A slow smile curved just the corners of Alec’s sensuous mouth, feeding the sensations his gaze was conjuring within her already. “I will wait outside your door.” He gave Millie one last nod and shut the door.
Mairi dodged behind the screen and threw on the clean smock she’d planned to wear to bed. It was a summer night and not too cool. She wrapped herself in a thick robe and shot her toes into her daytime slippers. Millie had turned onto her side away from the door, seemingly asleep, though Mairi knew better. When she opened the door, Alec was leaning against the wall. She was breathless, giddy as if she were sneaking out of the castle as a young lass.
Alec grasped her hand. His was warm, his strong fingers threading intimately between hers. He led her toward a back set of stairs. “Kisimul is overrun with eyes and ears.”
“I think ye like living alone out here,” she said, teasing him.
“Not completely alone.” The words were innocent, but the look he gave was not. His tone told her he’d rather it be the two of them in this big fortress. Right now, she couldn’t agree more.
She trailed him, still tethered by his hand, down three flights of stairs. His candle sputtered as a breeze penetrated the darkness.
He released her hand to unbar a door, and they stepped out into the clear night on the far side of Kisimul. The tide was high, giving them only a few feet of rock, which the sea licked at with gentle waves. “Careful,” he said as he led her over flat boulders toward a small boat tied to a block of cement nestled amongst the natural rocks. Without a word, she let go of his hand and stepped into the boat while he untied the line.
The night shrouded them in shadows. Only the touch of oars to water whispered in the silence outside the walls of Kisimul. Mairi leaned back on her palms to view the familiar scattering of stars overhead. The moon had grown since their night on the hill. Clouds wisped across it. Mairi looked from Alec’s back to the silhouette of the castle, glad to be free of it for a while. No matter what Alec called Kisimul, it would always be a prison to Mairi.
The small boat surged through the calm waters of Castle Bay toward the galleon on which Mairi had sailed to Barra. Without a veil of fury, she could appreciate the sleek lines of the large vessel, its naked masts pointing moonward.
Alec steadied the small boat against the galleon’s side, and Mairi made her way past him to grab the rungs of a ladder, hoisting herself. Could he see her bare legs leading all the way up as she rose higher? The thought coiled tightly within her middle. At the top, she stepped over the gunwale to jump down onto the deck with a soft thud.
Mairi’s inhale froze as Kenneth strode out of the shadows. “Thieving the Sea Wolf all on your own?” he asked with a grin. Without a hint of surprise at Alec climbing over the gunwale behind her, Mairi realized that Kenneth had seen them rowing over.
“The boat’s tied lightly below,” Alec said. “I’ll take over watch.”
Kenneth rubbed his beard. “Now I doubt ye’ll be doing much watching. Plenty of doing, not much watching,” he said. He winked at Mairi, bowing slightly. “Milady, enjoy the Wolf.” He chuckled at his insinuation and strode past Alec, giving him wide berth as Alec followed him, talking about security with Geoff MacInnes sailing back down from South Uist.
Mairi walked along the deck, blending into the shadows. Deserted, the boards creaked, the masts bending slightly with the wind and shifting waters below it. Without a crew, the ship seemed to wait, a giant ready to come alive to defend or attack. The sway was hardly noticeable, and she stared up at the sky where stars glittered.
“Ye are like a goddess with the moonlight on your face,” Alec said from the shadows off to the side. His hushed words sent a thrill prickling through her body, and she lowered her view to search for him in the darkness. Alec’s large frame broke from the shadow as he moved forward, his tread light on the deck boards.
She met his serious gaze and tried to keep her breaths even. “Are ye my mighty warrior, Orion, freed from the heavens?” she asked. The strength he possessed seemed to permeate the air between them, but instead of making her feel weak in comparison, it woke her fully.
A wry curve played about his lips, giving him a devilish look. “Ye have my fealty, goddess,” he said, stepping to arm’s length. “Command me how ye wish.”
Her eyebrows rose with her grin, and she tapped her lip with a fingertip. Here, outside the castle walls, she felt free, her heart light. “Do ye dance?”
“Nay,” he answered without pause.
“At all?”
