Questions for a Highlander

by Angeline Fortin

  He collapsed on top of her and together they lay in awe of what had just happened between them.

  Francis could feel her legs shaking around him and knew an instant of remorse. He tried to roll off of her but she held him tight to her. “Eden, how utterly graceless of me,” he pulled again to get off of her. This time she let him go and he turned onto his side next to her. His eyes ran the length of her body as she lay there unmoving. “God, I didn't hurt you, did I?”

  “What?” Evelyn asked, her eyes wide with surprise. That was the last thing she had expected him to say. How could he possibly think that that had hurt? Lying back, she curled her arms over her head and stretched her body feeling the tiny twinges, wonderful twinges all the way to her toes.

  “I am a big man, Eden, heavy as well. You are…” Francis lost track of his question as he beheld her naked beauty before him. Reaching out, he ran his rough hand down the length of her from breast to thigh trailing over her smoothly rounded hips with lingering appreciation. “Oh, this is truly paradise.”

  Evelyn laughed huskily and turned toward him, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her body to the length of his. In response, he reached about and cupped her buttocks pulling her tightly against him and rolling them both over until she lay on top of him.

  Her thick hair spilled a curtain surrounding her face. She looked mussed and heavenly. Perfect.

  Emotion made his brogue become noticeably thicker, just as it had when he'd made love to her whispering words of passion and love. “I dinnae mean tae be so rough wi' ye. I dinnae ken what came over me… ye drove me wild. I've never been so…” he fell silent at a loss for words.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek to his chest. “I wouldn't change a thing…”

  “Och,” he argued, “I showed no finesse at all, no tenderness merely fell on ye like some ravaged beast. You must think I’m a terrible…”

  "I think that I have never beheld such an amazingly passionate man in all my life,” she interrupted firmly holding his cheeks in her hands and forcing him to meet her gaze. “I have never felt anything so marvelous in all my days. Though I will say I might feel as though you beat me in the morning,” she teased. Smiling brightly, she kissed the underside of his chin.

  “Apparently, you deserve to be beaten.” He spanked her bottom playfully, then wrapped his arms about her pressing his lips to the top of her head. He sighed. “This just wasn't how I imagined our first time together to be.”

  “How did you imagine it?”

  “Much slower.”

  “I liked it how it was,” she snuggled against him, lightly nipped at his furry chest, curling her fingers in the springing curls and feeling utterly content. Laughing with pure happiness, Evelyn raised herself up on her elbows and looked down at him, her eyes warm and loving.

  “I never knew what this could be like, Francis,” she confessed. “So overwhelming and thrilling. I’ll admit that after I first met you I had thoughts of how it would be, but when I married, it was never like this. It was five minutes of mortification and discomfort.”

  “And we made it, what? Seven minutes?”

  A smile jerked at the corner of her lips. “But it was a vital two minutes.”

  Francis clapped his hand playfully on her bottom. “I would like to say that your husband was probably just a selfish pig but, my paradise, what we feel is special. It is different. Overwhelming. You and I are electric together and the things we make each other feel are definitely not normal but extraordinary and spectacular. You set me afire, so beautiful, my sweet Eve. I fear that I did not show much grace either.” His voice was low, husky and warm as he ran his hands again up and down the length of her back. “I know you haven’t much to compare with, but it should have been much better!”

  “Better? You mean you didn't…” she frowned, pulling away.

  Francis grabbed her tightly. “Don't be ridiculous. It doesn't get any more satisfying than that. I just wanted…” he groaned into her hair as he gathered the long golden length and pulled it all over one of her shoulders baring one side of her neck. Francis raised a handful of hair to his lips and rubbed it across them slowly all the while staring into her shining grass green eyes and knowing that they shone with love… for him…whether she acknowledged it or not.

  With a groan of unbelievable satisfaction, he closed his eyes and held her hand to his cheek with his own big hand over hers. “I just wanted it to be romantic and special for you. Perfect.”

