by Donna Grant
“Tell me, Declan, how does it feel to sell your soul to Satan?”
Declan smiled. “Would you like to find out?”
“He’s already got my soul after the things I’ve done. But he gave you magic.”
“And he gives me information,” Declan added. “He no longer trusts Deirdre to take over the world as he had planned. It’s why he brought me into the fold.”
“You’ll get the job done,” Robbie said with a chuckle.
Declan took another swallow of his wine. “Most certainly. I’m in a position no’ to fail. Deirdre was as well, but she took her eye off the prize. She’s more worried about the artifacts.”
“And are you no’ getting those artifacts for her?”
“Aye. A man likes to make his woman happy.”
Robbie set down his glass and strode to the door. “Watch yourself, cousin. Remember who you’re working for now.”
Declan snorted. As if he needed Robbie to tell him the Devil held his soul. One day Declan would have to pay for his sins, but that time was thousands of years in the future. Until then, he would live in luxury like a god.
* * *
Supper was not the usual boisterous affair it had been days before. Danielle, like the others, kept the conversation flowing, but there was no doubt that worry and apprehension filled the castle.
She had told Gwynn and Sonya what had happened with Ian, but neither thought his actions odd. They kept telling her it was just like a Warrior to act as he had.
Danielle, however, wasn’t buying it. She had always been the kind who faced reality. If Ian really cared for her, he would have shown it when she went to see him.
She knew how much it bothered him that he didn’t have control of his god. She had seen his surprise and dread when he caught sight of her wound. Because of those things she understood why Ian was in the dungeon.
But to not talk to her? To not listen to what she had to say?
Dani pushed her baked scallops around on her plate for several more minutes before she rose and took her plate to the kitchen. She needed something to do, something to occupy her hands and her mind.
She caught sight of the sink and immediately started washing all the pots and pans from the meal. Shortly Marcail was drying the dishes while Cara put them away.
All too soon everything was cleaned, but Danielle wasn’t ready to leave. She found other things to wash, even as the others urged her to retire to the great hall with them.
Danielle’s hands were all pruny when she rinsed off the last dish and set it to drain. She then dried the remaining dishes she had washed. Still not ready to leave, she put those dishes away.
Only then did Dani lean back against the worktable and close her eyes. She would spend another night alone. That shouldn’t matter after all her years by herself, but somehow it did. After Ian, it did.
They might be in the middle of the most dangerous situation she’d ever known, but she felt alive. For the first time in her life she felt as if she were living instead of just existing.
Being at the castle was part of it, but the one who had awoken her, the one who had shown her passion and pleasure and ecstasy was Ian.
Ian.
He might not want her near him, but she needed him. She needed to see him, hear him.
Danielle left the kitchen and went straight to the door to the dungeon. Talk in the hall lowered, but no one stopped her. This time when she walked down the stairs she wasn’t scared.
She went straight to Ian’s cell and looked inside to find him flat on his back, his arms spread out beside him. It looked as if he’d collapsed.
“Ian?” Danielle called as she squatted down. “Ian, can you hear me?”
She reached an arm through the cell in order to touch him. She was just breaths away, and no amount of squeezing more of her shoulder through the bars would get her closer.
Danielle huffed and tried again, shifting her body so that she lay at an angle. This time her fingernail was able to graze his shirt but nothing more.
She sat up and called to him again. “Ian. Come on. Talk to me. Tell me you’re all right.”
He groaned.
Danielle gripped the bars and rose to her knees. “Ian?”
“Danielle?”
She smiled and held the bars tighter. “It’s me. Open your eyes. Let me see you.”
He rolled to his side facing her and opened his eyes. His sherry eyes stole her heart as he gazed at her a moment before he lifted himself to his hands and knees and scooted back to the corner she’d found him in earlier.
“What happened?” she asked.
He shook his head and rested it in the palm of his hands. “What do you think?”
His voice was muffled, but she heard the anger in his words. “All the while you were with me Farmire never took control.
“I fought, Danielle. I had wyrran to kill. It kept Farmire content.”
She sat sideways against the door and leaned her head on the iron. “He tried to gain control while we were shopping, remember? You didn’t let him. I know you have the willpower to stop him.”
“Do I?” Ian asked, and lifted his head to pin her with his stare. “Do I really? I’m lost, Danielle. I doona know who I am anymore.”
“I do,” she whispered. “You’re the man who saved me from creatures I didn’t know. You’re the man who pulled me from a frozen loch and warmed me so I wouldn’t die. You’re the man who promised to bring me to the MacLeods even though you didn’t want to go. You’re the man who stood with Charon against dozens of wyrran intent on killing innocents. You’re the man who fought even though you knew there was a possibility Deirdre would take you. You’re the man who has kept me safe no matter what. And you’re the man who makes sweet love to me and holds me in the cold, dark hours of the night.”
“Maybe that man is gone.”
Dani smiled. “No. I’m looking at him. I have faith in you, Ian. Have faith in yourself.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
Ian wanted to believe her. He longed to believe her. There had been times in his life he’d known exactly who he was. Now wasn’t one of those times.
