Questions for a Highlander

by Angeline Fortin

  They undressed each other between kisses, touching and caressing bared flesh along the way until finally Vin turned her around to untie the laces to her corset. He worked the knots while he kissed her neck, biting lightly on the tendons there, sucking and licking. With little else to do, Moira reached up behind her, running her hands through his hair until, at last, the heavy garment fell to the ground with a solid thunk.

  Turning her, Vin clasped his hands around Moira’s tiny waist and lifted her out of the corset. Pulling her chemise over her head, he caught her lips with his once more backing her to the bed as he did so. Then wrapping an arm around her, lifted her to him and lowered them both down without ever breaking their kiss.

  He lifted her again, scooting them father onto the bed and farther still until a tiny giggle escaped Moira’s lips. Vin lifted his head with a smile, “You think that’s funny, do you?”

  “I do,” Moira pushed him off her and onto his back before climbing up to straddle his hips. She bent over him, holding herself up with her hands against his chest. Her hair formed a curtain around them. She looked down at him as he grinned up at her taking in the lopsided lift of his lips, the flash of his white teeth, the manly slash of a dimple down his cheeks. The light in his eyes. That soft glow.

  There were no shadows lingering there, no ghosts.

  Her heart clenched with joy to see him so happy. “I love to see you smile, Vin.” She traced a finger across his lips and down over his chin to trail down the hard tendon of his neck.

  “I love to see you smile, too. You have a smile that lights up a room.” Vin reached up and pushed her hair back from her face before pulling Moira down to meet his kiss once more.

  Moira , though, pulled back and grinned wickedly down at him. “I’ll wager I can make you smile even more.”

  “That won’t be too hard.” He was surprised at the truth in his words. For whatever reason, he felt as if it would be more difficult not to smile when Moira was with him.

  “You just wait,” she warned before she slid back down his thighs and leaned over him, pressing kisses against his chest, licking his flat nipple before traveling farther down. She scraped her teeth against the hard rippled planes of his abdomen, her hands and fingers joining in to caress and massage the muscle there before skimming over his hips.

  When her lips reaching his navel, Vin looked down at her, her red hair streaming across his chest and his mind went almost blank for a moment when he gathered her intention. “Lovey, I don’t think you know what you’re about.”

  Propping her chin on his on his stomach, Moira grinned up at him. “I think I do.”

  Vin’s entire body tightened as her hand tickled at his inner thigh before slowly wrapping around the thick length of him. He nearly choked when her other hand cupped his heavy sac squeezing lightly. “How?”

  “I told you I have books, haven’t it? I took them from Papa’s library years ago.” She looked up at him before looking down at the flesh in her hands. “I will admit I am working on theory here. You will tell me if I get it wrong, won’t you?”

  A strangled grunt was the only sound he could make as Moira took him between her sweet lips, running her tongue over the tip. Flinging a forearm over his eyes, Vin lost himself in the sensation of her tongue, lips and teeth working tentatively over him. Her hands caressed while she ran her tongue down the length of him and Vin shuddered with need. When she took him inside her mouth, Vin arched up with a shout before grasping her arms and pulling her back over him.

  “Did I do it wrong, Vin?” she asked with a frown.

  “God, no, lovey, I rather think you have a natural talent for it.”

  “Then let me finish.”

  “Bloody hell, no!” Vin flipped her beneath him, taking her mouth in a fierce kiss. He ran his hands roughly down her body squeezing her waist before running under her bottom to lift her to him. “Maybe someday, lovey. Lord knows that moment would probably make my entire life worth living, but not now.” He kissed her again letting her feel all the passionate and desire roiling within him. “These are your days to take, lovey. For me to return what you have given me.”

