“I’m going tae touch you, Kat lass. Slow-like and as long as you’ll let me. Tell me that’s what you want.”

“I do,” she breathed in a rush, sounding overly eager to her own ears. It was probably why he chuckled. But she couldn’t make herself feel embarrassed about that. She was too far beyond embarrassment. She probably had been since she’d first seen him naked in her house. Naked and male and erect and dominant and … “Oh my,” she whispered.

He chuckled again, the sound low and rich and companionable, not mocking. It made her smile in spite of herself.

And then she felt him slide his hand beneath her shirt, cupping her breast in his fingers and palm. All of a sudden she felt so small. Small beneath him. Small within his hands. Small and inadequate. Who was she kidding? She was tiny. Diminutive. Itty-fricken-bitty. All these years of fighting to make people see beyond her height and build and suddenly she was facing the truth of it. Probably because he was the polar opposite of her. Good God, what could he possibly see in me? A man like him needed a buxom lass with wide hips and a big fat booty. She had a tiny booty. Practically no booty. She was booty-less.

“Ah, Kat lass, look how fine and full you are,” he invited, his tone sounding strained as if he were somehow holding himself back. “I want tae devour you, lass.” His fingers curled into the fragile lace of her bra and pulled it free of her, exposing her breast and nipple to the open air. “I’m going tae taste you now. I’m going tae have you on the flat of my tongue and between my teeth.”

She swallowed hard. There it was again. That feeling he could create in her. The feeling that she had all the power in this thing between them. But she didn’t, did she?

She had no further time to think about it. Her nipple was between his teeth that next instant and the sensation was so outstanding that she cried out. His mouth was bold and wet, hot and strong, sucking her in, toying with her in quick little flicks, letting her go to cool in the air of the room. Her entire spine turned to butter, melting away beneath her as she squirmed with pleasure. Then he ramped up the sensation by exposing the opposite breast and closing his mouth over her with a voracious sound of hunger.

“Kat lass,” he said, his breathing rolling hot over her dampened skin, “you’re so bloody fine. Can you no’ feel how much I’m hurting for you?” He pressed the rigid length of his erect shaft against her thigh to make sure she was certain of his meaning. “Jesus. Jesus,” he groaned, burying his head in her neck, his breath hard against her. “I canna do this. I canna be this close tae you, tae feel you, wi’out wanting tae be inside you. But you’re such a wee li’le thing.”

“Say that again and I’ll knee you in the nads,” she said breathlessly.

That made him laugh, the sound gusting hard against her. He raised up again and looked down into her bourbon-colored eyes. So brown with the slightest tinge of red. It was as beautiful as the rest of her.

“I want tae make love tae you, Kat. If not entirely, then enough tae give you the pleasure you deserve. I want tae taste you on my tongue, feel you from the inside on the tips of my fingers. I want tae hear you cry out in my ear. Maybe you’ll say my name rough or maybe soft-like. Maybe you’ll taste like chocolate, just as you smell.”

“Ch-chocolate?” she asked, her mind reeling from his words. She had never heard anyone want anything from her so passionately. Just hearing all of his suggestive desires had made her wet with response.

“Yes. Warm, sweet … delicious.” His lips brushed ever so lightly over hers. His tongue came out to drift over her lush bottom lip. Her breath caught, her throat tight with a thousand emotions. How could he ever know what his desire for her meant to her? How could he understand that she had never, in all of her life, felt more like a real, normal—even better than normal—woman in the eyes of another. It had taken finding this man and this dark little world for her to learn that normal was such a subjective thing.

“Do it,” she said with soft ferocity. “Do it all. I want it all. I want to give it right back to you, too. I want to know what you taste like, Ahnvil. What you feel like.” She reached between their bodies and ran a hard palm down the length of his zipper. He bucked against her touch, his hips lurching forward almost frantically.

He reared up then, ripping away the clean shirt he had donned, exposing his bare, massively beautiful chest. She reached out and grabbed at the buckle of his belt, her nimble fingers undoing it swiftly. She pulled it free and his loose waistband slid down to ride low on his hips. She could see the strong cut of muscles stretched taut over his hips, disappearing suggestively beneath his jeans. Equally suggestive was the furry line of hair that drew downward from his navel. Oddly enough he hadn’t a speck of hair on his chest. It was all just tight, gorgeous muscle and a pair of flat, buff nipples.

He only let her look at him for a short period of time before he was bracing a hand on the bed by her head and looming over her. His fingers were at the buttons of her shirt, undoing them in rapid succession. Within seconds he was parting the fabric, exposing her midriff, her bra, and her panties. Next he went to the front clasp of her bra and snapped it open. Then he lifted her limp body up and shucked it all away. She lay there naked and vulnerable, nothing but her panties to protect her.

“Look. A wee li’le bow,” he said with amusement, touching the tiny bow at the top center of her panties. “Gods, I canna decide if you’re adorable as hell or sexy as hell. I’m torn betwixt the two and was never happier for it.”

That made her smile.

“I like the idea of being both for a change.”

“For a change? You ever were,” he insisted. “Nothing has changed on you from the time before I met you tae today. You are what you ever were. Beautiful, amazing, sensual. All that and more adjectives a brute such as me has little access tae.”

“You’re not a brute. No more now that you ever were. Not to me.”

He unbuttoned his jeans with a single hand. “I doona want tae frighten you,” he said after a moment’s hesitation.

“I’ve seen it before,” she reminded him.

“Aye. Only this time you’ll know my aim is to put myself inside you and that’s more than enough to frighten any lass.”

“I’m not just any lass,” she said on a whisper of breath.