Setting the basket near a pile of potato sacks, he headed back up the stairs. Blair huddled with Raven and several comely women. Unlike the captain, these lovely lasses glanced at Raven with lust, their features expressive and wanting. With luck, they would keep the first mate’s attention away from the captain, and him. Niall felt that Blair was the answer. With her as a hostage, he would escape.
Niall’s damp breeches stuck to his arse, and sand squished between his toes. A bath was in order, before he scouted for new clothes. Ignoring the group surrounding the captain, Niall strode toward a large building, where Bill and Thomas conversed with several old men. Pirates lived in a village with their elders? When a gaggle of children screamed, and raced around his knees, he was awestruck. This was a village, filled with people who depended on Blair and her crew to survive.
“My pardon, Bill,” Niall said, angling into the circle of men. Niall bowed to the elders, sweeping his hands behind his back in a sign of respect. “Is there a place to wash away the salt? My injuries…”
Bill turned to the men. “This be Balfour Green. We plucked him from the sea.”
The elders murmured their welcome.
“Aye, Balfour. Follow me.” Bill said his good-byes, and headed toward the trees to the west.
Niall assumed it was west, as the sky was turning pink and gold in that direction. It was prudent to get his bearings. When his stomach growled, Bill laughed.
He pointed to an overgrown trail through the thick trees. “Supper will be waiting on ye, after yer bath. I shall have clean clothes delivered before ye finish cleaning yerself. Doono’ attempt to leave the compound. The tunnel be well guarded.”
Niall nodded, then headed through the greenery. He pushed aside heavy vegetation that should not be growing in Scotland at this time of year. The air was decidedly warmer here, than on the beach. A fine mist soothed his salt encrusted scratches. The roar of falling water pulled him onward, until he stepped into a small glade. A narrow, glistening waterfall, no wider than the skiff that capsized, fell from a ledge barely above his head. The pool was clear, with a sparkling sandy bottom, and a gentle cascade of sweet-smelling water. The prospect of stripping salt and sand from his ravaged skin made him smile.
Within two breaths, Niall had stripped away his tattered clothing and eye patch, then jumped into the pool. Kicking and resurfacing, like a fabled selkie, a creature that was a man on land, and a seal in the water, he swam toward the falls. Rinsing his hair, he let the crisp coolness of fresh water wash over his damaged eyelid, and cheekbone. His cuts and bruises still pained him, but the chance to feel clean, was more than a thrill.
“The only thing better, would be a trencher of roasted pork.” His stomach rumbled.
“Wow, I could hear that from…” Blair’s voice faded, as she walked toward the pool, a pile of folded clothing in her arms.
Niall stepped out from under the showering cascade, and whipped his hair forward, to cover half his face. Water dripped down his naked chest. The pool’s jewel-blue water lapped at his waist, which was helpful.
Why am I always in a state of arousal when she is near?
He scratched his chest, and exhaled. If he did not act on his lust, and soon, he might explode. As he waded into the shallows, her eyes grew wide.
“Captain, I hunger for more than food.”
CHAPTER 15
When Balfour walked through the shallows, and stopped a few feet from the pond’s grassy bank, Blair couldn’t breathe. Her throat closed up, and her chest constricted tighter than a drum, because of this naked man. Balfour was certainly proud of his physique, and his thick arousal proved her theory.
Realizing she was staring, she lifted her gaze to his face. His right eyebrow rose, which was kind of endearing, until his only visible eye seared her with its intensity. The scar on his cheek gave him a vicious veneer, especially as his damp golden hair covered half his face. Why had she offered to deliver his new clothes and a drying towel?
What the heck was I thinking? If Raven or Bill found her alone with him, what would they think?
“I’ll leave these for you, here.” She walked over to a rock near the edge of the pool, though she’d rather watch him swim. She was an okay swimmer, but when her skiff capsized, he’d jumped in and saved her, even though his injuries must hurt. Thoughts of his damaged face, stirred her to move away, even as heat flowed through her core. Although his body had bruises, and his damaged face was swollen, she could visualize the handsome Highlander, or hunter. Whatever lurked beneath, she was no man’s prey.
