The MacNaughton Bride Read online

  Aislinn began to shiver as the remainder of her clothing fell to the floor – partly from nerves, and partly just from the discomfort of the situation. Despite his rules about not wearing clothes to bed, she wasn’t used to being nude, especially not in front of a man – not even him.

  Kell held his arms up to her, and she came into them somewhat reluctantly, but Kell didn’t give her time to wallow in feeling uncomfortable. He took her hand and placed it where he’d been wanting it desperately for an hour or more, closing her fingers around his throbbing self and trying not to pump in and out of them.

  Aislinn looked down at the way he filled her hand, felt how solid he was, how much power was there – no wonder it had hurt her when he’d invaded her body! He was practically as thick around as her wrist, and completely solid and unyielding. Yet his skin there was soft – not rough and callused as she pictured in her head from her previous experience with it. The tip was like velvet, and she began to concentrate her attentions there, enclosing him and pressing him through her fist, twisting slowly, loving the feel of him in her hand.

  Kell jerked his hips away from her, making Aislinn look up at him, startled out of her reverie. “Whoa there, milady, or this’ll be over before it’s started.”

  Of course, she had no idea what his statement meant. She only knew that he was pressing her onto her back, his hand feathering lightly over her lower stomach before it settled to cup her mound. Aislinn twitched, trying not to, but not succeeding. The last time he’d been down there, he’d hurt her, and the response was natural.

  “Shahh shahhhh shahhhhh,” he murmured, slipping his middle finger between those plump, moist lips, dipping down to see if any evidence of her arousal greeted his fingertip – and it did. He was bathed in her moisture, which he crooked onto his fingertip and brought forward a little, to that tiny bud of hers that lay in wait for him to teach it the miracles of her body.

  As he stroked the broad, flat pad of his finger over and around and up and over her nub, he began to slowly slide himself in and out of her lightly curled fingers. They each groaned at the same time, and Kell leaned down to swallow that sound of hers into his own mouth. “Dear Lord, woman, you’re going to kill me with the way you make me feel.”

  Aislinn didn’t know why, but his words made what his finger was doing to her feel that much more intense. She liked that he responded to her – it made her feel powerful, when she’d had little of that familiar feeling since she’d been under his protection. He’d been the one in charge, the one in control, the one who confined her to her room and the one who had forced himself on her and hurt her with his body, not to mention taking her over his lap like a naughty little schoolgirl whenever he saw fit.

  But here, now, she held a part of him in her hand that meant something to him, that affected him incredibly, that could make him cry out and jerk his hips and cry out to God. Power.

  And something more.

  Something she didn’t want to consider too closely. She was beginning to like him – this gruff, autocratic Lord of all he surveyed. Worse than that, she thought she was beginning to love him, and that was the last thing she needed.

  But still, that unfamiliar feeling was there, mixed up with the sensations he was conjuring in that dark, mysterious area between her legs, pleasuring her almost beyond endurance, making her blush and writhe and jerk her hips in much the same rhythm she’d seen him use as she stroked his length up and down.

  Kell kissed her breasts and face as he pleasured her, taking her mouth when he deliberately wandered a little further down her crevasse, tickling her about the very opening that was weeping its tribute to him and what he was doing to her. Aislinn was trying to wiggle away but wasn’t getting very far. Kell held her fast but made sure he caused her no pain. Slowly, very slowly, he eased his finger up inside her, despite her protestations.

  Aislinn fully expected that what he was doing would hurt her as much as it had before when he’d used that other part of himself, but it didn’t. He slid right into her, much to her surprise, and it felt . . . good. Almost too good. And then he started to move it – wiggling it just a bit inside her, making her buck within his hard arms, then plunging in and out of her, slowly at first, then faster until he was being less gentle and careful and it was just what she wanted – she wanted him hard and fast within her, her hips lifting to greet each thrust.

  “Ahhh, lassie, you’re so damned beautiful like this,” Kell sighed, aching to join them together in a more natural way, but not wanting to upset her and fall on her like he wanted to.