“Who would I dance with? Kenneth?”
Reaching forward she placed a hand on his powerful shoulder. “He looks like he’d be quick on his feet.”
Alec grunted, but pulled her closer, taking her hand.
“My father would twirl me around under the stars,” she said and turned under their intertwined fingers. “Come now,” she said when he didn’t move. “I command ye to dance with me.”
The pressure of Alec’s hand on her waist sent a thrill through Mairi, and he pulled her around in a wide sweep along the deck. After a pass, she tripped over his boot. “I’m liable to lose a limb at this,” she said, laughing.
His lips curved into a grin, making her heart speed. “Ye were warned that I’ve had no practice.” He turned her twice more.
“Ye’re quite good, actually. Must be all the training for battle ye do. Perhaps it would help your warriors to make them dance with one another.”
He laughed out loud, warming Mairi’s heart. “I like that sound,” she said and met his gaze as they continued to sway.
He leaned forward, his lips close enough to her ear to bring chill bumps along her skin. “I like the sounds ye make, too.”
Mairi placed her hands on his firm chest, and her pulse flew. She stroked down his hard, warm body to his narrow waist and edge of his kilt. “Mmmmm,” she murmured.
“Aye, like that one,” he answered.
With a tug, she freed the material from his kilt. Continuing the effort, Alec pulled the shirt up and off, his biceps flexing.
He was exquisite. His chest was broad and rippled with cut muscles, a fine sprinkling of hair and scars, silver in the moonlight. Standing before him, she slid her robe from her shoulders to pool at her feet. The light breeze puckered her nipples, making them sensitive against the rub of her smock.
“I command we play another game,” she said, feeling giddy with anticipation. Without the heaviness of Kisimul pressing down on her, Mairi’s mind churned with scandalous ideas. She had Alec alone and smiling. It was a night for miracles. Glancing at the cargo nets and cannons, she spied a set of stairs leading to the upper deck. “Have ye ever played All Hid?” she asked.
He studied her, his grin broadening. “Aye, as a child.”
“Count to fifty,” she whispered. “And then come find your goddess.”
“Mairi—”
“Start with one,” she instructed and turned on the toes of her slippers, wide eyes searching for a place to hide, or rather, a place to be found. Her smock raised, she flew silently toward the bow, which pointed out toward the open sea, and dodged around the large foremast to hide. She drew in deep breaths of fresh sea air as she waited, her back against the thick wood and ropes.
Her heart hammered. How long would it take him to track her down? And more importantly, what would he do when he found her? She ran her hands down her front, her body alive and sensitive under the thin fabric of her smock.
Lips open to exhale noiselessly, she strained to hear any clue as to where Alec moved. The wind tugged the ropes aloft, the lines like exposed skeletons without their sails covering them, and small waves lapped along the hull. But no footsteps. Perhaps he went belowdeck, thinking she’d prefer to be out of the summer breeze. Leaning carefully around the edge, Mairi peered into the darkness toward the steps and gasped.
Alec MacNeil, bare chested, his kilt slung low on his hips, leaned against the rail at the top of the steps. His boots were missing, explaining his steal
th. When he met her gaze, he smiled. “I believe I’ve won your game,” he said. “Now for the prize.”
Chapter Seventeen
Alec leveled his stare on Mairi, letting her know there was no escape.
“How did ye find me?” she asked, disappearing behind the mast to peek around the other side.
He tipped his nose to the breeze. “Your scent. Roses mixed with heat.” He stepped to the side, making her retreat, but he guessed her next move and dodged back as she attempted to run. He caught her lithe form, pulling her with him as he leaned back against the thick, unyielding mast.
Her seductive smile gave him all the permission he needed to stroke a path downward, the thin smock molding to her perfect curves. Her cool fingers rose up between them, sliding along his skin up his chest. The sensation shot lightning through his heated body. He hovered his mouth over hers, her breath touching his lips. “What prize do ye yield?” he asked.
A slip of her tongue plying the space between her lips nearly made him shake, his need huge and raw. “Ye tasted me,” she whispered. “On the hill under the stars.”
