Chapter Thirteen

Every stroke, every warm exhale frayed Beth’s already tattered nerves. Her senses honed in on Fintan’s deliberate mouth, so sharply every other point of contact between them faded into oblivion. All she knew was the unrelenting pleasure of his lips and tongue, the way he was slowly tearing her into irrecoverable pieces.

She clung to his hair, unable to do more than move against him, a slave to the wild sensations streaking through her. Indefinable pleasure. Immeasurable satisfaction.

Him. Sweet heaven above.

His lips clasped firmly on her, the pressure as he sucked stealing the last of her awareness. Ecstasy broke over her body, bringing her off the plush mattress, closer to the intoxicating magic of his mouth. She gave into the roiling tide of bliss with a moan she only distantly heard.

Madness. He was making her as mad as he was. She had no business getting more entangled with Fintan McClaine, but dear Lord, she couldn’t stop.

As awareness slowly crept into her thoughts, the tickle of his hair against her inner thigh shot a tremor through down her spine. She gasped against it, shuddered again as he shifted and the fabric of his shirt grazed over her abdomen. “Fintan.” She loosely clutched his shoulders. “Stop moving. I’m too sensitive.”

His mouth dusted across her belly, his soft chuckle making her nerves stand on end. “Exactly how I want you.”

Deliberately, he arched his back, bringing his chest in contact with her taut breasts, and he rubbed his body down the length of hers. The full-out contact was too much. Beth let out a groan as she twisted beneath him.

How was it possible to feel so desperately unfulfilled when he’d just brought her to mind-numbing release?

He stopped moving, and Beth sucked in a steadying breath. Her thoughts floated in a nonsensical chain, no one singular idea connecting with another. Trying to sift them into order, she focused on the thrum of her pulse. The tingling of her skin made it impossible. She could no more utter her full name than she could recite the alphabet in Latin.

He moved against her again, and this time, bare skin glided over hers. Opening her eyes, she inhaled brokenly. His gunmetal gaze held hers, full of emotion that slipped beneath her trembling surface to stir another wave of heat from head to toe. The intensity behind his eyes was too much. Too overwhelming. If she looked too long, she’d never surface to the life she’d known before tonight.

Blocking out the surge of emotion behind her ribs, she laced her hands around his waist and shifted her legs to accommodate his broader hips. He settled against her aching center like an interlocking puzzle piece. Perfect. Designed to fit only her. Completion she had never dreamt could be possible.

The wide head of his cock nudged at her slick flesh, but he made no move to bring them together. Merely angling his hips, he stroked her slowly while his lips fluttered against her shoulder. A trail of pleasant warmth accompanied the path of his mouth as he inched toward hers, tempting her to turn her head, to speed him along to the kiss she’d swear she’d die without.

He ignored the insistent press of her hands, the frustrated arch of her back. Pinning her in place with the weight of his strong frame, he held her captive to his tauntingly deliberate seduction. As if she needed to be seduced—good heavens, she was so aroused it was almost embarrassing. Not once in her delusion of a marriage had she ever been so needy, ever wanted to feel the intimate possession of a man’s cock as she did right now. As she did each time Fintan held her in his protective embrace.

“Fintan, you’re driving me crazy,” she confessed with effort.

“Good.” He chuckled at the hollow at the base of her ear. “I don’t want you to think tonight.”

No worries there—she was incapable of the act. She turned her head, captivated by the mesmerizing sweep of his tongue. When he sank his hips into hers, hitting her central point of pleasure, she let out a plaintive mewl.

“We can’t solve this with an ocean between us, can we?”

“No.” Her answer came out in a breathless whisper.

His mouth hovered over hers, barely touching, his moist breath a torment that bordered on painful. “I need this, Beth. I need to fall asleep with you at my side. Wake up with you in my arms.”

His words melted her. The simple affection, the raw feeling that vibrated through his lowered voice, combined with all the other churning emotion, and tears glistened behind her eyes. Dan had never needed her.

No one had ever needed her.

She lifted her head, sealing their mouths, unable to force words through the tightening of her throat. Unwilling to let him observe how easily he could affect her heart.

His kiss was slow, thorough, and yet laden with underlying hunger. He stroked her again, and this time as she raised her hips in request, he pushed in slow and deep. Filling her inch by torturous inch, until he could sink no further, and he stilled inside her.

Beth’s moan died beneath the tender onslaught of his mouth. She could handle the frantic way they’d come together the night before. This, however…

She couldn’t come back from this.

As a thin veneer of fear stole over her, she added more demand to her kiss and twisted her hips to spur him into movement. She had to hang on to herself somehow, before who and what she was became mixed up with who and what Fintan was. What he wanted from her.

He refused to give her the control she needed. Resting on his elbows, he held her in place, responding to the insistence of her mouth, but remaining otherwise still. Dominating her subtly, giving her no other option but to confront the reality of his power over her.