  “Ohhh,” Evelyn nodded with a little grin. “Special. Romantic. Why don't you show me how you wanted it to be?”

  “But…” No matter what she said, she would be sore.

  “Show me, Francis,” she whispered kissing his neck lightly. “Show me, please…”

  With a low moan of surrender, Francis swept her into his arms capturing her lips in a deep, lustful kiss that left her breathless even as their passionate fervor rose once more. Lifting her with one arm about her waist, he twisted, laid her back on the bed and stopped to stare at her. She lay there with a smile, her arms open to him. “Eve,” he groaned closing his eyes… taking a deep breath to regain his control. “I can’t be romantic yet.”

  Evelyn caught his hand and pulled him down on top of her. Already he was hard and throbbing, ready for her.

  “Eden, I can't…wait,” he buried his face in her hair, his hands moving wildly over her hips and legs. “God, help me. I can't believe this!” He pulled back and looked into her glowing eyes. “I want you. I must have you.” Each word came out with low panting intensity.

  “Then take me, my lord. Take me,” she whispered pulling him down to her. “We can try for romance another time.”

  With another deep moan, Francis moved between her parted thighs and thrust into her again. To his surprise, she was ready for him and incredibly hot. “Paradise, sweet paradise. My Eden,” he moaned over and over as he thrust into her roughly, her passion matching his until they were swept together once more to their own paradise.

  Francis lay on top of her for a long while, his cheek pressed to her breasts listening to the deep pounding of her heart. Listening to it finally slow until he thought she was asleep. “Eden?”

  “Mmmmm?” she hummed in response, her fingers moving to toy with his thick hair.

  “I…I don't think I ever want to move from here,” he changed what he was thinking.

  “So don't.”

  He hugged her tightly. “You are truly my paradise.”

  “As you are mine.”

  Chapter 28

  Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.

  - Henry Fielding, Love in Several Masques

  Glenrothes Townhouse

  Carlton Terrace

  Edinburgh, Scotland

  The next morning

  “I’ve never before seen Francis lose his head like this over a mere woman. What a quandary he must be in! Lady Shaftesbury was back in town for just a few hours and already Francis has shown up here with enough luggage for an extended stay. The lady has surely gotten him by his bullocks.” Jack Merrill folded his hands behind his head and chuckled devilishly. When Richard and Abby did not join him in his mirth, Merrill eyed them thoughtfully. “You do not see the humor in this?”

  Richard frowned. “That Francis is head over arse in love for the first time in his entire life has its humorous merit. But it is who he is in that quandary over that worries me.”

  Jack scoffed at that. “The countess may lead him on a merry chase with her cold ways, but she'll eventually succumb.”

  “I imagine she already has.” Richard quirked an eyebrow at his wife who in turn scowled at him darkly.

  “MacKintosh didn't tell me any of that.”

  “He doesn't have to. He's got her. Now the question is what is he going to do with her if she won’t marry him?”

  “Just give her a fair go, I would imagine.”

  Abby gave her brother a disgusted look. “Jack Merrill, I will thank you n
ot to refer to my very good friend in such a manner. Evelyn is not the cold, calculating woman you think her to be. She loves Francis, completely. Oh, pooh, she may not have admitted it yet, but it’s there! And this! This situation here cannot do anything but seriously hurt her.”

  “How do you figure that?" he wanted to know. “MacKintosh’ll kick Nessa out soon enough and then he and Lady Shaftesbury can carry on as they will.”

  “Except that Nessa is refusing to leave town and my brother will soon have a bloody hard time hiding it from Evelyn,” Richard said. His brother had yet been unable to bribe the woman into leaving town once more. In fact, Vanessa currently had Francis cornered in the library just across the hall after she had shown up at his door again this morning with baggage in hand once and looking as if she intended to settle in for good. “It’s as if his damned ex-wife could sense that something was going on and had to be here to ruin it,” Richard felt that truth in the core of his being. The woman has always had a nose for trouble, sniffed out Francis’ budding happiness and come to nip it straight away.

