And not for the first time, he let her know it.
“I dinnae know about Ethyn seeming different,” he grumbled, his mood foul indeed as the sun lowered and the woodland thickened. “I do know about me, though, and the state ye’ve got my—”
“I know, I know,” she muttered even as she bloody well went and squirmed again. “Just try to focus on something else. Like maybe—”
“What ‘twill be like when I finally feast my eyes on what’s been teasing me all day,” he growled, clamping his hand down on her hip when she went to squirm again. He murmured in her ear, making sure she caught the roll of his R, so she knew how good he was with his tongue. “When I watch you whilst I ravish what awaits me betwixt yer thighs. The source of the sweet scent ye’ve been teasing me with all day.”
A tremble of awareness rippled through her body. Her scent only grew stronger, not for the first time earning them a slew of curses from his brother. Marek had taken to riding a ways off earlier but muttered on more than one occasion that it would never be far enough until things were taken care of.
Something Cray agreed with completely.
“It’s just way too fast,” she grumbled when he knew she’d rather purr. He had caught her less-than-prudish thoughts throughout the day. Carnal thoughts not only brought on by feeling his arousal but because her dragon had broken out of its cage.
Now it wanted her to follow.
He felt her struggling with it but not as hard as she could be. Rather her heart raced for him. Her skin heated against him. Her breath caught the numerous times he pressed his hips forward, not just to still her but to remind her of what waited.
“’Tis supposed to be fast,” he replied, knowing she referred to him wanting to lay with her so soon. What else could it be when she didn’t approve of sleeping with men she’d just met? Which was not the case here, and he reminded her of that. “Besides, we have known each other for some time now if you count how long you’ve been in my mind. Along those lines, ‘tis also safe to say having been so verra much a part of my mind, that you know me far better than anyone else, aye?”
“Yeah, which means I pretty much know one thing about you.” She chuckled and met his eyes over her shoulder. “Seriously, you’re going to use that kind of logic when you’ve had nothing but a one-track mind? One that by no means was on me the whole time?” Her brows shot up, distinct irritation in her voice now. “First, the twelve women I had to listen to you lust after before meeting me then the two you...”
When her pupils flared, and her dragon eyes sizzled, he realized just how close their dragons had grown in a short period of time. “You didn’t do it.” Her voice dropped to a shocked whisper when she realized he hadn’t bedded the women back at his castle. “You couldn’t because...”
“Nay, I couldnae,” he groused, figuring if this was what it took to get betwixt her thighs, then so be it. “Not when ‘twas you I envisioned the whole time.” Then, because he liked the way she licked her lips when she was nervous, envisioning them slick with his seed, he made sure she got the proper visual. “Not when only you on your knees would satisfy me.” He rubbed the pad of his thumb across her full lower lip. “Not when ‘twas these verra lips I want to see straining around my—”
“Bloody hell, little brother,” Marek cursed, interrupting a fantasy he fully intended to execute. “Get a hold of yourself and pay attention. We are being followed.”
“Aye, I know,” he muttered, closing the distance between him and Marek. “’Tis the beastie again.”
“I thought so,” Madison exclaimed, scanning the forest behind them. “Why is Phelan following us, instead of Ethyn?”
“’Tis impossible to know.” Marek shook his head. “’Tis wreaking havoc with my dragon, though.” He steered his horse down a decline gesturing that they follow. “There’s shelter and water for bathing down this way. We’ll stop for the night, and I’ll go hunt.”
“We’re making him grumpy,” Madison said into his mind. “So, start behaving.”
“Stop wiggling your arse then.” He clamped down on her other hip and steered the steed with his legs. “Or I will flip you around and see myself satisfied before you get off this bloody horse.”
“Impossible,” she muttered before he telepathically showed her how it could be done even without turning her. “Nothing is impossible when it comes to carnal pleasure.”
Especially, he imagined, with a fellow dragon. With her.
His brother had found a good spot for the night, consisting of a few well-hidden caves near an equally sheltered river. Though he caught the scent of an incoming storm, it was still a ways out, allowing for a striking sunset to provide ample lighting while they settled in.
“It really is beautiful here, isn’t it?” Madison leaned against a rock admiring the sky almost as much as he was admiring her. “So peaceful.”
“Aye, when everyone’s not busy warring with each other.” He leaned against the rock beside her, curious where she stood with all this. What she made of her friends ending up here. Of her possibly ending up here. “Could you envision living here? Being part of this life?”
“You know, I’ve been thinking about that,” she said. “And I’m just not sure.”
Despite the sinking sensation in his gut, he kept his expression neutral. The idea of her returning to the future bothered him far more than he anticipated. Which made him realize how dangerously close he was to being in the same position he’d been in with Maeve.
“Ye dinnae think ye want to stay then?” he murmured, his brogue thickening with emotion.
“My parents might be gone now, but I still have a job,” she said softly, absently straightening a ring that was already perfectly aligned. “I mean, what use would I be here?”
He knew she wasn’t looking at him on purpose.
