Read The Highlander's Time for Free Online

deep into a fascinating conflagration of desire and unabashed need. Ripping her mouth from his, she panted against him. “Dear God.”
    Never, not ever, had she been this excited with a potential lover and he hadn't even gotten her naked yet. A spurt of uncertainty rocketed through her. “Iaen, I'm not very good at this.” She sounded sad to her own ears. “I mean, I'm not like Lila. I can't just hop into bed then climb out of it.” Great, now you sound like an absolute idiot .
    If there was one saving grace in this tragedy waiting to happen, it was that he didn't understand a word of her condemning confession. “I don't know what to say.”
    In her world, sex was Lila's Olympic forum. There, her boss always stood as the most outrageous and the most successful. She boasted of her exploits with the same caustic verbiage she used when negotiating a contract with her record company. Charlzie and she often joked how Lila could take a man by the balls and illicitly pummel him into modeling clay. Sex was Lila's weapon of choice.
    On the other hand, Jenny understood she dated for a long time before she hopped in the sack. She liked all the wooing and cuddling, the expectation of what was coming in the distant future rather than a thrill for this moment. Jenny lived in an arena Lila called a waste of time. In truth, all the pawing and petting, sweet words and innocent hugs was what Jenny was after. The touching made her feel like more than a blow-up doll. The kisses exchanged were viewed as silent promises to her. They were fate-filled vows for a future where sex was a bonus instead of a given.
    She lived in a place where the relationship meant more. If a guy moved her too fast, she was the one who broke it off. If he couldn't take the heat of a long-haul and sometimes long distance love affair, she dropped him cold.
    Screwing was nice enough for the brief time it lasted, but sex wasn't something she looked forward to. The brevity of it left her feeling empty and alone even when she snuggled against her lover’s side during the barely-broke-a-sweat afterglow.
    With Iaen, she felt like a veritable virgin.
    He was raw passion.
    Dominating.
    All encompassing.
    She was the half of the whole who didn't hold to either great expectations or lofty aspirations. “Iaen, I'm not any good at sex.”
    It was what a few of her boyfriends had admitted to after long, tense minutes of prodding. They, her exes, always professed to care about her like they did a sister or a close friend. When it came down to fucking, she wasn't the cat's meow. Hell, the cat didn't even purr. In her former lovers’ lives, she was no better than a stupid, plasticine blow-up doll.
    “Lass, be still and calm thyself. I willnae hurt you,” he said from where he sat on the edge of the mattress. Instead of brushing her cheek against his calloused palm still cupping her face, she bowed away and nearly banged her forehead on his shoulder. That’s how close he was to her.
    Yes, you will. You just don't know it yet . Her faith, like her hopes to find a permanent love interest, had dipped that low. She didn't know if she could handle another huge disaster after everything that had happened today.
    Okay, look to the bright side. There has to be a silver lining in this nightmare .
    Try as she might, she came up empty. She couldn't make the language barrier count, because she'd still see the disappointment on his handsome face. Her hands came up to ward him off when he leaned closer. The sensible part of her told her to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Her traitorous body had other ideas.
    Winding her arms around his shoulders, a delicious bubble of warmth sparked in the pit of her belly. A tremor tripped up her thighs. The heat radiating off his body soaked through her thin nightgown to melt her bones. He pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth with his.
    It was a deep, drowning kiss, the kind that swept away all awareness of everything else but