A Healer for the Highlander

by TERRI BRISBIN

  Oh, aye, there would be issues.

  Letting out his breath and planning his words, he lifted the latch and pushed the door open. He lost his breath again.

  Anna stood on a table, reaching up for the latch on the window that sat high up on the wall. Her hair tumbled loosely down her back, freed from the usual constraint of a braid and held away from her face only by a kerchief. Her breasts strained against her gown and his body remembered the feel of them against his chest when she pulled him to her. She glanced over her shoulder and lost her balance.

  In three strides, Davidh caught her as she fell off the table. Her little scream stopped as she landed in his arms. An open-mouthed gasp was the only sound she made as he shifted his hold on her. One of his hands slid under the curve of her buttocks and she trembled at his grasp. Davidh turned her in his embrace so that she faced him and the feel of her body against his made him suck in a breath.

  ‘Anna.’

  He pulled the kerchief from her head, needing to feel the curls. She did not resist or hesitate; indeed, she shook her head, making those curls cascade down her back. Her feet did not touch the floor as he drew her closer. He slid one hand to the back of her head and he tilted her so that he could...

  ‘Kiss me, I pray you.’ Her plea was barely out of her mouth when he complied. Willingly.

  He brought his mouth to hers and she opened to him, allowing him to sweep his tongue inside to taste her. No honey-sweetened betony this time, just her own flavour and just as sweet. Davidh did not kiss her—he took her mouth, he possessed her mouth, he claimed it. Until he was breathless, he did not stop. Over and over, with one hand holding her head to his and the other supporting her buttocks. He held her to him and kissed the very breath out of her. He lifted his mouth from hers and they shared the very air between them.

  ‘Anna...’ he began.

  ‘I want you, Davidh Cameron. Damn me for it, but I want you.’ A fleeting change in her gaze confused him. For just a moment, he thought he saw sadness there, but it was gone. He could see the frank desire gazing back at him now.

  ‘And I want you, Anna Mackenzie,’ he whispered back as he feathered kisses across her cheeks and on her jaw. ‘I have wanted you since I saw you there above the falls.’

  Her response was not in words but action. She separated her legs around his and placed her hands on his shoulders. He eased her down on to the edge of the table behind her and waited. There was a nigh unrecognisable part of him that urged him to take her, to take her now. The strength of it shocked him. It thrilled him. Yet, he waited on her word or deed.

  ‘Touch me, Davidh. I have wanted to feel your hands on me since I watched you from above the falls.’ She lifted her legs, easing her knees up until they clasped his hips. ‘Touch me now.’

  His cock surged then, wanting to fill that place between those strong thighs. His hands itched and his mouth watered as he watched her angle her body back, making all of her open to him. He wrapped his hands around her head and kissed her deeply, their tongues dancing and swirling and tasting. Her body arched, bringing her breasts to him and he made his way down her jaw and delicate throat towards them.

  Davidh suckled the tender skin of her neck and slipped his hands down to caress her breasts. Even through the layers she wore, he felt them swell as she pressed them into his grasp. She moved her hands to the table’s surface to support herself, giving him an unimpeded path to her. With her head leaned back, she gasped at each touch of his mouth on her neck and she rocked against him when he rubbed his thumbs over the now-taut nipples.

  With quick movements, he tugged at the laces of her gown and then her shift and pulled the garments open until he could see her lovely breasts. Her eyes had drifted closed as he’d kissed her, though now they watched his hands as Davidh cupped her breasts. Her breaths quickened until she panted at his touch. When he leaned down to kiss there, she let out a moan that he felt from his erect flesh into the very marrow of his bones.

  He drew the rosy tip of one breast into his mouth and swirled around it with his tongue. When Davidh suckled on it, Anna moaned aloud. He continued as her legs tightened around his hips. He lavished the same attention on one and then the other, gently pressing against her until she lay on the table before him. Drawing the length of her gown and shift up over her legs, he caressed his way up each one until he was so near the place he wanted to touch that he could feel the heat of her flesh there.

