by Tarah Scott
He stopped beside a rocky burn. “See you, sweet, just as the Ell-Maid of Dunstaffnage is a mystery, so are there other unexplained things in the realms I hope you ne’er have cause to visit.”
“What are you saying?”
“There are powerful forces at work in those realms.” He set his hands on her shoulders, threading his fingers in her hair, caressing her nape. “Elements and consequences most of us will ne’er understand or master. We can only hope to tolerate them, or, in time, learn how to lessen their influence.”
“Oh, dear, I’d forgotten!” She broke away from him, paling. “You’re injured. Your friend Sir Hardwin told me. He warned me to treat you gently lest I hurt you.”
“Hardwick?” Alex could only stare at her. “When did that rogue speak to you?”
***
Mara blinked. “He was waiting for me by the little stone wall near the training ground. He said his name was Hardwin.”
“So it is. But Hardwick suits him better.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Nor do you want to.” He looked upset. “He didn’t touch you, did he? Say anything unusual?”
Mara shook her head. “Why should he?” Beyond being another ghost, he seemed perfectly normal, even nice.
Then she remembered how the dark knight had clutched his shield before him but thought it best not to mention it.
Especially with a nickname like Hardwick.
“He was a true friend to you.” She opted for diplomacy, certain the roguish knight had meant well. “He didn’t want me to accidentally hurt you. And now” – she raised a hand to dash at the moisture misting her eyes – “I’ve been throwing myself at you and likely causing you all kinds of pain.”
“I should have expected him to warn you,” he said, not taking his eyes from her. “He’s a longtime friend if a bit of a scoundrel.”
“Then you are in pain?”
“The only hurt that concerns me is the possibility of losing you.” He slid his fingers under her chin, angling her face toward his. “The threat exists. I’ll no’ deny it. The wounds I carry were received in warning. A punishment meted out for taking my ease with you, a flesh and blood female.”
“Oh, no!” Her eyes rounded. “It’s my fault.”
“Nae, the responsibility is my own.” He paused, drew a great breath. “I wanted you too badly to resist. If I indulge myself thusly again, I could be whisked away for longer than six weeks. As well, I’d face worse than being skewered by a few lighting bolts.”
“Skewered by lightning bolts?” Mara’s heart stopped. “Tell me it isn’t true!”
“Would that I could.” He stroked his hand down her arm, gave her fingers a squeeze. “Lift my plaid and see for yourself. I dinnae mind. It’s best that you understand so we can fight this together.”
He stepped back, holding his arms out to the sides. “Come, lass, I know you have a bold heart.”
Mara’s stomach turned into a cold, hard knot, but she reached for his plaid and lifted.
“Mercy!” she cried, staring.
White and gray dots whirled across her vision, her heart clenching. Livid scars were slashed onto on his muscled thighs, scored into his hips. Angry, black welts - they almost looked alive - seeming to throb and smolder beneath her stare.
His sex hung proud as ever, its thick length blessedly free of the marks. Nor did she see any on his heavy balls, or the highest, inner reach of his spread thighs.
“Dinnae look too closely, sweet, or I willnae be able to stand so quietly before you,” he warned, his voice low and gruff, his burr almost making her forget the scars.
Her pulse raced. Emotion rose inside her, filling her heart, heating her blood. It was too much to be so close to him, needing and wanting him as much as she did. Waves of intense desire spooled through her and she bit her lip, unable to look away as he slowly lengthened and swelled beneath her gaze.
“Oh, my…” Her own sex warmed, tingling as if he’d touched her. She tore her gaze from him, guilt pinching her for wanting him so badly when he was surely aching.
“I’m so sorry.” She looked up, grieved that he’d suffered. “That must hurt beyond endurance.”
“So it does.” His gaze darkened, a sensual smile curving his lips. “‘Tis a raging ache, for sure.”
“I meant-”
“I ken what you meant and I love you for it,” he said, speaking from the heart. Taking her hands, he stepped close and kissed her deeply, testing the fates by letting his hardness rub against her hip.