  “He’ll get her to leave,” Jack waved away the problem dismissively.

  “I hope so,” the younger MacKintosh winced. “He hasn’t been able to buy her off yet. I believe that the current offer is ten thousand.”

  “If I get rid of her for him,” Jack pondered with a grin, “maybe he’ll give me the money.”

  “Lovely, Jack,” Abby snorted with some disgust. “You always know how to sniff out a pound. If he slips and tells her that he plans to remarry, there will be hell to pay.”

  “If he weds the countess and gets it done there won’t be much for Nessa to say, will there?

  Godfrey entered the room nervously. “Lady MacKintosh,” he addressed Abby, “there is a small problem. Lady Shaftesbury has arrived.”

  “Eve is here? Oh dear.” Abby shared a speaking glance with her husband and brother. “This is atrocious timing.”

  “She is asking to see Lord Glenrothes,” Godfrey explained nervously. “Err, what shall I tell her as my lord is currently occupied?”

  “We will go to her, Godfrey,” Abby decided. “Where have you put her?”

  “The morning room, my lady.”

  Evelyn arrived at the Glenrothes’ townhouse that morning, breaking a major rule of etiquette to do it. Calling on a gentleman by herself in broad daylight without even a maid or groom to accompany her all because Francis had not shown up to take her riding as he had promised. She had waited nearly an hour before she had begun to worry and had spent a portion of the next debating whether it would be outside of enough to show up personally at his home. Surprisingly, the daring option had won out. If she were not so occupied with being horrified by her audaciousness, it might have felt good.

  The door to the morning room opened and, to her surprise, Abby and Richard came in. “Abby! Whatever are you doing here? I had thought you were in the nursery with the girls.”

  “I…well, I was Eve, but I…uhh,” her eyes darted to the closed doors of the library across the hall. “We came over to…uh, speak with Jack. Yes, that’s it.”

  “Evelyn.” Richard shifted from foot to foot stalling for time and wincing over his wife’s poor acting skills. Their trio’s task the past several days had been to keep Eve from finding out about Francis’ current predicament. Unless he missed his guess, they were about to fail miserably. “What are you doing here?”

  “Franc…uh, Lord Glenrothes was supposed to ride with me in the park this morning.” She added this last with a flush of embarrassment. It was one thing to break a rule with a fair amount of secrecy and quite another to fully acknowledge it in open company. “When he was late I began to worry and thought I would come myself to see if anything was amiss. Is there anything amiss?”

  “Evelyn, my darling,” Jack swept in to her side and raised her hand to his lips. “Have you finally come to realize the error of your ways and know that a marriage to me is the path to your future happiness?” He made a dramatic bow and presses a hand to his chest. “For what other reason could you have for being here today? You have made me the happiest…”

  “Oh, shut it, Haddington,” Eve muttered as she yanked her hand away from him. “I have truly had enough of your drama to last my lifetime. I have come to speak to Lord Glenrothes.”

  “My lady, I am shocked,” Jack stated melodramatically. “When I think that I have been thrown over for my closest friend…”

  “Oh, shut it Jack,” Abby resounded pushing him aside. “Eve, come sit down.”

  Eve allowed herself to be solemnly led to the settee and sat while the others all made themselves slowly comfortable. Too slowly. “Shall I ring for tea?” Abby asked.

  “Well, this can’t be good,” Eve tried to joke. Their night together the previous evening had been beyond anything Eve had ever imagined possible and she had thought that Francis felt the same way but, in the face of her friends’ troubled glances this morning, she was starting to rethink the whole thing. What if it hadn’t been the same for Francis? What if he’d had enough of her and was simply trying to avoid her this morning? What if her friends knew and were merely trying to spare her feelings? A shudder of dread shot through her. “You are acting very strange. Is something wrong? Is Francis alright?”

  “I doubt it,” Jack murmured under his breath but loud enough for Eve to hear.

  “What is going on?”

