Текст книги "My daring highlander"

Автор книги: Vonda Sinclair

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

Chapter Thirteen

Seona stared after Isobel as she disappeared up the steps, a bottle of wine and flask of whisky in one hand and the lantern in the other. What was she up to, leaving Seona alone with Keegan in the kitchen?

Well… Seona knew Isobel wanted her and Keegan together. She encouraged her at every opportunity, because she wanted Seona to have a happy marriage like she had. But Seona did not see how that could happen.

Her gaze darted back to Keegan. He watched her as an osprey watches a salmon, with a concentrated focus that might be called hunger. Aye, she hungered for him as well.

His brows quirked in a wee, concerned frown. “Are you afraid?”

“Nay.” Did she look afraid? She tried to smooth out her features. She certainly didn’t fear Keegan. Only what he represented—everything she wanted, standing before her, just waiting. She still wasn’t sure she was brave enough to grab hold and face down all the obstacles.

“Good. I would never want you to be frightened of me, Seona.” His deep, soothing voice was spellbinding.

“I’m not. I trust you more than anyone.” ’Twas the truth and she was not shy about admitting it to him.

“That means more to me than I can say,” he whispered. “But ’haps you shouldn’t.”

His words should have alarmed her, but they didn’t for she suspected she knew what he was about to say. “Why not?”

His gaze grew more penetrating. “Because I wish for things I have no right wishing for.”

Another kiss?

“When I’m alone with you…” he said, shaking his head, “I find I want to…” He blew out a sharp breath and glanced away. “Hell, why am I telling you this?”

“I want you to tell me.” She yearned to know his every thought. “I couldn’t sleep.” That was her confession. Surely he would understand her meaning—she couldn’t sleep because thoughts of him kept taunting her, especially after he’d consumed her mouth earlier.

“Would one more goodnight kiss help?” His expression remained serious. Passionate.

Her heartbeat thumped in her throat. “Aye.” ’Twas a lie. The kiss would not help her sleep; it would keep her awake the rest of the night. But ’twas the one thing she craved most, as a starving person craves bread.

Gradually, he moved closer to her, stroked his warm hand along her cheek, leaned down and pressed his lips to hers… twice, completely seducing her. She slid her hands around his neck. Each kiss was more lingering than the last, then he flicked his tongue against her mouth, sparking fiery yearnings within her. She parted her lips, inviting a deeper kiss. With a soft moan, he indulged her. He tasted faintly of spiced wine, but mostly, he tasted like a man she wanted to devour.

Before she knew what was happening, the passion exploded. She could not get close enough to him, and he seemed equally determined to bring her body as tightly as possible to his. Her knees grew weak and her feet left the floor. The sensation of flying suffused her with dizziness. He was carrying her, she realized, awareness of his strength only fueling her desire for him.

A moment later, she felt him kick a door closed behind them. Opening her eyes, she could see naught. The room was pitch black and the air smelled of spices and flour. The storeroom?

Saints! Would he seduce her in truth?

If so, she was ready. Life was short and she needed a few precious, sparkling moments to bring her joy during the dark days of the future.

“Lady Seona?” he whispered, his breathing harsh and unsteady as he held her against the door, her toes barely touching the floor.

“Aye.”

“You are not frightened, are you?”

“Nay.” In the darkness, she stroked her palm along his bristly square jaw, then kissed his lips, eliciting a groan from him.

He grazed his tongue between her lips. That move shattered her thoughts and her composure. Her hands fisting in his hair, she drew him closer and welcomed his tongue invading her mouth.

Oh, how she craved this man, the taste of him, the scent and feel of him. He was tall, his shoulders broad and thick with muscle. His chest and stomach were hard against her, as was a lower, male part of him. She knew little about men’s bodies, but since the evening she had seen Keegan walking naked from the loch, she had been fascinated. Through their clothing, his hard shaft pressing against her lower belly enthralled her.

