Falling in Deep Collection Box Set

by Pauline Creeden

I watched her mouth-watering breasts rise and fall as I sought out the cache that stayed hidden from all others. Drawing the pad of my thumb along the part, I discovered she was already slick and I pushed inside. Her chest and face tinted with a rush of blood and every reading of her body was elevated and told me she wanted what I was doing to her.

  I replaced my thumb with my longest finger and went as deep as it would go. She sucked a fast breath, lifting off the seat. My loins tightened and I had to stop myself from mounting her. I pulled out and did it again, with two fingers. She liked that even better, and so I repeated it over and over, and faster, without slowing.

  I stood tall beneath my kilt now—there was something so erotic about doing what I was doing to her right where we could be so easily caught.

  I moved over her, laying her back on the seat and fucking her hard with my fingers. I heard distant voices and jovial laughter coming from somewhere within a window above us but still didnae slow, only watched her face betray her pleasure. Even when she tightened around my fingers I kept going but ground against her thigh, imagining it was me fucking into her and no’ just my hand. I stopped only when she begged me.

  She saw the distress in my eyes as I lay over her, horny as fuck, and she tugged up the front of my kilt. “You need me.”

  “I can handle it. I’ll have ye soon enough. Tomorrow, ye’ll no’ be leaving my bed.”

  “In the same right, I could have waited until then.” Her chilly fingers cinched around me and milked me as smoothly as if I was doing it myself. My heart beat at a ridiculous tempo even while I again pushed away the thoughts of where she learned all she knew. I was determined to appreciate that no matter who had taught her, it was I who would reap the rewards.

  Even so, I wondered if I should stop her. I didnae want to be caught, but it felt damn good, and we were completely shadowed. Before I could think on it further, she moved onto her knees before me. “Jinny, what the devil, girl?”

  She said nothing, only pulled the blanket over her head and took me into her mouth.

  “Bloody fucking hell!”

  Chapter seventeen

  Douglass McGrail

  I approached the address that Dr. Sinclair had given the clerk. It was a secluded old farmhouse on the outskirts of Balfoureigh. Leaving my buggy parked in town, I ran to the destination on foot.

  After taking Jinny home, I’d headed straight here. What were the odds I would run into the very man the old woman had mentioned that morning?

  Those odds were too high. The fates were at work again.

  I’d gathered enough clues from the old woman that I would have found this place on my own, but I was glad to have an address.

  When I’d ask Mrs. McGregor about Ewan having an illegitimate son, she’d said she knew of none, only his legal heir. She then proceeded to tell me how much better that one was doing, staying with Dr. Sinclair, who she baked for and delivered bread to once a week. She swore me to secrecy, as the doctor didnae want others to know and start a panic, but she said wolves had attacked Lachlan. He’d been thrown from a horse, damaging his face, and the wolves had viciously bit his chest, wounding him terribly. The more she’d talked, the more I’d realized the truth—Lachlan was Jinny’s attacker and hiding out right here in town. Of course, how could he go home after the attack? What would he tell his family with Jinny living right there in the house to contradict his lies?

  There was minimal light coming from within, so I headed around the side of the house, spying through windows in search of him. No sign of the man so far.

  I heard low murmuring toward the back of the house and moved stealthily that way. The stucco was rough on my hands as I reached the edge and pressed my back against the exterior wall. I didnae try to steal a glance around the corner, as the voice was right beside me on the back porch. It was the doctor’s voice.

  “Yes, well, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m tired of this same old discussion. She is all you ever talk about. I understand your longing to have her, but there comes a time when you just walk away. You move on.”

  “I can’t move on,” came another voice that sent adrenaline surging through me. ’Twas a voice I’d never forget—Jinny’s attacker. I dug my fingers into the wall to keep from charging around the corner and ripping him to shreds, but there were too many unanswered questions. I had to find out the truth.

  “She’s merely stubborn, but she loves me. She’s told me. Jinny will be by wife. The lass is just having trouble remembering how much she loves my kisses.”

