Lost in the Highlands, Volume One

by Lorraine Beaumont

  “Och, Morgan what’s this?” he asked jokingly. “More sour grapes ye are spewing from me besting ye once again?”

  Morgan grunted and dashed a hand through his shoulder-length white-blonde hair when the wind pushed it forward. “Ye did well enough, I suppose.”

  “Ye suppose?” Gavin couldn’t keep the incredulity from his voice.

  “Ye did fine lad.” Morgan chuckled then turned and walked across the field to retrieve his dirk he had lost earlier while clashing swords with his Laird.

  The rest of the men laughed, all in seemingly good humor after the long bout of training with each other. With the promise of fresh ale, food, and a bath, awaiting them, they made their way off the field and up to the castle.

  ♦

  Gavin watched them go and lifted his arm to wipe the sweat from his brow. Dropping his arm back down, he looked up to the castle and couldn’t help but wonder what the lass had gotten into all day while he was training with his men. Knowing her, though, he would not be surprised if she somehow caught the castle on fire even though it was made from stone.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND

  Sometime during the reign of King James

  Things were a bit different in the castle after the men made their way back inside. They were drinking and laughing with one another, making a good ruckus until they saw Paige, then the hall went quiet and wary looks were cut in her direction as she carried out the stew from the kitchen and set it down beside the bowls and spoons on the table.

  “Come and get it,” she called out as cheerily as she could manage but unfortunately it sounded more like a croaking frog.

  Stepping back from the table, she clasped her hands together as one by one chair legs scraped across the floor as the men stood and took turns scooping out ladle’s full of stew in each bowl then returned promptly to their seats as all eyes turned on back to her. What were they waiting for? A freaking invitation?

  Nervously, she cleared her throat.

  “Eat, before it gets cold,” she told them in a what she hoped was a stern motherly type of voice.

  That seemed to get them going and they dug in with gusto. Letting out a sigh of relief that they were eating, she made her own bowl of stew and walked over to the lone chair in the corner she had occupied the day before for breakfast.

  The talking began anew and they at least seemed to be enjoying the meal. If not, they were well-mannered enough not to say anything to her.

  Well, she amended quickly, that wasn’t particularly true. They were saying stuff but she couldn’t understand any of it. At least they didn’t look green while they were eating this time.

  Lifting her spoon, she took a small bite and chewed slowly. Even she had to admit it wasn’t too bad considering she was the one who had cooked it. As she swallowed, her eyes drifted to her highlander. It was funny that she called him her highlander. Not funny ha ha mind you, but funny as in strange, since she had only known him for a few short days. As she looked him over, she decided it didn’t matter how long she had known him, he was hers, at least temporarily. His long legs were stretched out in front of him as he talked with one of his men, with his hands resting on his taut belly. Reaching forward, he grabbed his drink and his eyes met hers. He gave her a small smile, but the effect it had on her was the same as when she drank too much mead, she felt lightheaded and woozy. In return, she gave him her version of a shy smile.

  Unfortunately, it didn’t look like it went over too well because his smile turned upside down and slid quickly back into a frown.

  She tensed.

  How irritating.

  Just when she gained an inch, she was pushed back a mile.

  ♦

  After the men finished eating and she was finished with the dishes, and cleaning up from dinner, Paige left the kitchen and walked down the gloomy corridor towards the main hall. Halfway there, she heard a dragging sound behind her.

  Her body tensed and her skin prickled once more as she spun around. But once again, no one was there, at least no one that she could see. Hastening her step, she turned the corner and plowed right into a hard-unyielding object.

  Her breath rushed from her chest as a firm hand closed over her upper arm.

  “What are ye doing, lass?” he sighed, sounding a mite put out.

  “I was …uh…” Her mind blanked.

  He didn’t say a word but his gaze was disturbingly intent as he stared her down.

  The moments ticked by and she was very aware of the close proximity of his body to her own. Her mind went on a little mini vacation and once again she saw him as he was earlier…swinging his massive sword high above his head as he trained with his men and how his muscles looked glistening with sweat.

  “What is wrong with ye, lass?” he asked finally, albeit softly. “Ye look as though ye might faint dead away into my arms.”

  Her eyes traveled up from his mouth back to his eyes and once again the staccato cadence of her heart kicked into high gear. Unsteady on her feet, she swayed into him.

  His fingers gripped her arm tighter. “I was just…” She gave him one of her practiced sexy looks—the ones she tried in the mirror before she went on dates.

  “Lass…” He shook her slightly. “Did ye eat something disagreeable?”

  “What?” Mortification set in once again.

  “Ye look peaked.”

  “I’m not sick!”

  “Then what’s the matter?” he asked sounding genuinely concerned which somehow irritated her.

  “I was just…” she started. “ Oh, never mind.” She jerked her arm away from his grasp.

  That look crossed his face again—the pained one and she couldn’t help but wonder who was responsible for it. Oh, she knew, she was being a ‘b’ but the hurt in his eyes had to be from someone else since he barely knew her, which made her even angrier. Not at him, but herself. She always fell for the ones that she could never have.