Two damp hands grabbed her around the waist, and she dropped the clothing on the rocky edge of the pool. “Holy Moses!”
As he pulled her into the pool, she locked her lips tightly together. He pulled her under, turned her, pushed her to the surface, and let go. Gathering her feet beneath her on the sandy bottom of the shallow pond, she stood, her arms wind milling to keep her balance. Glaring at Balfour, she wiped water from her eyes and nose.
“Yer hair be a saturated mess, love.” He reached around her, and untied the sash that she’d wrapped around her head, earlier, and tossed it onto the grassy bank.
“Don’t touch me.”
As he looked at her, his smile seemed genuine, and his undamaged eye was bright with glee. Her demand didn’t register. Instead, his eye glittered, holding her in its power. When she pulled her gaze away, forcing her eyes to his chest, and his wounds, she inhaled a shocked breath.
“I’m sorry you were beaten, but you shouldn’t have tried to escape.” Blair raised her attention back to his face. The left eye was still raw and swollen, but the other green orb sparkled. “Please, don’t leave us.”
He quickly shoved some hair back over his injury. He clutched her to him, like a drowning man holding tight to a life jacket, or a floating piece of driftwood. The dark gold whiskers on his cheeks and chin stood at attention.
Just like his erection.
Keeping her gaze anywhere but at his groin, she concentrated on how his damp hair lay about his ears and neck. The golden strands shimmered under the setting sun. When his stomach growled again, she couldn’t hold back a laugh.
He lowered his head, until his mouth hovered half an inch from her lips. “ ‘Tis no’ amusing, my love. I hunger. Nourish me.”
Before she could form a protest, Balfour pressed his lips to hers, and wrapped his muscular arms tightly around her shoulders, trapping her arms at her waist. Her head swam from the warmth of his mouth, even as his chest chilled her breasts. Only her damp blouse separated their skin. When his tongue pressed against her lips, she opened for him. She wanted more than anything to taste this mystery man, again.
Ever since he’d kissed her on her ship, she’d wanted more. He smelled fabulous, like a clear mountain stream. She tasted the man beneath, a salty wildness, and wanted to eat him up.
I’m in Heaven.
Blair’s hand rose, cupping his left butt cheek. He flinched, but didn’t release her mouth. She’d forgotten his injuries.
“Sorry. Where don’t you hurt?”
Balfour simply smiled, and dropped his arms.
Raising her hands, she gently wrapped them around his neck, pressing against the arousal that had impressed her, earlier. She barely felt the chilly breeze against the back of her damp shirt, but her belly and the sensitive skin between her legs were rousingly hot. How would it feel, as his cock slid inside her? Would his be a gentle lovemaking, or would he thrust with brute force, until she screamed and clawed for release?
Curious, and filled with desire, she didn’t contest his actions when he dragged her into deeper water, their lips still intimately connected. The pond’s silky chill caressed her belly, then her chest. Lust, deep in her womb pulsed hot, and needy. Caught unaware, he suddenly pulled her into the waterfall. She struggled to breathe. He broke the kiss, stepped back into the slight hollow behind the cascade, and smiled.
“Did ye bring new clothing for yerself, as well?”
�
��Yes. I planned to bathe after you left. Are you leaving? The pool, I mean?”
“Do ye wish me to leave ye?” he whispered.
She shook her head, before she realized the implication. When his fingers loosened her blouse’s leather laces, and her shoulders were suddenly bare, her skin erupted with goose bumps. Balfour slapped her sodden shirt onto a small rocky ledge, then set her on top of it. When he tugged, her breeches followed.
“I be happy ye arrived without yer boots, or stockings.”
“I removed them back in the village. I set Keegan to seeing to their repair. Seawater can damage the leather, and the socks were sopping wet.”
“I am glad ye no’ be injured from yer unplanned swim in the surf.”
His hands swept over her naked breasts, down the sides of her hips, and curled around her knees.
“I hit my head on the bottom, and my shoulder against the skiff, but I’m fine, thanks to you.”