  As he slid his fingers through the curls and touched the very centre of her heat, a wicked desire shot through him. Easing back, he guided her legs up and over his shoulders as he crouched before her. Then, with his lips and tongue and fingers, he stroked her feminine flesh, sliding into the centre of her and suckling on that tiny little bud of flesh between her legs.

  His own flesh surged, lengthening, thickening and pulsing, as he tasted her essence. With long strokes of his tongue, he pushed her on. With slow and fast strokes of his fingers, he rubbed there, diving inside her as she rocked against his mouth and hands. He felt the vibrations within her begin and he pushed her towards satisfaction. He lifted his head and the sight of her—dishevelled, aroused and still in the last throes of release—nearly unmanned him.

  ‘Davidh.’

  She lifted her head and met his gaze, yet it was the throaty whisper that stirred him even more than he thought was possible. He slowly stood, keeping her legs around his waist. Grasping her hips, he tugged her to the very edge of the table and then reached down and lifted his plaid.

  Anna’s bones had melted. Her skin was on fire. Her flesh throbbed in satiety and ached with need. When he pulled her to him and reached under his plaid, her body arched, opening and waiting for his. She leaned up on her elbows and watched as he grasped the length of his flesh and pressed it into the swollen folds between her legs.

  That initial gentle pressure changed to a powerful thrust, as he rocked his hips and filled her. It felt, he felt, wonderful there. His hardness pushed in deep and she lifted her hips to take in every inch of him. Then he eased out and pushed back in, over and over, as that tight trembling built again within her. It stole her breath and her reasoning. When he leaned down and suckled on her breast as he continued to pump into her, she knew she would fall apart. Reaching up, she tangled her fingers in his hair and held on to him. She lost control and lost herself as she fell over some unknown boundary into a full measure of satisfaction.

  He lifted his head, his face tightened almost as if in pain, and then he moaned out in a deeply male, almost possessive way as his seed began to release. Only at the last moment, he pulled out of her body and spilled within the folds of his plaid. For some minutes, only the sounds of their panting breaths echoed around them in the chamber.

  Anna finally came back to herself as he stepped back, drawing her shift and gown down over her legs as he did so. She took his hand and sat up, sliding from the table on unsteady legs. Davidh did not move completely away from her then. Instead, he leaned over and kissed her. This was a kiss so unlike the ones before that its gentleness made her tremble.

  ‘I am at a loss for words right now,’ he said then.

  She was not certain what she wanted him to say or what she wanted to hear in this moment. He startled her when he reached up and touched her head. Holding out a feather to her, he laughed.

  ‘I think there is even a nest of birds in this chamber,’ she said, taking it from him.

  ‘You have quite a task ahead of you,’ he said. ‘How long do you think this will take you?’ He stepped back then and she ached for his return.

  ‘Well, with the other things I have to see to in the village and the gardens, I planned to spend some time here each day until I finish it.’ His eyes glimmered just then and she wondered at that.

  He opened his mouth to say something else when his name was roared down the corridor outside the chamber. Whatever he’d planned to say was lost in a harsh curs
e as he walked to the door and lifted the latch.

  ‘Parlan! I am here,’ he said just as someone stopped outside the chamber. ‘Anna, I will see you at supper. Can you accommodate Parlan at table this evening?’

  ‘I will make enough,’ she said.

  With a nod, he was gone, pushing the man called Parlan out before he could enter. Anna could not understand what was said in the hushed exchange between the men, but she suspected that this Parlan was well aware of what had just happened here.

  If they were not careful, word would spread and trouble could start. As she tried over the next hour or so to accomplish some of what she must here, Anna realised that, no matter the pleasure she’d experienced with him, trouble was not what she needed or wanted here in Achnacarry. Not until she had secured her son’s place. Then it would not matter.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Two days had passed since Davidh had lost his mind and his control and, well, had taken Anna on the table in the stillroom. There was no excuse for such a thing other than... Well, there simply was no excuse. He would have asked her pardon for his actions, yet she had welcomed them.

