The Highlander's Haunted Kiss

by Joanne Rock

  Finding the ties for the drawers, he tugged one and the garment loosened. He eased the material down her hipbone, lowering his head to kiss the hollow there. His warm breath on her delicate skin sent a shiver through her until he gripped her hips to steady her.

  She glanced down at him, his dark hair falling free of the queue. Fireflies danced around them, the moonlight making the night come alive in their bower while the rest of the forest retreated in darkness as if they were the only ones on earth. Right now, she did not care if they were.

  He peeled down the cotton drawers, licking a path down her abdomen as he bared her skin. The sensation was extraordinarily decadent, or so she though until he dipped one wide shoulder beneath her thigh. Lifted her hips…

  She gasped in sweet surprise as his tongue found the heart of her pleasure and flicked over it. Over and over. She had no warning at what that would do. Sensation coiled and tightened. Breathless, she gripped his forearms where he steadied her hips. His muscles worked subtly as he steered her where he wanted her, his kiss gentle and yet relentless.

  Pleasure burst through her in a sudden, white-hot flame. It squeezed and released her until she was utterly at its mercy. She cried out Iain’s name, her fingers reaching for him, needing him with her and closer to weather the sweet storm that caught her unaware.

  “I am undone,” she whispered, a strange desperation taking root inside her beside the delicious satisfaction. “Completely.”

  “Almost.” He kissed her hip. “But not quite.” He kissed her belly. Her left breast. “Do not fear,” he whispered as the rest of his plaid slid off his hips.

  She felt the hard length of him against the inside of her thigh. If he had not assured her not to worry, she would have done so.

  “Kiss me,” she asked, needing to lose herself in the pleasure of his mouth. “If you kiss me, I think all will be well.”

  His lips covered hers at the same time he entered her. Only a little at first, but he nudged her thighs wide with his, making room for himself. Her heart pounded. Her breath came fast.

  For long moments he kissed her while his fingers played in the damp heat between her thighs. His touches recalled the surprise sweetness he’d coaxed from her before until she found herself relaxing. Each time, he entered her more. Deeper.

  The pleasure built again, but she knew the pace was difficult for Iain. Sweat beaded along his brow and she recalled what he said about the hunger being one hundred times worse for him. Was it true?

  Ah! Of course it was true. He could only speak truth to her here. All at once, she did not want him to be gentle with her. She wanted to give him what he craved more than she wanted her first time to be perfect.

  “Iain.” She licked his earlobe then nipped it, her breasts pressed tight to his chest. “I crave all of you.”

  Trailing a hand down his bare back, she pulled him toward her.

  Not that she could move him unless he willed it.

  “I do not wish to hurt you.” He smoothed a stray strand of hair from her face.

  “Please.” Taking a deep breath, she arched her back and thrust her hips into his.

  She knew the moment when her maidenhead was no more.

  “Lily.” Iain called her name even as the pleasure overtook him.

  She stung inside, but still she found deep satisfaction watching the play of sensations over his face.

  “Do not hold back for me,” she urged, eager for him to feel the things she had.

  “Nay.” He moved slowly. Cautiously. “I will not hurt you. There will be time enough later.”

  The rhythm of his hips soothed some of the burn between her thighs. When he took her breast into his mouth again, the ache eased even more. When she met his thrusts, he moved harder. Faster.

  She clung to him as she learned what pleased him. The pleasure built again. Slower. When he found his release, it rocked her to her core, his body straining deep into hers.

  With a shuddering breath, he drew her close. Kissed her forehead. As the last of the waves rocked him, he opened his eyes and studied her.

  “Lily.” There was a strangled note in his voice she did not understand.

  Wasn’t he replete with pleasure, as she had been?

  “Have I…not done something right?” She was afraid to ask, but she needed to know if she hadn’t pleased him.

  “You’ve done everything so beautifully there are no words for it.” His eyes held a dark sadness though, belying his every word.