Balfour grinned.
“I hope your injuries are better?”
He nodded, but when she swept his damp hair off his forehead, he stayed her hand.
“I doono’ wish ye to see my face. ‘Tis less than perfect.”
“You have a scar running down one side, and you’re worried about a bruised cheek? Don’t get me wrong. I think the scar is sexy.”
His one visible eyebrow rose. “Sexy?”
He wouldn’t understand her modern words. How had she forgotten she was a woman out of her time? If she ever decided to leave, and figured out how to accomplish such a feat, she’d never see him again.
Why shouldn’t I enjoy what’s right in front of me?
“It means…I find you very attractive.”
He smiled. “In truth?”
“It’s pretty dark in here. Let me see?”
Trailing her fingers through the damp strands, she brushed his hair behind his ear. She felt him tremble. The swelling around his black eye had gone way down. He shouldn’t have to wear the eye patch much longer. “Looks better. Not nearly as swollen.”
“Aye, I be healing.”
“Please do nothing to earn another beating,” she whispered.
“I shall strive to do nothing to earn yer wrath again. Tell me if I…be in the wrong.”
She stared into his eyes, as pushing her legs apart, he set his mouth to her chilly left thigh, still dripping from their swim. Warm kisses trailed from her knees to the curls between her legs. When his hands slid along her damp flesh, spreading her thighs farther apart, she squirmed. She’d enjoyed his mouth in that spot before, but should she allow him to dissolve her into little pieces again?
Yes!
As she leaned back against the damp rock wall, hoping her half-closed eyes silently relayed to him the word she’d screamed in her head, he thrust a finger inside her. She trembled as his thumb swirled over the tiny nub, hidden in her wet curls. Exquisite pleasure rolled through her body, stealing her breath.
“Come for me, lass. Let me drink yer honeyed nectar.”
When his mouth settled on her secret place, Blair shivered, and not from the cold dampness of the tiny cavern. She was on fire. As the pleasure arose, she nearly wept. She was close, but the yearning for something more filled her; a need for something more than his fingers and mouth. Holding the sides of his head with trembling fingers, she pushed him away.
“Balfour, make love to me?”
He chuckled. “I rather thought I be doing it, lass.”
Cupping his chin, she gazed into his darkened, unreadable eyes. The shadowy interior of their small grotto made it hard to read his expression, but she felt his hands on her knees, and the tip of his erection poking her inner thigh. She wanted nothing more than to make him roar his release. “I meant…”
He grinned. “I believe I understand, lass. Are ye sure? I have been hard and ready for ye, since the moment we met.”
“You mean, when you were tied to my mainsail?”
He nodded, pulled her closer, then pushed her thighs apart.
Open to him, she tightened her legs around his buttocks, pulling him closer. He lowered his hand, and guided the tip of his erection inside her swollen lips. With a gentle stroke, he slid inside. The cool water had turned his skin icy, and she felt every cool, wet inch as he slipped deep inside her. Pulling back with a groan, he glided forward, then back, several times. Every time he pulled nearly all the way out, she moaned, yearning for him to fill her completely, until he exploded. She tightened her legs, grasping his buttocks.
Forced forward, he thrust deep inside, and seated himself to the hilt. A rush of pleasure soared through her. Kissing him, Blair tangled her fingers in his hair, and murmured words of praise and love in his ear. He must have heard her, because he groaned, and grabbed her hair in his fist. Pulling her face back, until they were nose to nose, he kissed her.
Blair tasted herself on his lips. Breathing deeply, she enjoyed the scent that she had learned to recognize as Balfour Green, her Highland hunter.
When his thrusts grew deeper and quicker, she released his mouth to catch her breath. Every part of her tingled with need. Warmth spread to her toes, which had recently dangled in the chilly water. Her eyelids dripped with spray from the waterfall.
“Oh, Balfour, this feels great.”
He hesitated, then growled as if something she said had angered him. Releasing her hair, he gripped her hips, pulled her forward, and intensified his thrusts. He nipped her shoulder, then sought her breast. Blair arched her back, offering the hardened nipple to his mouth. As he suckled her, spasms clenched deep inside her womb, and she shut her eyes, tight.