  He could admit to himself that entering his house that evening had given him pause. He’d even gone as far as to bring Parlan with him to avoid facing her alone. Other than a quick flashing in her green eyes at his entrance, he found no difference in her manner towards him.

  Parlan served his purpose at supper, too. He’d kept the conversation lively, dividing his attention between the boys and Anna. Davidh could admit another thing to himself—Anna could keep up with Parlan’s quick wit and teasing manner. Had his friend always been that way with women or only with her?

  Only when Parlan asked, as he left to return to the keep after the meal, if Davidh had any claim on Anna, did his friend’s intentions become clear. Parlan explained that he asked because others had asked it of him, but Davidh suspected otherwise. When Davidh quickly denied any such thing, Parlan laughed at first and then claimed it was a good thing.

  The strangest of encounters and things had begun happening ever since then.

  Several times now, Davidh had been invited to sup with two widows and three other families who all seemed to have daughters of a marriageable age. Then, Lilias had appeared at the fence surrounding the training yard and waited for him to approach her. He did not ever remember seeing the widow inside the walls of Achnacarry and now here she stood.

  ‘Lilias, is there something wrong?’ he asked, expecting some dire tale that needed his attention.

  ‘Nay, Davidh. I just have not seen ye lately, with yer duties to the laird and such, and wanted to speak with ye.’

  Confused even more by the way she reached up to smooth her hair out of her face and touch her lips, Davidh waited for her to continue. When Lilias slid her hands down the skirts of her gown and adjusted her arisaidh around her shoulders, exposing more of her face to him, he caught on to what her true message was.

  ‘Would ye come to supper tomorrow evening?’

  And stay the night were the words she did not say aloud, but that he could hear clearly. He’d not visited her or her bed for some time and the thought of it soured his stomach.

  ‘I fear not, Lilias. Though I thank you for your kind offer.’

  Simple. Plain. Words meant to stop this before it went further. They had enjoyed the pleasure of bed play several times when the need came upon him and she was amenable, yet he knew she wanted more than that. He’d been very deliberate in his words and actions to not allow those expectations to grow. Or he thought he had. Now, Davidh stepped away from the fence and began to turn from her. The colour rose in her face and her mouth tightened to a thin line.

  ‘’Tis the witch, is it not? She has woven her spell around ye to make certain ye will not stray!’ The words were uttered in a vehement whisper, filled with anger and...jealousy?

  Davidh took a step closer, forcing the woman to look up at him. Leaning down so that only she could hear his words.

  ‘Not that it is any concern of yours, but there is no witch and Anna Mackenzie is my housekeeper.’

  ‘Call it what ye will, Davidh. Everyone kens whose bed she is sharing.’ She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded at him.

  ‘She has not shared my bed, Lilias.’ For a moment, just a single one, he regretted the very fine line of truth he was standing on with his words. But this kind of talk—about Anna being a witch and about them being...intimate—could not go unchallenged.

  ‘Och, aye, I remember yer preferences for coupling against the wall or door.’ Her eyes lit then with desire. ‘Yer strong body pressing mine against the door that it nearly buckled when the passion took ye.’

  A memory surged forward in his thoughts, but not of this widow. Of Anna’s face as he kissed her until she was breathless...against the door of his house. At Lilias’s laugh, he suspected that memory must have shown on his face.

  ‘Aye, like that. Just like that,’ she said with a nod.

  Correct memory, wrong woman. There had been no other woman in his bed since Mara.

  ‘Well, how I swive and who I take to my bed or on my door is no concern of yours, Lilias.’ Her eyes flared then. ‘And the widow Mackenzie is under the chieftain’s protection. So, you had better think about what lies or stories you spread about her. And what you call her.’

