The Highlander Read online

  Sinking against the soft down mattress, she was in heaven, and pulled at Niall's arm to join her.

  He kissed her long and hard on the mouth, his lips scalding, showing just how eager he was to have her. She probed his mouth with her tongue, knowing just how much he loved it and she did, too. His hands caressed her body, her arms, her breasts… every touch leaving a trail of heat in its wake.

  He paused to suckle a breast, and she had never experienced such intense pleasure as…

  Barely breathing, she quit thinking as his warm, wet tongue caressed a nipple, and her whole body tightened with need. Enraptured by his tongue on her skin, his teeth grazing her breast, she could barely think of anything else but the way he was making her feel—loved, desirable, and needed.

  And she was certain she made him feel the same way as eager as he was to please her.

  His fingers tangled in her hair for a moment, as he renewed kissing her mouth, his leg wedged between hers, the rampant heat of their bodies making her burn as hot as the peat fire at the hearth. His staff rubbed against her thigh, and she was ready for him to claim her as she had claimed him for her own. His hand slid down her hip in a tender caress before he made his way to the center of her being, stroking her, bringing her to that fiery point of pleasure. The burst of fulfillment washed over her in a rush of heat, before he plunged his staff deep inside her all the way to the hilt, thrusting, his need as great as hers.

  She ran her hands over every delectable inch of him that she could, his eyes glittering with conquest and desire. "Always," he managed to get out, as he pounded into her, making her feel the swell of exquisite need rising up in her as he rubbed against her.

  He came inside her, his seed hot and welcome, before his breathing slowed, and he kissed her softly on the mouth. "This is the way I want you, lass. Like this… loving you, always."

  She smiled up at him as he rolled onto his back, and pulled her into his arms.

  "No more caves?" she asked.

  He chuckled. "No' if I can help it."

  "Or… the tub?"

  He stroked her arm for a while and kissed her head. "Mayhap there."

  "And what if we happened to be in a hayloft…"

  He chuckled. "Point well taken, lass. Anywhere with you will work for me."

  She smiled. "I thought so. Though I would not suggest it. But if we happened to be in such a predicament…"

  "Aye, lass, though I will do my best to ensure we have a bed to sleep in."

  "Niall," Anora murmured, still bothered by what Matthew had said to her about watching her while she had swum in the loch, and she had not known it.

  "Hmm, lass," Niall said against the top of her head, planting a kiss there, sounding half asleep as he tightened his arms around her.

  "Matthew said he watched me while I swam—even when I was older—after John told him to stay away from me."

  Niall didn't say anything and she thought he might have fallen asleep, but she couldn't quit thinking about it. "He was not an honorable man."

  "Nay, lass."

  "Well, you would not have done something so vile, would you have?"

  "Nay, lass."

  Pleased with the way things had turned out between them, she stroked his belly with her fingertips as he ran his hand over her hair. She loved him.

  "I would have joined you," Niall finally said, a smile in his voice.

  She chuckled and kissed his chest. She could see him doing it, too. "And then John would have chased you off."

  "You think so?" Niall's voice was dark and… interested.

  She shook her head. "You would have married me."

  "Aye, lass. Though I would have missed having you prod me with your pitchfork."

  She looked up at him, his dark eyes and his mouth smiling at her. "You will not tell our children about that, will you?"

  "I leave that tale to you to tell. But better they hear it from their mother than from everyone else in the clan when they learn of it."

  She sighed deeply. "Then I will have to tell it in my own way."

  Niall chuckled. "I knew you were the lass for me. Have I mentioned the nearby loch where I swam with my cousins and Gunnolf on a hot summer's day? Or even when it isna so hot?"

  "You are still thinking about swimming with me?"

  "Aye, and much, much more."

  "There is… a loch here, as well. I saw it from the distance when we rode in."

  Niall didn't say anything, just kept combing his fingers through her hair.

  "I cannot sleep." She looked up at him.

  He was grinning down at her. "You want to swim in the gloaming hour of dusk?"

  Wickedly amused, Anora was just too precious, Niall thought as he hurried to dress, then helped her to dress also. This was one fish tale he would never tell—about the shepherdess he would catch in the loch.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to my critique partners—Judith Gilbert, Vonda Sinclair, and Gwyn Brodie, and my beta readers—Loretta Melvin, Donna Fournier, Dottie Jones and Bonnie Gill, for helping make the story the best it can be!

  About the Author

  Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over fifty paranormal romance novels and four medieval Highland historical romances. Her first werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Crawford, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf romance and continuing her new series about shapeshifting jaguars. For more information, please visit www.terryspear.com, or follow her on Twitter, @TerrySpear. She is also on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/terry.spear. And on Wordpress at:

  Terry Spear's Shifters

  http://terryspear.wordpress.com/