“No’ yet. Will ye come and sit with me while I eat?”
Before she nodded, Paisley looked to Fergus as if asking permission. The healer nodded and waved them away. “Off with ye. Ask him all those questions yer too afeared ta put ta me. I’ll see ye at dinner and we can talk more this evenin’ if ye wish. Then, if yer still interested, we’ll begin yer training in the morn’.”
Paisley stood and leaned down to brush a kiss on the old woman’s cheek.
“Thank you.”
Fergus looked shocked and then blinked as tears filled her eyes. “Och, wheesht, get away before I make a fool of meself. Now, where’s Johnny?”
The young man, who Paisley had learned was yet another of the MacGregor cousins, stepped up. “I’m here, Auntie. Are ye ready ta go back ta yer room?”
“Aye, laddie. Take me back, and then I’ve go’ an errand fer ye ta run.”
Paisley stepped out of the way and around the rocking chair then continued moving until only an inch separated her from Ewan. “Would it be completely improper if I gave you a big hug and kiss?”
Ewan’s smile grew even bigger as he wrapped his arm around the woman’s shoulders and pulled her front tight against his. It did not surprise him that all their hollows and curves fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. “Aye, ’twould, but do it anyway. And later, while we’re in the gardens, I’ll show ye some other improper things ye can do ta me.”
Her easy laughter was a balm to his soul much as the feel of her body pressed against his own was a breeze blown over the coals of his growing need for her. As he dropped his head and kissed her, he wondered what the others present would think if he ordered them all out for the next hour or so. But before he could lift his head and make good on the thought, his stomach grumbled a long, loud sound, reminding him of why he had come here to begin with.
He growled softly when Paisley turned her head and broke the kiss. Looking into his eyes, she winked and said, “Come, my lord, let’s get you something to eat. We can kanoodle, and more, later on when we’re alone.”
As she pulled him along toward the end of the table closest to the door that led to the kitchen, he began to plan how soon and where they could be alone.
He sat down, and she went to the kitchen for his lunch. When she returned with a tray containing his food as well as a teapot and two cups, he noticed she was wearing a necklace. A necklace she had not been wearing when they had been together earlier.
“What’s this?” he said, lifting the chain so he could see the large shield-shaped stone hanging between her breasts.
“It’s a tiger’s eye. Fergus gave it to me. She said it would help to protect me.” She gently pulled the silver chain from his fingers and dropped it, stone inside the neck of her shirt.
Though he wanted to question her further, his stomach demanded food be a higher priority at the moment. But he made a mental note to talk to Fergus about giving away the pendant the old woman had worn around her own neck for as long as he could remember.
Chapter 9
After serving Ewan his lunch, Paisley settled on the bench across the table and opened her notebook. She flipped through the pages of notes she had taken about her gifts, and how to use them to help others heal on a spiritual level while protecting herself from being drained by those around her. Then she turned to the back of the notebook and began to write a list of things she needed to would do in the next day or so. She had decided about ten minutes after entering Fergus’s lair that the old woman was right. She did need to stay here in Scotland and learn about her gifts.
“What’re ye doin’ there, lass?” Ewan asked between bites of his lunch.
“Making a list of people I need to get in touch with like the tour company, the airline, and my boss. Also my neighbor needs to know I’ll be staying in Scotland for a while longer than I had expected so he’ll continue to keep an eye on my house. Oh, and the bank and post office,” she said, scribbling more words on the page.
“Millie has already got things sorted out about your travel. Ye’ve been granted a partial refund on yer tour, and yer airplane ticket’s been changed to an open-ended ticket. She also contacted yer boss and told him ye wouldna be returnin’ ta work quite yet,” Ewan said.
“Millie? Who’s she?”
“She’s one of Duncan’s assistants. She helps me out when I need a diplomat ta address issues outside the clan.”
“Really? And my boss wasn’t mad that I wouldn’t be returning for a couple more weeks?”