  “Well, I…bloody hell,” Richard muttered using one of his wife's favorite expletives and feeling it summed up the situation fairly well. Richard unconsciously looked to the library again and Evelyn's eyes followed his. Something was obviously going on given the uncharacteristic nervous behaviors displayed by the trio. “What is wrong, Richard?”

  “Nothing's wrong, of course. My brother had a bit of unexpected business to take care of this morning. I’m sure he meant to send a note. Why don’t we all head on to Moray Place, yes? I’m sure Francis will attend us when he’s done here,” he rose to his feet.

  “Yes, indeed,” Abby seconded and Jack chimed in, “Jolly good idea. Let me escort you to the door.” He reached for her hand.

  Breaking away, Evelyn eyed him in confusion. Needing to find out what was going on. “You are all being ridiculous! I want to see Francis.”

  “He's really not available right now…”

  “Nonsense,” she pushed past him and strode to the library doors. Flinging them open she sailed into the room only to be brought up short with a gasp of surprise at the scene she beheld. There was Francis standing in the center of the room holding a woman in his arms. A million surprisingly violent emotions flowed through her but, in a breath, training and manners took over and she retained her poise. “A long-lost sister, my lord? A cousin perhaps?” she questioned coolly though her heart was twisting in agony over this apparent confirmation of her fears.

  “Eve! No, I…” he began moving toward her, the other woman grabbed his arm and pulled him back laughing in amusement.

  “I didn't think so.” Evelyn turned on her heel and fled the room darting past Richard and Jack. As she reached the door, she heard the woman's laughing voice. “Who was that, darling? One of your little tarts?”

  Evelyn slammed the front door behind her and leaned back against it taking a deep breath. What was that? her mind screamed for reason. Who was that? Surely, after the night they had spent together – a night which had wrung all strength from her – Francis couldn’t possibly already be turning to the arms of another woman!

  Her mind racing with questions and rampant conclusions, Eve fairly leapt onto Angel and spurred him into a gallop leaving the groom who had been holding him with a face full of dust.

  Francis glared at Vanessa as he heard the door slam. “You're the only tart I know,” he answered tersely and flung her at Richard as she laughed. “Take care of her. I want her out of my house.”

  “But I'm your wife, darling,” Vanessa drawled with a low chuckle.

  “Ex-wife,” Francis ground out his min
d already racing to Eve and the conclusions that must be charging through her mind. He needed to reach her quickly.

  “What do you want me to do with her?” Richard asked at the same time.

  “Do you think I care? Just get rid of her!” Francis grabbed his jacket and strode to the door in pursuit of Evelyn. His only thought was for her.

  As the door slammed again, Richard looked down at the woman he held. She looked back up at him with hot black eyes and leaned into him. Disgusted, Richard pushed her away.

  “What do you think, darling?” she fingered his chin and laughed as he jerked away. “The master is away and it is time to play. All these years, Richard. What a handsome man you have become.”

  “You are vile, Vanessa,” he stated bluntly.

  “I am good, Richard. Very good,” she trailed a finger down his chin but he pushed her away. “Come now, aren’t tired of your pale little wife yet? Wouldn’t you like to have a real woman?”

  “Oh, bloody hell,” Richard muttered holding her wrists in one hand and keeping her at an arm's length.

  “I would suggest that you keep your hands off my husband,” Abby’s frosty voice garnered the woman’s attention, “before I quite break your fingers myself.”

  “Touchy, touchy,” Vanessa sniffed and gazed up at Jack from under her lashes. “How about you, Jack? Feeling up for a spot of fun?”

  “Godfrey!” Jack bellowed grabbing the woman by the wrist and dragging along after him much to her amusement.

  The dour butler appeared momentarily. “Yes, my lord?”

  Jack pushed Vanessa at him wishing he could be amused by the shock on the old man’s face. “Take this and see that it finds itself and its belongings at other lodgings immediately.”

  The old butler wrinkled his brow distastefully. “Right away, my lord. Come along, my lady.”