  “Please,” Aislinn breathed, hating that she sounded like she was begging, and she didn’t even know for what. She sounded uncomfortably like she was begging him to stop spanking her, and yet it was pleasure he was subjecting her to now – unbelievable, aching, throbbing pleasure that was going to drive her out of her mind if he didn’t stop. But if he stopped, she was sure she would wither away and die from the lack of him.

  Kell thought the time was right, finally. He’d begun to wonder if he’d live until this point, but apparently he had. None the worse for the wear, but not if you asked his privates. He was as tender, as careful as he could be in that state, parting her legs a little more, then a little more, until he could fit himself between them, lying down atop her, watching her face all the while, trying to gauge just how she was taking what he was doing.

  Chapter 11

  She just seemed to be watching him, apprehension creeping into the back of her eyes, and she was sawing on her lip fit to make it bleed, but she wasn’t trying to get away. There was just a wariness about her that he didn’t like – he wanted her to want him, to want what he was going to do to her. But that first bad experience was still in her mind – until he replaced it, millions of times over – with a great one, which was just want he intended to do.

  Kell held Aislinn’s face between his hands and caught her eye. “Just like my finger didn’t hurt you when it was inside you, the rest of me won’t either now. I promise. You’ll be stretched a little, but it won’t hurt,” he said the latter with a lot of conviction, and hoped to hell it was true, positioning himself at her nearly virgin entrance, feeling the warm moistness of her christening him, and feeling better about what he was going to do because he knew what that wetness meant – she wanted him. She wanted him!

  He took it as carefully and slowly as he could, more gently rocking himself into her than thrusting or plunging violently, as his genitals wanted him to do. All the wanted – all he wanted as a result – was to be completely surrounded by her marvelous feminine warmth, and the incremental, tedious method he was using to achieve that result was going to put him over the edge. His clamp on his control was slipping as surely as he was seating himself within her.

  Suddenly, he felt a hand on his buttocks that was quickly moved higher, to his lower back, and then, all at once, he found himself completely inside her, as far as he could go. Both of them heaved an audible sigh of relief. Then Kell pulled back a little and started an inexorable rhythm, that Aislinn joined, wrapping her arms around his broad back and holding on for dear life. Mid stride, Kell reached down between them to put his index finger on that very pleasant spot of hers, and continued to rock back and forth, in and out of her.

  “Kell – stop – no – “ she breathed, sounding scared.

  He was of a mind that she was close to her own end for the first time, and it was frightening her. But he didn’t really have a manner to soothe her – his entire body was occupied. So he used his voice, low and soothing. “That’s it, Aislinn. That’s it. Relax. I’m right here. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. It’s a wondrous thing between you and I, it is. It’s a gift you’d be giving me, and that I’ll get in a minute or two, too. Let go. Let it come to you, lass. Let go – “

  And she did. To her embarrassment, she did. Loudly. She screamed with it, unable to control the volume of her voice, the pleasure was much too intense for any sort of reins to be put on it. It flowed through
her, convulsing in that one sweet spot but spreading out from there to every molecule in her body, and out through her fingertips, she swore, and right into him, the man who had brought such infinite paradise to her.

  Her husband.

  As she convulsed around him, Kell let go of himself and found his own ecstasy within a few short strokes, grunting gutturally over her, pressing himself as far into her as he could possibly manage, trying to merge the two of them completely together, and nearly passing out with the effort.

  The two of them couldn’t move for the longest time, not that they wanted to. Kell laid his head on Aislinn’s heaving breast and just lay there, trying to get his senses back, and they didn’t seem like they were any particular hurry to return, not that he really cared. He didn’t have anything to do tonight except love his woman, and he intended on doing that several times to cement their physical relationship. She responded to him with an abandon that was something he’d never seen before in any woman – tentative at first, but near the end – he’d watched her explode at his own behest, to fly apart in his arms, and heard her scream from the joy of it.

