22. Chapter 22 - Ash

As we were getting our coats on near the door, he held mine for me while I put my hands in the sleeves. I asked, "Why don't you have an Instagram or anything like that?"

"Tis a security risk, we canna."

"Oh." I opened the umbrella as we stood at the door and looked out. I gestured, "We go that way."

Then he put his arm around me and we rushed out into the rainy-puddle mud-splattering night, laughing all the way down the street, bumping and jostling and splashing to the front of my house.

I closed the umbrella on my porch and pressed my finger to my lips. "Shhhhh."

He whispered, "I ken."

I unlocked the front door and we crept in and moved stealthily up the stairs. I pointed at the ceiling and he ducked low and we barely squeaked the floor at all. I opened the apartment door and led him in.

We placed the umbrella by the door and took our coats off. I asked, "Would you like a beer?"

"Aye." He ran his hands through his hair.

I popped the cap off a beer. I decided not to have one, because I had a bit of a buzz and this had grown serious — I had just invited Lochie home and not for dessert... it felt like he was about to stay the night.

He said, "Pardon me, Mistress Ash, I must call m'brother tae let him ken I winna need a ride home yet, or if tis late I might walk."

I said, "It's pouring outside."

"I am a Scot, we daena care about rain." He dialed his phone and held it to his ear as he swigged from the bottle. Then he said, "Aye, we ate at a verra fine restaurant... nae, ye can go on tae bed, ye are auld, ye need yer rest. I winna need a ride, if tis late I will walk... I ken tis five miles and I ken tis raining..." He smiled at me and drank a bit more beer. "...aye I winna see ye tonight, but will be there in the morn. Alright. Good. See ye then... Goodnight."

He put his phone in his bag on the front of his kilt. "Dost ye mind if I remove m'things?"

"No, go right ahead. Of course."

I went into the bathroom and ran a quick toothbrush over my teeth and applied a bit of lipstick and finger-scrunched my hair. I wanted to look pretty, but not unnatural.

I returned and he had placed his belt and sword against the wall, with his waist bag on the table. His dress coat was over the back of the chair. He took another swig of beer.

I put out my hand and he took it and pulled me slowly close to him. He put his beer down on the table and pushed my hair behind my ear. Then he leaned down, raised my chin and kissed me, just a press on my lips but oh... it was a sweet and delicious feeling.

I liked him so much. I wanted him. I was freaking out because I barely knew him — he was so old fashioned. I didn't want to be easy, but also... I really wanted him to be here. I didn't want him to go.

This internal monologue stirred around in my mind while my arms with a mind of their own, went up around his neck and his kisses pressed against my mouth, parting my lips, his tongue entering my mouth. Our kisses deepened and breaths quickened. His mouth moved up my cheek, drawing along my skin to my ear, his deep bullish breaths, warming my skin and vibrating my body.

"Are you staying the..." I asked, his mouth suckling my neck, "the um... night, m'laird?"

He paused, his forehead against mine. "I believe I must ask permission first."

"Of whom?" I kissed him again, a deep lingering kiss, our tongues exploring each other's mouths.

Then, long after I had forgotten what we had been talking about... finally he broke away. "I daena ken who... but...?"

Our lips found each other again, his arms tightening around me.

I breathed near his ear. "I'm a modern girl, the only permission you need is mine."

He pressed his mouth to my neck, suckling and kissing, his hands pressing against my back, pulling me into him. Then his hand settled on my front, his palm on my breast. He stilled and seemed to be struggling with an internal dilemma — he moaned. "Tis nae... tis alright?"

I said, "It's alright, m'laird."

His hand went up under my shirt and fondled my breast over my bra. His mouth settled on my jaw, by my ear, his breath even more bullish, his movements growing to what felt like desperation.

He lifted me and I wrapped my legs around his waist. My mouth settled on his, and, his hands under my thighs he carried me to my bed. He lowered me onto it, where it was near the window at the end of the room, tucked under the eave, and he banged his head. "Och nae!"

He still managed to get me down gently but I sat up. "Lochie, are you okay?"

"Aye." He stood there for a moment rubbing his head. "I daena fit, ye ken, yer roof is too low."

"I know, it's not good, it's?—"

He reached under the side table and lifted it about two feet to the left under the window, then he reached under the mattress to the bed frame and dragged it out from under the eaves, looking up to make sure it was centered under the high point of the ceiling. I laughed as I rode the bed out to the middle of the room.

I flicked on the table lamp, then climbed from the bed. "I'm sorry I'm ruining all the effort you put into carrying me here." I rushed down the length of the room, turned off the overhead light in the kitchen, and then I returned.

He was sitting on the bed, looking nervous. I wrapped my arms around his head and looked down on his face. His chin tilted up.

"You nervous, m'laird?"

"Aye, tis momentous."

"Is it?"

"Aye, ye holdin' my hand was of great import, but allowin' me tae come tae yer bed has meant verra much more."

I kissed him and he put his arms around me and pulled me over him and we lay back on the bed. I was straddling him and could tell he was firm and hot and ready, as my friend used to say, ‘his train was leaving the station, no going back.'

