He kissed the top of her head. Memories of kissing her creamy skin flooded his mind as he breathed in the smell of her hair. His hand shook as he ran his fingers through the shining black locks. He should not take advantage of her being distressed to touch her, but he could not help himself.
When she buried her face against his chest, the heat of her breath through his shirt set his skin on fire. He never thought to hold her again, and he told himself to be content with this. But having her in his arms only made him long to touch her in all the ways he had during that long-ago summer. He wanted to kiss every inch of her skin and make her his a thousand times over.
When she leaned her head back and looked at him with her deep violet eyes, he cupped her cheek with his palm and marveled at its softness. The black soot lashes framing her eyes were wet. He caught a tear with his finger before it fell.
The bruises on her face pained him, and he wanted to kiss every hurt away. He pressed his lips lightly to her forehead, and the soft sound of her sigh was like an answer to every prayer he’d made for the last seven years. Time held still as he leaned down closer and closer to her mouth. He hesitated just above her red rose lips to give her a chance to say no.
Kissing her would be a mistake. It would only make him miss her worse afterward.
His heart clenched as his lips touched hers. They were as sweet as in his memories. Since she was sad and wanted his comfort, he made himself keep the kiss soft. But his heart was bleeding for her, as it always had. He would let her cut it to shreds again.
When he broke the kiss, he stared into her lovely eyes and wondered what she was thinking. Probably that Duncan MacDonald was the most foolish of the many fools who had loved her.
But then she slid her hands up his chest, clasped them at the back of his neck, and pulled him down into another kiss. Her mouth softened against his, and he died a little more inside. He cupped the back of her neck and deepened the kiss.
For a long time, he was lost in a mindless, never-ending kiss. But when she groaned into his mouth and pressed her breasts against his chest, lust too-long denied surged through him like a roaring river. And that river of desire swept away all the barriers he had built through all the years away from her.
To have this woman, he would die a thousand deaths, face any enemy, fight the very devil himself. He could never have enough of her.
Duncan drank in her sighs and whimpers as he kissed her mouth, her arched black eyebrow, her perfect nose, her determined chin. Very, very softly, he brushed his lips over her injured jaw.
“Moira,” he said her name over and over. He ran his tongue over her, tasting her skin, as he moved down the side of her throat. Then he leaned her back onto the floor and buried his face between her breasts.
Please, God, let me have her again just this once. He had waited so long and missed her so much. Even as he pleaded with God for one more time, he knew once would never be enough.
Moira should be his. She should belong to him, now and forever.
Her hands were under his shirt, on his skin.Aye, aye, aye. Hope and desperate desire took hold of him as he tugged at the skirt of her gown. At last, his hand was on the silky skin of her bare thigh. Paradise was within his reach.
“No!”
Through the blood pounding in his ears, Duncan barely heard her. But he could not miss how Moira stiffened beneath him. And just like that, she was weeping again.
Oh, Jesu,what had he done wrong?
He rolled off her and tried to pull her onto his chest, but she strained against him.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t!” She sat up and covered her face.
He sat up beside her but dropped his arms to his sides. She did not want him after all. Though he had known she was distressed and seeking comfort from him, he had let foolish hope blind him.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
He stopped himself. Though he felt badly that he had upset her, he would not be her fool again—no more than he already was, anyway. Duncan got up and stoked the fire, then climbed the ladder to the loft. He stretched out on the straw and listened to the wind whistle through the thatched roof over his head. Despite her rejection, he still wanted her so badly he ached.
Duncan had not met a man who could defeat him since he was full grown. And yet, this black-haired lass half his size could rip out his heart with her velvet touch.
* * *
Moira hugged her knees to her chest.
When Duncan had wrapped his arms around her, she had felt safe for the first time in years. She should have left it at that and been grateful. But when she looked up at him and saw the longing in his eyes, it stirred feelings she had believed were buried too deep for any man to awaken. She had wanted to know those feelings again.
And she did, for a while. When Duncan kissed her, she felt that wonderful, long-ago sensation of being swept away and yet aware of every inch of her body. His fevered touches burned through the layers and layers of the protective cocoon she had built between herself and her body to survive the life she had.
But when Duncan pulled at her skirts, images filled her head of Sean grunting over her. Her throat closed, and panic surged through her veins.
She had survived living with Sean. More than that, she had not let him destroy her pride or her sense of her own worth. She was proud that she had been strong enough to be the mother her son needed.