed.
“Move over,” she said in a strangled voice.
As he cooperated, still trapped in stunned silence, she dived into the bed. He caught her in shaking hands and twisted her until she lay flat.
Startled green eyes flashed up to stare at him as he rose above her. Unable to resist, he lowered his head to kiss her again, teasing her soft, lush lips. She reached up to bury her hands in his hair and hold him still for a kiss of such incendiary passion, he feared he was about to dissolve into smoking ash. He’d imagined if he got Rhona into bed, it would be an encounter awkward with all their time apart. Full of hesitations and uncertainty. But she met his ardor with heart-stopping generosity.
She pulled away, panting and flushed, and her hand slid down his body to fit itself to his throbbing hardness. As sizzling arousal shuddered through him, he groaned. He shifted to the side to give her better access and rose on one elbow so he could watch her expression.
He loved that she wasn’t shy. This was a woman who met him without demur or doubt. Her mature passion was a heady wine indeed. When his cock swelled under her touch, a gloating smile lifted her lips. He couldn’t resist kissing her again, brief and hard, as she fiddled with the fastenings on his breeches.
When her hand closed around his naked length, he groaned again and angled his hips forward into her grip. He cupped her breast and she gasped and tightened her hold, making stars explode behind his eyes. Dipping his head, he drew her nipple into his mouth. He teased it with his tongue until her breath emerged in sharp little huffs.
Malcolm was shaking, starving for her. After so long, he wanted to savor every second, draw out the pleasure, but the heat between them already rose to scorching levels. This would be no leisurely loving. He’d yearned for this union. Now he could brook no delay.
He moved over her and settled between her thighs. When she stared up at him, he caught a shadow in her beautiful eyes that made him pause.
“This doesn’t mean anything, Malcolm.” The edge in her voice contrasted with the soft ease of her body under his.
Since that first astounding kiss when he’d awoken to find her watching him with such tenderness, speech had deserted him. Now he found himself responding with a short laugh, full of affectionate amusement. “Of course it does, you muddleheaded lassie. It means everything.”
Before she could protest, he thrust forward and claimed her body. She cried out and dug her fingernails into his shoulders, and her eyes turned opaque with swift pleasure.
Malcolm lowered to press her deep into the soft mattress, and he buried his face in the curve of her shoulder. Her body offered him a hot welcome. She was sleek and tight and ready for him, despite the hurried preliminaries.
Since the day she’d left Dun Carron, the world had carved away his soul piece by piece. Rhona gave him back that soul. He felt like weeping. He felt like dancing. He felt like going on his knees to an Almighty he’d cursed too often over the years. Now, he wanted to beg forgiveness and offer up a profound gratitude.
He’d had no home for so long, but here, buried deep inside Rhona’s body, he was home at last. Through his quaking pleasure, he felt her urgent grip on his shoulders relax into caresses.
She began to stroke him, long, exploratory touches across his taut shoulders and along his back and arms. Everywhere she touched, she lifted away another small chip of bitterness and left warmth and acceptance behind.
After a long time, he kissed her with all the love overflowing from his heart. Claiming Rhona all those years ago had been an act of joy and sunshine and hope. But the years of absence and sorrow and seeking lent tonight’s encounter a significance that reached to the edges of eternity.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice thick with emotion so powerful that it verged on pain.
When he raised his head, she looked stricken, even as she tightened around him with a breathtaking eagerness that made his heart crash against his ribs.
When he first joined his body with hers, he’d basked in the sublime stillness. But the urge to move was becoming irresistible. Still he clung as long as he could to this radiant connection.
She smoothed his hair away from his forehead, her hand trembling. “I’d…forgotten.”
His lips lifted in a smile. “How it is between us?”
“I thought I must have imagined the way you make me feel like part of you, like you’re part of me.”
His smile intensified. “You’ve always been part of me.” Before she could argue or try to talk herself into dismissing this transcendent connection between them as a matter of mere physical release, he spoke. “Now let me show you pleasure.”
“Yes, please,” she murmured and bucked up her hips with an enthusiasm that made his heart waltz with joy.
The change in position smashed through him like a blow. He closed his eyes and began to move, circling his hips until her moans told him he’d found her center of pleasure. He struggled to extend the delight, but he’d been too long without her and he wanted her too much. When he knew the inevitable moment approached, he lowered his hand to find the place between her legs that would send her over into ecstasy.
With a husky cry, she shook and clenched as rapture gripped her. His movements became wilder, before he released a guttural sigh and spilled into her womb in a gush of surrender.
Gasping, he slumped over her. He’d given her every drop of the man he was and the man he’d been. When he was a boy, she’d carved her name on his soul. The years since had only etched that possession more deeply into him. What they’d just done confirmed the truth that had dominated his life. He belonged to Rhona Macleod. Away from her, his life wasn’t worth the air he breathed.
He wanted to stay crushed against her like this forever, but he must be squashing her. When he shifted, she caught his arms in frantic hands. “Not yet.”
Her voice was laced with tears. Had what they’d just done touched her emotions as indelibly as it had touched his?
“That was glorious,” he murmured.
“It was.”
“I must be suffocating you.”
“I don’t mind.”
Appalled, he thought of something beyond the joy he’d just experienced. “Dear God, I forgot about Patrick. What will he think?”
At least that chased away her tears. Malcolm felt Rhona’s low laugh through his entire body. They were still joined. “He’s singing at St Margaret’s all morning. He won’t be back for a couple of hours yet.”
Malcolm rolled off her and shifted higher against the pillows. “Come here.”