Conall: The 93rd Highlanders, Book Two (9 page)

“
Then you
don’t love him?” Graeme asked.

She couldn’t lie to him,
not about Conall. He’d seen how devastated she was at his leaving.
“I do,” she confessed. “I still do. But marriage between us is out
of the question, and the longer he stays with me the less chance he
has of attracting a lady.”

“
Nonsense,”
Graeme told her, his arms suddenly wrapped around her and holding
her against him. “You’re a lady.”

“
I’m not,”
she whispered. “Or else I wouldn’t feel like this.”

Graeme leaned closer, his
gaze straying from her eyes to her lips and then back. “Like what?”
he whispered. His lips were very nearly touching hers, and Avril
was strung tight as a bowstring, wanting him even
closer.

“
Like I want
you,” Avril said, licking her lips. “In my bed. In my
body.”

“
Avril,” he
said, and with a strangled moan he kissed her.

Graeme wanted to be the
gentleman. He wanted to woo Avril and make love to her gently, as
he knew she deserved. But he’d wanted this for so long. It was as
though Conall’s words earlier had unleashed a beast inside him and
he couldn’t control it. He was a brute and always had been. Hadn’t
women told him so in the past? At the thought he tore his mouth
from Avril’s and shoved her away. “I’m sorry,” he said, need
clawing at him, his voice forced through a throat tight with it,
his words garbled by his panting breaths.

“
Never,”
Avril said, approaching him cautiously, reaching for him. “Never be
sorry for kissing me like that, like I’m the only thing keeping
your feet on the ground.”

He laughed harshly.
“Hardly. I feel as if I’m floating above it all, honor and pride
and anything worth anything passing by under my boots.” He shook
his head and looked at his trembling hands. “We shouldn’t,” he
tried. “I shouldn’t.”

“
We should.
We will,” Avril said firmly. “I want you, and now I know how much
you want me, I’ll not take no for an answer.” She’d reached him and
pressed herself against him, her palms flat on his chest as she
looked up at him, her neck craned back because the differences in
their heights were so pronounced. “Take me. Please,
Graeme.”

As though he had no
control over it, his arms slid around her waist and held her
tightly to him. “You should know that Conall told me to do it. Told
me he wanted us to be together.” There was so much more to it. How
could he tell her? He had to. He wouldn’t take her with lies
between them.

Avril closed her eyes and
her lip trembled slightly. “Handing me off, is he?” She rubbed her
cheek on his jacket. “Well, I’m glad. I’m glad he’s seen the truth
of it.”

“
He’s done
nothing of the kind,” Graeme told her. He cupped the back of her
head and forcibly turned her to look up at him again. “He said he
loves you still and wants you to be happy. He thinks taking me to
your bed will make you happy. Will it?”

“
Yes,” she
told him, a bit of desperation in her voice. “Yes. He knows what a
lusty woman I am. I crave it, Graeme. I can’t go
without.”

It was Graeme’s turn to
close his eyes against the desire clearly written on her face.
“There are things you should know. About me,” he said. He felt her
rest her cheek on his jacket again and opened his eyes to see her
unbuttoning his coat slowly.

“
All right,”
she said. “Go on.”

“
When Conall
came to see me earlier…” His voice faded. He wasn’t sure how to go
on. “I’ll go to Conall when I leave here,” he said in a
rush.

“
All right,”
she said, smoothing her hand down his chest and stomach, not
looking at him. “You can go and tell him we were together if it
will make you feel better.”

He grabbed her shoulders
and pushed her back, leaning over to stare into her eyes. “No,” he
said. “You don’t understand. I’ll go to Conall from here.” She
looked confused. “You’re not the only one I want,
Avril.”

“
There’s
another woman? You’ve got another woman?” she asked. She was
obviously upset.

“
No, not
another woman,” he told her, willing her to understand without
having to say the words. It wasn’t to be.

“
I don’t know
what you’re telling me, Graeme,” she said in exasperation. “I’m
trying. Just say it. Who else do you want?”

“
Conall.”