  My heart beat so fast now I thought it would explode. Had Jinny no’ only been attacked by this man but had a relationship with him—her cousin who lived in the house with her?

  The Englishman let out a long sigh. “I don’t understand your obsession with this silly chit.”

  “Jinny is no’ a silly chit; she is a woman. It’s no’ like she’s the four-year-old little lass I laid eyes on fourteen years ago.”

  “That’s just the point. One doesn’t build a fantasy world around another merely from seeing her once when she was a girl of four and he a boy of ten.”

  “’Twas no’ so simple. I didnae like receiving a gift only to have it taken away the same day. Da had said Jinny would be coming to live with us, so when I met her the first time and saw her standing by her da it did something to my insides to think she would be coming home with me and be mine.

  “Ye can imagine my disappointment when her da said no. That’s why she became an obsession. And now that I’ve had her, I can no’ give her up.”

  “You can, you just won’t.”

  “Maybe so, but if ye were in my boots, ye would no’ either.”

  “Oh, Lachlan, Lachlan. I wish I could make you understand that what you feel now is nothing more than that childhood dream. You’ve convinced yourself she is more than what she is, and that your relationship is more than what it is.”

  “Ye’re wrong. There’s no’ a feeling in the world as good as kissing and touching Jinny when she’s holding me.”

  My foot slipped as I lost my balance, seeing red spots. I grabbed hold of a window frame and tried to breath through the eruption of anger and mixed emotions.

  “What was that?” Lachlan asked and there was silence.

  I knew they were listening in my direction and I struggled to keep from going down. I needed more air than what I could get without being heard.

  Marcus said, “It was likely that stray cat you’ve been feeding. Now listen to me. If you met Jinny today and did not know she was that cousin you’d always dreamt of, you’d likely not give her a second glance. Trust me on this.”

  “Na, if ye met her today, ye’d understand why I’m at odds with ye. In fact, when I met Jinny again those months ago, I’d been away and had just returned to find my da laughing with an angel sitting across the chess table from him. I had no idea ’twas Jinny and thought my da had got himself a mistress. But in that moment, I knew one thing for certain—I would be taking that mistress away from my da. Imagine the thrill I felt to find out she was no’ my da’s mistress, but was my Jinny come to live with me.”

  “You know, I did meet a most intriguing young woman today. If she hadn’t been in the company of a big Scotsman named McGrail, I might have brought her home to meet you just to pull you from your ill mood.”

  “Na. Only Jinny will do for me.”

  “You’re not going to be rational on this, are you?”

  “No’ if it means giving up my Jinny.”

  ***

  I lay in bed, tossing and turning, wondering if I’d done the right thing in letting Lachlan live after what I’d heard. The only thing that had stopped me from tearing him to shreds was the uncertainty of how Jinny would feel about it. He was her family, and if I killed him, would she forgive me? What if she wouldn’t? Now I wondered if I should have taken the chance, as I could no’ stand the thought of what I’d heard, and could no’ believe Jinny had been lying to me all along. What should I do? Confront her and take a
chance on losing her?

  I supposed I could see why she would no’ want to tell me she knew her attacker. When I’d asked her that day on the beach who he was, she didnae know me at all, and had no reason to tell me something that could create such a scandal for her family.

  As time passed, how could she then tell the truth?

  Really, I could no’ blame her, as she confessed to me today that she’d never considered marriage to me because of my da’s strict rules on socializing with humans, so why tell me if she didnae believe we had a future? If I bring all this up to her now, it will humiliate her to think I knew.

  What a mess.

  No, she didnae need to know—why would she need to know any of this? Tomorrow I’ll be taking her away from all of it … forever, and I’ll never have to worry about Lachlan again. She’ll be out of his reach and I won’t have to kill a member of her family.