“There are times I’d vow I have aye loved you, waited forever to find you,” he added, slanting a discreet glance downward.
Relief flooded him when he couldn’t see the black silk of her skirt through his arousal.
“I love you, too.” She pressed a fisted hand to her breast, looked at him through shimmering eyes. “So much it hurts at times.”
“That, my love, is what we shall ignore. The hurting.” He stepped back from her, his hands already on his sword belt, undoing its latch. “What we cannae ignore, we will besiege in other ways.”
“Other ways?”
“Aye, many of them. The gods ken I’ve had enough time to ponder such things.”
Mara blinked. “What things?”
“You will see soon enough,” he promised, casting aside his sword belt.
When he dropped his plaid as well, spreading it on the sun-warmed grass, her breath hitched. There was only one reason for a Highlander to toss his plaid on the ground.
Women the world over knew it, and being of Scottish descent, she knew it better than most.
He meant to make love to her.
“Alex…” She pressed her hands to her cheeks. Incredible yearning ripped through her, but her fear for his wounds warred with her passion. She could lose him forever.
She eyed the plaid, let out a long, worried breath. “You can’t mean for us to-”
“For me to take you on my plaid? Here in the heather?” He flashed her a look so sexy, so sure of himself, she almost wept. “Nae, lass, such bliss must wait for another day. He closed the small space between them, reached to brush the hair from her face. “If you’ll trust me, we can enjoy other delights.”
“Delights that have to do with your plaid?”
“Perhaps,” he teased, stroking his fingers into her hair. Then his smile faded and his gaze turned intense, locking on hers, searing. “Mara-lass, I want you spread across my plaid so I can feast on you.” His deep voice flowed into her, the intimacy of his words sending hot tremors to her core. “I’ve a need to devour you. Dinnae deny me the pleasure.”
“Oh, my.” Mara’s heart thundered. Oh, please, yes… She couldn’t say the words, felt her cheeks coloring.
Already long liquid pulls of desire coiled through her belly. She knew exactly what kind of ravishing he meant and she wanted it. Badly. She couldn’t wait to feel his mouth on her, his tongue swirling across her hot, needy flesh.
“But it isn’t fair,” she blurted, realizing too late she’d voiced the words.
“No’ fair?” He slid strong fingers around her arms and eased her onto the plaid, positioning her in a way that made her body thrum with excitement.
He reached down to touch her breasts, his fingers brushing at her nipples. “What isn’t fair when I’ve a ravening hunger for a certain succulent part of you?”
“It feels good just being held by you.” She took a long, shaky breath, fearful she couldn’t resist him. “I don’t want to cause you more pain.”
“You willnae; only if you deny me.” He moved closer, the smolder in his gaze letting her know how much he wanted her. “Seeing you melt and burn for me will give me the greatest pleasure. I want the scent and taste of you all o’er me, need to brand you into my skin so I can carry you with me always, no matter where I go or how long I might be parted from you.”
“I don’t want us to be parted.” I couldn’t bear it. She blinked, her eyes misting again. “You’ve just
returned and-”
“Hush, sweet, dinnae speak.” His reassurances spilled into her, warming her heart and soul. “You are beautiful, the most desirable woman I have e’er seen,” he vowed, smoothing his hands up and down her legs.
He slid her skirt upward, freeing her naked thighs, the delicate triangle of sheer black lace stretched so intimately between them. Then, somehow he’d maneuvered himself between her legs and was using his teeth and tongue to tug down the lacy material. Mara had never seen anything more rousing in her life. Intense pleasure sluiced her as he eased the panties over her ankles, sent them sailing with a jerk of his head.
“I have burned to do that since I first saw you wearing such a wee slip of nothingness. And I am no’ near done.” He bent her knees, spreading them wide. “You are ready for loving, Mara-lass. So soft and wet.” On the words, he slipped a hand between her legs, began rubbing her. “Dinnae hold back, precious. Your desire is beautiful.” I want you so badly.
