The Rogue

by Allison Butler

  Heat scorched her cheeks. ‘You should not put wicked ideas in my head.’

  ‘I’d like to hear your wicked ideas.’

  ‘I think my judgement of how troublesome you are was made in haste.’ Her fondness for trouble grew with every breath.

  ‘Excellent! I thought I was losing my touch.’

  He drank from her cup and she watched his throat work as he swallowed. She swallowed and accepted the cup. She wanted to know precisely how much trouble he could be.

  As if he heard her silent wish, he stepped closer, stealing the small space between their bodies. Her skin came alive at his nearness. He smiled and left her heart swimming in warmed honey. His large hands cupped her face. He stared down into her eyes. His head lowered and a whisper-breath brushed her mouth before his lips pressed against hers. Softly at first touch, the pressure building slowly as his lips firmed against hers. His mouth shifted, slanting across hers to feed the hunger he’d awakened. Calling her closer.

  Keila reached for him, her arms skimming around his naked waist as she rose up on her toes, the better to reach his mouth and savour his kiss. His powerful body drew her in, cradling hers, like a leather gauntlet fit a hand. Her back arched and he held her there against his heat. Her heart raced and her mind wandered in an unknown place where she knew naught but a growing sense of want and need.

  She wanted with a desperation she’d never known. She needed Adair to give her what she wanted. She’d never thought herself lonely but suddenly knew she was. Her palms pressed against his back, drawing him ever closer. The cup fell from her fingers, forgotten. The wooden vessel dropped and bounced across the stone floor, the sound muted to her ear by the fire building deep inside her.

  Adair lifted his head, lowering the flames, lessening the heat.

  Keila opened her eyes on a whimper and stared into the ruggedly handsome face of the man whose heart thumped as swiftly against her chest as hers beat on his. He held her still.

  ‘Why? Why did you stop?’ Her voice sounded breathless and frustrated as she stood moulded against the front of his masculine form.

  ‘Keila, I …’ His gaze roamed her face. ‘Christ.’ He peeled his naked chest away from her, and with a single step back, removed his hips from cradling hers. ‘I only meant to kiss you, to thank you in kind for healing my wounds and caring for me.’ His eyes dropped to her mouth. Her lips tingled. The muscles in his upper arm danced and rippled as he placed one hand behind his neck and rubbed his nape.

  ‘Are you in pain?’ She enjoyed the view of him but she was enjoying his kisses much more.

  He stopped rubbing his neck and looked at her. ‘Nae.’

  ‘Then why did you stop kissing me?’ Had she done something wrong?

  He made a sound that could pass for a laugh but it sounded like it hurt. ‘I am in pain, but not the kind that can be fixed with healing and herbals.’

  ‘Then tell me how I can help you.’

  ‘God almighty, Keila.’ One step and he was almost as close as he’d been while kissing her. She relished his nearness. ‘I want to lie with you so badly it hurts.’ His gaze searched her face.

  ‘Then why did you stop?’ Her voice emerged on a whisper.

  ‘Because you deserve more than I can give you.’

  Did he speak of marriage? She couldn’t marry him. She couldn’t marry anyone. Ever. Marriage would cost her Drummin House.

  Keila forced herself to step back away from his heat and met his tormented gaze. ‘I never asked for more.’ She turned and strode out of the healing room.

  ***

  Dair stood in stunned silence as he watched Keila march from the room. His body still thrummed with the feel and taste of her. Never had he wanted a woman beneath him more than he wanted Keila. Never in his life had he stopped himself from taking what was freely given. Never before had he upset a woman by refusing to lie with her.

  What in God’s name was wrong with him? He lifted his hand and vigorously rubbed his nape again. Had he taken a blow to his head that had affected his choices and decisions? He knew he hadn’t. The only difference here and now was the woman who hardened his body with a touch or a look and left him craving more. And then he’d hurt her by stopping himself from taking his cravings further than a kiss. A mind-stealing kiss.

