by Donna Grant
CHAPTER THIRTY
Tara was more than a little disappointed to walk out of the bathroom to find Ramsey gone. But then again he did have other responsibilities besides her.
Spending a day with Ramsey pretending they were a normal couple going to a movie and maybe out to dinner was just ridiculous for her to even think about.
She was a Druid, hunted not just by her family but by a maniac intent on evil so great it made her ill to think about it. And Ramsey …
He was half Warrior, half Druid. That concept still baffled her. And the magic that flowed between them for everyone to see left her speechless.
Tara knew the women were waiting for her downstairs. They had accepted her easily into their fold and made her feel welcome. Yet, she was used to being on her own.
She was used to answering to no one.
She was used to making her own decisions without conferring with anyone.
And she was used to doing things her way.
At first she hadn’t thought much about being at the castle since her concern had been for Ramsey when he lay unmoving atop his bed.
Then he’d woken, and she’d felt such hurt. How could she go from feeling so lost and hurt one moment to such scorching desire the next?
She smiled as she pulled on a pair of sweats. Over her bra she wore a tank, and then over that she grabbed her favorite sweatshirt. It was light gray with ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY written in a pretty black-and-red tartan.
The sweatshirt had been given to her by her grandmother on her sixteenth birthday. Tara had longed to attend the prestigious university, but two years later, her only thought had been to stay alive.
Tara ran her hands down the front of the sweatshirt as she thought of her grandmother. With a smile, she pulled back her hair and twisted a ponytail holder around the thick strands.
After putting on her running shoes, Tara did fifty push-ups and a hundred crunches, then twenty full-body sit-ups. With her body now warmed up, she took another thirty minutes to stretch before she left her chamber.
She decided to do a different round. She jogged through the corridor and down a set of stairs before she found the hallway that led to the battlements.
When she opened the door, a blast of cold air slammed into her, but Tara inhaled it deeply within her lungs and let the door close behind her. With patches of ice all along the battlements, it would be a wonderful way for her to get a workout.
It was after she had leaped over her third patch of ice that she noticed two Warriors who seemed to be locked in a fierce battle.
As she looked more closely, she realized it was Ramsey and Arran. And they appeared to be sparring. Blood dripped from scratch marks on their bare chests. She didn’t know where their shirts had gone, but after a look at Ramsey’s muscles she didn’t care.
Tara continued on, a smile now on her face. She liked the fact that Ramsey also enjoyed a good workout. Though she wasn’t a Warrior, she had to learn how to stay alive and keep ahead of those chasing her.
She’d learned self-defense classes first. That had progressed to martial arts instruction of all kinds. Every chance she got she would train with a new instructor, because each of them taught her something different, something that had benefited her in her struggle to survive.
With her trip along the battlements done, Tara carefully descended the stairs into the bailey and ran to the stables. She liked the obstacles she’d found there. It wasn’t every day she found things she could jump over.
She gave herself a moment to catch her breath, and then she began the course starting from one side of the stable and around to the other.
Twice she slammed her shin into the boards, and once her hand slipped on the board she was trying to throw herself over which caused her to hit her ribs against it.
But she kept going.
She didn’t like hurting herself, but it was realistic. If she could continue despite being injured, then she was training herself well.
The air in the stables suddenly changed, becoming charged with desire and danger. Tara paused and looked up into the rafters, but couldn’t see anything. But she wasn’t frightened. She knew who was watching her.
“Ramsey,” she whispered.
“I think you might move a wee bit faster if you had someone chasing you.”
His voice drifted down to her from above, and though she searched the shadows she couldn’t find him.
“Is that so? I thought you were otherwise engaged? With Arran? You both seemed intent on your battle.”
A board creaked overhead just before Ramsey landed in front of her, a gleam in his silver eyes. “I grew tired of what Arran offered after I spotted you.”
Excitement raced through Tara. “Is that so? What makes you think I want you here?”
“The way your eyes darken when you look at me.”
She didn’t know if he lied or not, but having him near did make her passion rise.
“You’ve no witty remark, lass?”
“No,” she said as she let her gaze roam over him.
His shirt was still missing, but the blood she’d seen had been cleaned away. A fine sheen of sweat glistened on his skin, and his black hair was damp from the snow.
All in all, Tara had never seen a man look so tempting.
“I’ll give you a proper challenge. If you’re up for it,” he offered.
Tara grinned. She wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, especially one coming from Ramsey. “It’ll be a little one-sided since you can move four times as fast as I can.”
“I’ll hold myself back.”
His lopsided grin made her knees grow weak. “I wouldn’t pass this up for the world.”
“Whenever you’re ready, lass.”
Tara’s hands itched to run over his chest, but as much as she wanted to touch him again, she also wanted this challenge that he offered her. There was no way she could best him, but he would push her harder than she pushed herself.
She winked at Ramsey and feinted to the right before rushing to the left around him and heading to the first stall. She used her arms to flip herself over the boards and landed on her feet before running to the next wall.