Ignoring his need, Alex kept his gaze on her sweetness, grateful that the fingers stroking her remained solid. That he could even feel her slick, wet heat was a wonder.
“You are mine,” he vowed, spreading her legs wider. He lowered his head, looking up at her as he touched his tongue to her inner thigh. “I will ne’er let you go.” He kissed and licked his way closer to her heat, spoke words against her skin, truths he wanted her to remember if he was sensitive place. He flicked his tongue back and forth across that same spot. “I would pull down the moon and the stars for you. Be everything you desired.”
“You are more!” She arched her back, her entire body quivering when he traced a finger down the center of her, slipped it inside. “I do not want the moon and the stars. Only you.”
“Precious lass,” he murmured, gliding his finger in and out of her. “I told you – dinnae speak. Let me pleasure you.”
“But I can’t stand this.” She was writhing now, digging her fingers in the plaid. “It’s too good, too-”
“Shush, be still.” He opened his mouth over her, drawing gently, her scent and taste fueling his desire, making his pulse pound.
She clutched at him, her fingers winding in his hair, pressing him against her. “Don’t stop…” She rocked her hips, her breath coming hard and fast.
“I dinnae mean to.” He pulled back to look at her, touched a finger to the swollen nub at the top of her sex. She was almost there, he could feel it in the tremors washing through her, hear it in the hitching of her breath.
And he was still there!
The dark winds hadn’t come for him, he wasn’t fading.
Straining with desire, his wounds a bitter agony, but still blessedly solid.
But the wood around them was dimming, the birch scrub beginning to shimmer and weave. Strange, whirling clouds threatened to blot the sun. Even the bold colors of his plaid were running together, the heathery ground rolling like the sea.
Alex closed his eyes, denial lancing him. Dread gripped his heart, but he continued to drag his tongue over her quivering heat, willing her release. Ignoring the dangers closing in on them.
He kept his finger on her, circling and flicking as he licked her, not daring to peek at his hand.
He knew.
The darkness was seeping into him, squeezing past his tightly closed eyelids. Taunting him with each long slide of his tongue across Mara’s hot, female flesh.
“Nae!” he roared, jerking up when his tongue met only air. “I feel and taste her!” You cannae take me from her. His entire body tensing, he used his will to defy whatever sought to damn him. “I-am-drowning-in-her-pleasure!”
And then he was, for she clamped her legs around him, grinding her soft, moist heat so firmly against him even the fates couldn’t rip them apart.
“Yesss!” Her release swept through them both, and with it, the madness receded. The darkness spun away, leaving only an angry, keening wind.
Then that, too, was gone.
The wood fell silent, quiet but for Mara’s soft breath and the wild thunder of his heart. Alex bit back a cry of triumph, his teeth sinking so deeply into his lip he tasted blood.
Shouting victory against such powerful foes wasn’t wise, however tempting.
He sat up from between his love’s still-spread legs and raked a hand through his hair, his heart too full for words.
His cock was full, too.
Ragingly so.
And aching. But before he could reach down and quell his misery with a hard pinching squeeze, Mara’s hands were all over him. Smoothing and stroking, soft, warm, and firm, and pushing him down onto the plaid.
“Lie there and don’t move.” Her beautiful eyes glittering as she yanked up her skirt and straddled him, her red-gold hair falling about her shoulders. “That was glorious, but unfair. Now it’s my turn to pleasure you.”
“Nae!” Alex reached for her, gripping her hips before she could lower herself onto him. “You dinnae understand. We cannae-”
“We can do this.” She wrapped her fingers around him, stroking steadily, then reaching lower to knead his balls.
Balls drawn so tight, he couldn’t bear it.
“Let me give you this, please.” She squeezed him gently, her massaging fingers making him crazy. He was set like granite and she hovered over him, the core of her sweetness so close. “Spill for me, Alex. Now.”
And he did, loosing a torrent of hot seed right onto her inner thighs, her glistening female flesh.