  Moira didn’t know what Vin meant by that, but couldn’t hold back the cry of delight that escaped her when Vin took one nipple between his lips and suckled intently even as he slid a finger inside of her. She grasped his head to her and arched her hips torn between two sensations. He kept suckling as he pumped his finger then thrust another with it deeply. A harsh cry escaped her, almost agonizing in its intensity when his fingers slid out and circled the nub of her desire. They moved slickly over her, wet from her wanting, teasing, rubbing, circling. Tension caught and spiraled in her abdomen, her heart pounded ferociously in her chest and her body quivered.

  “Oh my…” she bit her lips as Vin thrust his fingers once more before once again circling that most sensitive spot. He looked up to watch her as he pushed her higher and higher. Over and over. His fingers moved. In, out and around. In. Out. Around…with a hoarse scream Moira arched against him, throwing back her head as her climax exploded. She throbbed and pulsed around his fingers as he slid them slowly back and forth keeping her there, straining against him until she begged for him to stop.

  Vin pulled himself over her and Moira’s legs came up of their own will to wrap around him, urging him on. Propping himself up on his elbows, Vin looked down into Moira’s flushed face, brushing her hair back from her damp temples. Moira could feel Vin’s heart pounding against her, could feel the need burning within him leaving him shaking with need, but he just looked down at her for a long moment, leaving Moira wondering.

  Vin bent her head and kissed her tenderly feeling as if his chest were about to explode. Her face lit with a fire and passion mirroring the vibrancy of her halo of fiery hair. He felt that fire leap from her skin to his own and race through him. Never had he imagined that watching the pleasure of another would be so incredible. It was as if he’d felt every moment of it through her and could have as easily finished with her, so excited had he been from what he’d seen. Cradling her bottom in his big hand, Vin watched Moira’s face as he slid into her hot, wet depths. She bit her lip and her eyelids fluttered.

  “No, lovey, look at me,” he commanded. Her lashes went back up and she looked at him with those remarkable sherry-brown eyes. Withdrawing, he thrust slowly once more, watching the emotion on her face. The wonder, the ecstasy. Vin nearly had to close his own eyes against the emotion burning in his chest. He thought he’d never make love in the dark again, it was so powerful.

  Pulling back, Vin drove into her harder, watching her breath catch, her lips tremble before her tongue darted out to wet them. Again he reared back and plunged. Her lips parted in a gasp and her eyes nearly rolled back before they caught his once more. Her hands roamed over his sweaty shoulders and back before moving downward to his buttocks. She gripped them firmly when he drove into again arching her hips up to meet him.

  Their groans blended and Vin couldn’t help but increase his pace. They arched and thrust against each other with increasing momentum. The friction of the rubbing bodies stoked the fire between them. Vin could feel the tension building inside Moira, could see it in her eyes. Her gasps grew frenzied as she clutched him to her, her fingernails raking his back, his neck until she clutched his head and pulled him down to kiss her. He did savagely devouring her mouth as he pumped into her. Her legs crawled up until they locked around his waist.

  Breaking their kiss, Vin buried his face in the curve of her neck, kissing and biting as their wild passion grew. He felt her tighten and lifted his head to watch her once more, her eyes closed, her head arched back as she bit her lip. “Lovey, look at me,” he urged thickly. “Let me see.”

  Moira blinked and met Vin’s hot chocolate gaze just as she shattered with a throaty scream. “Ahh!” she arched her whole self against him, clinging to his shoulders. “Vin! Oh, Vin!”

  The moment she found her release, Vin burst inside her flooding her hotly as she
spasmed around him, her body gripping his. He drove brutally into her with a shout, feeling his own climax tear through him. “Ahh, God! I can’t…lovey, ahh, God!” Vin collapsed on top of her as she continued to pulse around him. Their hearts pounded as one, their haggard breaths left their chests heaving against each other.

  The doorknob rattled and they both froze holding their breath.

  A soft thump immediately followed it leading Moira to think that her maid, Lucy, had come up intending to enter and had bumped straight into the door when it hadn’t opened. Moira could just hear the maid’s thoughts as she stood on the other side of that portal, wondering why it would be locked for Moira rarely locked it. Thank God, Vin had thought to do so!