“Mmm,” he hummed quietly and consumed her mouth. That sensation she’d felt before when he’d kissed her was now besieging her ten times stronger than before. It had to be the arousal Isobel had told her about. She had said the kissing and caressing a man did would make a woman eager for the bedding. Seona had never experienced this before Keegan had kissed her that first time. But now she knew, she wanted his naked skin brushing against hers.

She wanted him to bed her.

But she couldn’t. If her father found out, he’d surely beat her. At the same time, she could not refuse Keegan anything he wanted, because she wanted the same things. She wouldn’t turn away from him.

“I want to touch you,” Keegan whispered between little kisses, his hand skimming from her waist to the side of her hips.

“Aye,” she agreed, perhaps a bit too eagerly. She didn’t know where or how he would touch her, but she craved it, his hands, his mouth.

“I’d never do anything to harm you. You ken that?” he asked.

“Aye.” She loved how he was so considerate and protective of her.

Her skin burned, head to toe. She knew not what to do, or what he would do. In the next instant, he unfastened the brooch that held her wool plaid arisaid together at her chest.

He was undressing her? She shivered in expectation.

He kissed her again, and pulled her closer. Bending slightly, he placed his hand behind her knee and pulled her leg upward, rubbing her knee alongside his hip. Heavens! Her legs were spread in a decadent way that made her crave having him between.

He placed his hand on her calf, then slid it beneath the hem of her arisaid and her smock. His hand heated her bare skin as he stroked her calf gently, entrancing her. Tingles traveled up her leg toward her center.

“Oh,” she breathed, tilting her head back and allowing him to scatter little kisses down her neck.

He slid his hand to her knee, then higher, his fingertips trailing lightly along the outside of her thigh, delightful and stimulating. She held on ’round his neck, lest she fall over from lightheadedness.

His questing hand moved higher, up her thigh, to the flare of her bare hip. Oh, saints, he was bold.

He purred against her throat and glided his hand down the outside of her thigh again to her knee, then slowly up the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. She held her breath in anticipation while he leisurely stroked his fingertips back and forth, lightly teasing her skin, making her tingle and ache in shocking places. Some primal part of her urged her to spread her legs and allow him to stroke her very core. She gasped. She could not do that.

At least she should not.

But her need for Keegan was too strong to ignore, and she wished to feel his hands all over her. She wanted him to teach her everything about passion and carnal relations.

Using his thumb, he stroked over the upper part of her mound, tickling through her hair. She felt paralyzed, unwilling to stop him, but too afraid to move.

His heated breath fanned against her throat and the upper part of her chest. Her plaid fell behind her, leaving her covered in naught but a linen smock. She shivered, hot and cold at once. Keegan’s bristly jaw rubbed against her breast, the course whiskers prickling the sensitive skin of her nipple through the material.

She gasped, for she had never felt such a sensation—raw need and possessiveness.

He moaned and brushed his lips over her beaded nipple, then plucked at it through the fabric.

Breathing hard, she pulled him closer. “Aye,” she whispered, needing more. A second later, he slipped his fingers between her legs. Saints! A shock cut through her at the same time sizzling pleasure jolted her. She had never been touched there by anyone. She even tried to avoid touching herself on that spot. He was lightly but deliberately caressing, bare skin to bare skin. Heat and lust seared her.

“Lass, you are luscious and wet,” he murmured low in her ear.

She knew not what that meant… except that she wanted him… craved for him to do something more to her, to appease this powerful need. Oh, how she ached inside.

She clutched his plaid in her fist, pulling him closer. “Keegan?”

“Aye. Do you like this?”

“Aye. You make me feel…” How could she describe something she’d never felt before?

“I ken what you mean,” he whispered against her breast, then using his lips, he tugged at her nipple again.

With frantic unsteady movements, she untied the neck of her smock and yanked at it, until her breasts were bared to him.

He muttered a curse and took full advantage, drawing her nipple into his mouth and sucking.

“Oh,” she breathed, dizziness storming through her. She clung onto his broad shoulders for dear life.