Ramsey couldn’t stop smiling. Ever since he’d spotted Tara on the battlements he’d fought the urge to go to her. Then he’d stopped fighting it and watched her as she trained.
Every time she bent or rolled, her sweatpants would mold against her perfect behind until all he could think about was cupping her arse in his hands.
That’s when he had spoken to her. The twinkle in her eye as they bantered had sent his blood boiling for her.
To his delight she’d accepted his challenge and had already run around him. Ramsey stood there for a moment just watching her and how easily she flipped over the first wall.
When she started for the second, the need to chase her and claim her took over. Ramsey took off after her, though he was careful to slow himself so he didn’t catch her too easily.
Nevertheless, he gained on her quickly. He was taller, so he bounded over the stall walls easier than she did. Even so, Ramsey was impressed with how quickly she moved.
They were on the opposite side of the stables when he finally caught her. Ramsey grabbed her arm and pushed her against the back of the stall.
Their eyes locked as their breaths came in huffs from their exertion. The sweatshirt she wore had the neck cut out of it so that it fell over one shoulder and bared the strap of her red tank beneath.
Her blue-green eyes were bright from the chase. The way her hands clutched his arms told him she was glad to have been caught.
Ramsey lowered his head, unable to keep from tasting her wonderful lips another moment. She lifted up on her toes and met his kiss halfway. As soon as their lips met, the passion exploded.
The kiss was frantic and fiery, intense and blazing. Her fingers threaded through his hair as he slid his tongue past her lips. Her answering moan only drove him to seek more.
More of her nectar,
more of her touch. More, always more.
He wanted her desperately, a fire burning through his veins hotter and brighter than anything he’d felt in his very long life.
She whispered his name as he kissed down her neck and across her shoulder. His body shook from the need to be inside her, to feel her slick heat clutching around him.
Before he could cut off her sweatshirt, she had managed to pull it over her head and toss it aside. Ramsey smiled down at her.
“If you doona hurry out of those clothes, I’ll cut them off you,” he threatened.
She laughed, her eyes roaming over him and leaving a trail of heat in their wake. “That only makes me want you more.”
“God’s teeth, woman,” he ground out. “I’ll spill if you keep that up.”
Tara looked at him innocently as she kicked off her shoes. “What? Did I do something?”
Ramsey laughed as he slipped his fingers into the waist of her sweats and panties and jerked them down her legs. He squatted before her and kissed her stomach as he removed the pants from her legs.
“I don’t think I can wait,” she said breathlessly.
He slowly stood, kissing through her tank. “You’ve still got too many clothes on.”
“And you have your pants on.”
He began to unfasten his jeans while she jerked off the red tank and unclasped her bra.
Ramsey bent and suckled a rosy nipple deep in his mouth and tugged his jeans farther down his legs. Then he straightened and looked into Tara’s eyes.
“Don’t make me beg,” she pleaded.
“What do you want?”
“You. I want you,” she whispered.
It was all Ramsey needed to hear. He lifted her, and her legs wrapped around his waist so that his cock brushed against her sex.
He hissed in a breath when he felt how wet she was. The hunger to seat himself inside her, to plunge deep into her heat, was overwhelming, crushing.
Irresistible.
Ramsey held her over his aching cock, and slowly lowered her. Her hips rocked against him, seeking more until she had taken all of him.
For a moment Ramsey simply held her, reveling in the feel of being inside her, of having her once more. She had become an addiction, an obsession. And he never wanted it to stop.
Ramsey held her hips and slowly pulled out of her, before he plunged hard and fast. She cried out, her nails sinking into his back.
Her slick hotness as it wrapped around his arousal sent him into a fever pitch of need only she could quench. Again and again he plunged within her, driving them both higher and higher.
Tara pulled his face down for a kiss, their tongues matching the rhythm he’d set as he drove inside her. Harder. Faster.
Relentlessly.
The tide of desire had already swept over him. Taking him. Drowning him in all that was Tara.
She suddenly wrenched her mouth from his and cried out. Ramsey continued to move within her, even when her tight walls greedily clutched him, urging him to his own climax.
But he held on to his control. He was unyielding as he pumped inside her. Then when Tara’s lips began to kiss and lick his neck while her hips rocked against his, Ramsey’s control began to slip.
He pressed her against the wood and gripped her hips to keep her still. Ramsey had always been in control. Always. Except with Tara.
With her, it was as if his mind didn’t know the meaning of the word “control.” And it didn’t bother him, not when such blinding passion thrummed through his body.
“Ramsey,” she whispered.
He could feel her body tightening once more, could sense she was about to peak for a second time. He drove his cock powerfully inside her, filling her as deeply as he could.
Her legs tightened around him at the same time his orgasm took him. They climaxed together, their bodies and eyes locked together.
And Ramsey felt the world melt away as he drowned in the blue-green depths of a siren that had stolen his soul.
Peace enveloped them, swathed them. Cloaked them.
Tara smiled and wrapped her arms around him and held him tight.
