“Well, I would make you my queen if you would have me,” Heidrek said to Nicole. “Regardless what that ring you wear is supposed to mean.”
“I appreciate that, Heidrek.” Nicole made sure she kept just the right tone. “But the truth is I’m hoping to return home when all of this is over.”
“Ah.”
When she heard the deflation in his voice, she nudged his shoulder playfully. “Hey, you’re hot as heck and heir to the throne. Girls are gonna be beating down your door if they aren’t already.”
Confusion knit Heidrek’s brows.
“Och, laddie, you’ve a Ma and two aunts from the future. Have you not caught on to their way of speech yet?” Niall filled in the blanks. “She thinks you’re handsome and that you’ll have plenty of lassies wanting you.” Before Heidrek could respond, Niall finished bluntly with, “And she’s too bloody old for you.” Then he winked. “But not for me.”
“If you change your mind, my offer remains,” Heidrek said firmly as he stood. Nicole’s eyes widened when he knelt on one knee, kissed the back of her hand and used his eyes in a way that would likely win over the heart of every girl he ever came across. “I would be honored to call you my own.”
Then with a flourish, he strode away.
“Damn,” she murmured and slid a look Niall’s way. “You might be able to learn something from the kid, Brute.”
“He’s a good lad.” Niall looked after Heidrek fondly then eyed her as he took a swig. “And ‘tis safe to say I’ve learned everything I need to when it comes to dealing with a lass like you.”
The way he rolled his tongue in his cheek filled in all the blanks.
“Get over yourself,” she muttered but grinned a little before she sipped. It continued to amaze her how she could go from despising the man one second to getting a kick out of him the next.
Niall winked before he retrieved some fish for them and showed her how to eat it. Though it wasn’t as tasty as what she ate at Weathervane Seafoods, it wasn’t half bad. You just had to ignore that it had a head and eyeballs.
Thankfully, the remainder of the evening focused less on all the crap they were getting ready to face and more on friends reconnecting. She found the Vikings very interesting, especially Kjar. He had a great sense of humor and was about the last person she would've ever guessed was a demi-god. In truth, he seemed the least mystical of them all with his biker looks and hearty attitude. Apparently he was happily married to a powerful seer who remained behind to help protect the fortress. They had three little girls between the ages of two and four who kept his face animated as he shared stories of their endless conquests…ones that clearly included winning his heart.
After hours of battling, Robert and Tait had long fallen asleep, swords still in hand as they curled up together under a fur. Amber and Kol were in and out of the conversation, so in love and lust she wondered if they ever came up for air. Logan had nodded off but not before sharing several stories about Cassie. They might not have been together long, but it was clear in the way he spoke of her and how his gaze drifted to the fire too often, that he really missed her.
Now Darach sat on one side of her and Niall on the other as they lounged and enjoyed the dwindling fire. Backs against a rock, they had several furs over them as Nicole yawned and looked around. “Where’d Machara and Conall go?”
“Hopefully slaking their long overdue lust,” Niall mumbled.
“’Twould make life more peaceful, aye?” Darach said.
“Aye,” Niall agreed before he cocked a grin at his cousin. “Or mayhap ‘twould only make matters worse.”
“Why’s that?” she asked.
Niall shrugged. “’Tis hard to imagine Machara tied down to one lad and Conall would want as much.”
“So ‘twould be a bloody good fight if she strayed,” Darach continued.
“Because she would,” Niall said.
“Aye.”
“You don’t know that,” Nicole defended. “Maybe she’s finally getting what she’s always wanted.”
Niall and Darach glanced at each other and shook their heads before their gazes returned to the fire.
“I dinnae think ‘tis likely,” Niall murmured.
“Nay,” Darach agreed.
Niall snorted. “Unless he has a magical cock that is.”
“Stop.” Nicole shook her head and sipped from her skin. She had managed to make it last all night. “I’m all set with magical cocks.”
Yet she chuckled.