  It was just what he’d always wanted – to have a woman – his wife – who enjoyed his embrace, who reveled in the closeness of their bodies, rather than disparaging it or finding it distasteful. Kell knew that in that one encounter, he’d lost his heart to her, completely. She was a handful, his wife, but she was already much beloved by people he’d known all his life. His brothers thought she was a saint, and she’d put up with the way he’d jumped to awful conclusions about her. She was just what he wanted, what he needed.

  And she was his.

  Kell turned to Aislinn several times that night, driving the both of them to holler their profound pleasure at the merger of their bodies. He stopped himself the fourth time he reached for her though, having noticed that she was wincing just a bit. He could have enjoyed her several more times over – despite the fact that he was no longer a randy youth – but he didn’t want her to associate their lovemaking with anything but pleasure.

  She was still asleep, her face pale and a little wan from being up all night. He tugged her to him for a little while longer, then decided to see if he could stand, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and groaning about it as quietly as he could. His knees were killing him – they were quite swollen, above and below as well. But he managed to stand, and walked around a little, and the more he used and bent the joints, the better they felt. His head was hurting pretty badly – and he wasn’t the least surprised that he hadn’t felt it at all during the night – there was too much else going on.

  He stood for the longest time, grinning brainlessly down at her, until she stirred and looked up at him, sleepy eyed, blinking owlishly. “What are you doing up? You should be in bed!” Aislinn got up quickly and stood beside him, her hands on his hips to help steady him.

  “I’m fine, woman, I’m fine,” Kell hugged her to him tightly. “My head hurts a little, but it’s hard as a rock – it’d take more than that to break it open. My legs are a better since I’ve been up and walking. If I stay in bed, they’ll just stiffen up.”

  “Sit down, sit down,” she fussed, ignoring what he was saying and using the pull to summon some one from the kitchen.

  Jenny knocked on the door and came in to curtsey to the both of them prettily, taking in the condition of the bed and grinning broadly.

  “Please bring me a cup of hot water, Jenny. I want to make his Lordship some willow bark tea for his aches and pains this morning.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Jenny was off immediately.

  “I don’t need any tea, Mrs. MacNaughton,” Kell started, but she was completely ignoring him in her doctoring frenzy. She peeked under his bandage while Kell’s hands roamed freely over her more private places. She slapped his hands away with little conviction. Her body had become much more accustomed to his touch, and she was doing her best not to pay any attention to him at all, although that wasn’t quite working. “I think you’re all right today, but this evening I’m going to change this bandage and put some more salve on it. Just please take it easy today and don’t do a lot. Don’t jostle yourself – don’t ride for a few days. Please.”

  She was asking so prettily, how could he refuse her anything? “Yes, Ma’am. I’ll be careful, I promise.”

  He answered, standing slowly to give her a hard hug. “I don’t know about you, but I’m famished. Something about last night worked up a considerable appetite . . . “ he winked at her rakishly.

  ”Shall we breakfast together, milady?”

  “I’ll be down in just a minute. If you see Jenny would you send her back in to help me dress, please?”

  That made him turn mid stride. “No need to bother Jenny with that, lassie. I’d be more than happy to play ladies made to you.”

  She was amazed she could still blush after some of the things he’d done to her last night. Parts of her were still tingling from it, kind of like the ones that still stung after a spanking. “You don’t have to do that . . .”

  He came forward and tilted her chin up to him with his index finger. “I know I don’t. I like to.”

  So he did, and actually was pretty darned good at it. Aislinn decided not to question him too carefully about where he’d acquired such skills . . . she figured she really didn’t want to find out. When she was fully clothed, and having been thoroughly groped by her licentious husband, they went downstairs to breakfast together, and the brothers nearly broke out in applause. It was the first time they’d done that, and Grant and Burke somehow recognized that things were going well between the two of them.

  Somehow at breakfast talk turned to them having some sort of a ball or soiree. The brothers somehow decided that a celebration was in order, for some reason, and so a ball was planned right there at the breakfast table, for two weeks from that day.