He went still, every inch of him sated and shuddering. Ecstasy whipped through him as the world splintered, leaving him to spin away into nothingness.
But this time, when he opened his eyes, it was to gaze into his lady’s beloved face and not the whirling mists that had claimed him when he’d last dared touch her so intimately.
“Mara.” He spoke her name like a prayer, pulling her against him for a long, soul-deep kiss.
***
A searing, claiming kiss but so tender its sweetness spilled through Mara, filling her with indescribable bliss -until she remembered Alex’s strange words.
I feel and taste her!
I-am-drowning-in-her-pleasure!
Cries ripped from his soul, but as if he’d been speaking to someone else.
She wriggled out of his arms and pushed up on an elbow. “Who were you talking to when you called out?”
“You think too much.” He caught her hand and pressed a kiss into her palm. “I wasn’t speaking to anyone. Leastways, nothing that has a face.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Be glad that is so.” He sat up and pulled her onto his lap, holding her as if he meant to shield her from something she was certain she didn’t want to know about. “I meant those things I mentioned earlier. Dark terrors I can’t begin to explain but that can and do plague the damned.”
He looked at her with a strange blend of resignation and steely determination. “The pain from my scars is no’ the reason I cannae love you as fully as I’d wish. I would suffer any pain to lie with you, and completely.” Again and again until the light fades or we were both too depleted to move.
“But?” She knew that whatever he was about to say would not be good.
“What is it?” She had to know. “What else is there that might separate us?”
“Och, lass, it’s only the minor complication that when I seized your face to kiss you on the training ground, I could see your skin right through my fingers.”
“What?”
“Just what I said.” He tightened his arms around her, pressed a kiss to her brow. “It would seem I am fading.” The calmness of his voice astounded her. “Growing faint at certain times, such as when we are most intimate.”
Mara stared at him. “But you’re here now.” She shook her head, struggled to breathe. “You didn’t fade and we were just incredibly close.”
“So we were,” he agreed, slanting his mouth across hers in a deep, almost bruising kiss. “I did feel the darkness approaching. But I clung to yo
u, refusing its claim.”
She slid her arms around his neck, holding fast to him. “You think we can ward off this darkness, this risk of you fading?”
“I cannae say.” His answer made her heart plummet. “But I refuse to surrender hope.”
Neither would she.
No matter that he’d scared her so badly she feared to let go of him. She thrust her fingers in his hair, gripping the thick strands. As long as she could feel him, he was there…
“You know this means we must live with certain limitations?” He looked at her, serious. “I was no’ the only the one who noticed the fading. My friends saw it, and not just the ghostly ones.”
Mara gasped, her eyes widening.
“That’s right, lass. I willnae see you or Ravenscraig turned into a spectacle.” He spoke in a tone that brooked no argument. “If the young flesh-and-blood Highlanders noticed, so will other mortals.”
“If it happens again.” She lifted her chin. “Maybe it won’t.”
“You are a bold lassie.” He pushed to his feet, pulling her with him. “If you are strong-hearted enough, we can share whate’er joys the fates allow us.”
Mara forced a smile, the best and brightest she could muster. “I will face anything with you at my side.”
“Och, lass.” He caught her to him for another kiss. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
“Yes, I do. But I’m all ears if you wish to tell me.”
“Then be warned that I am so in love with you, I’d go down on my knee before your da to ask for your hand – even if the man is a MacDougall.”
“He’s a McDougall,” Mara corrected, knowing he wouldn’t hear the difference. “And he-”
She broke off, her cheeks flaming.
She didn’t have the first clue how to tell him about her father’s imminent arrival. Her father and his second wife, the Cairn Avenue shrew.
A combination she wasn’t sure Scotland was ready for.
Especially with Hugh McDougall’s airs and eccentricities.
“What is it?” Alex put his hands on her shoulders, a shadow flitting across his handsome face. “You’ve ne’er mentioned your da. If he’s gone, I am sorry. I didnae mean to grieve you.”