Just the memory of her musky sweetness thrummed another strike of need through him. “Aye,” he said, his voice almost a growl.
“I want to taste ye,” she said.
His breath stopped as her palms flattened on his chest, her thin fingers raking softly down his body as she lowered, her white gown pooling around her on the deck. When she reached his stomach, she tipped her face up to smile wickedly at him and then at the obviousness of his arousal tenting out his kilt. She slid her hands up his legs as he braced them. When she encircled his length, he groaned. He yanked up his kilt, exposing her hand wrapped around his cod in the moonlight. She stroked, and he watched, leaning back against the mast. Reaching forward, he raked gently through her hair, the waves catching in the night breeze.
Holding him, she lowered her mouth. Wet heat surrounded him, and Alec’s eyes closed as he relied on the mast to hold him upright. “Sweet Lord,” he murmured, his voice thick as she worked along his length. As if realizing her power, Mairi grew bolder, stroking him with her tongue and fondling his stones. She pulled up until the coolness of the air broke along his skin. He opened his eyes to stare down at his sinful angel. Hair spread around her shoulders, a view of her ripe breasts spilling up out of her undone smock, her lips poised on the end of him. And then she descended, taking him fully inside her mouth.
Alec growled a fierce cry and reached down to haul Mairi up. He’d lose himself in that honeyed mouth if he didn’t stop her. His lips covered hers as ravenous hunger rose up like a molten wave between them. Slanting, they melded completely against each other, tasting and giving in to their frantic kiss. Her hands reached behind him under his kilt to his bare arse. Breasts like soft twin moons pressed up between them as her smock fell to her waist. He palmed one as he kissed her, trailing his lips along her graceful neck on his way down to suck one nipple into his mouth.
“Och,” she whispered and clung to him, reaching up on her toes to rub against his hardness.
With a tug on his belt, it loosened, and his kilt thudded to the deck. Mairi threw her head back as he bent over her breasts, loving them with his tongue and hot mouth, pinching and rolling her nipples. She grabbed his rigid heat, stroking and pressing his tip against her mound. His fingers followed, finding her sensitive nub. She hissed as he rubbed across it. He slipped lower as she ground against his hand.
He kissed back up to her ear as he pressed two fingers into her supple body. “Och, lass,” he whispered. “Ye are drenched and so bloody hot.”
“Alec, please…” She moaned as he rubbed and worked her flesh, reveling in her reactions to each touch. He withdrew his fingers. “Nay,” she said, but he turned her around to face the mast.
Leaning against her bare back, he tugged her smock up around her hips. His hands covered her stomach under it, stroking lower, playing again with her as she arched her smooth back, thrusting her arse up higher and spreading her legs. She was ready, hot, and soaking. He nibbled against her ear. “Hold on, lass.”
Her fingers curled into the ropes encircling the mast as he reached in front of her, spreading her, opening her wet woman’s lips. He found the entrance easily from behind. Poised there at the opening, his hands rose to cup her full breasts.
“Alec,” she pleaded, pushing back against him.
Bending over her, he groaned as he plunged forward, thrusting into her. Mairi’s answering moan joined his to rise into the darkness. He clasped her hips, pumping into her from behind. Reaching forward to her nub, he strummed it quickly, making her thrash backward and then forward into his fingers.
“So hard,” she said, panting. “So good. Harder.”
Alec thrust deeper, lifting her onto the tips of her toes as she clasped the ropes around the mast. He felt her all around him, her hot wet channel sucking tightly as he rammed forward and up, filling her completely over and over again. Heat poured through him to the point he imagined steam rising from his skin into the night sky. Their rhythm increased, building as he used every part of his body to tease and pleasure Mairi.
“My God,” she cried out. “Alec.” Shaking with pleasure, her channel convulsed, gripping him until he felt himself shatter, too. Alec’s fingers dug into her hips as he thrust, his oath roaring out of him. “Ye are mine,” he yelled as he shot himself inside her quivering, molten body.
…
“We can go below,” Alec said as he tucked the blanket around Mairi, cocooning them together on the floor of the upper deck. “There’s a decent sized bed in the captain’s quarters where I found this blanket.”