And oh how she adored that power. It would be so easy to believe in his impossible claims, let him convince her to stay in Scotland and walk away from America. So long as this magic between them never faded.

Finally, finally, when she was on the verge of splintering into pieces, Fintan moved within her. One slow stroke left her trembling. Another had her clinging to him in desperation. Oh, yes, she definitely wasn’t coming back from this. He’d scarred her for eternity.

Crying out in pleasure, Beth turned her head aside and lifted her hips, taking him deeper.

****

Every miniscule portion of Fintan’s existence shook as he tried to maintain control. Beth surrounded him. Her soft sounds of satisfaction filled his ears pleasantly. The lift and fall of her body beneath his enveloped him with an enormity of feeling, forcing the two halves of his soul into battle. The dark half roared for control, taunting him with pleasure, urging him to fall into Beth and yield his heart. The light half, the portion that dominated his existence, ordered him to maintain hold over his senses, to keep her at a distance no matter how he wanted to succumb.

She was everything he needed, and he would give everything he was to change their circumstances. To be normal. To be a simple mortal man capable of loving Beth Whitley. For he would do so in a heartbeat and devote the rest of his fragile life to making sure she never doubted his devotion.

Beth’s hands glided down his spine, her nails curling into the top of his buttocks. Her insistent press drove him deeper, pushed him further into headlong abandon. The clench of her moist flesh around his cock made it impossible to remember why he must hold back, to consider anything but the pleasure that saturated his existence.

He let out a groan and lifted to his hands, tearing his mouth from hers so he could suckle at her breast. When his lips closed around her nipple, her gasp cracked through the air. She bucked so hard beneath him that she nearly dislodged him. He thrust hard, need increasing his deliberate pace.

Ancestors and sacred saints above…

As pleasure surged in his bloodstream, he forced his thoughts away from Beth, to mundane numbers that couldn’t strip him bare. His cock pulsed, and pressure gathered at the base of his spine, warning him his efforts wouldn’t make much of a difference. The melding of their energies into one contented, languorously ebbing tide, only compounded bliss, making it that much more difficult to keep release at bay.

He lifted his head to look at Beth and plummeted down a bottomless cavern when those jade green eyes locked with his. Affection glowed as warm as sunshine. Reached in to wrap around his heart and twist it painfully. In this moment, no matter the difficulties that lay between them, she gave him a glimpse of the honest woman he adored.

The one who was comfortable in her skin, who stole glances at him when she thought he wasn’t looking that revealed her heart.

The woman he couldn’t imagine spending life without.

He closed his eyes before her stare could overwhelm him into senselessness, and gave her nipple a firm pull. Her fingers latched into his hair, one hand curled against his scalp as the other dug into his lower back. As her feminine flesh gripped him tight, he lost the battle against desire. Lifting his head, he sucked in sharp breaths to temper the sheer force of need, and gave his body freedom.

She answered his increased rhythm, met him thrust for agonizing thrust. Bliss tripped through his veins with each push, each clench of her flesh, each broken fall of her breath. It burst to one shining point of light that blinded him to centuries of tormented existence, then shattered like a combusting star, filling his closed eyes with a starburst of bright color. Her name tore off his lips, and he gathered her into his arms, needing to be somehow closer, to meld them in every way possible.

Dimly, he heard the call of her voice, recognized the hoarse sound of his name. Felt the clench of her womb and the tightness of her arms. His body slowed, and pleasure seeped through his pores as he grasped frantically for grounding. He was lost and flailing, terrified that he’d done the unthinkable. That in making love to Beth tonight he had taken the final step and damned her with his curse.

But gradually sense crept into his awareness. His heart hammered against his ribs. His limbs were shaking. His thoughts, however, held none of the vileness his father cursed him with. As he gazed down at Beth’s tender expression and pushed a damp tendril of hair out of her face, he knew infinite peace.

Somehow, he’d held on. Thank the blessed spirits watching over him.

Fintan exhaled hard and dropped a chaste kiss on Beth’s swollen lips. “You’re perfect, Beth Whitley.”

Her smile filled him with warmth. “I just hide my flaws well.”

Chuckling, he eased himself away from the warm haven of her body and rolled onto his back, taking her with him. She fit neatly against his side. Head tucked into his shoulder, her long hair spilled over his arm. The narrow valley of her waist made a divine resting place for his hand. He gave her hip a squeeze. “I like your flaws.” Turning his head, he pressed a kiss to her temple. “Very much.”

“Mm,” she murmured contentedly. “I like it here.”

Then perhaps she would stay. Maybe not forever, but long enough she could help rid him of the curse, so he could follow her to Manhattan and badger her about painting there. Where he could freely fall in love with Beth.