NSFW content: please note that our ‘hot toddies’ series contains explicit language and (very) adult situations.
Here in Australia, the weather is getting colder. We’re dragging out the blankets and brewing up the cocoa, but it’s not doing the job. We need something hot.
Luckily, Escape artists have come to the rescue. They’ve provided some of the most scorching scenes from their books for us to enjoy. As the cold winds blow outside, we’ll be heating up with some ‘hot toddies’.
Winter is coming. And so our are heroes and heroines.
In The Master of Strathburn, Robert Grant and Jessie Munroe have found themselves unexpectedly betrothed. They are both on the run from Robert’s half-brother, Simon Grant, but have taken refuge at an isolated Highland inn. Although Jessie was initially determined to remain chaste until she and Robert could be wed properly in a church, she has just realized that Robert could easily be captured and arrested before that happens. And she is determined to give him a night he won’t forget…
Robert’s mouth crushed against Jessie’s in a hard, almost bruising kiss. A possessive kiss. She wants me as much as I want her. His blood sang at the heady realisation.
If he was a better man, he would not be doing this, kissing Jessie like this, pushing her shift off her shoulders then raining hot, open-mouthed kisses along her neck and collarbone, down to the deep shadow of her cleavage. But heaven help him, he wasn’t strong enough to resist her blatant invitation.
And Jessie was right—he may never have this chance again.
But he would not take her maidenhead. He would satisfy her need and his own but he would not risk getting her with child, not tonight.
Robert broke their kiss briefly to carefully ease Jessie down onto the pillows. The sight of her full breasts straining against the thin white fabric of her shift made his cock grow harder to the point of pain. But as much as he wanted to tear the garment from her body, and despite her declaration that she wanted him to make love to her, he did not want to frighten her. For all her enthusiasm, she was still an inexperienced novice. He would take his time and follow her lead.
He wanted her to enjoy this as much he was going to.
* * *
Jessie’s heart burst into a wild unbridled gallop as Robert eased himself onto the bed to lie beside her. Her heart-stoppingly handsome, considerate fiancé was going to make love to her. She could barely believe it.
She could hardly wait.
‘Jessie, you must tell me if you want me to stop,’ Robert murmured, his voice rough with emotion. ‘I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do,’
She nodded, too breathless to speak. But she seriously doubted that she’d want him to stop. Anything.
‘You are so, so beautiful, mo chridhe.’ My heart. Robert’s passion darkened gaze slid from her face to her breasts. ‘Everywhere.’
He thinks I’m beautiful. Jessie’s heart thrummed with unexpected delight. ‘So are you,’ she whispered and placed a hand against Robert’s bare chest. She swore she could feel his heart pounding beneath the hard plane of muscle, an echo of her own heart-beat.
Unable to resist exploring him a little more, she ran her fingers through the fine dusting of dark hair along his pectorals, smiling when his nipples contacted.
Robert shuddered and on a broken groan, buried his face in her hair. Pushing the tangle of curls away from her neck, he inhaled deeply before pressing a hot kiss in the hollow just below her ear. Encouraging his exploration, she arched her neck, marvelling at the delicious, tickling sensations his clever mouth provoked as he nibbled and licked his way down her throat until he reached the edge of her shift.
Then he paused. He raised his head and his gaze locked with hers. ‘Let me see you, Jessie,’ he whispered.
She didn’t hesitate. With trembling fingers, she clumsily loosened the ribbons at her neckline, all the time watching Robert’s expression. His eyes were dark, heavy-lidded with desire and when her shift gaped open to reveal her breasts, he swallowed.
‘I was right. Beautiful,’ he murmured reverently, trailing a fingertip down one breast to one tightly furled, aching nipple. She closed her eyes and whimpered, arching towards his hand. The hot restless ache in her was too much. She needed more.
And, thank the Lord, Robert obliged. He lowered his head and when his lips closed around the exposed bud, she cried out in agonised pleasure. Hot, dark desire swirled through her as he mercilessly suckled and teased her breasts with his tongue and fingers. She writhed beneath him, tangling her hands in his hair, unsure if she could take much more of this exquisite torture, not when the throb in her loins was growing with each passing minute.
At length, he raised his head and smiled at her, a wicked, entirely self-satisfied smile. Through her thin shift, he stroked gently across her ribs and down to her belly, making her quake.
‘Please don’t stop,’ she breathed. She was unsure what he would exactly do next, but she hoped he would focus his attention on that part of her where her unsatisfied need throbbed the most.
‘I won’t.’ He dipped his head and kissed her on the mouth again, tenderly this time as he gently lifted the hem of her shift. One of his hands stroked slowly up the inside of one thigh and then the other. She instinctively parted her legs, straining toward his feather-light touch. When his fingers slid up and down, between her most secret folds, warm and slippery with moisture, she gasped with the unexpected pure pleasure of it. She was wanton. Wild. She didn’t care, not when Robert could make her feel this way.
But it wasn’t the end, far from it. With unerring accuracy, the pad of one of Robert’s fingers found the focus of her pulsating desire. She jolted and gasped but his teasing, circling caresses didn’t falter in rhythm. As he expertly built the intensity of the exquisite sensations inside her to fever pitch, she panted and moaned in utter abandonment, unsure how much more she could take. She seemed to be spiralling higher and higher toward some hitherto unknown heavenly world where agony and pleasure coalesced.
And then her reality exploded into ecstasy. She cried out again and again with the shattering power of her release, her womb clenching in orgasm for the very first time. By degrees, she floated back to earth and became aware of Robert kissing her neck, her jaw, her cheek, her eyelids. She felt replete and awed all at the same time.
She opened her eyes and smiled hazily at Robert. ‘Thank you,’ she murmured. ‘I had no idea … that was … what you did was amazing … I canna describe it any other way.’ She reached out and placed a hand on Robert’s chest, not wanting to lose contact with his hot skin. ‘Is it like that for you too?’
‘It can be,’ he murmured before kissing her hair and drawing her close into his arms. Jessie felt his erection pushing hard up against her belly.
Robert had satisfied her, yet his need was still great. Jessie couldn’t let him suffer so.
‘Mmm, I think it is yer turn now,’ she said, then kissed his neck where his pulse beat a strong and steady tattoo. But despite what they had just shared, and as much as she wanted to please him, she suddenly felt uncertain about what she should do next. She ran one of her hands down his chest to the taut plane of his stomach, pausing at the waistband of his breeches.
She bit her lip, wondering how to proceed. She had seen how Robert had stroked himself. Tentatively, she placed her palm against the large, swollen length of him. Would he let her see him, touch him, pleasure him there? She flexed her fingers experimentally, and Robert sucked in a harsh breath, pushing against her.
She smiled to herself. Perhaps he would.
‘I havena ever done this before,’ she said softly, meeting his intent, dark-as-midnight gaze. ‘You might need to show me the way.’
Robert chuckled gently. ‘I think you’ve found the right place,’ he said, then kissed her lightly. ‘Are you sure you’re ready for this though? I can wait … if you are unsure about continuing.’
Jessie’s cheeks grew hot but she didn’t look away. ‘Yes, I’m sure. I want you to feel the way I felt.’ She pushed herself up, took a deep breath and began unbuttoning the front of his breeches, exposing the mysterious swelling. At such close quarters, the sight of his fully erect member jutting up from the thatch of dark curls at his groin, quite took her breath away. He was powerfully, rampantly beautiful.
And tonight he was all hers.
A sweeping, sexy Highland romance about a wanted Jacobite with a wounded soul, and a spirited Scottish lass on the run.