* * * *
“Aye. Millie can be verra persuasive when dealing with important men. He said to take as much time as you needed.”
Ewan did not bother to tell her that in the end, her employer had fired her when he heard she would not be returning for at least a month. The repaying the tour cost and buying a new plane ticket had cost him a few thousand pounds, but keeping Paisley here, and happy, was his top priority, and it seemed she was a Scot to her soul.
His fervent hope was that the ticket would eventually be cashed in and the pretty woman would stay with him forever.
“Ye ken, lass, ’tis been a full five hours since I’ve held ye in me arms,” he said, keeping his voice low so those around them could not hear their conversation. “I’m thinkin’ we need ta find someplace private.”
His cock gave a happy throb when she looked into his eyes and blushed before nodding her agreement. Though it was a typical Scottish day, gray, gloomy, and sporadically raining, Ewan decided a walk in the rain was called for.
They got as far as the front door when Paisley stopped. “I need shoes,” she said, looking at her sock-clad feet.
“Nay, lass, jes’ take yer socks off and go thataway,” Ewan said.
She looked at him in shock for a few seconds before shrugging and bending to pull off her socks. “Just know that you’ll be carrying me if I hurt my feet.”
Ewan grinned as he nodded. “’Twould be me pleasure.”
Taking one of the larger umbrellas from the stand by the front door, he held out his left arm and waited until Paisley linked her right one through it. Then they stepped out the keep’s front door together. Opening the umbrella, he held it so it covered them both from the steady rain. Then he began a leisurely stroll across the lawns toward the working part of the clan’s land.
There was a special place he wanted to take Paisley. It was a good mile hike over the crag behind the keep, but the path was dirt covered and fairly smooth. The place he had in mind was far from his nosey clansfolk, and was a place they could be alone to talk, get naked, and have what he hoped was more glorious sex amongst the heather, which was just beginning to bloom.
Fifteen minutes later just after they crested the crag, Paisley stopped. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed, as if afraid to speak louder. “I just wish I’d brought my camera.”
“We’ll come again, lass,” Ewan promised. “And mebee then the weather will be such that ye can see the whole of the valley.”
Paisley nodded. “So where are you taking me, Ewan MacGregor of the Clan MacGregor?”
“There.” He pointed off to their left about halfway down the crag.
“Well, come on. Let’s go,” Paisley said, pulling his arm to get him moving.
The hard path and grass did not seem to bother her feet as she hurried him down the path toward the small cottage that was used by the shepherds as a place to get out of the rain. It was also used by the young women of the clan to freshen up before their handfasting ceremonies, which were traditionally held under the valley’s single ancient oak tree. The tree grew in the bowl of the valley, beside the creek that wound through the valley before it fed into the loch a dozen miles farther south.
That tree had seen many generations of MacGregors baptized, handfasted, and later buried in the clan cemetery on the other side of the creek. Though he was strongly tempted, it was too soon in their relationship to take Paisley to the tree and announce his intentions. Instead, he would settle for a visit to the cottage where they could
dry off and get warm by a fire.
And, possibly they would warm up in other ways as well.
* * * *
It was a simple cottage, with stone walls and an honest-to-God thatched roof. There were windows as well, but it was the flowers growing along the roof’s peak that had Paisley smiling. The pretty purple flowers that she had learned on her second day in Scotland were a weed with a long, complicated name. But growing from the roof, they touched Paisley’s whimsical side.
Suddenly all the practical, adult common sense that she tried to hang onto fled, and what she wanted, no needed, to do more than anything else was be a part of the quaint scene before her. In a fluid move, she pulled Ewan’s shirt over her head and handed it to him.
“Here, hold this.”
Before he could do more than trap the shirt to his chest with his free hand she had pulled off her pants and threw those over his shoulders. Then, wearing only her bra and panties, Paisley took off running down the hill.
She was completely soaked in seconds. Ignoring Ewan’s orders to stop and return to his side, she continued running as the warm rain, slight breeze, and green, green landscape called for her to join them.