“I don’t know anything about this era,” she went on. “What good would an accountant be?”
Though moments away from playing it safe and stalking off, to hell with the lass leaving him, he stood his ground and slowly but surely walked into a trap he didn’t see coming.
“I am sure Marek could use your expertise,” he replied. “Our people pay taxes for protection and ‘tis a sizeable clan overlooking many. A mind like yours helping to organize all that goes into running things smoothly would be most welcome.”
“Maybe,” she murmured, still not looking at him. “Honestly, I think the biggest selling points would be being close to my friends...and being around those like me. Learning about what I am. Where I truly fit in this world.”
Her eyes slid to him, her words far bolder than anticipated, telling him she’d been giving things a great deal of thought without him being the wiser. That despite her hesitation, she knew precisely what she intended to do.
Just not who she would do it with.
“One thing I have figured out is that I do belong with a dragon.” She shrugged, remarkably matter of fact and to the point. “Now, it’s up to you whether that’s you or your brother.”
Chapter Seventeen
WHILE SHE COULD say she didn’t know what possessed her when she lay down the ultimatum that she intended to be with Cray or his brother, she knew deep down nothing possessed her at all. She was, for the first time in her life, being assertive about what she wanted.
That, as it so happened, was Cray.
God knows he wasn’t easy, but when her dragon gentled beneath his touch, she knew for certain he was the one. He was somebody she certainly never saw coming into her life, but without question, belonged in it.
If, of course, she could get to the man beneath.
The one her dragon saw clearly.
The person, if she wasn’t mistaken, that he used to be before all the heartache.
So she had handled him the only way she knew how based on the short time she’d known him. She outright challenged him with who he cared about most. Who he considered genuine competition.
Marek.
Then she walked
away.
Honestly, she wasn’t a fan of ultimatums, but she needed to break down Cray’s walls and help him if she could. He needed to face his past and not be afraid of his future. Could she help him do that? She had no idea. But she had to try. She needed to help him like he had helped her. Because nothing had been as terrifying as shifting against her will.
And nothing had been so relieving as his calm, supportive presence.
She grabbed her satchel and made her way to an alcove around the back where she could swim in private. Yet she had no intention of swimming. At least not right away. No, she had thrown down the gauntlet. Now she was waiting.
Would he come?
Would he try to win her the way he knew she wanted to be won?
Not with him between her thighs but in her heart.
Hoping she played this correctly, she sat on the shore with her back against a tree and waited. And waited. Then waited some more, her heart sinking along with the sun. Though tempted to seek him out, she stayed put.
He had to come to her.
Then he had to start opening up.
Her gaze fell to her ring and its colorless stone. It hadn’t shined once yet. She didn't think it would either. Not until he truly believed that his past wasn’t going to repeat itself somehow.
“You dinnae know that, lass,” he said softly from the darkness, clearly having followed her thoughts. “You cannae promise that.”
She hadn’t realized how shallow she had been breathing until she knew he had come, and her lungs filled with air. He was reaching out. Trying. Which meant he wanted her, too. Beyond the flesh to something deeper.
“You’re right, I can’t promise you I won’t be cast under a spell,” she replied, certain she was right about her inner beast. “But I can promise you that my dragon would do anything to break free from it. That it would do anything to be with yours.”
“Aye.” She could hear the frown in his voice as he referred to her nightmare. “And anything to keep it safe.”
She understood how that could be a point of contention. How much added risk their unknown past lent to all this.
“Which should tell you something.” She remained blunt because he needed to see things clearly. “It should make you realize that you can look at our situation one of two ways. You might love and lose again, but how many can say they’ve been given a second chance at a connection like that?” She shook her head and kept with the absolute truth, recognizing her inner dragon in her words. “Do you really want to turn away something like this out of fear? Because we both know whatever this is, it’s strong.”
Though she could argue that she was dragon where Maeve wasn’t, so things were bound to be different anyway, she refrained. She wouldn’t compare herself to Maeve. Not only were they vastly different women, but their situations were different. Their connections with Cray, though strong, different as well.
Silence might have fallen, but she knew he was still there. That he tried to both walk away and come to her without any luck. So, having said all she could for the moment without getting too personal, she waited again. Thankfully, this time he didn’t make her wait as long but eventually melted out of the night. He sat beside her, took a swig from a skin of whisky then handed it to her.
He didn’t speak right away but appeared to gather his thoughts, likely trying to figure out where to begin. That, as it turned out, was the first time he saw Maeve.
“I didnae like her,” he stated bluntly before unmistakable fondness tinted his words. “She was timid and shy, where I preferred a bold lass who spoke her mind.”
She couldn’t help but draw a parallel to that with herself because, typically, she was timid and shy with men. Until, of course, she met him and almost instantly became someone else. Somebody truly bold when she found herself in his mind. As if her dragon finally felt at home, and she could be her real self with someone.
“In fact, I paid Maeve no mind when she first arrived at MacLeod Castle,” he went on. “Not until she caught me unaware shifting in the woods.”