His wicked fingers teased her beyond bearing. She widened her legs, allowing him access to the mysterious part of her that tingled unmercifully.

He rubbed his fingers over the spot and massaged in a circle. The sensations were startling, blinding, and impossibly pleasurable.

She heard herself cry out.

“Shh, lass. No one must hear us.”

“Aye.” She bit her lower lip to keep from making noise, but the intense, delightful feelings almost overcame her.

His mouth covered hers again and she eagerly sucked at his tongue as his fingers tormented her. He slipped one of his fingers further between her legs. Oh, that was where she ached for him! He must have sensed what she wanted. She widened her thighs more.

He hissed a curse, stroking in and out, very shallowly. “Seona. You feel so good.”

Unbidden, a high-pitched cry came from her. Realizing what she was doing, she forced herself to be silent again, no matter how incredible it felt.

He slid his fingers to the tingling, sensitive spot and teased it again. She had become very moist and needy, craving his attention. She wanted to push him to the floor and climb atop him. She did not understand it. Nothing made sense, and she could not think anyway.

She pressed her hip more firmly against his shaft where it stood upright toward his stomach. He moaned. That hard appendage was what she craved stroking her instead of his fingers. She knew it was designed to slide inside her.

Her hips moved wantonly but she could not stop them. He turned her so that her back was to him more. With her derriere pressed against his shaft and her legs spread wide, he held her tight, his hand caressing her.

He kissed her neck, then urged her to turn her head toward him. He locked his mouth to hers and rubbed her more firmly and persistently. She cried out at the intensifying sensations, but he caught the sounds with his mouth. She found herself arching her back, yearning for something more.

A strange, otherworldly feeling overwhelmed her—shivers hurtling through her body and converging on her center. Primal pleasure seized her. She could not breathe, or think. “What…?” she gasped. Keegan’s mouth covered hers, and she felt she was leaving the earth, shooting straight up into the stars. Every muscle in her body contracted over and over, wishing to clutch onto Keegan, but she couldn’t. She yanked at his clothing, trying to show him what she needed, but he was in the wrong place. She could only arch her back and grind her derriere against his stone-hard shaft.

He groaned in her ear. “Aye, Seona, lass. That’s it.”

Near suffocating, she gasped for breath, trying to regain her reasoning abilities. What had happened? Her whole weakened body trembled in the wake of that storm of sensation.

A fist banged at the door, breaking through the sensual fog in her brain.

Chapter Fourteen

Another knock sounded at the storeroom door. Keegan froze, his body pressed close to Seona’s. “Shh,” he hissed in her ear, then lowered her smock. He was unable to see her in the absolute darkness of the storeroom, but he knew she had to be horrified that someone was pounding at the door not five seconds after he’d brought her to climax. How could someone interrupt one of the most amazing experiences of his life?

“’Twill be all right,” he whispered, then directed her behind the door. He felt her struggling to adjust her smock and arisaid into place. He’d love to help her, if only he could see, but everything had to be done by touch in this windowless room.

He felt to make sure his own clothes were still straight and in place, then he cracked the door open.

Fraser stood outside. His frown shifted to a mischievous lopsided grin. “What in blazes are you doing in there, Keegan?” he asked, keeping his voice quiet.

“Drinking ale.” Or maybe mulled wine would’ve been a better lie.

“In the dark?” Fraser snorted. “I don’t think ’tis ale you’re drinking.”

Heat washed over Keegan. Aye, he’d been caught, and he’d never been able to lie his way out of anything. “How did you know I was in here?”

“One of the kitchen servants came down to start baking bread and heard a noise. I was talking to the guard when she reported it.” He grinned. “Which maid do you have in there with you?”

“Damnation,” Keegan muttered. “You must not tell anyone. Promise me.” He hoped his worried gaze communicated the seriousness of the matter.

Fraser sobered. “Of course I won’t. I ken well how awkward it is to be caught with a lass.”