  During the next two weeks, in addition to her usual round of seeing patients and overseeing the running of the household, which was running much more smoothly than it ever had been, according to the brothers, Aislinn also made time to discuss with Sile what should be on the menu for the dance. She was extremely busy, and fell into bed each night near exhaustion. But her husband wasn’t any help in that area, since as soon as he wrapped his arms around her they were both lost, and often made love until dawn, then had to get up and do it all again.

  Aislinn was running down quickly, and just before the dance, Kell took a good look at her as she struggled to get out of bed, and pushed her back down.

  “Kell,” she wailed, “we can’t! I have to get up!”

  “No, you don’t, Aislinn lass. I wasn’t going to have a roll with you – not that I wouldn’t like to, you understand – but I want you to stay in bed today and rest. You’ll be all up in arms tomorrow with the preparations and people arriving, and I want you to take some time today to sleep. You look like I’ve been working you hard from dawn to dusk – “

  Aislinn cut into his speech. “It’s the dusk to dawn that you’ve been driving me hard, milord,” she interrupted cheekily, rolling over despite her protestations and nearly falling back to sleep immediately.

  Kell patted her bottom possessively. “Watch yourself, woman. I haven’t heard you complaining, although I should have. You’re worn out. You are not to get out of bed today for anything other than to use the necessary. If I find you have, you’ll be sitting on a very sore derriere all day tomorrow, and I’d hate to have you have to explain just why to our guests.”

  She turned back to give him a nasty look, but knew he was as good as his word. He used the bell pull in the corner to summon Jenny, who enlisted in the cause as soon as he explained it to her. Aislinn huffed from the bed, but she really wasn’t putting up too much of a fuss.

  At least not until her husband left, anyway.

  As soon as he’d given her a lingering kiss goodbye, Aislinn sat up and gave Jenny a list of things that needed to be done or at least checked on. It was the day before the ball,
and there were a thousand things to do. She chafed badly at being confined to bed, and seriously considered disobeying her lord and master.

  But then, she knew he would have told the entire household that she was not to get out of bed, and she also knew that they knew what side their bread was buttered, and she’d be ratted out immediately, as soon as her toes hit the floor, despite how well she’d taken care of them.

  So she sighed and instead ran Jenny and Sile ragged. The cook had to leave the kitchen to come up and discuss things with her mistress, which made lunch and dinner both late, which didn’t set well with his lordship, but he got no sympathy at all when he complained as they ate dinner together in their room. He wouldn’t even let her come down for dinner. Instead, they ate together and then he gave Aislinn a long, sleep inducing massage that, although he was more than ready and willing, didn’t end in sex. He wanted her to sleep and recover. He also wanted to teach himself some control around her, so that he wasn’t exhausting her every night. He needed to learn to pace himself – they had their whole lives together.

  Aislinn awoke the next morning well before her husband, and lay there with his head on her shoulder, their limbs entwined, wondering if he could like her just a little bit. She knew better than to look for love – their relationship had been much more along the lines of an exchange of cold hard cash. But she hoped he might at least come to like her a little, enough that he wouldn’t feel the need to seek out any other woman. Even though he sometimes treated her like a naughty little girl, she liked him a lot. He was an intelligent and honorable man. He’d admitted it and apologized when he was wrong about her. Most men would never bother doing so to their wife. He let her have a free rein with the house and wasn’t a drunken sot, either.

  She just hoped that she could be enough for him.

  That evening, the guests had all arrived and were, as far as she could tell, was having enjoying themselves. Nearly everyone was dancing in the big hall, or indulging in the refreshments that she and Sile had so carefully planned. Everything had come of wonderfully. She was enchanted by the presents her husband had given her for this evening – he’d had a gorgeous lavender and lilac dress sent, with a beautiful pastel underskirt and a hat to match, as well as a parasol and a fan, and shoes to match. Kell dressed her himself, promising more clothing to come on a trip they would take shortly to the city. He wanted to take her there and replace her entire wardrobe, such as it was – everything from the inside out – new shoes, hose, boots, coats, hats, day dresses, evening dresses . . . he even promised to have the couturier make her something to wear while she was seeing patients – a smock or something to hold her tools and potions.