  He wanted to laugh, except he found no humour in the situation. Keila was different from any other woman he’d known. He’d seen her beauty the instant he laid eyes on her. He’d withheld his desire due to his injuries and his uncertainty regarding her motives for helping him. He’d then listened to her speak about her life while she worked and he healed, but had felt as if he knew her from the moment they’d met. Her dismissal of him in Mortlach had hurt, only adding to his confusion and the fierceness of his need to protect her more than any other. Even if she hadn’t wanted his protection. Until the four masked riders had run them down.

  The memory of the sword cutting the air a whisker away from Keila’s throat chilled his blood even now. He squeezed his eyes shut but the menacing blade stayed true to its downward arc. His eyes shot open. He had to see her. He knew she was safe, but still it wasn’t enough. He took a step toward the doorway and his booted toe kicked something. He watched the wooden cup skitter across the room and through the opening. His sudden need to see her doubled with every breath.

  He strode toward the entrance, grabbing his linen shirt from the high-backed chair where he’d left it while he’d washed. He pulled the garment over his head and searched the sitting room for Keila. She wasn’t there. He threw a glance up the first steep stairway and then the other, but his gut told him she wouldn’t have retired for the night. Not yet. Not after he’d hurt her. Not when she was angry.

  His gut clenched, as did his jaw. He frowned in confusion. God knew any other woman would sing his praises for stopping at a kiss. But not Keila. Adair had no idea who his kin was, why his mother had abandoned him and his time in the Highlands was almost over. He couldn’t have her and then leave her.

  I never asked for more.

  None of the women he’d lain with had asked for or expected more either, but he wanted to give Keila everything he had, he wanted to give Keila his all.

  Dair marched through the empty kitchen and continued on outside into the night. With careful steps, he walked between the vegetable gardens and stopped to listen in the cool night air. He heard naught and nothing moved in the moon’s pale light.

  Perhaps Keila had gone to bed. He placed his hands on his hips, and tilting his head back, he closed his eyes. If she had retired, perhaps it was for the best. He inhaled a deep breath. He’d done what he thought was right by stopping at a kiss, but if he was to see her again so soon, with his blood still rushing through his veins, he couldn’t promise that he’d stop after one kiss again.

  He exhaled and paused in the quiet stillness. He didn’t know if he should be relieved or disappointed. The moment was shattered by a tormented voice wailing into the night. Dair opened his eyes, lowered his chin and slowly smiled. She hadn’t gone to bed. She was brewing ale and murdering a Scottish ballad.

  ‘Ah, Keila.’ He dropped his hands to his sides. ‘What am I to do now?’ The smile slowly slipped from his face.

  ***

  Keila closed her eyes and sang the last word at the top of her voice. With a heavy sigh, she scooped the last of the malted water into the large wooden cask to cool. She hadn’t planned on continuing the brewing of her latest batch of ale, but since her plans with Adair had been thwarted, by Adair, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. She always felt better doing something rather than nothing. And singing always helped.

  The door to the ale shed slowly opened from the outside. Keila clutched the edges of the cask, hoping it was Moira. Anticipation grew, as did her heartbeat until its quickened rhythm melded with the silent word she chanted in her head. Liar. Liar. Liar.

  Adair’s large form stepped inside and the single word became two. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He’d donned his shirt
, though it appeared in haste, for the lacings were untied and sat to one side of his massive chest and he hadn’t had time to tuck the end into his plaid as he usually did. The sight of him set her heart to pummelling her chest. The urge to lower her gaze from him was strong, but the need to pretend his rejection of her didn’t affect her thankfully proved stronger.

  She met his gaze and held it.

  ‘I heard you singing.’

  ‘And still you came.’ Likely to silence her.

  A swift smile claimed his mouth but didn’t remain. ‘Keila, I …’ Saints save her, she didn’t want his apology or his pity. Anything but— ‘I’ve never been more confused in my life.’ He closed the door and moved further into the ale shed. Closer to where she stood. She hoped she looked at ease when her body felt as if it were being stretched on a rack. ‘I’ve never refused to lie with a woman before.’

  A burning sensation so hot scored deep inside her, and then left her chilled. ‘I understand, Adair. It doesn’t matter.’ She turned away, not wanting to see his handsome face as he made excuses and lied about why he’d refused her.