Keegan gave a brief nod. His stomach clenched for he knew not whether he could trust Fraser. He had only known him a couple of days. He seemed like an honest and trustworthy man, about a year younger than himself. But Fraser was a rogue who thought of little beyond finding another lass to bed.

“No one can know she is down here with me.”

“Very well. I’ll help you slip her out. Just a minute.” Fraser turned and moved toward the stairs again. “’Tis two huge rats,” he called up to someone waiting at the top.

“Oh heavens!” the female said. “I shan’t go down there until they’re gone.”

“I’ll get them, Mary. You go back to your chamber for about a half hour.” He then told the guard to return to his post. “I’ll be right back,” Fraser whispered to Keegan, then disappeared up the steps. He returned a couple of minutes later. “All clear up to the second floor.” His eyes narrowed as he looked over Keegan’s shoulder. But of course, he could see naught. “Why do I get the feeling ’tis not one of the servants you’ve seduced?”

“I didn’t seduce anyone.” Keegan frowned, hating that Fraser would think the worst of Seona once he learned she was behind the door.

“Not enough time, aye? That can be damned frustrating.”

Keegan’s face heated, though he knew not why. He was not one easily embarrassed. Although he didn’t have a reputation as a gallant or a rogue, he had bedded a few lasses over the past few years. Even then, he would not say he’d seduced anyone. Usually it was the lasses who’d seduced him, in a manner of speaking.

Aside from that, he had not planned to take Seona, anyway. Indeed, he would like to but… he could not endanger her uncertain future.

Fraser chuckled. “Come on, man. Bring her out so she can return to her sleeping quarters. She must be exhausted since you’ve kept her up half the night.”

“Can you hand me that candle?” Keegan motioned to the one sitting on the cook’s table.

“Aye.” Fraser retrieved it for him.

“I thank you.” Keegan closed the door, set the candle on the floor, and turned back to Seona. Finding her wide-eyed and pale, he took her hands. “I’m sure you heard, ’tis only Fraser,” he whispered. “He’s promised he won’t tell anyone and that he’ll help get you back to your room. I never meant to endanger your reputation. I simply wanted—”

She rose onto her tiptoes and kissed his lips briefly. Arousal riveted him along with a generous helping of affection.

“Och, Seona, lass.” How he wanted her in every way. But this might be their last private moment together. He leaned down, claiming her lips again. Though the kiss started out soft and slow, it quickly grew to burning and volatile. Arousal demanded that he press her against the wall and have his way with her… but he couldn’t do that.

Forcing himself to pull back, he cursed and clenched his teeth. How passionate she was. She had to be his, always.

After taking her hand, he led her to the doorway. As soon as he opened it, Fraser turned toward them.

“I thought you were—” His words stalled when his gaze landed on Seona. He smiled and shook his head. “I should’ve guessed.” He shoved Keegan’s shoulder as he emerged from the tiny room. “You dog. Defiling ladies?”

“Well, I wasn’t… exactly.” He couldn’t tell Fraser how much Seona meant to him.

“Aye, indeed. Not to worry. I’ve defiled a few myself.” He chuckled.

“Fraser,” Keegan chided between his teeth and sent him a meaningful frown, trying to convince him not to embarrass Seona any more than she already was. Her face was dark red, even in the dimness of the kitchen.

“Very well. I’ll behave myself.” At the base of the stairs, Fraser said, “Wait here.” He ran up the steps, then returned seconds later and motioned. “All clear.”

Keegan climbed the steps first, holding Seona’s hand and pulling her up behind. That way, if they ran into someone, he could conceal her.

“Are you well?” he whispered back to her as they moved along a corridor.

“Aye.” Her response was barely above a breath.

Fortunately, they reached the upper corridor where her bedchamber was without meeting anyone. Of course, Dirk’s guard was still on duty, but once he recognized them, he again pretended not to see Seona.

“Have a good night’s sleep, m’lady,” Keegan whispered.

Seona gave a brief curtsy and hastened down the corridor and into her room. If Fraser and the guard hadn’t been there, she might have allowed him another kiss. But that was impossible now. With regret, he turned to leave. He doubted he could sleep much after that, even though ’twas past midnight.