He knew what he wanted, and he knew how he wanted to live. Getting there was the problem.
His silence didn’t deter Danielle. She began talking, telling him stories of her parents before their death and the fun the three of them had had together and their many trips. She spoke of how terrified she had been on leaving her home and coming to Scotland.
Her words never faltered, but Ian heard the tremor in her voice nonetheless. After all these years, that part of her life still affected her. But it didn’t rule her.
Ian found himself smiling as she told stories of her time in school and the pranks she and her friends would play on some of her teachers.
She had been an excellent learner, and for the most part a good girl. She played it safe a lot of the time. Ian could see a pattern begin to emerge from hearing about her life.
His heart ached for the woman who sat on the other side of the iron bars. That woman longed to find love, yearned to belong to someone. Yet, at the same time, she feared losing that person as she had lost her parents.
Ian heard the love in her voice as she spoke of her aunts, especially Josie who had been the one to show her magic.
Danielle might have played it safe her entire life, but all that had changed when she had met him. Ian thought about how much danger she had been in since he had discovered her being chased by wyrran.
She seemed fragile, but inside she was made of steel. She had suffered terrible loss, and instead of shutting out the world, she had looked at it with different eyes.
Ian was so lost in his thoughts, going over all the stories Danielle had told him, that it took a few moments for him to realize she had stopped speaking.
He found her head resting against the bars, and one arm hanging inside his cell. Her eyes were closed and her lips parted slightly as she slept.
Ia
n couldn’t stay away from her another moment. It had been pure torture to keep his distance from her when all he had wanted to do was pull her into his arms.
Now, he crawled toward her soundlessly. She didn’t move or utter a sound as he settled next to her. The only things separating them were the iron bars.
Ian linked his fingers with hers and softly kissed the top of her hand. She shouldn’t be in a dungeon with the damp and the cold. She could become sick.
A cold chill settled in his chest as he felt how cool Danielle’s skin was. There was no way he would allow her to become ill. She could die.
And that thought left his chest aching as if a thousand daggers had plunged into his heart.
The sound of the door to the dungeon opening had Ian on his feet and away from Danielle in less than a heartbeat. He stood in the shadows and watched as Logan and Gwynn stopped next to Danielle.
“Get her to her chamber,” Ian beseeched Logan.
Logan sighed, his lips flattening. “I’d like nothing better, but Gwynn willna allow it.”
“You want Danielle to become ill?” Ian asked Gwynn.
Gwynn rolled her eyes and spread the blanket she held in her arms. “Of course not. She needs you, and whether you want to believe it or not, you need her.”
“She’s no’ safe here.”
Logan braced a hand on the bars. “I doona know what’s going on in the castle, but I know something isna right. Dani wants to be with you. I see no reason to keep her from you.”
Ian liked how easily Danielle had fit in with everyone at the castle. They even called her Dani, which had been what her parents called her.
He dragged a deep breath into his lungs and released it. “Spread the blanket on the ground and lay her upon it,” Ian instructed. “But doona wake her.”
Logan smiled as Gwynn spread the blanket, and Logan carefully extracted Dani’s arm from around the bars and laid her on the thick blanket.
To Ian’s relief Gwynn had brought a second blanket which she covered Danielle with.
“Thank you,” Ian said to both of them.
Gwynn tucked the blanket under Dani’s chin and stood. “She’s an amazing woman, Ian. You’d be a fool not to see what you have.”
“Danielle isn’t mine.”
“She could be,” Gwynn said and walked away.
Logan watched his woman for a moment before he looked at Ian. “Listen to Gwynn, my friend. What kind of woman would willingly put herself in this place if she didna care for you?”
“I’m all that she knows.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself? You were the one who found her, protected her. You were the one who brought her here and vowed to keep her safe. How will you do that behind those bars?”
Ian clenched his fists. He had told himself everything Logan was voicing. It didn’t change anything.
“What if I was the one who cut her?”
Logan chuckled. “She doesna believe you did. The fact she can no’ remember is making me believe her more and more.”
“I need to be sure,” Ian said.
“I know what it felt like to think Gwynn was gone from my life forever. That feeling…” Logan paused and visibly swallowed. “You’ve lost Duncan, but you’ve found us again. And in doing so you found a woman who has stood by your side. She’s a rare breed, Ian, and no’ just because she’s a Druid.”
With one last look, Logan walked away.
Ian walked back to the bars to be near Danielle. She had dark circles under her eyes, which only proved to him she hadn’t been resting well.
He sank to the ground and stuck his hand through the bars and under the blanket in order to find hers. Only then did he allow himself to close his eyes.
What kind of woman would willingly stay with a man who could have hurt her?
The forever kind.
Ian had always expected to get married and have children. When his god had been unbound and he’d been imprisoned in Cairn Toul, thoughts of a wife and family were the farthest thing from his mind.