So did Darach.
Then Niall.
Not full out laughter just low key shared amusement as they all likely visualized Conall trying to lock down Machara long term with his magical cock.
“Everyone should rest,” Kjar declared at last and gestured at Niall. “You and your woman will take Naðr’s cave.”
“I’m good with crashing right here,” she argued as Niall pulled her up. She glanced at Darach. “C’mon, you can sleep in Naðr’s cave too.”
“Nay, lass.” Darach’s eyes flickered between them and he shook his head. “I’m fine right here.”
“Whatever,” she muttered as Niall pulled her after him down a long, twisting hallway.
She stopped at the cave entrance and shook her head. It was mind-blowing. Huge and sweeping, wall-bracketed torches lined the curved walls. Gentle waves lapped against the shore of an inlet well-protected by rugged cliffs. A mammoth, full moon sat low in the sky, glittering orange and white over the ocean. What really got her attention though was the monstrous bed against the far wall. Torches burned on either side, giving it a throne-like look.
“Och, lass,” Niall said softly as he pulled off his tunic and gave her a hungry look. “I think mayhap this is the second time ye dinnae look ungrateful in the least.”
Chapter Eleven
NIALL PURPOSEFULLY DID not look at Nicole as he yanked off his boots, whipped aside his plaid and strode into the water. “Come, lass. If there’s one thing you need to learn about being a warrior ‘tis that you should always bathe after battling.”
“Here we go again with this,” she said.
“Aye.” He turned and eyed her once he was waist deep. “The salt is healing. You need to wash.”
“Kjar already healed me.” Yet her eyes stayed on his chest as she started working at the ties of her dress. “But you’re right. Not cool to sleep with blood on us.”
Niall dipped beneath the water but didn't stay there long. He meant to keep drawing her in then he meant to take her again. And again.
“You’ve got that look in your eyes,” she complained even as she worked faster at her ties while simultaneously trying to peel off her boots.
“I dinnae ken this look ye speak of,” he said, thickening his accent because he liked the affect it had on her.
“Uh huh,” she muttered and made a sloppy mess out of getting her clothes off before she strode into the water.
He had already warmed it so instead of sloshing in the arctic chill of the Norwegian Sea she instead enjoyed a temperature closer to the Caribbean’s.
“Oooh,” she exclaimed. Her nipples tightened to mouth-watering points as her flesh met both the warm water and icy air.
Though tempted to yank her into his arms, he instead lowered into the water and floated. The waves were rough, but he quelled them just enough. Not so much that she could find balance, of course. No, he intended to be her balance one way or another.
When she got deep enough, he held out his hand. “Dip beneath then let me show you something.”
“C’mon, don’t be that obvious,” she said as she ignored his hand and sunk before surfacing.
He curled his fingers. “It’s not what you think.”
Nicole hesitated but not as long as he figured she would before her hand slid into his. Niall pulled her close, put his hands on her waist and strode a few steps until she was between two juts of rock. Then he pushed her back against the cave wall until she grabbed the rock on either side.
“Have ye got a
hold, lass?” he murmured, sorely tempted to take her right now.
When she wrapped her arms over either side and gasped, “Yes,” he pulled away.
Niall made his way to the next indentation and wrapped his arms over either side as well before his eyes went to hers. “So you've got a good hold, aye?”
She flung her head a little when wet hair flopped in her eye. “Yeah, why?”
“You’ll see. Hold on tight.” Niall murmured a chant. “From the gods of the ocean I thank ye, might your waves once more be. Oceanus a diis gratias agite undas iterum vestri erunt.”
Nicole yelped with pleasure when the waves swelled to what they should be and the ocean frothed and swayed beyond their alcoves.
“Wow,” she exclaimed, eyes almost child-like as she swayed gently and laughed. “It kinda feels like a Jacuzzi with one helluva view.”