Once she reached a spot near the tree where the ground was level and covered in soft grasses, she stopped. Raising her arms, she lifted her face to the sky and began to slowly turn in circles. Then she began to laugh as her feet moved faster and faster.
A the rain continued falling, landing on her and running over her skin, down her body to the ground, she felt something washing away with it. It was as if the rainwater was cleansing her, freeing her of more than just the soap residue, dead skin cells, and whatever other chemicals were on her skin. It felt as if the rain was reaching deep and cleansing her soul of whatever trash had collected there as well.
When she stopped, she swayed as her equilibrium took a few seconds to catch up with her. Then, as if she were washing in a regular shower, she ran her hands over her skin, wiping away even more of what she could only describe as a cloying gray yuckiness that clung to her.
Only then did she realize the rain had stopped. Looking around, she found herself alone. Looking up the hillside, she found smoke was rising from the cottage’s chimney, and Ewan was standing at the front door watching her, a large white cloth tossed over one shoulder. Though he was smiling, she could tell he was not sure what to make of her impulsive nearly naked rain dance. Running up the hill to him, she felt lighter in spirit than she could ever remember being.
When she reached the doorway, she stopped as sudden nerves stepped in. “Come dance with me?”
Ewan shook his head. “I’ll leave that ta ye and Fergus,” he said, his tone indulgent as he took one hand and pulled her into the cottage. “I’ll stick to seeing ta the care and feeding of the healers.”
After closing the front door, he stripped her bra and panties from her body before roughly drying her off with the white towel. Then he grabbed a blanket and wrapped her in it before turning her toward the fireplace on the far wall. “Go sit by the fire and warm yerself,” he commanded.
Paisley settled on the floor near the fire and watched as he wrung out her underclothes out the front door before hanging them on hooks near the fire to dry. Once he finished that chore, he added two mugs to a tray that appeared set up for tea and placed it on the low table next to where she sat.
He then sat down behind her. Sliding his legs along either side of hers, he moved closer and closer, not stopping until his cock and balls pressed firmly against her backside. He wrapped his arms around her, blanket and all, and pulled her back to rest against him.
“Mmmm, now tha’s nice,” he said as he turned his face and brushed kisses up the side of her neck.
“Uh-huh.” Still emotionally high from her rain dance, Paisley just relaxed back and enjoyed.
Ewan eased the blanket open and began to stroke whatever still-chilled skin he came across. In less than a minute, Paisley stopped shivering from the cold and began to tremble from arousal. Pushing the blanket off, she worked her hand between their bodies and then slid it down so she cupped Ewan’s sizable arousal.
Arching her back, she pushed her breasts more firmly into the palms that covered them and sighed as his hold tightened. At the same time, she tilted her head further to the side to allow him full access to her neck and shoulder.
“You’ve got too many clothes on,” she said before turning her head and meeting his lips in a kiss that sent the heat in the room spiraling higher.
Ewan did not answer until the kiss broke long moments later when the need to breathe won out over the intense need to be connected. “Aye, I do,” he muttered before kissing her again as he picked her up and turned her around, rearranging her so she was sitting on his lap with her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms draped over his shoulders.
“So what are you going to do about it?” she asked as she combed her fingers through her hair, the strands soft against her skin.
Her back was warm from the fire and her front from Ewan’s body heat, which she could feel through his clothes. She wondered how long it would be before she spontaneously burst into flames, for surely if things between them continued on as they were that would be the ultimate outcome.
Once again proving he was a man of action rather than words, Ewan lay back and pulled her body up his until he could suckle at her breasts. At the same time, his hands reached around her hips and between her legs to open the fastenings of his pants. Her breath caught as his hips rose from the floor so he could shove the pants down, releasing cock and balls from the fabric.
In the next instant, he was pushing her down onto his shaft, filling her hot, wet core with his long, thick cock. Paisley held her breath as he pushed her body up until she was sitting up on his hips and her pussy completely sheathed him. Then his hands stroked down over her breasts and down her body to her hips, which he clasped in his two big hands. A moment later he began move her, helping her ride up and down his cock.