“Come, let’s go have a wee dram,” Fraser said. “I’m thinking you need it. Or another lass.”

“A wee dram, aye. Another lass, nay.” Keegan followed him down the stairs. Another lass was the last thing he would ever want.

At the bottom, Fraser gave him a questioning look, then shook his head. “You have the sickness, man.”

Aye, he knew Fraser was right, but he remained silent until they entered the small room off to the side of the great hall. Fraser took a decanter of whisky from the shelf and poured a bit into two small, expensive crystal glasses, then offered him one.

Fraser clicked his glass to Keegan’s, then downed the shot.

Keegan took a large sip and savored the burn. He only drank whisky on rare or special occasions, and he supposed this was one. Or maybe not.

“Do you not have the sickness?” Fraser persisted. “You are smitten with the lady.”

“Aye. ’Tis true,” Keegan admitted. He didn’t regret it, nor was he ashamed. “I’ve never met anyone like her before.” Every time he saw her, his mood lifted. When she smiled, it was like a hundred suns were shining inside him.

Fraser dropped into his brother’s huge chair behind the desk. “What will you do?”

Keegan shrugged and sat across from him. What could he do? “I want to marry her, but I suspect her father will not allow it.”

“Marry? Saints! You are mad.” Fraser’s blue eyes gleamed with humor.

“I am mad for her,” Keegan said in a matter-of-fact tone. “But I thought you agreed with me, that any man would be fortunate to marry her.”

“Aye, she is beautiful, but marriage seems like…” Fraser cringed. “Being trapped in a dungeon.”

“Nay, my friend. One day you will understand how I feel when you meet that one special woman.”

“I don’t see it happening, unless a witch casts a spell on me or something equally horrible.” Fraser rose, retrieved the whisky and poured more for both of them.

“I have to take her home to her father in a few days.” Keegan’s stomach knotted and ached with the very thought. ’Twas the last thing he wished to do. He wanted to take her north to his home, not east.

“So… why not ask her father for her hand?”

Keegan nodded. “I will. ’Tis what Dirk suggested. But I ken my chances are slim.”

“Well, maybe her father will force you to marry her since you’ve…”

“I’ve not done what you’re imagining,” Keegan said. “She is still an innocent lady.”

“Only because I interrupted.” Fraser gave a broad grin. “And maybe you should. Ruin her and her father will have no choice but to force you to marry her.”

Nay, the thought did not set well with Keegan. It felt underhanded and dishonorable. “I’m thinking that would not work. He insists on her marrying a chief or titled laird. ’Tis my suspicion that if he thought she was no longer a virgin, he would marry her off to the first eligible laird that came along, no matter his age or disposition.”

Fraser’s dark brows lowered into a frown. “He sounds like a right ogre.”

“Aye. And if I don’t take her back to him, ’twould be inviting an attack from the powerful Murray Clan.”

Fraser nodded. “’Tis a bad position to be in.”

Keegan swallowed another generous sip of whisky, the burn reminding him of how much he yearned for Seona. “Dirk has named me his tanist.”

Fraser sat forward. “Well, there you are! ’Tis a title. Second in line to be chief is an important position.”

“Aye, and I am honored. ’Tis more than I’d ever imagined, but ’tis doubtful her father will consider it a high enough position. I own no property.”

“’Tis better than naught. I want to come with you.”

“Where?”

“To see the lass’s father. I’ll ask Dermott to come along, too. He has met Chief Murray. Dermott is tanist for our clan.”

“Very well. Dirk is not well enough to go as he’d planned.” His injury deeply concerned Keegan.

“We know most of the clans between here and Murray’s holdings. We can easily secure lodgings each night of our travels.”

“’Twould be a great help to us.” Keegan had never before traveled this far south on the mainland and had met none of the chiefs or their men. If he was to be Dirk’s tanist and right hand man, he had to make good connections.