  “I do not understand.” She shook her head, wishing she could rewind time. “I asked for this. You have given me what I most wanted and so much more.”

  She imagined nights in this enchanted forest where he taught her all the lush pleasures he already knew. He could sneak into her bedchamber and no one would ever know. She would wait impatiently for each day to end.

  “You don’t understand how true that is.” Shifting away to retrieve his plaid, he wrapped it around her even though the night was unnaturally temperate for the Highlands in autumn.

  “What do you mean?” She clutched the wool tighter, a sense of foreboding stronger than any chill.

  “You see me so well. You have spoken true words about wanting me in a forest ripe with magic.” He shook his head. “I fear you are my one true love.”

  “I—” She swallowed. “I am not sure of my feelings, but I would not have offered myself to you if I had not felt—”

  “Nay. You do not need to explain. I mean only that we will come to love each other.”

  “That doesn’t sound like such a terrible thing. In truth—”

  “Lily.” He gripped her hands in one of his. With his other, he pressed a finger to her lips, quieting her. “I have not been with a woman for one hundred years. Pleasure has been denied me until my one true love arrives to break the curse.”

  She didn’t understand.

  “We can be together then.” They would not be limited to hidden encounters in her bedchamber. “My parents will be powerless to dictate my life if we—”

  “Listen. The woman of my heart has only two choices.” The anguish in his eyes was clear enough. “She can deny her love for me and I will no longer be cursed because I will be…dead.”

  “Never.” Her heart ached at the thought after the tenderness he’d shown her. Why would he suggest that as an option? “What else can I do?”

  He shook his head. “I fear if you declare love for me, you will be forced to leave everything you know. You may be doomed to walk through time with me, Lily. Forever.”

  Chapter Five

  “My lady!” A man’s voice echoed through the forest, the sound jarring Iain.

  “Did you hear that?” Iain sorted through their discarded garments and passed her the corset she’d worn. All at once, the forest went darker, the moonlight dimming on the bower that had been bright with magic—and the sparks between them—only moments before.

  Danger was close.

  “I thought we were safe in this special forest?” She tugged the silk fabric into place and struggled with the fastenings while he wrapped his plaid securely. He wished he could wrap her up as well and protect her always.

  He hated to end their time together that had rocked him to his core. That had shifted his whole world until Lily was the center of it.

  “We are safe from dark magic.” He did not know the Sidhe to penetrate this part of the Caledonian wood. Not without help, at least. Yet that’s how it felt to him—as if the fae enemy lurked nearby. “But mortals can follow us here. Does that voice belong to someone you know? One of your servants?”

  “It might be Edward, my footman.” She stepped into her gown and slippers, tying laces and adjusting layers of fabric with speedy hands, her eyes wary and watchful. “He’s the only man who accompanied me, but I suppose my father could have hired someone to search for me and bring me back to London.”

  Iain would not allow that to happen. And yet, he feared even more what could happen to her if she stayed here with him. H
e knew the greatest love he could show her would be giving her up if it meant keeping her safe.

  “Lily.” He hated to leave the bower. Hated to walk away from this time that had been the most beautiful of his life. But the burden of his wandering existence was no place for her. She deserved better than this.

  Than him.

  “Should we hide?” She put a cool hand to his chest, her body tense with fear even as her cheeks remained flushed with the color that he’d put there.

  It was going to kill him to let her go, but already he could hear the sound of someone tramping through the woods. Twigs snapped and branches rattled as someone moved closer.

  “Nay.” Iain gripped her hands in his. “You must trust me on this. I need you to go to your father or Edward or whoever you trust most. You are not safe here.”

  “I trust no one but you.” She clutched his arms, her grip surprisingly strong. Her expression certain. “You said it yourself, we are meant to love—”

  “No.” He cut her off. Why had he told her that? “You must not say it. I do not know what will happen if you speak words like that aloud. Especially here, of all places.” He feared if she confessed love for him, she would be cursed to wander forever alongside him and it was a risk he could not take.

