“Where did he go? If that's even true," Jax said, fixing a dark glare on the woman.
“Well, we are preparing for war after all, so it makes sense that he would have plenty to keep him busy.”
“War? Jonathan isn't into war," Jax said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Maybe not, but he needs to save his friend. They were both abducted not too long ago by a really mean group who call themselves the Phantoms. They think they are sooo badass because they can survive in the snow. They only do it because they eat anything, even people. They're trying to fatten up your brother's friend right now. Fortunately, Jonathan was smart enough to escape. His friend wasn't so lucky, so we're all going to retaliate and get rid of the problem once and for all. We want to keep things peaceful up here in the North. Believe it or not. It's all rather exciting,” she said, moving close to Jonathan and pulling a blanket around his shoulders.
She touched his cheek, her beautiful face sparkling with excitement. She was toying with him, testing her power. He wished it wasn't working, but he could feel the yearning in his body, strong and prominent. It had been nearly a month since he'd had any kind of release, and this woman was dangerously close to opening a floodgate he would rather keep closed.
“Please, go get my brother,” he said sternly, turning away from her.
She seemed surprised, but somehow pleased at his rejection, and nodded, pulling her hand away and turning on her heel. He purposely avoided looking at her swaying hips and sultry, curvy body, and instead pouted at the wall.
And then he was being pulled into a bear hug and the spicy scent of his brother was filling his nostrils. Jax opened and closed his mouth, almost ready to vomit from the emotional toll of what he'd just experienced.
“I thought I'd never see you again,” he breathed.
“Here I am,” Jonathan said with a wink. It was too good to be true. Maybe he really had died in the cold and it was all a dream.
“I'm so glad you're here,” Jonathan exclaimed, hugging Jax again. “We need all the help we can get.”
“You...wait, you mean in this war thing?”
“Yeah!”
“Jon, I can't...”
“What?” Jonathan asked, his face falling in disappointment.
“Look, I know it's important to you, but I have somewhere to go. A home. Somebody waiting for me. I just needed to know if you're all right. Al came by and told me about you and I had to see for myself. I missed you so much...”
Now that they were together again, there were no words that felt sufficient enough to explain what he'd been through. The terrible guilt and misery he'd felt when he believed he was truly alone in the world. He had nearly killed himself in his grief, but somehow, he'd been brought to this woman's room and spared.
“I missed you too,” Jonathan said. His face had aged considerably, and he looked much older with the scruff thick around his face. “Listen, we're still in the planning stages. Talk to your family; think it over. We seriously need the help. We could get killed out there, but I know how skilled you are. You could make or break this thing for us.”
“Forget about it,” Jonathan begged, gripping his brother's forearm. “Just come back with me. We have everything you'd need. I swear, it's perfect.”
“I'm sure it is,” Jonathan said, pulling gently out of his brother's grip. “But this expedition was my idea. I'm responsible for risking those men's lives. I can't just leave him there to die. Not when there's something I can do to save him. You can help me or you can go home; those are your choices. It's not safe for you to stay if you're not going to be a part of this. I'd rather you were safe anyway, little brother. You have no stake in this war.”
Jax opened and closed his mouth in disbelief. He had finally found his brother, but after all this, he might very well lose him again in a needless battle to save one man's skin.
“It's not just for me,” Jonathan said, lightly punching Jax on the shoulder. “I need to safeguard the future of the children in the community up there. It's a really solid place, you know. They're trying to start something special. Get a real society going again. Not like the turf-war cult hell down south. I'm behind this one hundred percent. Maybe when this is over, you and your family can join us. You'll know where to find me.”
He winked at Jax and turned away, walking out the doorway. And just like that, his brother was gone again.
Chapter 8
“How did it go with your brother?” the sultry woman asked when she returned to her bedroom. Her voice brought another surge of longing to his loins as he remembered the way it felt when she was touching him in his sleep. But he was also angry and disgusted by her and refused to meet her gaze.
“It's not really any of your business," Jax snapped at her. She smiled, a glow that radiated from across the room, and Jax darkened in response.
“It must not have gone well," she said, coming toward him.
“Please, just leave me alone," he said, looking her in the eye. “There is somebody that I love.”
“Well, she's quite lucky. You're very handsome.”
And with that, the smiling woman disappeared, leaving him alone in the room. He walked over to the fireplace cursing at himself for feeling such an intense burst of longing that he would have no release for. He pulled his clothes on, groaning in discomfort as they grazed his erection, and grabbed his backpack. He was going to head back home to be reunited with the woman he loved most. The woman who he missed so much that he almost resented loving her in the first place.
***
The journey was long and grueling, just as he remembered it on the way there. Unfortunately, it was even harder with the harsh elements working against him. He dug himself a little hole in the snow, creating a wall where the wind was the fiercest and pulled half of the tarp over it. He put the other half of the tarp on the ground to prevent himself from getting wet, packing the snow tightly to create a firm platform. He was elated with the knowledge that his brother was alive, and happy that he knew exactly where to find him. But he was also worried that the pointless war he was fighting might leave him without a family left to speak of.