  He turned to leave.

  Without thinking she grabbed hold of his arm.

  He stopped and looked down at her hand with such intensity she felt like her hand would spontaneously combust. “I’m sorry,” she said with meaning.

  He exhaled and dragged his free hand over his face. “Nay, I am sorry, lass.”

  “What for?”

  He pulled her roughly against his body. “For this…” His mouth landed on top of hers in a kiss that stole her breath and made her knees weak. She wound her arms around his broad shoulders and slipped her fingers into the ends of his sweat-dampened hair as he pressed her back against the wall. His hand cupped her face as his tongue slipped inside her mouth and lashed against her own. A soft moan escaped her lips.

  He suddenly released her.

  Paige grappled for purchase on the wall, her breath coming out in rushed hitches as she looked hungrily up at him.

  “Ye keep looking at me like that, lass…” His brow hitched up a notch.

  “Like what?” she whispered out barely breathing at this point.

  “I may have ta toss ye over my shoulder and take ye back ta my chamber ta let ye have yer fill of me.”

  Stupidly, she opened her mouth to say yes, please, but instead one of her practiced snappy retorts flew from her big mouth before she could stop it. “Yeah, right, as if…”

  His body tensed and his eyes narrowed. “Take that haughty tone with me lass, and things will not bode well for ye in the future.”

  Paige flinched, not only from his tone but also from the frightening look in his eyes. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”

  A crease pulled his dark brows together.

  “I’m just nervous…I guess.”

  He smirked at her and she was instantly irritated again.

  “Come, lass,” he said in a commanding tone as though he was calling a dog to him.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Ta bed.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND

&nbs
p; Sometime during the reign of King James

  Through the hall and past the curious stares of the other men, she walked behind him resigning herself to her fate.

  She would have to sleep with him. Darn.

  The hinges squeaked as he pulled the door open. Nervously, she followed him inside. A tub was in the middle of the room again and her face immediately flamed imagining what naughty things he had in mind for her tonight.

  Standing off to the side, she clasped her shaking hands together awaiting his instructions on what to do. Leaning down, he tossed some wood on the fire and then stood. He didn’t look at her though, which seemed strange.

  Discarding his clothing on the floor, he climbed into the tub.

  Once again, she got a good eyeful of his perfectly sculpted buttocks and felt another rush of heat climb to her face.

  Letting out a satisfied groan, he leaned his head back against the rim of the tub.

  Standing by the door, she kept waiting for him to say something but as the minutes ticked by and still he said nothing, she took a tentative step forward so she could see his face.

  His eyes were shut.

  “What are ye waiting for lass?” He cracked an eye open.

  “Oh, oh…” Did he want her in the tub? You can do this Paige, she told herself as she nervously pulled off one of her shoes.

  “Lass, what are ye doing?”

  “Huh?” She nearly fell over and had to steady herself on the edge of the table. “Well, I was…”

  “Come here, I can’t see ye from across the room.”

  “Oh…okay.” She hobbled over to the tub with one shoe in her hand.

  He looked at the shoe and then up to her face. “What are ye doing with that shoe?”

  “I was taking it off?”

  “Why?”

  “Uh, well…you know…” She lifted her brows up and down.

  “Och, lass…” He made a face. “Get on with it, would ye.”

  Something didn’t sound right. His tone wasn’t endearing and his expression wasn’t the least bit sexy. Bending over, she yanked off her other shoe. Stumbling forward, she nearly fell into the tub but his firm hand grasped her arm, stopping her.

  “Thanks.” she gave him a cheesy grin.

  He frowned.

  “Alrighty then,” she muttered as a flash of heat spread to her face again.

  “Lass, have ye been drinking?”

  “No.” She suddenly wanted to have a drink though. On second thought, she might want to have more than one, maybe even two, or three, just to calm her nerves.

  Leaning back in the tub, he closed his eyes once more. “Lass,” he sighed. “What is taking ye so long?”

  So that’s how it was going to be. No talk, just action. Taking a calming breath, she undid the buttons on her gown. She made it to the third one...

  He opened his eyes and stared right at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

  As his eyes drifted down to the front of her gown where her fingers lingered on one of the buttons, she shifted uncomfortably.

  “The pitcher is over on the table.”

  “Oh, right, okay.” She walked over to the table, got the pitcher, and walked back to the tub.

  “The soap and shampoo are in my trunk.” He pulled a chain from around his neck and handed her a key that was attached.

  Taking the key from his outstretched hand, she went over to the trunk. Getting down on her knees, she placed the key in the lock.

  She unlocked the lid and glancing over at him to make sure his eyes were shut, she started to push it upward.

  “Don’t go looking through my things.”

  Paige started from the sound of his voice and dropped the lid.

  “I wasn’t,” she lied. Of course, that is exactly what she was planning on doing. She had been dying to see what he kept inside the trunk since he locked it against her the other night.