Mairi snuggled against Alec, enjoying the feel of their naked bodies draped intimately together. No wonder Tor and his wife, Ava, spent so much time alone together. “I prefer the night sky overhead to wooden beams,” she said and rolled onto her back to see the familiar constellations.
Now that her body had cooled somewhat, rational thought crept back in. What had he meant when he’d yelled that she was his? His powerful words had cut through her like a binding oath, like what she thought wedding vows should feel like.
“What are ye thinking?” he asked, his gaze still straight above him.
“A rather high number of things,” she said.
She could see his mouth turn up at the corners. “’Tis hard to enjoy the stars with crowded thoughts.”
That was the absolute truth. Mairi raised up on one elbow, letting her gaze wander the moonlit landscape of Alec’s ruggedly handsome face. Perfectly sloped nose, angular cheeks leading to a strong jaw. He could be a painter’s inspiration for masculine beauty. “What did ye mean? Before…when ye said that I am yours?”
He turned his gaze to hers. “I asked ye to wed with me that night in the boat.”
“I didn’t answer,” she said.
“Nay, and I nearly slit Angus Cameron’s throat.” His face grew serious, and he reached up to pull her down for a kiss, his warm lips moving intimately against hers until she nearly forgot what they were discussing.
When he broke the kiss, she blinked as he touched her bottom lip with his thumb, sliding it gently along the edge. His voice was firm yet soft. “When I said ye were mine, I gave ye my oath. It is up to ye to accept it.”
“An oath made before no one?” she whispered. Everything about Alec was strong, yet the vulnerability in his explanation drew her heart.
“An oath made before the only ones who matter: ye, me, the stars, and God.”
The center of her stomach tightened and fluttered. “Ye mean, if I swear in kind, then…we are wed?”
His eyes searched hers. “For the sake of your kin, I would repeat it before a priest. But formal words before the church are not the oath. They are only ceremony and words, and people spout them without thought or heart.” His face tightened, and she knew he must be thinking of those who had left him. His father to battle and death, his mother to her religion, Joyce to her secrets and murder, even Milli
e for her independence.
“A vow before the stars means more to ye?” Mairi asked, reaching out to touch his hair where it curled around one ear.
“Aye, if it comes from the heart.”
Mairi’s mind raced as she met his gaze. Could she commit with her whole heart to the man who’d stolen her, imprisoned her, and had hidden her away from her family when they came searching? Could she turn away from the man who had been gentle with her in her fury? Who showed kindness to animals, children, old women, and her? Could she walk away from the man she’d given her body to, trusting him to respect and love it, bringing her utter fulfillment without holding back? Could she commit to giving up her freedom to live on Kisimul?
Alec waited, and with each second passing she felt him draw away as his face hardened. He expected more pain. She touched his face, feeling the roughness of his shaved cheek, and leaned down to kiss him gently on his warm lips. “Alec…” She backed up slightly. “Ye are mine, and I am yours.”
His lips parted, and she held a finger across them. “But,” she continued. “I am not part of Kisimul.”
He pushed up onto his elbow to be level with her and took her hand from his mouth. “I am The MacNeil of Barra Isle. Kisimul is my home.”
“Kisimul is the home of the Wolf of Barra,” Mairi said. “The lone wolf, away from his people.” She shook her head. “A chief should sit among his people, not walled off on his own island.” Mairi pushed up farther to sit, crossing her legs under her and pulling the edge of the blanket around her naked shoulders.
Alec followed her until they sat facing each other. “It is how it has always been,” he said, his voice unwavering.
Mairi pursed her lips. “And there has always been a row of boats on the shore of Barra, unused and rotting, standing as silent memorials to all those who cannot or will not return to Kisimul. I would rather not have one representing me.”
“The walls of Kisimul protect,” Alec said. “No enemy has ever been able to breach the MacNeil seat.”
“Alec,” she said, leaning forward, her hand on his arm. “The walls that protect can also imprison.” Mairi had learned that lesson the hard way while hiding from her stepson at Kilchoan. She shook her head. “I cannot live feeling like I’m imprisoned.”
The Wolf of Kisimul Castle Page 15