  ‘You understand? Good. Then I’d appreciate it if you could explain it to me.’

  A raw note of frustration had her turning back to face him.

  ‘Hurting you was never my intention, Keila.’ He placed his hands on his hips and tilted back his head as if pleading for help from above. ‘I think I’m losing my mind.’ He spoke the last quietly.

  Keila looked at him, all brawn and might, and something, something she had no clue what, shifted inside her.

  ‘’Tis likely the knock on your head is to blame.’

  Silence and then a masculine chuckle filled the ale shed and shook Adair’s wide chest. He lowered his head and the smile lifting his lips and lighting his blue eyes fixed on her. She swallowed, and witnessed the altering of his expression, felt the changes as if it were her own face she was watching.

  When he was done, as if she’d forgotten to breathe, she gulped a breath.

  He started toward her. ‘Did I thank you for healing me?’

  ‘Aye, numerous times.’

  ‘Good. And did I tell you I appreciate your ongoing care while I healed?’

  ‘There was little more to be done for you. I made you apply your own salve.’

  ‘I hope I’ve been appreciative of you allowing me to stay in your home and eat the food you work so hard to prepare.’

  ‘Your appreciation is obvious in the assistance you gave in helping to prepare the food we all eat.’

  ‘I have nothing of worth to give you. You deserve everything, more.’

  ‘I never asked for more and I still do not expect it.’

  Adair stopped so close to where she stood, the heat emanating from his magnificent body bathed the front of her and put the fire from the dwindling flames beneath the cauldron to shame. The same whiskers she welcomed against the smooth skin about her mouth had taken on a red glow from the fire. The lips she knew could be both soft and demanding remained at rest until his tongue slipped out to moisten their fullness and left them glistening.

  Keila licked her own lips and her gaze climbed ever so slowly up to meet his.

  ‘Never doubt that I want you, Keila. But know this.’ He moved closer and stared down at her through eyes that glinted silver and beckoned and promised things she didn’t understand. ‘Once I’ve had you.’ His body pressed against her, surrounded her with flesh and heat. ‘I know once will never be enough.’ His hands cupped her head and tilted her face up. ‘For either of us.’ His mouth captured hers and plundered.

  Swept away by the promise in his words and the proof of his kiss, Keila reached up and clutched his shirt, pulling him closer. Bands of steel closed around her, arching her back and dragging her into the shelter of his powerful form. Into his heated embrace. She melted. This is what she wanted. This is what she wanted to know. What she’d been missing.

  She strained closer, rising on her toes, all the better to assuage the craving for more, her ever-growing hunger for Adair. He’d stumbled into her life and broadened her world. With humour and tales of travel and friendships she’d never had. But she knew of them now and her world didn’t seem as small as it had before. She wanted him. She wanted this and she wanted Adair to be the one to show her. And then he would return to the Borders and she would return to her fuller, larger life. Safe, settled, unchanged, only better and ready to continue the fight to keep her home.

  His mouth lifted from hers on a groan. ‘Put your arms around my neck and hold tight.’

  Feeling adrift at the loss of his lips on hers, Keila anchored her arms around his nape. His arms released her and his hands brushed between them, while she balanced on her toes and was soon rewarded by the return of his mouth to hers. The very next moment she was scooped up into his powerful arms and then gently lowered onto his plaid that he’d removed and now covered the ground. His head lifted away from her and she blinked up at him, breaths heavy and as loud as his.

  Adair stared down at her, one side of his face all shadows and hollows, while she could clearly see the other in the muted light from the flames. He’d confessed to lying with many women. His honesty and his experience were two of the reasons she’d decided he should be the one. But his fingers traced her features, the curve of her cheek, the line of her nose and the fullness of her lower lip with a touch of wonder that made her feel special, beautiful.

  An elated breath shivered out of her mouth on a smile just for him. She lay hot and tingling from his attentions, her mind and body desperate to know what came next. As if he understood her needs, his finger travelled along her lips once more before dipping down along the valley of her throat and lower, to where her gown laced up over her breasts. She panted at the teasing fingertip that tested flesh no other had explored save her own.