“Aye, love. Come for me!”
Clawing his thick, wet hair, her heart opened, softening her opinion about him. He’d let her call the shots and, as she exploded in the ecstasy of a heart-stopping orgasm, the word love came to mind. As she floated down to earth, he nuzzled her neck. Blair gripped him tightly, keeping him inside her. His forehead grew damp with perspiration, and he was panting.
He pulled back, and she sensed that he gazed up at her. His face was in shadow. When he laid his head against her shoulder, she twisted her arms around his neck. With her legs clasped around him, he surged forward. She caught her breath, then peppered his neck with tiny kisses.
He wasn’t finished.
Thrusting deep inside her, with more speed and with an intensity that stole her breath, Balfour arched his back. When she sensed that he gazed at her through the darkness of their private cavern, she kissed his bristly chin.
His guttural roar shook the air around them, as he released his essence deep inside her. As his thrusts slowed, his fingers released their grip on her waist and he cupped her cheeks. He kissed her. The gentleness of their joined lips made something in her chest lurch.
Completely sated, Blair clung to him, and sighed.
CHAPTER 16
When Niall stepped from between her lovely legs, his body protested. Her taste was on his lips and her sated sighs rang in his ears. The chilly spray from the waterfall at his back replaced her pleasurable warmth. The waterfall was a fairly decent curtain to their nakedness and muffled most sounds, but he worried others might interrupt their joining. Seeing her eyes were closed, he splashed a bit of water on her cheeks, and her eyes snapped open.
“Why did you do that?”
“We must return to yer village, before we be missed, aye?”
She nodded, and accepted his hand to help her from her perch. “Why don’t you leave first? They will assume I waited until you left, before bathing.”
“As ye wish, love.”
In the shadows of their small cavern behind the falls, he sensed, more than saw, her cheeks pinking. He did not mean to shame, or embarrass her. He needed her with him, on his side, in order to escape safely. A willing woman would make escape easier.
After wading across the small pool, leaving Blair curtained by the small waterfall, Niall dried his body, then gathered up the clean clothes she had dropped, earlier. He tied a crisp
blue sash around his forehead. With his hair behind his ears, he tied the crude patch over his damaged eye.
The eye had nearly healed, but the patch was the only way to hide his true identity from anyone who might have traveled through Sinclair territory. Beneath the falls, in the darkened cavern, Blair had not recognized him. The patched breeches were clean, and fit well. He tied the rope belt low on his waist, then slipped his arms into a white linen shirt. The wide sleeves, buffeted by a breeze, were comfortable. The stockings warmed his calves, and the high boots fit without pinching. Someone was very perceptive.
He followed the trail back to the village, turning his thoughts from the image of a naked, wet woman. Now that he was clean, and dressed in fresh clothing, a bigger problem arose. Several of the females who had shown Raven their attention, sauntered toward him.
“So, this be Raven’s prisoner,” a brown-haired lass sang, “and I be Aimee. This be Brenda.”
Brenda had yellow hair, and breasts like melons, that she rubbed against his arm. “Too bad, Aimee. He would make a fine addition to our breeding stock.”
“Breeding stock?” he choked out. An image of Blair, big and round with his bairn, stole his breath.
“Many of our menfolk died, the day the English attacked our last home. We have too many lonely women, now.”
“What about Raven Snoddy? I am sure he be wanting to satisfy every last one.”
Brenda shrugged a shoulder. “Seems he has eyes only for the lady captain. ‘Tis a pity. She doono’ seem the kind that appreciates men. She hated her husband from the moment they wed.”
“Before they wed,” Aimee added.
Niall stilled. “Why do ye say that? Why would she wed such a man, if true?”
The women glanced at each other. Aimee stepped closer. “Captain MacIan kidnapped her from her home. She was no’ happy.”
Brenda whispered in his ear, “I fear he forced himself on her, simply to appease that cur of a Sinclair laird.”
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