Plus, he would need all the help he could get to convince Seona’s father to allow them to wed.

***

Seona threw off her arisaid and climbed into the high, four-poster bed. She snuggled down and drew the covers over her head, her face still burning. Heavens! What had just happened to her? Isobel had been right—Seona could’ve never imagined such intensity of sensation and carnal pleasure was possible. ’Twas almost like magic when Keegan had touched her. And he hadn’t even made love to her. He had simply used his hands and his mouth. Surely, the full bedding experience would leave her passed out on the floor.

But to have Fraser catch them… how humiliating. He must think her a harlot. She hoped he would tell no one, else she would be in deep water.

Seona wished she could talk to Keegan now and ask him about what she’d experienced. She was certain he would be patient in explaining the sensations and teach her how lovemaking worked. He’d already taught her shocking things about her own body. She had not known she was capable of feeling such things. Her physical body had been dormant and asleep until he’d awakened it with a simple touch.

Feeling calm and satiated for the first time ever, she floated off to sleep, only to be awakened what seemed a moment later by loud knocking on the door. But it couldn’t have been a moment, for bright sunlight beamed through the small window.

Saints! Had she slept half the day?

***

Haldane MacKay and his remaining ten men had spent all night traveling from Kyle of Loch Alsh, where they’d disembarked from a galleon. He’d had a devil of a time securing passage in Ullapool. Linden MacKenzie certainly wasn’t going to allow it. In fact, he’d sent the constable after Haldane and his men. They’d escaped and hidden out for several hours.

Then, the night before, Haldane had paid a captain employed by a different shipping company a handsome sum for passage. That bag of gold and silver McMurdo had lifted from Dirk’s tent was proving useful. Haldane had hired several men with it, though he hadn’t paid them in full yet. They’d have to complete the job first. But he was well aware he had to watch his back closely or any of the new men might murder him for the pouch of money.

Haldane doubted McMurdo would kill him, because he knew if Haldane was dead, his chances of securing the burial spot he coveted within Balnakeil Church would be nonexistent. In fact, McMurdo seemed like his own personal bodyguard.

Haldane grinned as he climbed the bush-covered hill near the edge of Loch Long, McMurdo scrambling up behind him. Once they’d ascended far enough to see over the trees, the top of a gray stone castle came into view over the hilltop. Once they climbed higher, Haldane could see that the castle stood on a tiny island at the point where three lochs met.

“Is that it?” Haldane asked.

“Aye. ’Tis Teasairg Castle.” McMurdo breathed hard from the exertion.

“It appears they have strong defenses,” Haldane muttered, watching the guards stationed on the wall-walk and the battlements.

“Without doubt. MacKenzie is a powerful chief.”

So… that’s where Seona and Dirk were. Since Dirk was injured, he was unlikely to show his face for a good long while… if he survived the wound.

Soon, several of the MacKay men would take Seona and her aunt home, toward the east. Haldane would grab her then and head back to Durness, by ship or birlinn if possible, to make it quick. Once he reached Dunnakeil, he and his men would take the castle. The only task left at that point would be killing Dirk. He was still counting on McMurdo to figure out a way to take care of that problem, if an infection hadn’t already.

After descending the hill and rejoining the other men, they hid in the bushes and watched the crofter’s cottages along the edge of the loch. Several of them showed no signs of activity this morn. Likely, the inhabitants had taken their sheep to the high pastures on the mountains. Some wouldn’t be back until autumn.

He and his men slipped to one of the cottages near the edge of the wood, and he forced the door open. He was right. No one inside the fully furnished home. No food either, unfortunately. He and his men would sleep a few hours, then head out later. He didn’t look forward to hiring a boat or ferry to take them across the loch. ’Twas money he’d rather spend for something else, but the loch was named Long for a reason, McMurdo had told him, and going around it was out of the question.

Haldane wasn’t daft enough to storm Teasairg Castle. They’d merely wait until the party escorting Seona emerged, then follow and find the best opportunity to snatch her.