Page 35 of Kiss Me, Macrae

His breath puffed against her lips, but he didn’t hesitate.

Allegra gasped as he rocked his hips forward, urging his broad head past her entrance. Her body felt slick and soft as he stretched her, filling her in a slow but insistent advance. When he paused to withdraw just a bit, she bent her knees higher around his hips, allowing a deeper angle when he surged forward again.

A few more beautifully, agonizingly slow thrusts and he was fully sheathed. The width and length of him throbbing inside her was a stunning sensation. She felt utterly claimed.

To so completely surrender herself to someone else should have been terrifying. But she trusted Baird implicitly, with everything she was.

And the claiming wasn’t one-sided. When he lifted his head to look down into her eyes, she knew…he’d surrendered to her as well.

She pressed a soft and tender kiss to his lips, telling him without words what she was feeling. But as her mouth moved gently against his, she wanted more. Parting her lips, she urged the kiss to a deeper effect. And he responded, sucking her tongue into his mouth as he circled his hips between her thighs.

Sparkling pleasure ignited at the deep movement.

When he did it again, she gasped and arched her back. Her hands grasped his buttocks.

He pulled out of her in a long withdrawal, until just the tip of him remained in contact, before plunging forward with fierce possession. Then he did it again. And again. And again. Rocking Allegra from head to toe with such deep passion, all she could do was hold on and allow him to carry her away.

As her body began to tighten and tense with the pleasure flooding through her, he suddenly slipped his arms around her bowed body, encircling her waist. Then he rose up. Sitting back on his heels, he lifted her to straddle his groin. Her legs were wrapped around his hips while his thick length reached high inside her.

Cupping her buttocks in his large palms, he urged her hips into a shallow, rolling motion that created a deep and lovely inner caress. Pleasure shuddered through her body. Clutching his broad shoulders, she deepened the arch of her spine, dropping her head back and thrusting her breasts forward.

Baird took a swollen peak in his mouth. Swirling his tongue and nipping with his teeth as he continued to move inside her. Her pleasure built exponentially. Every sense became overcome by sensation.

And then—in a sudden rush—it crested.

Fierce, pulsing pleasure crashed through her. Tearing her apart and putting her back together in a brilliant arrangement of love and wonder.

She clung to him, curling her arms around his head as he pressed open-mouthed kisses to the side of her throat and continued to thrust upward into her trembling heat. His arms doubled around her—holding her so close she could barely breathe, but she didn’t mind because it allowed her feel the exact moment of his release. His breath caught on a harsh sound. His heart thundered against hers and his teeth closed over the muscle between her neck and shoulder. The pulse of his pleasure inside her lengthened her own as her body clenched around him.

After the sparks subsided and heart rates slowed, Baird smoothed his hands up the length of her spine. Curling his fingers over her shoulders, he eased her back until their eyes met. She tightened her thighs around his hips, anchoring herself to him. She wasn’t ready to end the union of their bodies.

Holding her gaze, he lowered his head to press a reverent kiss to the inner curve of her breast, over the heavy beat of her heart. “Ye’re mine now, luv. And I’m yours.”

“Now and forever,” she replied, using his own words.

His smile warmed her skin while his low growl of possession reawakened the flame deep in her core. Sliding one hand up into her hair to cup her head, he took her mouth in a kiss that soon had them tumbling back onto the mattress.

Epilogue

Allegra slid gently into wakefulness. Her body was warmed and her limbs heavy with sleep, but her heart was light. She had never slept so well as she did in Baird’s arms atop his giant bed in the little stone lodge.

Opening her eyes, she found herself ensnared by a bright green gaze and a mischievous grin. “Mornin’.”

His voice was rough and sleepy and the sound of it sent tingles through her belly as she recalled another morning similar to this one, yet infinitely different.

She slid across the sheets until her belly and breasts pressed to his skin and her legs tangled with his. Sliding her palms up over his hard chest, she felt the stirring of his desire hot and hard against her thigh. His arm fell across her waist and his large hand palmed her rear as he pulled her even closer into the curve of his body.

Tipping her face until her lips barely touched his, she whispered, “Good morning…husband.”

His growl of satisfaction warmed every secret part of her. “I’m lovin’ the sound of that, wife.”

After spending the better part of the day following the Darrows’ Christmas party in bed, they’d returned to Darrow House together. With the earl and countess standing as witnesses, they’d exchanged vows before the local clergyman, who was more than happy to step away from preparations for the next day’s Christmas service to unite the lovers beneath the glitter of fairy lights with the scent of pine boughs and holly filling the air. Their first kiss as husband and wife had been beneath a sprig of mistletoe.

Then they’d returned to the lodge to find an unexpected feast awaiting them, no doubt arranged with spontaneous finesse by Lady Darrow, who hadn’t seemed very shocked at all by the hasty nuptials.

Allegra sighed as Baird’s mouth pressed to hers in a languid kiss that slowly, inexorably ignited her deepest passions. But before it could go on too long, she pulled back. “We have to ready ourselves. We’re expected back at Darrow House for breakfast.”

He groaned and rolled his hips, thrusting higher against her thigh until his broad head pressed to her heat. “Why cannae we just stay here?”