  Even if it meant he could never hear Lily confess sweet sentiments that he’d been denied for a century.

  “We can run deeper into the woods. You must live somewhere. Or perhaps your brothers will protect us?” She glanced frantically in every direction, as if one of his kin would appear at his side. Yet the only sound that greeted them was that of an intruder coming closer, the crunch of footsteps, the echo of a low, unrecognizable voice muttering curses.

  “We take turns searching for our lost sister,” Iain explained, although it was Magnus’s turn tonight. Perhaps Alexander would arrive before it was too late. “I feel my enemy is closing in, Lily. Return to Invergale. Quickly.”

  “What about you?” she asked, just as a graying man burst into the clearing, stumbling and out of breath.

  “Edward!” Lily rushed to him, her hands all but holding him up as he wavered on his feet. “Are you injured?”

  Iain followed her, wary of the servant’s arrival when the feel of the Sidhe grew stronger. They were close, Iain was certain.

  “Forgive me, my lady.” The footman glanced around the clearing, his eyes wide with fear. “I was forced to open a door within the keep and the most terrible things rained through—”

  “Lily, get away from him.” Iain yanked her back, away from the old man in case he’d been cursed, too. In case the old man could take her away with him to the lands where Iain could not follow, the lands where the Sidhe had taken his sister.

  Even now, the heat inside Iain grew stronger until he could almost feel the ball of light in his chest that the Sidhe had put there the day he’d been cursed.

  Until all at once, a wailing cry shattered the remaining magic of the clearing into slivers of glass slicing the air.

  “Hellfire,” Iain muttered as he shoved Lily back into the bower for whatever protection it offered. “Get down.”

  “What’s happening?” she shouted, eyes filled with fear as she looked around wildly for the source of the Otherworldly scream on the air.

  “The Sidhe call to battle. They used Edward to break through to our world in mass numbers.” It had never happened before.

  “Iain!” His brother’s shout filled the clearing a second before Alexander burst into the fading patch of moonlight still hovering over the bower. “The Sidhe broke through the door—”

  Even as he said it, the whistling hiss of an arrow passed his ear and narrowed all of his thoughts to one fierce goal. Protect Lily. She was all that mattered.

  “Stay down!” he shouted, reaching for his sword.

  Lily screamed as the footman fell, an arrow protruding from his back. Edward had been cruelly used and now lay dying.

  Hell broke loose. Fae warriors appeared on every side, suddenly silent as death after all the wailing that came before. Tall and imposing, they were like human men, only faster, fleeter and deadlier. Fae warriors were rumored to be attractive, but Iain saw only his hated enemy.

  A war cry rattled from his lungs as he rushed at them. Alexander engaged two at once. Iain hit at least two more as they moved toward him.

  Yet he was not fast enough to keep them away from Lily. A Sidhe bastard hauled her to her feet, a blade at her neck.

  “No!” Iain howled.

  Regret crushed him like the weight of Invergale falling on him and burying him alive. He dropped his sword instantly, only too happy to die if it would keep her alive. Except that he couldn’t die, curse those Sidhe bastards to hell and back.

  “I love you, Iain!” Lily screamed at the top of her lungs.

  The words rang in Iain’s ears like a bell. They echoed again and again, a continuous peal. He heard them and felt them deep inside, like an arrow piercing his heart.

  Horrified at what she’d done, declaring her love in front of everyone and surely cursing herself forever, Iain clutched at the pain in his chest. Only to realize the ache was more than just his love for Lily.

  There truly was an arrow piercing his heart.

  Time slowed to a crawl and the clearing shifted. The magic faded. The Sidhe faded. Had they called off the attack? Had Lily’s words summoned some kind of power to halt them? Nothing made sense. Lily stumbled toward him, her beautiful face covered in tears. For him.

  “Lily.” He wasn’t sure if he spoke the word aloud or just thought it. His senses weren’t working, everything becoming dull and dark.

  Vaguely he was aware of his brother nearby. Lurking, pacing and barking out curses that swirled through his fogged head, making little sense in his fading consciousness.