His hands went up under my shirt and fondled and I pulled off my shirt over my head and he kissed me as I pushed his shirt up and shoved it off over his head. Then I went back to kissing him, both our hands running over our fronts and arms and chests. He fumbled for a minute, but then unlatched my bra and he moaned with pleasure and fondled my breasts, his gliding palm over my skin, heating me and exciting me.

"We have to take off our shoes so we can actually get all the way on the bed."

"I will take off yers, if ye take off mine."

I leaned to the side, putting my feet up. He pulled my shoes off and tossed them away. I twisted on his lap, laughing, my head hanging off the bed, and untied his boots while upside down.

He re-righted me onto his lap and pushed his boots off and peeled his socks off and we went back to kissing. I drew my hands up and down his abs, feeling the roundness of his biceps, the width and strength in his shoulders, but then I grew frantic with desire.

I fumbled with the buckle on his kilt, getting it unbuckled, and climbed off his lap to pull my skirt off. He shoved his kilt off and yes, he was naked under it and absolutely gorgeously built. I said, "Wow, that is... you are amazing."

"Says the gorgeous maiden nude upon the bed, ye are breathtakin'."

"I'm not completely nude—" He drew my underwear down my legs and off, tossing them to the side. "Now I am."

We lay back, our feet still off the bed, holding onto each other, his fingers caressing and playing between my legs, me touching him everywhere. My desire and his desperation growing, we rolled to the middle of the bed and he lay down over me — he paused. He kissed me, deeply. We looked each other in the eyes and our breathing matched.

And there was a long moment where we waited, in sync, pausing before we leapt, deciding to hold on, and then he pushed himself into me... and holding onto me he pushed again and again, and I raised my hips to meet him and we built up a glorious friction, a rhythm, hot breaths and sweat misted skin, and deep longing kisses, and after a long but loving battle, we reached climax, first me and then him and then settled, heavy and spent, on the other side of the peak.

He was the wonderful kind of heavy — I felt completely held, comforted, protected. He moved his mouth to the place beside my throat, under my ear, pressing his lips to my skin. I could feel our heartbeats sync together as our breathing grew regular and slowed.

I tightened my grip around his back, holding him close.

And then I burst into tears.

He drew his head up and looked down on me. "Och nae, are ye well, Ash?"

I nodded. "I'm sorry, that was... it was overwhelming."

"Aye."

I looked into his eyes. "I didn't mean to spoil the moment, I just felt... like that was a lot. I can't put it into words. I really really like you."

He kissed the outer corner of my eye, wetting his lips with my tear. "I felt it as well, and aye, I feel the same on ye, Mistress Ash."

"Sometimes I am so caught up in how hard it all is, paying bills, going to work, and being kind of alone in the world, and wondering what the point is, but then you're here and I feel so safe."

"Aye, the world is a storm, but I think we can get through it taegether. I will protect ye."

I nodded and looked up in his eyes and we breathed together for some long moments while I gathered my emotions and calmed in his arms.

He rolled off me and patted his chest and put out an arm. I curled up alongside him. Rubbing my hand across his muscular chest, thinking to myself, again, wow... he held my hand over his heart.

Then he raised his head, giving me a long hot view of his neck muscles, and let go of my hand. "Here, do this." He put his thumb in his mouth. He laughed at me when I looked at him quizzically.

He pulled his wet thumb out to say, "Ye must do it as well."

I stuck my thumb in my mouth and slobbered on it while I mumbled, "What for?"

He pulled his thumb out again. "Because we forgot tae make a thumb oath afore I bedded ye, this is why ye are overcome. Tis important. Tis a promise so ye arna worried."

Then we pressed the pads of our wet thumbs together. He said, "Here is my thumb, Mistress Ash, I promise I will never beguile ye."

I frowned a bit. "I am not sure I know what beguile means...?"

"I winna deceive ye."

"Now I say it?"

"Aye."

"Here is my thumb, m'laird, I promise I will never beguile you."

We smiled at each other.

I asked, "You're going to sleep here with your duties coming up, you can?"

"Aye, how else can we copulate at least two more times?"

I laughed and sat up. "Then we need to get under the covers." We got up and loosened the sheets, and took turns in the bathroom. I loaned him a toothbrush. There was something awesome about watching his ass as he walked around my apartment in his majestic nakedness, and when I would glance at him he would be watching me with a look of awe. Then we climbed into bed under the covers, and I tucked my head to his chest.

He said, "Goodnight, Ash."

I raised my lips to kiss him. "Good night, Lochie." He pulled my thigh up to his waist and sighed, happily.

At first I was on edge, I had a man in my bed, listening to his breaths, hyper aware of his movements and sounds, and where his touch ended and my body met it, and then he slowly fell asleep and there was something so sweet about how this mighty man, so muscular and big, had grown so vulnerable beside me. I watched the side of his face, his pale skin, the redness of his beard stubble over a strong jaw, the planes of his face, angles. I kissed the edge of his jaw and snuggled my head to his shoulder and soon I was asleep too.