  The lid creaked as she pushed it open again. Immediately her eyes landed on a rather large gold foiled box of candies beside the shampoo and soap. There were clothes in there too and many other items that she didn’t have time to investigate since she could tell he was watching her. Quickly, she grabbed out the shampoo and soap. Standing once more, she carried them over to the tub.

  “The water is getting cold.”

  “Err… do you want me just to climb in?”

  His eyes popped open and his brows rose to his hairline. “What?”

  Not the reaction she was expecting.

  Something felt off.

  “Uh…what do you want me to do?”

  “Lass, are ye sure ye are not daft?”

  Irritation flared through her again. “No, I am not daft!”

  “Could have fooled me,” he muttered.

  “That’s it!” She stomped her foot.

  “Get ta it, lass.” He exhaled unfazed by her mini tantrum and wiped his hands over his face, then dropped them back into the water, which made an inviting splashing sound.

  Maybe he didn’t want to do it in the tub, after all. “I need a rag.”

  “A what?”

  “Something to wash you with,” she explained.

  “There’s one in the trunk.”

  Quickly, she crossed the room, grabbed a rag off the top and resumed her spot at the back of the tub.

  “Hair first,” he instructed.

  “Right.” Okay, so maybe he only wanted her to wash him and then he would get to this sleeping business in the bed. That was A-Okay with her. Just like the other night, she got a nice big glob of shampoo in her hands and slammed it down on top of his head. Letting her frustration out, she scrubbed his hair with verve.

  He groaned in bliss.

  Figures.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  LOCH MORAR, SCOTLAND

  Sometime during the reign of King James

  Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Or so she told herself for the umpteenth time while she tried to get comfortable on the little crappy fur in front of the fire.

  After she washed him, he didn’t bother getting dressed but merely walked across the room in all his naked glory and climbed into his bed.

  Stupidly, she stood there waiting for him to call her to him. But as the minutes ticked by and her feet were getting needles in them from standing still so long, she was beginning to wonder if she had been a bit presumptuous about the evening activities she was sure he had planned for her.

  Finally, he let out lengthy sigh.

  She tensed, sure he was going to tell her to get into bed with him. A shiver of excitement rushed through her as she reached up and fluffed her hair. Blowing on her hand discreetly, she checked her breath.

  “Lass, what are ye doing?”

  “I was, um, waiting for you to tell me what to do,” she said trying to sound…sexy.

  He let out a derisive sounding laugh.

  Apprehension settled between her shoulder blades and she tensed again, not with expectancy but instead with dread.

  “Ye want me ta tell ye what ta do?”

  Paige bit her lip hard, knowing somehow nothing good was going to come from answering him but once again, stupidity reared its ugly head and she stepped right into a pile of steaming crap. “Yes.”

  A mocking laugh erupted from him. “Yeah, right, as if…” he said, sounding very modern, throwing her words back at her as another mocking laugh erupted from him.

  Paige clenched her fists to the point it hurt, even though she knew on some level she deserved what he said from how she acted earlier.

  “Go ta bed, lass,” he said finally, albeit quietly.

  Feeling like a dog being reprimanded and told to lay down, she did as he said, all the while trying not to cry her eyes out.

  ♦

  Gavin stared up at the ceiling feeling a heavy weight pressing against his chest, crushing against him. He felt terrible for the way he had treated the lass, but what was he to do…beg? Nay, he had been down that long road before and was wary of what he would fin
d at the end. Rejection was not something he cared for, and he would do just about anything to stop it from happening again. So when she had acted so callously toward him, even after he opened his heart to her, he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He heard her crying, smothering her tears, and again a piercing pain shot straight past the wall he thought he had built up to protect himself from matters such as this and yet the awful pain had somehow found its way into his heart just the same.

  ♦

  When she woke the following morning, he was not in the room and Paige was starting to wonder if he did it on purpose because no one wanted to eat her ‘Oatmeal Surprise’ again. Note to self: if you want to get out of doing something for other people make sure you do it badly the first time and then they won’t want you to do it anymore.

  For some reason, it took longer for her to get ready than usual. She tried to blame it on lack of sleep but she knew it had more to do with depression than anything else did.

  It was the strangest thing. She had thought things between them were progressing rather nicely, until you acted like a ‘b’, her little voice yelled.

  For once, she found she could wholeheartedly agree with her little voice. She was her own worst enemy, a self-saboteur. She was making the same mistakes in the past that she had made time and again, in the future. She was so worried about being hurt that she ruined everything before it even got started.

  She was a coward.

  She always blamed everyone else for everything that happened or didn’t, but maybe she was the cause all along? Because of fear. Fear that she might get hurt. Fear that she might not be good enough. And now that she was actually living a dream come true and got her wish…

  Heck, she was in the past with her very own highlander and what had she done?

  She got all bitchy and pushed him away.

  As she made her way downstairs, she had an epiphany and suddenly knew what her problem was…it was quite simple really…she was an idiot.