  After a brief pause, the knob jiggled a bit, and then jiggled again.

  A moment later a light knock sounded. “Lady Moira?” Lucy called.

  Taking a deep breath Moira called trying to sound as normal as possible. “Yes, Lucy?”

  “Lady Glenrothes is wondering if you’ll be joining them for luncheon?”

  Moira traded a startled look with Vin. Neither had thought anyone was at home. “I will. Um, please let her know I was napping and will be down as soon as I can.”

  “Yes, my lady.”

  Their eyes met. Vin’s teeth flashed as he smiled and Moira couldn’t help but giggle.

  Vin pressed kisses to her neck and cheek before gathering her to him and turning onto his back pulled her next to him. Catching his breath, Vin stared at the silk rosette in the center of the canopy. “That was for the best, I suppose. I will need a chance to regain my energies for tonight.”

  “What are you doing tonight?” Moira asked with wide-eyed innocence before casting a wicked grin his way.

  Vin laughed and caught her to him tightly kissing her deeply. “The question isn’t what, lovey. It’s who.”

  “Mmm,” Moira hummed as she watched Vin rise and gather his clothes. “I rather like the idea of being done.”

  “And I will enjoy the doing,” he returned, playfully setting a light smack to her bottom. “Come now, at least let me help you lace you corset back up unless you’d like to explain to Lucy why you had it off.”

  With a laugh, Moira climbed off the bed to join him.

  Chapter 28

  Friendship is Love without his wings!

  - Lord Byron

  Vin waited on the second floor landing for Moira so that he might escort her into luncheon. As he leaned back against the banister he began to consider that the interruption to their sensual afternoon was for the best for more reasons than the one he had given her.

  Despite Moira’s saucy behavior, she was an innocent, virginal woman. Even more experienced women tended to have trouble separating lust and sex from something deeper. He’d seen that look in her eyes when she held him. That tenderness. Given what they already felt for each other, Vin didn’t think a little tenderness was misplaced but he didn’t want Moira thinking there was more to this affair than there was.

  Friendship with occasional sex was all he wanted from Moira. It was what she wanted as well, by her own words. She felt the same loneliness he did. They were only each giving what the other needed. Companionship. He would find a way to keep the balance, to keep their friendship and attraction from transforming in her mind to more than it was. Women tended to assume love when there was only lust and get grandiose ideas about the future. Moira was more levelheaded than most but she was still a woman and an unmarried one at that. She might develop unwanted expectations.

  Yet, he was heartily aware of his own reactions to their intimacy. It he thought he felt peace and contentment with her at his bedside, it was nothing compared with how he felt with her in it. There was a rightness to it and, as he had thought before, it could become addicting. He didn’t need one more crutch to get through life and hated any thought that he was becoming dependent on her. Vin felt he somehow needed to figure out how to cope on his own. But that didn’t stop his mind from yearning for something more. Vin frowned appalled by the very idea of needing a woman. He had seen how far that got men. It was something he didn’t want to entangle himself in.

  He would simply have to find a way to keep his friendship with Moira detached from their sexual affair. If Vin were to start thinking about them together, it might plant ideas in his mind that were best left unexplored. Besides, there was always the risk of a change in Moira’s love of him if she were to discover the truth of Jason’s death and his role in it. He needed to keep his distance from her emotionally, learn to not rely on her too heavily for anything lest she come to hate him one day and abandon him in every way.

  Moira came down the stairs to find Vin staring at the wall lost in thought. It was a look she’d seen often on his face in the past couple weeks whenever she came on him unawares. It was as if he were somewhere else entirely and she wondered where his mind went to in those times. What he thought about.

  Vin noticed her arrival and, though he didn’t smile, his eyes lit with appreciation as they settled on her. She was so incredibly lovely, he thought. Her brown eyes were dancing as if she were excited, her cheeks flushed with becoming color. She’d left her hair down and wore a simple white blouse with a cameo at her throat and dark green skirt. For all the formal gowns he’d seen on her this week, he thought she’d never looked more appealing.

