Claire grasped Delilah’s arm and pulled it over her shoulders, like one would do with a blanket on a cold night. Delilah smiled and held the girl in her embrace for a long while, even when the child’s silky golden hair tickled at her chin.
“My ma protected me when the MacKenzies came,” Claire whispered, so quietly, Delilah had almost not heard it. “She stepped in front of me so the men wouldna see me. She was verra brave.” Her voice caught, and so did something in Delilah’s chest.
Claire’s hand blindly found Delilah’s and folded around it. “When she died, she told me she loved me, and she…” A slight tremble of the girl’s body told Delilah she was crying. “She told me she’d send an angel to protect me because she knew she was going to die.”
Her crying was not so silent then. It came in hiccupping sobs that bled hot and wet against Delilah’s chest and deep into her soul. She held the child while she wept, and could no sooner stop the tears from silently tracing down her own cheeks than she could stop the shell of her heart from breaking.
• • •
The sky was black with night and still Delilah was missing.
Kaid paced his solar, waiting for Leasa to arrive. Surely she had to know something about her mistress.
If he hadn’t been so busy during the day, he’d have kept an eye on Delilah himself. The last damn thing he needed was for her to run off. He needed her for his plan to work.
But it was more than that.
After spending so many weeks with her, seeing her every day, speaking with her every day—the idea of her no longer in his life was incomprehensible and left him feeling…
He grasped at the fragile emotion and pulled it closer to his heart to identify it.
Empty.
Life without Delilah seemed somehow empty.
He stared out into the darkness once more. Would she truly have left? Perhaps that was why she’d given him such a quiet kiss the night before, a final goodbye.
And it was at such damnable timing.
MacKenzie’s letter lay on the desk, his acceptance scrawled in a bold script. He would return Kaid’s father’s sword and allow peace to reign between the two clans.
Not that Kaid trusted that peace.
But if Delilah had left and he had no bride to offer, surely it would be an immediate invitation to war.
A knock sounded at the door, and his heart lurched.
“Enter,” he said even as he strode toward the door to pull it open.
Leasa was there, her cheeks rosy and her hair shining. She’d abandoned the silly English gown she’d arrived in for a more comfortable homespun dress one of the MacLeod ladies had provided. The lass had taken well to life in Ardvreck Castle.
She entered the room and Donnan followed.
“Have ye seen Delilah?” Kaid asked in English.
“She’s at the orphanage.” Leasa cast a hesitant look toward Donnan. “Is something wrong?”
Kaid did not answer. He was already out the door and on his way to the large stone building where the orphans were housed, hoping all the way he’d truly find Delilah there.
Aida opened the door for him when he arrived.
He entered and scanned the large main room where several older children lingered. “Is Elizabeth here?” he asked.
Aida indicated the chairs near the fireplace. “I was wondering when ye’d come for her.”
The grip of fear on Kaid’s heart relaxed into relief.
He followed Aida toward the large hearth and found Delilah sitting with Claire in her arms. The child was snuggled against her and fast asleep, one thumb tucked in her mouth.
It was the kind of scene which told Kaid what kind of a mother Delilah might make, and for the quickest of moments, he wondered what she might look like cradling their child.
Aida held out her arms. “I’ll take her to her bed.”
Delilah hesitated and looked down at the child tenderly. “Are you sure?”
“Aye.” Aida bent over Delilah and scooped the sleeping Claire into her arms. The girl snuffled and turned her head to the side before falling still once more. “She’ll be fine,” Aida said in a reassuring whisper.
Delilah nodded and offered a weak smile. She waited until Aida was gone before she looked up at Kaid. She tried to say his name, but it came out in a choked sob.
Kaid was at the chair’s side in a single step. He reached toward Delilah, but she stopped him.
She closed her eyes and took a long, slow breath in and out. After a moment, her eyes opened, and she rose with all the elegance she’d ever possessed.
“Let’s get ye back to the castle, aye?” Kaid placed a hand at the narrow dip of her lower back and led her toward the door. It was a slight touch, barely enough to allow the delicate heat of her body to tease his fingertips.
She was clearly upset and everything in him wanted to comfort her. He wanted to hold her in his arms and let the breaking of her heart wash against his chest.
But his Delilah was a proud woman.
His Delilah.
He had no right to call her as much, and yet he could no more stop the thought than he could stop his heart from beating.
Delilah allowed him to lead her from the room into the cold night. The wind stirred the trees in a quiet rustle.
“Is everything well with ye?” Kaid asked.
She pressed trembling fingers to her lips. “That poor child. All of them. Those poor children.”
She nodded toward the trail in silent indication that they should go on.
Kaid took her hand and guided it to the crook of his arm, the kind of thing an English gentleman might do, true, but it was a comfort he knew she would allow.
They walked in silence all the way back to Ardvreck, the wind chilling their faces and the moon lighting their path.
When the castle gates appeared before them, Delilah stopped and turned to face him, her expression fierce. “I’ve made my decision.” She caught his hands in hers and gave them a hearty squeeze. “I don’t care what it costs me, I will help you.”