She still looked
confused. “Well you can still be friends with him, can’t you?” she
asked. “He said he wanted us to be together. And God knows I still
love him, so I won’t fuss about your friendship.”

“
He wants us
to be together because he cares for both of us,” Graeme explained
carefully. “He wants to be with me after I’m with you.”

“
He wants to
hear about it?” She blushed as she said it. “I don’t suppose
there’s harm in that, is there? He’s been in your place.” She
covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes got big. “I shouldn’t
have said that,” she whispered after a moment. “No man wants to
hear that.”

“
Conall wants
to hear that,” Graeme told her flatly. “I want to hear it. We both
want to see it. And we both want to talk about it when the two of
us are together. Like this.”

“
What?” she
asked, but he could see the start of a glimmer of understanding in
her eyes.

“
Conall wants
to be my lover at the same time I am yours,” Graeme said baldly.
“And I want it too. I needed you to know that before we did
something you might regret.”

“
Is that why
he left me?” she whispered, backing away. “For you?”

“
No,” Graeme
told her, vehemently shaking his head. “No. He left because you
wouldn’t marry him and he couldn’t bear to cause more talk about
you. That was the truth. This…thing between him and myself…” Graeme
turned away and wiped a hand down his face. “It’s my fault. I’m the
one who’s been watching him like that, who had those feelings. He
picked up on them, I suppose, though I tried to hide them. And
everyone can see I care about you. I think our shared love of you
is what prompted Conall to tell me how he felt.”

“
That’s not
true,” she said, sitting down on her cot. “I saw you two together,
and I saw the mutual admiration, but I didn’t see it for what it
was. I mean, I know of it, that men sometimes take each other like
that.” She looked down at her hands and rubbed them together before
she began pulling her gloves off. “I’m not sure how I feel about
it, Graeme, you two together. The truth is I don’t even know what
that means.” She looked at him as she set her gloves on the
upside-down crate she used as a small table by her cot. “I do know
it doesn’t change how I feel about you. It should, shouldn’t it?”
She looked puzzled more than anything else. “I don’t know. If I can
care for both you and Conall, then I suppose you could both care
for me and each other.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Why
does it have to be so complicated?”

“
Life is
complicated.” Graeme smiled sadly. “I’ll leave. I’m no lover for a
small, sweet woman like you, Avril. I’m too big, too much the
brute. I’d hurt you. Just as I’ve hurt you with this talk of
Conall.”

“
Don’t you
dare leave,” she said, standing with an alarmed look. “You can’t
promise to make love to me and then leave. You can’t wind me up and
leave me to spin here on my own.”

He was stunned. “You want
me still, even after knowing that I’ll be with Conall? Have him as
my lover too?”

She marched over and
locked the door, then turned and glared at him, her back to the
door. “Get undressed.”

It was answer
enough.

As Graeme grabbed her and
kissed her again, Avril’s knees went weak with relief. This was
what had been eating at her conscience all the while she and Conall
were together, the fact that she wanted Graeme like this. Had
wanted him as badly as she’d wanted Conall. At first, Graeme’s size
and his stiff, formal manner had frightened her a little. But she’d
slowly come to see what a kind, loyal friend he could be. And then
friendship hadn’t been enough and she’d dreamed of his large hands
on her, his big cock in her, and she’d hated herself a little.
Conall had been a wonderful lover, always so careful to give her
pleasure, to do the things she liked and wanted. And still she’d
dreamed of Graeme.

And now, with Graeme
kissing the life out of her, she clung to him and still thought of
Conall. She could still have him through Graeme, by sharing Graeme.
That was what Conall meant, what he wanted. And it was what Graeme
wanted as well. She thought of the two men together, talking about
her. Would they kiss like this? Did men do that? She moaned against
Graeme’s mouth, and he picked her up and slammed her against the
door, pressing his kilted hips into her so she felt the hard shaft
of his cock against her stomach. With both fists she clutched his
hair and pulled him closer, opening her mouth and tangling her
tongue with his. He grabbed her bottom and yanked her into him and
she was dizzy with the lust coursing through her veins. He was
rougher than Conall, hard and urgent, and she loved everything he
was doing.