  I now knew who had been the one to teach her, and the truth was worse than I would have conjured up. I wished I’d never set out to discover it. But I had, and I could never unknow it. But I could lock it far away in the farthest reaches of my mind if that was what it would take to keep my Jinny Rose with me.

  What a day this had been. It bounced back and forth from bad to good all day and then plummeted into hell.

  Hoping for sleep to take me, but doubting it would, I closed my eyes to the thought of claiming Jinny for mine in the morning.

  Chapter eighteen

  Jinny Fairchild

  With the last of my things packed away neatly in my trunk, I stripped down to my shift and crawled into bed, thinking of Douglass and all that had happened since I’d come to Balfoureigh. I began to think through a series of observations and questions with which I was very familiar of late.

  Though Douglass was ech-ooshkya—a fact I’d had to come to terms with—there was something about him that called to my soul. That he was beautiful to look upon was an additional benefit. Even the slightest brush of Douglass’s hand against mine could set me aflame.

  I had fallen in love with a man known to the human race as a monster. But were Douglass’s kind the true monsters? When I thought of human predators, like Lachlan, I thought not.

  I’d struggled with my feelings for Douglass over the past weeks, knowing what he was, and how he fed … and that I was falling in love with him. I’d even wondered if there was something wrong with me that I wanted this man—had my encounters with Lachlan changed my morals somehow?

  But while lying with Douglass—a thing I had been willing to do as I felt my time with him growing short due to Lachlan’s imminent return—I had finally come to terms with my feelings for him. I gave in and allowed myself to have what it was that I wanted—Douglass. I would no longer carry shame over the range of emotions I felt for a creature like him. I would give myself to him wholeheartedly and love him fully.

  On the other hand, I was ashamed of the position I had allowed myself to fall into with my cousin. Of late, I’d felt my time running out, as I’d be forced to face Lachlan soon, but each time he’d seeped into my thoughts I had pushed him out, having but a short time left to make believe I was normal and in an ordinary courtship with Douglass.

  Then again, how ordinary could that alliance be? He was a deadly creature that didn’t get on well with others of my kind, but I’d always accepted him for who and what he was, as he was not cruel-hearted. It just took me until today to accept myself for wanting him.

  Before he’d offered marriage to me, I’d never considered it could go beyond courting. I’d believed it could not, as Hearn McGrail, Laird of Cainneach-Balfour, would never sanction such a merger.

  But he had. And now I would marry his second-born son—the man I loved with all my heart.

  Today had secured two things in my mind: I would never want to be on any man’s arm but Douglass’s, and Douglass would never abide seeing me on any man’s arm but his. Thankfully, there was no longer any fear of that, as Douglass would come for me in the morning, and save my life yet a third time.

  ***

  The dim light on the other side of my closed eyelids told me it was early morning. I’d been up so late packing, I didn’t want to wake now. But if I did, my life would continue on this new journey that would bring me happiness.

  With a smile, I drew a deep breath and stretched my arms over my head. A pleasurable moan escaped at the stimulating feel of it. Relaxed again, I cracked my eyes opened with a start, my heart lurching as I lay there looking into the handsome face of my cousin as he lay alongside of me.

  He touched my face, and whispered, “Hallo, my love. How I’ve missed yer face.”

  “Hello, Lachlan.” I sat up with my back to him and my feet on the floor. “I see yours has recovered. And don’t you mean you’ve missed slapping my face?”

  “Ye’re still mad at me?”

  “How could I not be?” I was surprised to discover I felt the strength to stand against him that I had not felt before. No longer was I his victim since his power to ruin my reputation or my chance for marriage had been removed—I would marry Douglass.

  “Do you even realize what you’ve done? The last time we were in each other’s presence, you were trying to take my virginity so I would be forced to marry you, even if it meant beating me into submission. You were going to rape me, Lachlan.”

  “I was scared of losing ye.”

  “Well, raping someone or forcing yourself on them in any way will ensure that you do indeed lose them.”

  “I know that now.”

  “Why are you here, Lachlan?”

  “I live here.”