Then he’d come to MacLeod Castle. He’d seen Lucan’s and Fallon’s love for their wives. He’d watched Quinn fall in love in Cairn Toul. Then he’d seen Hayden, Galen, and Broc find love.
The idea of a wife wasn’t so far-fetched anymore. It hadn’t been for a while, but he hadn’t allowed himself to think on it with Deirdre still alive.
He knew firsthand how much his brethren worried over their mortal wives. Thoughts of the Druids being taken by Deirdre caused those Warriors many sleepless nights.
Ian looked down at Danielle. Yet, he could see the allure. To hold a woman in his arms as he fell asleep and wake next to her every morning. To have her stand beside him through the trials of life, to see her smile and hear her laugh.
Aye, he could definitely see the attraction.
If he was the man he’d been before. Now, he would spend his time worrying about being the one who had hurt Danielle. What kind of life would that be?
“Then fight Farmire!” Duncan bellowed in his head.
Ian was so taken aback by the shout that he jerked. “Duncan,” he whispered. “I’m trying.”
“No’ hard enough.”
“What else can I do?”
“Remember, Ian. Remember what we did…”
“Duncan,” Ian called. But there was no response.
Ian searched his mind for what he and Duncan had done when they had first had Farmire released within them. No matter how hard he tried to remember, Ian couldn’t recall anything that might help.
They had been inside Cairn Toul, lonely and cold and hungry. And more than a little frightened. They had had each other though, while others were alone.
Deirdre had separated them, locking them in different cells far from each other. What she hadn’t known was that no matter the distance, Ian and Duncan had always been able to communicate with each other.
They knew what the other was thinking, what the other was doing.
Ian shook his head and tightened his fingers around Danielle’s hand. To his surprise, she squeezed in response. Ian jerked his gaze to her, but she was still asleep. He lightly caressed a finger down her cheek, wishing with all his might he could kiss her.
She had the most amazing lips. They made him hot. Hard. Hungry.
His balls tightened as he recalled how her pert breasts filled his hands, how her pale pink nipples hardened against his fingers and mouth.
Ian shifted, his cock thickened just thinking of tasting the sweet nectar of her sex, of stroking his tongue along her softness then against the pebble of her clitoris.
He longed to hear her cries of pleasure, her scream of fulfillment. He yearned to have her legs wrap around him as he sank into her wet heat. He craved another touch, another kiss. Always more.
There would never be a time he couldn’t get enough of Danielle. She had said he had awoken her, but in truth, she was the one who had awoken him. She had helped him to remember what it was to be a man.
A man he was proud to see staring back at him in the mirror.
He wanted to be that man again. Not just for Danielle, but for the others in the castle. For Duncan. For himself.
Ian closed his eyes and struggled to forget the desire that ran rampant through him. There was no way he would allow himself to do more than hold Danielle’s hand, and even that was probably too much.
The feel of a hand on his aching cock made his eyes fly open. He found himself staring into Danielle’s face just breaths away from him.
She squeezed his arousal through his jeans, which caused him to moan. The feel of the rough material against him only heightened his need.
“Danielle,” he whispered.
She put a finger to his lips. “No more words.”
He couldn’t form a coherent sentence with her touching him. Ian hadn’t heard her move, hadn’t felt anything until she had touched his rod. He should have heard her. He should have known she moved.
Why hadn’t he? Was he
so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t realized anything?
Suddenly, none of it mattered as Danielle unbuttoned his jeans and slowly unzipped them. Ian sighed when his cock sprang free.
His breath came out in a whoosh when her hand closed around his flesh. Ian lifted his hips. All he could do was lean back and give in to Danielle and the inferno that consumed him.
Ian moaned when she used both hands to skillfully move up and down his length with just the right amount of pressure. And when she smeared the bead of precum that had formed over him, Ian’s fingers curved into the hard ground.
She cupped his balls, which made him hiss in a breath. But it was when she seductively massaged him while pumping up and down his hard length that he found himself reaching for her.
Ian forgot the bars, forgot he was trying to keep his distance from her. All he wanted was a taste of her lips. He pulled her head toward him and took her mouth in a kiss that ravished, a kiss that demanded.
A kiss full of everything he longed for.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
Danielle didn’t loosen her hold on Ian as he kissed her. And what a kiss it was. He swept her away, devoured her. And she loved every moment of it.
When she had woken to find Ian next to her with his hand under the covers on hers, she hadn’t thought. She’d just acted. She wanted him with a fierceness that should have frightened her. But all it did was fortify her. Strengthen her.
“Need you,” Ian said between kisses.
Not nearly as much as she needed him. But she understood the desire driving him, the longing burning through his veins.
She shrugged off the blanket and rose to her knees so she could reach him better. He deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding sensuously against hers. Danielle moaned, her breasts swelling and her nipples hardening as they waited for his touch.
Begged for his touch.
Danielle arched her back when his hands slid from her neck down her back to rest on her waist. Then, finally, he cupped her aching breast.
She moaned into his mouth and pressed her breasts into his hand. He squeezed before his thumb brushed over her sensitive nipple.