Suddenly he let go and
her feet dropped to the floor. Graeme pushed her down with a hand
on her shoulder and she fell to her knees. He gripped the back of
her head by the hair and with the other hand he lifted his kilt,
and she saw his cock for the first time. It was bigger than
Conall’s or her late husband’s. Long and thick and red with his
need. Her mouth watered. Her husband used to make her do this, but
she never told him she didn’t mind it. She liked it, liked
servicing a man like this, tasting his passion on her
tongue.

“
Is this all
right?” he asked gruffly. “Tell me, lass. You don’t have to. But
I’ve dreamed of it, Avril, of your pretty mouth wrapped around my
cock.”

She slid her hands up his
rock-hard thighs. They were covered in dark hair that tickled her
palms. He was built so fine, so well made and muscular he made her
pant to have him any way she could. She wrapped both hands around
his cock, near the base, and pulled on it, hand over
hand.

“
It’s more
than all right,” she murmured, looking up at him through her
lashes. She licked her lips. “I’ve dreamed of tasting
you.”

“
I’ll return
the favor, my sweet girl,” he said with a wicked smile. Avril
cocked her head, not understanding. Graeme stared at her in wonder.
“You’ve never had a man’s mouth on you?” Avril shook her head in
wonder. Graeme shook his head. “I’m going to have to talk to
Conall. The boy had no idea what he was about.”

At the casual mention of
Graeme talking to Conall about their fucking, Avril shuddered in
desire. “I didn’t know. I couldn’t teach him that.”

Graeme closed his eyes
and took a deep breath through his nose. “Don’t remind me he was
virgin until you took him, Avril. I won’t last long.”

Avril chose that moment
when his eyes were closed to take the end of him in her mouth. His
eyes flew open and he gasped. Without hesitation she sucked him as
deeply into her mouth as she could. She still grasped him in both
hands, and she barely met them with her lips when she could take
him no farther. He still held her hair, and with his hand he guided
her mouth on him. She wanted to go faster, but he wouldn’t let her.
Instead he made her go slowly up and down, and she slid her tongue
back and forth on the underside of him, feeling the pulsing veins
and the firm muscle underneath the delicate, soft skin. When she
wanted more she fought his hold, and he let her stay on the end,
playing in the fold of skin there, tasting the salty essence of
him. She dipped her tongue into his slit, and he yanked her off
with a gasp.

“
Enough,” he
growled. “Your throat is not where I’m wanting to come.” At her
look he added, “Another time, lass, for sure.”

He pulled her to her feet
and dragged her over to the cot, where he sat her down on the end.
He knelt in front of her and spread her legs. “Lay back,” he
ordered, and she obeyed instinctively. Then he raised her skirt and
lowered his head. Avril gave a little scream when he kissed her
sex. She cried out again when she felt his tongue dancing along the
folds there and sucking on the little part that was always so
sensitive. Suddenly Graeme’s large finger entered her, and she
moaned at the dual sensations of his mouth and his hand working
her. He gave her no quarter, rough and hard and fast, and before
long she came apart, bucking beneath him and calling out his name.
With one last lick that made her back arch off the bed, Graeme sat
back. “That’s how a man does it to a woman,” he said with
satisfaction. He stood and held out his hand. She took it, her own
hand trembling and weak from her climax. He kissed her and she
tasted herself on him and nearly swooned, it tasted so
good.

He chuckled as he let her
go. “Ah, darling, I knew you’d be so good. I used to listen to you
and Conall in here, keeping everyone else away. The sounds you made
told me that you loved it, loved a man’s hands and mouth and cock
on you, in you.”

Avril nodded, still
breathing hard enough to make speech difficult. Graeme gently
turned her and bent her over the cot, so that she rested on her
hands, her bottom stuck out. She blushed as she realized what he
was going to do. Once or twice her husband had done it this way,
when he was in a hurry or mad at her and not wanting to look at
her. Had she embarrassed Graeme with her willingness? Was he
disgusted with her?