“Aye, that’s right, lass, fuck me good,” he said, his voice soft and low as she took over.
She began to ride up and down, while at the same time shifting her hips forward and back a bit and even moving them in circles once she had him fully inside her. The feel of him sliding in and out of her, the press of her clit against the base of his cock, even the fire she saw in his heavy-lidded eyes added to her own growing arousal. Lifting her arms, she raised them and ran them through her tangled hair, her body moving faster and faster.
And then she felt it. Something unlike anything she had ever felt before was filling her. It started with a tingling in her fingers and toes, which raced through both bloodstream and nerves up her arms and legs to ricochet around her body until it gathered just behind her clit. A moment later, she screamed as the ball of pure sex exploded out of her clit and a white light encompassed her entire being.
She heard Ewan’s roar a millisecond later as he found his own pleasure, his hips lifting her higher and higher until she was certain she could touch the ceiling. The feeling went on and on as her body continued its movements on Ewan’s cock, unable to stop. And then it drifted away, like flower petals dropped in a stream.
Ewan caught her as she melted, bringing her down to lay once again across his chest. His arms held her tight as their breathing slowed and they slowly recovered from what she could only describe as the most perfect lovemaking ever.
She drifted in a state between consciousness and sleep for a time, unaware of time passing, the fire dying away, the weather outside changing, or anything else beyond the iridescent bubble that encompassed her and the man she was quickly coming to love. She felt Ewan’s hands slide up and down, soothing her as he spoke soft words in a language she could not understand.
Finally her mind sharpened and she heard voices outside. “Ewan, I think we’re about to have company.”
“Hmmm, I’d say so.” In a casual show of strength, he sat up then lifted her off his lap. “Get dressed while I stop wh
oever ’tis from comin’ inside.”
It took a few minutes to clean up and dress, but when she emerged from the cottage, Ewan and the newcomers were down near the oak tree. He had his back to her and was talking to Duncan. The man had his arm around a young woman who looked nearly as embarrassed as Paisley felt.
Instead of joining them, Paisley turned and started up the hill as fast as her relaxed and wobbly legs would carry her. She hoped she could make it back to the keep and find an empty bedroom where she could hold up and hide until her face quit burning.
But that was not to be. As soon as she entered the keep’s front door, she found Johnny pacing and looking agitated. Was he looking for her? Or Ewan?
“Johnny? What’s wrong?”
The young man jumped and spun to face her. “Och, miss, Fergus has been demandin’ ta see ye fer the last hour. She’s in a rage that no one could find ye.” He took her arm and began to drag her toward the great hall and toward the staircase closest to Fergus’s rooms.
“I went for a walk with Ewan. But I’m back now. Where is she? What’s going on?”
“I dinna ken. All I know is she’s in a temper because ye couldna be found.”
“Well, let’s go and see if we can calm her down,” Paisley said, feeling calm and almost as buoyant as she had just after her rain dance. When they reached the second floor and she saw where they were, she peeled Johnny’s hand from her arm. “Why don’t you go and fetch us some tea and maybe some cookies or cake or something.”
Johnny looked relieved at her suggestion. “Yes, miss, I’ll be right back.”
“Oh, and if you see Ewan, please let him know where I’ve gone.”
“Aye, miss, I will.” With that, Johnny disappeared back down the stone staircase, leaving Paisley no choice but to start down the hall to see what had upset her new mentor.
* * * *
As the days turned into one week and then two, Paisley’s days took on a comfortable routine. No matter what room she fell asleep in the night before, each morning she woke in Ewan’s bed with his arms wrapped around her. After glorious early morning sex, they would share breakfast before she went to Fergus’s rooms to spend the morning learning about herbs and essential oils, auras and chakras, and how to use each to heal the clan’s human and animal population.
Kiltnapped [Kilt, Kilty, Kilted 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 7
