Gasping and shuddering as he set to suckling at her breast, Iliana caught his head in her hands and pressed him closer. She arched against the arm around her back and wiggled in his lap as he slid one hand up her leg beneath the undertunic until it rested against the thick leather of her belt. But when he slid one finger beneath to explore her more intimately, Iliana stiffened in his lap, her head snapping up.

Catching her mouth quickly, he silenced any protest she might have given and continued to slide his finger between the leather and her skin. Grunting at the telltale damp heat he found, he did his best to increase her excitement with his touch as he kissed her.

Iliana’s entire body clenched. Her legs tightened on either side of his hand. Her fingers knotted in his hair. Even her nipples seemed to clench in an agony of wanting. Part of her wanted to make him stop. The other part thought she would die if he did. Moaning, she twisted her face into his neck, then quickly away as the scent of him began to intrude on the excitement she was experiencing.

“Sweetling,” he groaned as she twisted, rubbing against him, pressing the belt tightly against herself.

Barely hearing him, Iliana moaned and gasped as he nipped gently at her ear.

“Sweetling.”

“Mmm?” she breathed.

“I want to pleasure ye, sweetling,” he told her in a pained gasp.

“Pleasure me?” she whimpered, catching those two words only.

“Aye. Pleasure ye proper.”

“Proper?”

“Hmmm. I need the key, sweetling,” he whispered by her ear. Then he leaned back slightly to take in her expression, frowning as some of the dazed passion in her eyes faded away like mist under the heat of the sun.

“I do not—” she began, her body stilling, and Duncan covered her mouth with his, kissing her with desperate passion. He had moved too soon. He should have been more patient, he berated himself, working feverishly to rekindle the fire he had seen dying in her eyes. When she lay still in his arms, neither responding nor pushing him away, he knew she was teetering dangerously on the brink.

Taking the risk of breaking the kiss briefly again, he turned to lay her across the bottom of the bed. He quickly lowered himself atop her, his mouth taking possession of her lips again as he slid one of his legs between hers and urged them apart.