  Now the red flushing in her cheeks drained and Lilias stepped back, lowering her gaze to the ground. Without another word, she drew her cloak around her head and stalked off, but not before muttering some words under her breath that he could not discern.

  Davidh wanted to roar out his anger to the sky. Lilias meddled. It was what she and many other women in the village did best. She also gossiped. Though it was a natural thing when living in a village or keep, he supposed. Yet Lilias collected secrets and suspicions and then dealt them out when it benefited her. He’d seen it before while it had not mattered to him.

  Now, though, it did.

  When he glanced around, he realised that all the small groups of his men training there had shifted away from him. Parlan, damn the man, stood across the yard, leaning against the fence there and listening to Athdar’s counsel while watching Davidh. He could almost see the knowing smirk on his friend’s face and, tempted though he was to smash it off there, Davidh did not wish to engage with Parlan in a discussion of women.

  When Davidh caught sight of the men working on the stable walls, he strode off to see how Iain was doing in his new assignment there. He found the man who was overseeing the lad inside.

  ‘He’s a good one,’ Lachlan said. Nodding at Anna’s son, the man continued. ‘Sees to his tasks and his work is strong.’

  ‘Has he shown you his carvings?’ Davidh asked. Iain was working with a few others on building an extension on to the stables at the moment. ‘He is quite skilled at fine work.’

  ‘Nay, but I have kept him quite busy with the things we need done here.’ Lachlan smacked Davidh on his back. ‘First what we need, then I will turn him loose to see what he can do best.’

  ‘He has had no one to teach him.’ While they were talking, Iain noticed him and came to him.

  ‘Is aught wrong? You are both frowning at me,’ the lad said. Davidh smiled and shook his head.

  ‘Nay, nothing is wrong, Iain,’ he said. ‘I was telling Lachlan that you’ve had no teacher and yet have skills with carving and woodwork.’

  ‘I am willing to work, sir,’ Iain said, much too seriously for a boy of his age.

  ‘A good thing,’ Davidh said.

  Someone called out Iain’s name and he returned to the small group where he’d been working. He studied the boy for a few minutes and noticed that Iain seemed to be at ease in working with others. The lad had, without realising it, been starving for the comradery that came from finding a place within a group of men.

  ‘For a moment,’ Lachlan began,
‘he looked like...’ He stopped and shook his head.

  ‘He looked like...who?’

  ‘Nay. Seeing him next to you, I thought of...’ Lachlan laughed then. ‘’Tis nothing. Forgive an old man’s failing sight, lad.’

  ‘He has the nose, does he not?’ Davidh asked. It was one of the first similarities that Camerons shared that Davidh had noticed in Iain’s features.

  Davidh let Lachlan go back to his duties and returned to his. An hour or two of pounding Parlan into the dirt would feel good and would help him release some of the anger that yet ran in his veins.

  Aye, smashing the arrogance off his friend’s face would be satisfying indeed.

  * * *

  When the third man knocked on the door of the stillroom, Anna understood that there would be no peace this morn. She’d left the door ajar to help air out the mustiness and that seemed to invite no visitors except of the male kind.

  Baen’s father, Uilleam, who worked in the keep, had been first with his offer to move the heavier tables around if she needed it done. And, would she sup with him in the hall this night? Then, Tormod, a brewer, came by, asking if she had enough supplies and if she would sup with him on the morrow. Now, Kenneth, the butcher, stood there asking if she needed any special meats to prepare her brews and broths and would she sup with him in his cottage...with his three grown sons.

  Unfortunately, she’d seen this before. Though almost too young to understand it when they moved north to her mother’s clan, this was wooing, plain and simple. Many village men had approached her mother, a widow, with such offers of help and requests for companionship once they’d arrived and were made known to the people living there.

  A healer with skills such as her mother’s would always be in demand. A widow capable of caring for and bearing bairns would always be sought out by men in need of one or the other. A woman willing to warm the bed of a man in need was always desired.