Chapter Nineteen
Delilah found herself in the confidential quiet of Kaid’s chamber once more. The spicy scent of him lingered in the air, declaring everything his, from the ornately carved chairs before the fire to the massive bed.
It was the bed which constantly drew her attention.
There was something very intimate about being in a place where a man lived, where he slept.
Her gaze flicked toward the bed.
Where he loved.
She tried not to let her heart wince at the last thought.
“Our plan needs to be a quick one.” Her voice seemed almost too loud for the comfortable silence in the room.
Good. She needed the distraction from the thoughts of the innocent kiss she’d bestowed upon him the last time she was here, and how she’d wanted so much more.
But now was not for loving. Now was for war.
For saving the MacLeods from another massacre.
Her gaze shifted from the bed to the shuttered windows where the night loomed black beyond.
Kaid stood close to her. She could sense the nearness of his body against her back.
Delilah forged her resolve into iron before she turned to face him. “It was Lady Elizabeth’s father who paid me to stand in her place. He knows nothing of you—only that MacKenzie has enemies who might use Elizabeth as a means to get at him.”
She didn’t mention Sylvi or Liv, or even the other girls who had not come on the journey—there was no need. Keeping their secrets was the least she could do for them after this incredible betrayal.
“But Lady Elizabeth is still traveling toward MacKenzie,” she continued. “We have little more than a week before she arrives at Edirdovar Castle.”
Kaid frowned. “It will take two days to reach it from here.”
“I know,” Delilah replied. “I’d done all the calculations. It’s two days for a man on a horse, but I’ll be playing a lady who rides in a c
arriage. The trip will take closer to three days. I’ll have to leave in the morning. If I can get there quickly, it will allow more time to find Torra. I want to be gone before the true Elizabeth arrives.”
Kaid stiffened and shifted his gaze from her.
“I dinna like it,” he said finally. “I thought we’d have more time.”
“Time would give us nothing, but a longer wait for everything to be resolved.” She was right, of course. She knew as much, and certainly he did as well.
But he stared hard at her with emotion burning bright in the blue of his eyes. “I dinna like that ye have to do this.” He stepped toward her, close enough for his body to blot out the heat of the fire and replace it with his own.
“It’s your plan.” Her voice was softer now, unintentionally so—as if her body was aware of an intimacy her mind had not yet caught.
He brushed his fingertips against her face. She closed her eyes to better revel in the caress. Her lips lifted in a coy smile. “Do you really think I’d let him hurt me?” She opened her eyes and found him staring down at her with a sad expression.
“I dinna want ye there alone. I want to be with ye.” He continued cupping her jaw and stepped close enough for her skirts to tickle against his shins.
“You know you cannot.” Delilah stared up at him, wanting him to see the truth in her words as she spoke them. “But you can trust me.”
“I do trust ye.” His thumb stroked against her cheek, and something desperate showed in his gaze. “But if something happens to ye and I’m no’ there to protect ye—”
“Nothing will happen to me.” Delilah spoke with confidence. For surely it was easy to don when the chaos of reality lay outside a closed bedroom door.
He stared down at her for a long moment before his mouth came down on hers, hungry and fierce.
Surprise only caught her for a brief moment before she let herself be drowned in the lust she’d been pushing off since their arrival at Ardvreck. She slid her fingers through the silkiness of Kaid’s hair. Their kisses were frantic with lips and tongues and teeth.
Her nipples tingled beneath her bodice with each excited brush against his chest, and the place between her legs pounded with a desperate need.
“I want ye.” Kaid’s admission came out in a groan between eager kisses. He pulled back and his eyes met hers. “I want ye, Delilah.”
Delilah.
Joy bubbled around her heart. She could have laughed with the happiness of hearing him say her name. Wanting her.
Not Elizabeth. Her.
He stroked the hair away from her forehead and let his hand glide down the back of her head. “I told ye—ye’re exquisite.” He came toward her so she had to step backward.
Toward the bed.
Delilah sucked in a gasp.
Kaid edged her back until the hard frame of the bed pushed against her calves. He leaned over her, and she allowed herself to lay back on the pillowed surface of Kaid’s bed.
The fur coverlet was soft beneath her palms and it was altogether too easy to imagine herself naked atop it.
Kaid braced himself over her. “Ye’re a beautiful woman, Delilah.” He kissed her with such tenderness, it almost made her cry out with its teasing, agonizing slowness.
He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and then drew back with a playful grin she’d not seen on him before. Something about it warmed low in her stomach.
“So eager, my beautiful warrior?” he said in a velvet voice. “We rushed last time. This is different. We have the night together to love.”
He pulled the ribbon of her bodice until the delicate silk bow slipped free. “I want to take my time with ye. To see ye.” His gaze drifted down her body, and her cheeks began to burn.
“I want to touch ye.” He slid a hand up her skirt and teased the delicate flesh of her inner thighs.
Delilah’s legs widened, unbidden.
He ran a fingertip to where her legs met, where the source of her desire thrummed wild and erratic, and she cried out with eager pleasure.