The moon all but swallowed the sky and the waves ebbed and flowed. Truly magnificent. But not nearly as enchanting as her face as she let go and embraced something else entirely.
Pure fun.
Pure enjoyment.
He laughed and nodded at the alcoves that kept them safe. “Do you want to know where we are?”
“I know where we are.” She laughed as well. “Naðr’s lair.”
“Aye, ‘tis true.” He nodded at the alcoves they were in. The one beside hers then the two next to his. “But there is a story behind these.”
She kept smiling as she splashed her feet. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“’Tis said that when in dragon form the Viking King slashed his mighty claw here for his Queen, Megan,” Niall said. “So that she might find enjoyment and escape as you are now.”
Her eyes widened as she really looked at the five deep indentations or gashes in the rock.
“Holy hell,” she whispered then bit her lower lip. “I mean…darn, this is incredible.”
Nicole’s eyes shot to his. “He must be massive! But then he's pretty huge in human form.”
“Aye.” Niall put his hand over hers but kept his eyes on the ocean. “Naðr and his brothers are amongst the greatest men you will ever meet.” Because he couldn’t help himself, he tossed a grin her way. “Outside of me and my cousins that is.”
“All of you,” she murmured and shifted her eyes to the ocean, “Are something else.”
She did not pull her hand away.
He smiled and turned his gaze to the sea. They stayed that way for a while as she enjoyed the water. As she enjoyed not being so guarded.
When she eventually spoke, her words were soft. “Your dad didn’t stick around long tonight. Where’d he go?”
“I dinnae know.” Niall shrugged and kept his eyes on the waves. “To sleep I suppose.”
“You guys don’t get along so well, eh?”
Normally and with anyone else, he would steer the conversation away but something about being here with her made him speak what was in his heart. “We did…years ago.”
“What happened?”
“Time,” he murmured. “It passed and he didnae like what I made of it.”
“Why?”
Niall hesitated, that old familiar tension seeping into his body.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” she murmured.
The problem? He did want to tell her. Everything. And that alarmed him. Even so, he kept talking. “’Twas simple really. Da wanted me to become Laird of the MacLomains but I said nay.”
“Did the clan want you to become laird?”
“Aye.” Niall shrugged again, almost as if his father was in front of him and he was once more explaining his reasons. “But ‘twas not for me. I grew up at MacLomain Castle. I grew up alongside Logan. I recognized that he was meant to lead. Not I.”
Nicole remained silent for several long moments before she murmured, “Were you afraid to lead?”
“Och, nay. Not for a moment.” His eyes went to hers. “While the clan might have thought me a good fit and my Da wanted it, ‘twas never my passion. I love my cousin and saw greatness in him.”
“So you didn’t think you were great enough?”
“Aye,” he said, his eyes suddenly pleading with hers as they had with his father years ago. “But my greatness exists in protecting my Laird. In recognizing that our clan is better off with Logan as chieftain and me as his first-in-command.”
Nicole’s eyes searched his and he got the feeling that she could see the truth behind his words, the passion and devotion behind them. “Would you have done anything different if you’d become the Laird or do you stand behind everything Logan has done?”
Nobody had ever asked him that.
Nobody had ever wondered if he doubted his decision.
“Not for a moment,” he said softly and honestly. “Logan has done well by our clan and I’m verra proud to serve under him.”
“That’s great,” she whispered and wrapped her hand with his. “Have you ever told your dad that?”
“There isnae any point.” He shook his head. “Da sees things one way. I see them another.”
“Yeah, I get that I suppose.” Her eyes kept with his. “But whether or not you want to hear it, it sounds like your father cares about you.”
Not likely. “How so?”
“Because he wanted you to succeed. I don’t know him very well but in your day and age or more importantly in his eyes, that meant you taking the lead. One he’d had before you.” She shrugged. “It sounds to me like he just wanted the best for you and didn’t respond quite how you’d hoped when you didn’t live the life he had carved out for you.”
“You think he wanted the best for me?”