  “But why now, this morning, and so early?”

  He scowled. “Who is McGrail?”

  I froze. “How would—?”

  “So it was ye?” His face turned bitter. “Who was he, Jinny? I was told a fine lass was seen in town yesterday with a big Scotsman named McGrail. It ate at me all night, and an hour ago I learned she was English and fit your description.”

  I said nothing, just stood and went to the window to see if Douglass was there yet. He wasn’t—though the sun had lightened the sky, it wasn’t actually sunrise yet.

  Lachlan leapt from the bed and followed. He grabbed my arm and spun me around.

  “I asked ye a question, damn it! Who was the man ye were with?”

  “One who will always come to my rescue and never let you hurt me again.”

  His brows pressed in. “The man who nearly killed me?”

  “I like to think of him as the man who saved me.”

  “Ye know ye didnae need saving from me.”

  “Maybe you wouldn’t have killed me, but I needed saving from the life you were trying to force on me.”

  “What were ye doing with him, Jinny?”

  “Shopping.”

  “Ye know damn well that’s no’ what I meant.”

  I felt it best to hold my ground and just tell the truth at this point, I yanked my arm from his grip.

  “Shopping with my fiancé. He’s asked me to marry him.”

  His eyes widened and his chest rose and fell. “And ye said yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?” His voice was eerily calm.

  “Because I love him.”

  His lips pressed thin beneath flaring nostrils. “Knowing what that man did to me, how could ye even say ye love him?”

  “Knowing what you did to me, how could you expect me to love you the way you want to be loved?”

  “What I did to ye was different. That man is a brutal monster. He wanted to eat me alive and probably would have if ye hadn’t been there to witness it.”

  “Douglass wouldn’t have done those things to you had you not been doing them to me first. He only gave what you gave.

  “I was no’ a savage to ye like Douglass was to me.”

  “Really?” I yanked my shift off my shoulder. “I believe your teeth marked me before his marked you. And we both received a hand to the face.”

  He stared at the an
gry scar with no retort. Really, what could he say?

  “If you’ll excuse me, Lachlan, I need to get ready for the day.”

  “I forbid ye to marry him. Ye belong to me and ye know damn well ye do. We’ve done things, Jinny—things that give me rights to ye as they were done with yer consent. Ye love me. Ye told me so.”

  I heaved a sigh and turned back toward the window. My gaze fell on Douglass coming to a halt before the house and I felt a wave of relief, followed by a wave of alarm for my cousin.

  “As I told you then, I loved you even before I knew you, because you’re my cousin. You wanted me to love you as a woman loves a man, but I could not. I’m sorry. You and I were a mistake that never should have happened. Or maybe that’s not so, since it was through this madness that I met Douglass. I love Douglass, and I love you—as a cousin—which is why I’ll ask you to go now, Lachlan. I don’t want to see you hurt again. Douglass is here and I believe he would kill you if he saw you near me again.”

  Lachlan yanked back the curtain. “How dare that beast come to my house after what he did? I guess he was no’ satisfied beating the bloody fuck out of me, the greedy bastard had to do me in by taking ye from me, too.”

  “He doesn’t know you live here, Lachlan. And he didn’t take me from you; I’d already told you it was over. I should never have engaged in those kisses in the first place.”

  “But ye did, Jinny.”

  “I was confused. And I was feeling alone in this world after Papa’s death.”

  “Were ye confused when ye let me kiss ye elsewhere? I was no longer holding yer wrists when ye let me kiss ye there.”

  My face burned with shame and I turned away.

  “So, yer hero does no’ ken I live here? He must not know about ye and me, then? Maybe I should tell him, so he will no’ want ye after all.”

  I spun back. “Lachlan, I beg you not to approach him. He would kill you before you even had the chance to tell him if he knew you were near me. Please, cousin, leave.”

  “Stop it, Jinny! Stop calling me yer goddamn cousin! Ye know we are no’ blood. Ye just use it as an excuse to run from me.”