  Above Iain, Lily knelt, her tears hitting his cheek as she crouched over him. Her golden-brown hair spilled over her shoulders, skimming against him in phantom brushes of silk.

  “I love you,” she said again. “Doesn’t that help? Doesn’t that change anything?” Her voice lifted in fear. Anger. “I swear it is the truth.”

  She looked to Alexander, as if his brother might have answers.

  But in Iain’s heart, he already knew all that mattered.

  Iain lifted a leaden hand and stroked her cheek. “The curse the Sidhe put upon me is broken. You are my one true love, and in speaking it aloud, you have saved me from the endless wandering.” He swallowed hard. “To have known your love, if only for a short time, is the best of blessings. Other men would envy me.”

  His own brothers would envy him. Iain knew a moment’s regret for Alexander and Magnus who would continue on, searching for their sister. Never experiencing the blessing of selfless love like Lily’s.

  “It cannot be true!” She laid her head upon his chest, her hair close enough that he could smell the fragrant cinnamon and exotic spices that seemed to cling to her. “I cannot have found you only to lose you this way.”

  Above her, fireflies blinked in the darkness.

  “Alexander.” Iain called his brother while he stroked Lily’s silken hair. When his brother’s face appeared above him, he licked his dry lips. “She has not taken my place in the curse, has she? She is not cursed now?”

  Alexander would be able to tell. He had that kind of gift that Iain and Magnus did not.

  “Nay. She does not have that light within her that we all do.”

  Relief coursed through him and his grip tightened on Lily’s shoulder just beneath her soft hair.

  “And mine is gone, too?” Iain didn’t have to ask. He could feel the stab of the arrow that would have only slowed him down in the past.

  Alexander’s eyes went to Iain’s chest. Then, his brother frowned.

  “What is it?” Iain asked.

  Lily lifted her head, her tear-stained cheeks hurting Iain more than any wound.

  “Holy hell.” Alexander yanked the arrow out with both hands, igniting a white-hot pain that ra
diated through Iain’s whole body.

  “Oh, praise God,” Lily whispered. “Is his wound… What is happening?”

  Iain couldn’t hear anymore. The pain rattled him to his teeth and a white light took him so fast he wanted to pound his fist and curse the Fates. This was not how it was supposed to happen.

  Chapter Six

  Lily’s eyes were gritty after six hours straight of staring at Iain’s near-lifeless body. Every second weighed upon her heart and soul as she watched his chest rise and fall, as she feared each breath could be his last on earth, her last moment to be with the one true love of her life.

  How could she have found such joy, with a man she wanted to claim for all time, only to lose him in an instant? Although every ounce of her being howled in pain, she refused to cry again. She would not allow even one more tear to blur whatever time she had left with him.

  It was almost dawn back in her bedchamber at Invergale. Alexander had carried Iain to the chamber through the passage that led to her room.

  When Iain shifted ever so slightly upon the bed linens, Lily’s heart halted. She’d lived in fear for hours. What if this was the end?

  “Iain?” She tried not to allow a tremor into her voice.

  He moved again. Slightly. Just a shift of his leg on the tick. Still, that small movement stirred hope inside her.

  “I’m here,” she assured him, squeezing his hand.

  He opened his green eyes and focused on her, his gaze surprisingly clear.

  “I’m alive,” Iain croaked through dry lips.

  Lily nearly fainted from relief. She sank to his bedside and ran her hands over his bare shoulders where they emerged from the bed linens. Hope made her weak and strong all at once.

  “I barely dare believe it.” She hugged him so carefully. Actually, she just hugged half of him, wanting to avoid the wound in his chest. “Alexander said you might live when he pulled the arrow out. That the curse broke but in a different way than he thought. Instead of me turning immortal when I said I loved you, it ended up turning you mortal. So you could have died of your wounds except that—and this is the crazy part—he thinks the Sidhe might have let you live so that you could know what true love is.”