Then, to her great surprise, he lifted the damp fingertip to his lips and grazed it with his tongue.
“I want to taste ye,” he said.
Before she could answer, before rational thought even jarred back into her mind, he knelt between her legs and pressed his mouth to her.
A quiet cry left her lips, but she did not pull from his caress.
Not even when he repeated it with his tongue.
He dragged it slowly over the delicate slit, pausing to flick the swollen bud, directly where her body hummed with desire. Everything tightened with a familiar anticipation.
She said his name, and it came out in a strangled moan.
At that one beautiful moment of bliss, nothing mattered but the flat of his tongue against her and the need building.
Her fingers wound through his hair and held him to her while her body trembled. His tongue danced over her once more, and she thought she might go mad with wanting, mad with being so close but not falling over the edge.
He slid a finger inside her while his skillful tongue worked, and her world exploded with tingling pleasure.
He did not stop until her cries subsided and her body relaxed with another kind of languid longing.
She wanted him.
For the last night she was at Ardvreck, before she might possibly never see him again, she wanted him.
Kaid obviously was of the same mind, for he rose from between her legs with a slight smile on his lips and slid off the belt of his plaid. Both fell away, leaving him in only his leine, which he smoothly pulled over his head in one tug.
Delilah’s mouth went dry.
She’d felt the muscles beneath his clothing when they’d lain together, even when he’d held her before. But to bear witness to his beauty was another thing entirely.
His shoulders, arms, and chest were carved with muscle and his stomach went flat in tapered bands that seemed to become more pronounced when he breathed. His hips were narrow, his thighs powerful, and…
Delilah, who thought herself long past being a silly girl, warmed with the heat of a blush when her gaze lingered over the length of his hard phallus.
She slid off the bed, and her heavy skirts slipped back over her legs once more. She let her mouth curl into a seductive grin and slipped a finger under the lace of her bodice before slowly pulling it free.
He’d shown himself to her in all his beautiful magnificence.
And now it was her turn.
• • •
The undressing of a woman had never been so sensual as Delilah’s careful disrobing.
Kaid had had his share of women, of course, but he had enjoyed many without the ceremony of having their clothing slowly stripped away.
Delilah pulled free all the lacings on her bodice and let it hit the ground with a hard thunk. Next came the heavy skirts which rustled like parchment in the quiet room. Then came the heavy corset which eased the rigid stiffness of her frame and left the pink of her nipples visible beneath the thin fabric of her sark.
He took great pleasure in the gradual revealing of flesh, the tease of what was to come. Though he’d had her before, he found himself waiting with strained eagerness for the removal of each item.
She stayed a moment in her sark, watching him before easing the hem over her ankles, her shapely calves, her slender, perfect knees. He didn’t know if he’d ever noticed knees being perfect before, but hers were decidedly so.
Higher still revealed the slender gap between her legs. His heart pounded with thundering anticipation. The triangle of dark hair between her legs came next, then the flare of her rounded hips and the narrow indent of her waist.
Kaid folded his arms over his chest to keep from touching her. The last thing he wanted was to interrupt the tantalizing view.
The sark rose high over the expanse of her ribcage and displayed full, lovely breasts. He ran his tongue across the seam of his lips.
Finally, she cast the sark aside
, where it whispered to the floor in a graceful heap of fabric.
Delilah was beautiful. Far more so than even his imagination could attempt to supply. Her body was made firm by her ability to fight, lines of lean muscle apparent in the glow of the fire.
Though there was evidence of her true strength, there was still the alluring softness of femininity—the swell of her hips, the roundness of her breasts, the curve of her perfect bottom.
He wanted to trace her body, memorize every luscious contour. He wanted to draw her, to capture her incredible beauty.
But sketching could come later.
He closed the distance between them and skimmed his fingers over her flat stomach. Her nipples hardened and she gave a quiet gasp.
He met her gaze. “Every part of ye is beautiful.”
Spots of color showed on her cheeks. “Every part of you is as well.”
He almost grinned, but her touch moved to his chest and slowly dragged down his stomach to where his cock strained toward her. His amusement melted into a groan of longing.
Unabashed in that brave way of hers, she let her fingers curl around him before stroking up his length.
“Ye’re going to drive me mad, lass.” He spoke the words between his teeth.
Her lips slipped into a sly grin. “That’s the point.”
She lowered herself to the floor, kneeling in front of him so his cock jutted toward her face. Her hand continued to stroke him in slow glides.
She looked up at him and licked her lips.
Her moistened lips parted, and she drew her tongue in a teasing flick over the head of his cock. A grunt jerked from his chest.
She dragged her tongue over him again, tracing the underside of his cock in a slow glide.
He wanted to be inside her mouth, where she would be hot and wet. “Open yer lips,” he said through gritted teeth.
She looked up at him and parted her mouth.
He groaned at the whisper of her sweet breath against his fevered skin. “Take me in yer mouth.”
Highland Ruse: Mercenary Maidens - Book Two Page 15