“Definitely.” She squeezed his hand. “Hey, parents can suck but look at the bright side…he cared. Who knows, maybe he saw you not wanting to become chieftain as abandoning something that he had worked hard to build for you…to give over to you. Maybe in some weird way he saw it as you rejecting him.”
Too many long nights he had spoken with his cousins about this very subject but not one of them had phrased it like she just had.
“I didnae reject, Malcolm.” He turned his troubled gaze to the ocean. “I would never reject my Da.”
Nicole remained silent for a time as he mulled over her words. When she spoke, the octave of her voice had changed. “Where’s your mom? I haven’t heard much about her.”
“She’s been at Hamilton Castle.” A comforting smile came to his face as he thought of her. “My Ma is a good lass. We’re close.”
“That must be nice,” Nicole said so softly he nearly missed it.
Torn from deep thoughts, his eyes returned to her. He was on the verge of telling her what she had told him that first night but stopped. Instead, he said, “What was your upbringing like?”
Maybe, just maybe, she would give him the truth and the secrets he held would fade away.
“Cozy enough.” But there was a hitch to her voice. “Mom and Dad were both born and raised in Southie, but they did good by me.” She shrugged and didn’t meet his eyes. “I’ve got no complaints.”
So she was determined to build her lies. In an odd way, he understood. “Why so much time spent on the streets where you learned to curse then?”
“Because they worked hard,” she retaliated a little too quickly. “I had to make my way to and from school. That meant walking because hell if I’d take the bus. Bunch of scuz-nuts.”
He didn’t like that he lied to her any more than she lied to him, but he kept at it regardless. “So outside of walking to school, life was good at home? You loved your parents?”
“Yeah,” she murmured and he cringed as her strong thoughts bombarded his mind. “I liked the idea of them anyways.”
Because they had lain together and he was a wizard, her thoughts were far more open to him. That meant he literally had to close off his mind if he wanted to give her privacy. Which he really didn’t.
Not right now.
“You’re lying,” he said softly.
&n
bsp; She pulled her hand away. “No, I’m not.”
He knew he should stop talking and let it go, but he realized that an opening had been provided. “Did Cassie not tell you what to expect after sleeping with a MacLomain wizard?”
When Nicole lurched forward, Niall chanted and the waters calmed. But not before she got snagged by a wave. He moved fast and caught her around the waist. Then he kept walking. Even though she scrambled, she couldn’t do much as he braced his feet on the rocky bottom and kept her out beyond where she could touch the bottom.
“Stop, Nicole,” he grunted when she tried everything.
An elbow jab.
A kickback of the feet.
As a last resort, a wiggle of her perfect arse against his groin.
He wrapped an arm across her chest and waist and locked tight. “Stop, Nicole.”
She stilled but remained tense. Worse than that, all the thoughts she had been so good at repressing started to slam into him as she ground out, “You better not be in my head, Brute.”
Though he wanted to take her anger and pain and make it his own, he knew he would get further if he pushed her away. So he shut off his mind, a sensation that he knew would rock her to her core.
What shocked him was how lonely he felt the moment he did.
“Nicole,” he whispered. “I’m not in your head, lass. You have my word.”
“I know.” Her body slowly relaxed. “I don’t know how I know, but I do.”
He released a harsh breath as he severed their connection. Though he had known it was there and had been aroused by it, he had no idea how deeply she’d wrapped herself inside of him. Much like she curled against him when they slept. The comfort she had subconsciously sought wound deep and true. Deep into a place that had him scooping her up and striding for the bed.
The want he had for her not only physically but emotionally was profound.
Too much.
Too fast.
“Put me down,” she said but only halfway struggled. “Now, Niall. Put me down!”
“Aye.” He tossed her on the bed then came down after her. Hands wrapped around her wrists, he dragged her up the bed until he came over her entirely. “Now you’re down, lass.”
Honor of a Scottish Warrior Page 16