  A tug against the laces almost made her cheer and offer to assist him unravel them sooner, but she moved her hands, palms down, beneath her. Her fingers curling into the thick fabric of his plaid. The one he’d been wearing when he’d entered the ale shed. The one he no longer wore. Her heartbeat quickened at the thought, knowing naught but a linen shirt separated his body from her touch.

  She’d seen most of him while she’d tended his wounds, but not one particular part of him, thanks to Moira safeguarding Keila’s innocence. But he’d been asleep, knocked senseless by the beating he’d suffered, while now, he was wide awake and in command.

  His head suddenly lowered. Heat like she’d never known bathed her right nipple. Her back arched closer to the hot source and his mouth gladly accepted her offering. Her lips parted and a necessary moan rushed out. Strong hands splayed under her shoulders and pulled her in, closer, nearer, while he feasted. He tasted and tantalised her other breast before lifting his mouth and tearing a tormented whimper in the form of his name from hers.

  ‘Adair.’

  He responded with a deep, knowing chuckle. ‘Shh, Keila. I am far from done.’ He straddled her legs and his hands pulled her into a sitting position. ‘But one of us is wearing too many clothes.’

  His fingers speared into the front of her loosened gown and pushed the sleeves of the garment and her shift up and over her shoulders and down to her elbows. Adair’s heated breaths washed over her flesh, now bared to his gaze and touch. With her arms trapped at her sides, there was little she could do, even if she wanted to. But with Adair’s hungry gaze fixed on her, covering herself was the furthest thing from her mind.

  His hands grasped her arms and lifted her to her feet, where she discovered she’d lost her ability to stand on her own. Adair caught her; and on his knees before her, he held her up with his hands, and then with the strength of the hunger clearly visible in his gaze. He made her feel beautiful and powerful, yet weak-kneed and vulnerable at the same time. All with just a look. He’d made her smile and laugh, discover wants and needs she didn’t know she had, until him.

  She locked her knees in place to hold herself upright on her own, to fr
ee his hands so they could finish what they’d started. ‘I can stand now.’

  He spoke not a word then, but his eyes, fixed on hers now, even as his fingers grew busy peeling her gown and shift further over her arms and down her body, almost shouted good.

  Keila returned his stare as the warm air within the ale shed touched every small measure of skin he exposed. Her garments reached her hips and Adair paused to swallow. Keila drew in a quivering breath and held it. Waiting for his eyes to lower, but they remained focused on hers. Her gown and shift dropped from her hips and pooled about her feet. But for her leather ankle-boots, she was naked and the sudden urge to cover her most private parts, her womanly parts, had her curling her hands into fists.

  If she did, she’d be robbing Adair of what she wanted to give him and robbing herself of her greatest desire. He already made her feel special. Now she wanted to prove that she was, that she could be, for him.

  A smile lit his eyes a moment before his gaze began its slow, downward journey, her skin prickling with life where it fell. By the time his gaze reached her lower legs and began their return journey, she was quivering and breathless. His eyes found hers.

  ‘You are perfection.’ He gently kissed the scratch on her right side and then pressed another in the centre of her belly.

  A cloud of warmth filled her chest. Her legs shook and her eyes misted as she stared down at him. His hands were there to catch her against him as her knees gave way. He lowered her onto his plaid once more, straightened and pulled his shirt up and over his head.

  His flesh rippled and shifted over bulging muscles painted red-gold by the fires glow. He stretched out alongside her, part of their bodies touching, his hip to her upper thigh. His skin was warm, the look in his eyes warmer still. He leaned over her, close enough for his hair to trail a path along her bared shoulder. She welcomed the feel of him against her, and revelled in the kiss that followed and the skim of his hands as they explored her and tested her flesh on their way down to her most private place.

  She hitched in a breath at his first touch, couldn’t help it. Then, with her gaze locked with his, he explored her further. Her body welcomed his intimate attentions, while her unexplored senses sparkled to life and pleaded for more.