The Highlander's Haunted Kiss by Joanne Rock

play of sensations over his face.
    â€œDo not hold back for me,” she urged, eager for him to feel the things she had.
    â€œNay.” He moved slowly. Cautiously. “I will not hurt you. There will be time enough later.”
    The rhythm of his hips soothed some of the burn between her thighs. When he took her breast into his mouth again, the ache eased even more. When she met his thrusts, he moved harder. Faster.
    She clung to him as she learned what pleased him. The pleasure built again. Slower. When he found his release, it rocked her to her core, his body straining deep into hers.
    With a shuddering breath, he drew her close. Kissed her forehead. As the last of the waves rocked him, he opened his eyes and studied her.
    â€œLily.” There was a strangled note in his voice she did not understand.
    Wasn’t he replete with pleasure, as she had been?
    â€œHave I…not done something right?” She was afraid to ask, but she needed to know if she hadn’t pleased him.
    â€œYou’ve done everything so beautifully there are no words for it.” His eyes held a dark sadness though, belying his every word.
    â€œI do not understand.” She shook her head, wishing she could rewind time. “I asked for this. You have given me what I most wanted and so much more.”
    She imagined nights in this enchanted forest where he taught her all the lush pleasures he already knew. He could sneak into her bedchamber and no one would ever know. She would wait impatiently for each day to end.
    â€œYou don’t understand how true that is.” Shifting away to retrieve his plaid, he wrapped it around her even though the night was unnaturally temperate for the Highlands in autumn.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” She clutched the wool tighter, a sense of foreboding stronger than any chill.
    â€œYou see me so well. You have spoken true words about wanting me in a forest ripe with magic.” He shook his head. “I fear you are my one true love.”
    â€œI—” She swallowed. “I am not sure of my feelings, but I would not have offered myself to you if I had not felt—”
    â€œNay. You do not need to explain. I mean only that we will come to love each other.”
    â€œThat doesn’t sound like such a terrible thing. In truth—”
    â€œLily.” He gripped her hands in one of his. With his other, he pressed a finger to her lips, quieting her. “I have not been with a woman for one hundred years. Pleasure has been denied me until my one true love arrives to break the curse.”
    She didn’t understand.
    â€œWe can be together then.” They would not be limited to hidden encounters in her bedchamber. “My parents will be powerless to dictate my life if we—”
    â€œListen. The woman of my heart has only two choices.” The anguish in his eyes was clear enough. “She can deny her love for me and I will no longer be cursed because I will be…dead.”
    â€œNever.” Her heart ached at the thought after the tenderness he’d shown her. Why would he suggest that as an option? “What else can I do?”
    He shook his head. “I fear if you declare love for me, you will be forced to leave everything you know. You may be doomed to walk through time with me, Lily. Forever.”

Chapter Five
    â€œMy lady!” A man’s voice echoed through the forest, the sound jarring Iain.
    â€œDid you hear that?” Iain sorted through their discarded garments and passed her the corset she’d worn. All at once, the forest went darker, the moonlight dimming on the bower that had been bright with magic—and the sparks between them—only moments before.
    Danger was close.
    â€œI thought we were safe in this special forest?” She tugged the silk fabric into place and struggled with the fastenings while he wrapped his plaid securely. He wished he could wrap her up as well and protect her always.
    He