He spent the next two weeks running as quickly as he could, heading back home to Layne. At night, he was haunted by thoughts of the seductress, and had to force himself to avoid the images of her face and the memories of the pleasure he felt during the sensual dream he'd had. He would force his thoughts back to Layne, the last sexual encounter they'd had, and try to keep himself from relieving the burning sensation in his loins. It would make him vulnerable if he did.
Finally, after what seemed like years, the landscape began to look familiar. He followed the path that Al had created until finally he saw the familiar fence coming up in the distance. Before he could get inside, the door flew open and Layne was in his arms. Her intoxicating, rose-scented hair filled his senses, and she moaned immediately as he bucked his hips against her, pulling her pants off of her body and spreading her legs. He lifted her up by the waist and gazed into her sea colored, blue-green eyes.
“I missed you so much," she whispered.
“I missed you too," Jax whispered, pulling his throbbing member out of his pants and pushing it inside her with a hard shove. She had already been wet by the time she reached him, and threw her head back with a loud moan as the sudden impact made her knees buckle. He carried her inside, thrusting slowly in and out of her as they moved through the snow covered forest floor and toward the doorway of the cabin.
They didn't make it to the bedroom. Instead, he pushed her against the wall and showered her entire body with hot kisses that made her moan and writhe against his body. He had been gone for far too long, and she had missed his muscular torso, and the feeling of his long, thick cock pushing intimately inside her.
She gasped as he groaned loudly and came hard inside her, filling her insides with the hot flow of his orgasm. She hadn't come yet, which he knew, and he moved behind her, pressing himself against her backside and reaching a
round to cup her firm breast in one hand and slide his fingers inside her with the other. She leaned against him with a moan and he kissed her gently as his penis grew hard again, finally squeezing itself between her legs as it grew more swollen with anticipation.
In a tangle of limbs, they fell onto the couch, and Layne wrapped her long, perfect legs around his waist as he rammed hard into her, sending a shockwave of pleasure through her whole body. She cried out, and he did it again and again, not giving her a break to catch her breath. She arched her back, her nipples pink and hard, and buckled against him as their hot fluids dripped between her legs and pooled on the couch beneath her. She shuddered as she felt him tense up, ready to come hard into her again, and she cried out loudly as she began to quake underneath his powerful body, giving in to the most intense orgasm she'd ever had in her life.
They lay tangled on the couch together, Jax stroking her long, light brown hair lovingly, the light in his dark eyes glowing brightly. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed his forehead, and he smiled sweetly at her.
“What color are your eyes?” she asked him.
“I think they're green,” he said thoughtfully. “But I don't really know. They change sometimes.”
“I hope our baby's eyes are like yours,” she said with a contented sigh.
“What...?” Jax asked, sitting up and staring at her.
“I think I'm pregnant,” Layne whispered.
THE END
Beyond the Highland Gateway
Leela Ash
Copyright ©2016 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Table of Contents
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1.
Alisa Craig heaved a heavy sigh as she shelved the books left over on the cart. It was the end of the day, so everybody had left the library, which was normally a good thing. Today though, it wasn't. It meant that she was alone with her thoughts, none of which were particularly pleasant.
Things hadn't been going well at home. She had married her high school sweetheart, and had believed that they were the perfect couple. She was a librarian and he was an accountant; two boring, meticulous people who only had eyes for each other.
Lately though, she wasn't so sure. She had been getting a lot of signs that Carl might not be as honorable as she thought. He was being secretive and strange. She wondered if he might have hit his midlife crisis early. It was beginning to make her nervous. He had begun to surprise her with random gifts.
In most relationships it would be a nice way to spice up the marriage, but it just made Alisa nervous. She couldn't help but wonder if he was feeling guilty about something. Carl was a man who held on to every penny that came into his grasp, and to see him parting so easily with his money on trivial things like flowers and jewelry was a huge warning bell.
Alisa sighed. Where had she gone wrong? They had been married for six years, ever since they were both twenty. Maybe they had married too early after all, just as her mother had told her. But then, her mother had never really liked Carl. She said he was bad news, and claimed she knew through a mother's intuition. She took her Scottish roots seriously, and had a lot of superstitions that Alisa never really understood.
Normally she would be able to take comfort in her appearance. If he was being fishy because there was another woman, did he think she was slacking off with it? The thought was absurd. She still turned heads wherever she went. Her long, golden blonde hair fell over her shoulders, making her look glamorous even on the worst of days. And most men couldn't take their eyes off of her full pink lips, even though she never painted them in seductive shades of red. And she could always rely on her soulful blue eyes to hold others rapt in her attention for as long as she wanted them there. Her beauty wasn't a gift she had found particularly useful though, and thought it attracted too many questionable people to her.