“Wow, how did that go?” she asked, trying to imagine such a thing.
“Not how I would have expected,” he conceded, chuckling. “But then neither of us were exactly prepared when we discovered one another.” He shrugged, cocky as only Cray could be. “Let’s just say she saw me at my worst,” he winked, “then at my verra best.”
She smiled, drawn to this lighter side of him, the smile in his voice. “Dare I ask?”
“Must you?”
She laughed. “Oh, I must.”
He sighed and shook his head. “To put it one way, I, better yet my dragon, was preparing, practicing what to expect when I finally lay with another dragon in that form. Unfortunately, Maeve caught me in the act.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, trying to read between the lines but having zero luck. “I think you’re going to need to elaborate.”
There was no mistaking the humor in his voice now. “I am nae sure you want to hear this, lass.”
“I definitely do.” She nudged him, super curious when in truth, she should have had some inkling of what was coming. “Just tell me. What was your dragon up to?”
“Up is an appropriate word,” he mused. He tried to shrug it off, remaining vague. “’Twas more like getting a feel for things, really.” Now he was just sheepish. “In my defense, I was only sixteen winters old.”
Up? Getting a feel for things?
She rounded her eyes in understanding. “Oh, no.”
“Aye,” he finally confessed. “I was allowing my dragon to gain an erection.”
She snorted, then bit her lower lip, trying not to laugh. She could only imagine what it would be like to happen upon an erect dragon. “Poor Maeve!”
She had a pretty good idea of what was between his legs, so she had no trouble envisioning how big it was in dragon form.
“Aye.” He shook his head, not finished it seemed. “If that wasnae enough, her happening upon my dragon startled it so much, it shifted me back equally nude.” A twinkle lit his eyes. “And equally erect.”
She put her hand over her mouth, flat out laughing now. What a way to come across a guy.
“And it doesnae end there.” He shook his head. “It turns out she thought herself alone and was about to bathe, so she too wore no clothing.”
“Oh, my God,” she said around more laughter, wiping away tears. Where she thought this was going to be a sad retelling of events, it was anything but. “No wonder you two fell so hard for each other. What a way to get things rolling.”
“Aye,” he murmured. “We laughed because what else was there to do? ‘Twas embarrassing but ‘twas also enlightening in more ways than one.” His voice grew softer, his tone suddenly changed as he remembered. “After that, she wasnae so timid around me, and I was able to see past what I wanted in a lass to what I needed.”
She nodded, understanding that to a degree. While she didn’t have a lot of experience to draw on with the opposite sex, the one man she’d had any sort of relationship with brought her out of her shell. He took her out and made her live a little when she would have much rather stayed home. She had dreaded clubs full of women she generally towered over and men who could barely stand the sight of her. Even so, she knew it was what she needed. She had to socialize at some point.
“So you see, I was a wee bit like I am now before I met Maeve,” he went on. “But much preferred the man I became when I was with her.”
Though that should surprise her, deep down, it didn’t, and she suspected it was because of their dragons connecting. Or perhaps because she'd been in his mind long enough to sense there was a side to him, he didn’t show the world.
“At least not in this life,” she whispered, as a strange sensation washed over her. A memory if she didn’t know better. “But most definitely in the last.”
She looked at him, startled, overwhelmed with certainty.
Positive she had just recalled something very important.
; Chapter Eighteen
“WHAT IS IT, lass.” Concerned, he put his hand over hers as she gripped the grass by her side. “What did you just remember?”
Because he was certain Madison had recalled something.
“You were different then,” she said softly, meeting his eyes in moonlight cut by fast-moving clouds. “Quiet and reserved, resolved to being that way if it meant keeping me safe. Us safe.” She blinked back tears. “I don’t think it was just you and me before, Cray. I think we had a family.”
“I dinnae ken,” he whispered, but he did. Or at least for a moment, he thought he did.
She shook her head, clearly trying to grasp onto whatever she had sensed, but it was getting away from her. In part, anyway. “I don’t think I was so quiet either.” She swallowed hard and shook her head. “Not at all.”
He didn’t think so either. Though he wasn’t remembering things as readily as her yet, the dragon peeking around the stone in his dreams had been rambunctious. Full of life. Some might even say looking for trouble.
Her trembling hand calmed beneath his touch, but her inner turmoil remained obvious. So, despite not wanting to talk about it, he continued sharing what had happened with Maeve to keep Madison’s mind distracted. And, he realized, because he wanted to tell her. Needed to.
“In truth, I think Maeve and I fell in love that verra first day sitting by the river,” he went on. “Whilst ‘tis safe to say I didnae have much experience to draw on, I had never felt for another what I felt for her.” He sighed. “Though there was verra little time betwixt our being together and her being cast under a spell to love Aidan, ‘twas the most important time in my life. The most meaningful.”
He paused, expecting the usual rush of anger and sadness to overcome him, but it didn’t when Madison’s fingers threaded with his, and she urged him to go on.
A Scot's Resolve (The MacLomain Series: End of an Era, #3) Page 12