Ramsey squeezed his eyes shut, and simply gave in to the serenity he’d found with Tara.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“One of these days I’m actually going to take my time loving you,” Ramsey murmured in her ear as he kissed her neck.
Tara shivered, not from the cold, but from his words. It was true it had been explosive the few times they had made love, but it had been amazing.
“I’m not complaining.” She smiled into his silver eyes while she ran her fingers through his long black locks.
His answering smile would have shattered the stoutest heart.
“Tell me again why you don’t have a woman?” she asked.
Ramsey squeezed her buttocks. “Is there a rule that says I should?”
“Based on my experience, and it is extensive, men like you aren’t ever alone for long.”
A black brow cocked at her words. “Men like me?” he repeated. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Handsome, charming, a bit of a loner. And let’s not forget dangerous.”
“So that’s appealing to women, is it?”
Tara swallowed and ran her thumb over his lips. “More than you could know.”
“Hmm.”
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
He shrugged and pressed his lips to hers. “Maybe I have no’ found the right woman.”
For the briefest moment Tara allowed herself to hope that she might be that woman. But just for a moment. After that, she let reality back in.
A shiver shook her again.
“I’m sorry, Tara. I tend to forget how cold it is when it doesna affect me,” Ramsey said as he pulled out of her.
Tara’s feet landed on the ground as he gently set her on her feet. Until then she hadn’t noticed just how cold she was, but now she couldn’t get back into her clothes fast enough.
It wasn’t until she slid her sweatshirt on that she realized she’d had sex with him three times now, and not once used protection of any kind.
Tara licked her lips and turned to Ramsey.
“What is it?” he asked when he saw her staring at him. His smile faded and he gripped her arms. “Tara? Tell me?”
“We didn’t use any protection.”
Tara didn’t know what to make of Ramsey’s sigh and slight smile.
“You had me worried for a moment,” he said.
“Well, how about sharing your little secret so I can feel as relieved?” She didn’t mean for her words to have such a bite, but the last thing she wanted or needed was a baby or some disease.
She’d never been so careless before.
“First,” he said, “I doona carry any type of disease, so you are safe from that. As for becoming with child, the Druids here take a spell every month that prevents them from becoming pregnant. If I know them, and I do, you were given that spell the first night you were here.”
“Really?” Tara had never stopped to think that magic could help prevent her from getting pregnant, but it explained why Ramsey had never worried about it. “And it works?”
“For over four hundred years, aye.”
“Oh. Why didn’t they tell me?”
Ramsey shrugged and held out his hand. “Because the Druids here like to look after others.”
At least that was one worry Tara didn’t have to concern herself with anymore. Just as long as she took the spell or potion or whatever it was every month.
She didn’t bother to tie her shoes before they walked out of the stable both now fully dressed. Ramsey’s arm was wrapped around her as he guided her through the bailey and up the steps to the castle door.
As soon as they were inside warmth began to spread through her. But Ramsey didn’t release her until he had her sitting before the bright blaze in the hearth.
“What happened?” Dani asked as she hurried to them.
Tar
a glanced at Ramsey before she issued a short laugh. “I stayed outside a bit too long.”
“You and your workouts,” Dani said with a frown. “I’ll get you some coffee.”
“Two sugars please,” Tara called out.
Ramsey squatted in front of her chair. “I shouldna have kept you outside.”
“I wasn’t complaining. I’ll be fine, Ramsey, so stop worrying.”
He looked away briefly, a frown wrinkling his forehead. “I’ve often heard the other Warriors lamenting the fact their women are mortal. Now I understand.”
“I’m fine,” Tara repeated, and put her hand on his arm.
Ramsey nodded. “I willna make the same mistake again.”
“I don’t want to be treated like some porcelain doll. I’m hardier than that.”
“Aye, you are.”
Their gazes locked, and Tara couldn’t help but think there was more Ramsey wanted to say. She was about to ask him when Dani returned with the coffee.
“I’ll see you later,” he said before he stood and walked away.
It took everything Tara had not to follow him with her eyes. Instead, she accepted the mug from Dani and stared into the flames.
“I haven’t been here long, but it’s obvious even to me that Ramsey likes you.”
Tara jerked her gaze to Dani. “I don’t know about that.”
Dani took the chair beside her and grinned slyly. “I’ve never seen him pay another woman the attention he pays you.”
“He feels responsible for me.”
“And you? Is it responsibility that kept you at his side those two days he lay unconscious?”
Tara looked into her mug and shook her head. “No.”
“Ramsey is a good man. All the Warriors have suffered so. I don’t know all of their stories or how they became Warriors, but I know Ian’s. I think they all deserve happiness.”
“When I think about what they went through, I’m not surprised so many fell to Deirdre’s evil,” Tara said and looked up at Dani.
Dani’s eyes widened slightly. “So Ramsey told you his story?”
“Yes.” She was hesitant to answer because of the way Dani asked the question, as if she knew some secret Tara didn’t.