She had been happy to settle down with Carl. He was the sweet, quiet guy of her dreams; a man she believed could see past her beauty and into her truest self. That was something he liked to pretend he could do, while the rest of the male population were busy tripping over themselves to check out her ass.
No, she hadn't slipped up on her appearance. In fact, she found that she was getting more attention than ever lately. On a daily basis she could count on at least three library patrons complimenting her or trying to get her phone number. Most of the men didn't care that she had a wedding ring on. She knew it made Carl madly jealous. Maybe he had finally become so paranoid that he convinced himself that he wasn't worth her full attention, so she must be having it off with some other man who was more worthy of her than he was.
It would make her furious if that was the case, and he was using it to justify cheating on her. She pushed a book into its place hard, nearly cracking the binding. She felt suddenly irresponsible as a librarian and pulled the book back out to make sure she hadn't damaged it, at least not too badly. When she saw the cover of the book, she was startled by a vibrant image of Scotland, a place she knew well from lore and paintings.
She had been craving tales of Scotland lately. She used to curl up with her mother for hours and listen to her speak about the mystical and mysterious place. She would have done anything to listen to another tale about her distant highlander relatives.
Unfortunately for her love of the old tales, her mother had shared the same love and succumbed to the deep, burning desire in her heart of hearts to use her retirement fund to move back to Scotland. This left Alisa alone, and saddened by the fact that she would no longer be able to listen to her mother weave the tales she loved so much.
Maybe this book would help her to fill the void. It also gave her a comforting thought. Maybe, if worst came to worst with Carl, a visit to her mom's wouldn't be such a bad idea. If her suspicions were proven true, it would be a nice excuse to escape life for a while and soak up the intoxicating tales her mother shared with her.
She flipped through the book, her eyes hungrily taking in the words. It seemed like a romance story, one that was captivating and engaging. It wouldn't hurt anything to take the book home. She could see to any repairs that might need to be made and use it as a way to distract herself from the emotional toll she was dealing with as a result of her suspicions of Carl's cheating. There was no way to know for sure, and sometimes she felt guilty for even considering it, but she was only human.
***
That night, Alisa sat in her study, fingering a piece of ancient tartan cloth that her mother had given to her. Her mother had always kept a huge sheet of it close in a wicker basket beside her chair. It was a family heirloom, she had told Alisa, and although she wanted to keep part of it for herself, she had cut it up and divided it among Alisa and her four brothers and bestowed it upon them with its tale when they each turned sixteen. She had been the last to hear the tale from her mother, and had kept the cloth close by her ever since.
As legend had it, a handsome Highland devil, Lord Blane Wyndham, had been traveling for days, hoping to wreak havoc on the lowland settlement that liked to try policing his clan's ways. He was rounding the bend, nearly there after his long journey, when he ran into a beautiful woman. She was unlike any he had ever seen, and her clear eyes held him still in his tracks. She saw he had a mischievous glint in his eyes. He could tell she was not highland stock, for she was scrawny and pale. Still, he had never seen anyone more beautiful.
“You up to no good, highlander?” she asked him.
“Aye,” he said with a charming smile.
As it happened, the woman was a noble lady, daughter of Blane's most hated enemy. They began a forbidden, elicit romance, one that nearly started a war between
the highland clan and the lowlander's settlement. Finally, highlander and lowlander came to an agreement – a peace treaty, if the two young lovers would be allowed to live in their own way.
Everything was going well until, one day, the young woman was approached by a group of huge men.
“You're making a mistake, getting involved with Lord Blane,” the leader told her. “He is already engaged to be wed, and to a highlander. We don't need lowlanders contaminating our stock.”
“Nothing you can say will dissuade me from marrying him,” the plucky lass said, unintimidated by the three men. “He is my true love, in any time, in all ways.”
“This is Lord Todd,” the leader said, gesturing to a stern man. “His clan outnumbers Blane's by hundreds. If you don't make yourself scarce, he will attack, and the blood will be on your hands.”
The three men left, and the lass was left to ponder their threat. She wanted to speak to her betrothed about it, but before she reached him, she was intercepted by Lord Todd.
“You'd best keep your mouth shut lass, or we'll take care of you and your family. They'll regret making peace with the highlanders.”
The lady returned to her family home in the lowlands, where she tossed and turned, before finally falling into a fitful sleep. She had been having dreams of a faraway place, somewhere strange and different but so vivid that it seemed she could reach out and touch it if she tried.
The wedding was set for the next day, and she awoke feeling scared and concerned. There was nobody whose counsel she trusted, and so she held the terrible secret in her breast. When she walked toward her beloved to tie the knot, he looked at her with such love and tenderness that she almost fainted with worry. His life was in danger if she said yes.
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