  Pushing aside his doubts, Vin held arm out to her and they descended the stairs together, finding Francis and Eve in the drawing room waiting for them.

  “Evie,” Moira said happily, unable to contain her bubbling enthusiasm for the day, a direct contrast to the rain slapping at the windows and the wind rattling them in their panes. But there was a fire burning brightly as she went and perched by her friend’s side on the settee. “I thought you were attending Ilona’s luncheon this afternoon.”

  “Canceled for the weather,” Eve told her, eyeing her thoughtfully. Leaning closer, she drawled under her breath, “Napping, hmm? Suddenly it seems quite doubtful.”

  “What can I say, Evie? You’re a horrible chaperone,” Moira’s eyes twinkled merrily at her friend.

  “I must be,” Eve returned. “Your father would never forgive me.” She considered Moira with a tilt of her head before smiling mischievously. “I suppose I must ask you the same question you and Abby once asked of me. Tell me, Moira, how was Vincent MacKintosh?”

  A hot blush burned Moira’s cheeks. “I should never have teased you so much! You seem to be taking great joy in turning the tables these past several day.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” Eve chided, refusing to let Moira turn the topic. “Did he…?”

  “I will only say it was carried out to our mutual satisfaction,” Moira whispered back. “Is that enough for you?”

  “It will have to be I suppose.” Concern shadowed across Eve’s face. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

  “No, not really,” Moira shrugged away the worries that lingered on the horizon. “But aren’t you the one who urged me to take the risk? You said not a month ago I needed to give Vin a chance and I am.”

  “I don’t think I ever truly imagined it going so far. I don’t want to see you get hurt, dear,” Eve worried.

  “I won’t.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  Moira studied Vin as he stood talking with his brother but his eyes were on her. She could read the warmth there. The affection. But there was some hesitation there as well. Was it simply his unwillingness to accept his feelings or was there more keeping him from her? “I just need to have faith, I suppose. Without Vin, I don’t know what else I would do. He is what I want for better or worse.”

  “What are you ladies whispering about?” Francis asked as the dinner bell chimed.

  “Nothing,” Eve assured him. “Let’s eat, shall we? Moira is famished.”

  “I am?”

  Eve arched a brow at her friend. “Aren’t you?”

  Chapter 29

  Against the assault of laugh
ter nothing can stand.

  - Mark Twain

  Francis watched his brother throw back his head and laugh at whatever it was Moira was telling him and the sound of it warmed his heart, their shared amusement flooding him with relief. After the past month, Francis thought he would never hear his brother laugh again.

  To say that Vin had been a different man since his return – a fact everyone of their siblings had taken the time to point out – was an understatement. Sadness, misery had hung on Vin’s shoulders as heavily as Francis’ ill-fitting jacket.

  He would have thought Vin couldn’t become any more morose than he’d been those first weeks in London as he began recovering his strength. The first week during his return to Edinburgh, however, Francis had begun to think Vin might never smile again much less laugh as he was now. Nearly every day, Francis would come on his brother to find him staring into a fire, out a window or at the ceiling of his room. The look on his face would hold such devastation Francis would have to look away, and then slip away to allow his brother his privacy. Whatever he was thinking of in those moments removed his mind from his body and sent it into the depths of despair.

  A despair Francis had begun to feel as well. He’d felt helpless in those moments, wanting to help but knowing Vin didn’t want it. Or couldn’t accept it. Pride was often a difficult burden to bear. If he had known Moira was the key to Vin’s recovery before, he might have sent her down to London in Sung Li’s place.

  He watched Moira talking animatedly to Vin, her hands waving over her head before creating a large circle in front of her and Vin burst out in laughter once again. Moira laughed as well shaking her head before she caught Francis watching her out of the corner of her eye. She turned to him curiously and Francis gave her a smile and a nod hoping she could see his appreciation in the gesture. Moira nodded as well returning his smile before Vin recalled her attention with a “Then what happened?”