The Scot's Quest (Highland Swords Book 4)

by Keira Montclair

  “Take me in your hand, Diamond. You’re ready for me. Slide me inside.”

  She positioned his tip, testing it carefully. He guessed she was fearful that it would hurt like it had last time, so he allowed her to move slowly, taking him inside a bit more with each thrust, her hand still on him.

  Once he was halfway inside her, she spread her legs wider and leveraged herself just right to take all of him inside, burying him in so deeply that he grasped her hips.

  “Dyna, you will drive me over the edge too quickly. Slow down,” he whispered. She did, for a time, moving carefully over him, even testing different angles, but then she picked up the pace with a rhythmic pulsing that drove him mad and made them both breathless.

  “Derric, please. What do I do? I don’t know how to…”

  He touched a spot above where they were joined, rubbing her until she screamed, convulsing against him, her head thrown back with such pleasure that he knew she’d finally finished. He grasped her hips to get her exactly where he wanted her, then climaxed with a roar as he exploded inside her.

  She fell against him, her breathing ragged as she chuckled.

  “I had no idea.”

  He laughed against her, his hands still on the tight cheeks of her bottom, holding himself inside her. “So you finished this time, Diamond?”

  Her hot breath came out in a whoosh against his neck. “Aye, and so did you, Corbett.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. I only have one complaint.”

  “What? I didn’t please you?” he asked, caressing her bottom.

  “Oh, you pleased me completely. Why the hell didn’t you make me finish before?”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Dyna woke up, still smiling from their lovemaking. She knew Derric was going to get upset with her, but she wasn’t going to awaken him. She dressed quietly, took care of her needs, then led her horse out of the area before she mounted, heading out into the Highlands to find her grandfather.

  Her horse nickered as if to remind her she forgot someone. “You like him better than me. ’Tis that not the truth of it?” Couldn’t blame the animal for all the sweet-talking Derric did to the horses—all of them. Stopping the beast, she thought again about her dream and how she hadn’t been the one who’d rescued her grandsire.

  It had been Derric. Changing her mind, she turned her horse around to go back for him, surprised to find him heading her way as soon as she went around the bend. Pulling up short, she wasn’t surprised when Derric spoke to her sharply.

  “You thought you’d sneak away from me again? I was waiting for you this time, Diamond.”

  She slowed her horse, allowing him to come closer. “I thought of waking you, but you were sleeping peacefully. I only planned to go a short way before I returned for you. But I changed my mind. Can you not see I just came back for you?”

  “Lying does not become you, lass,” he drawled.

  Dyna broke into a peal of laughter and sent her horse flying across the meadow, leaving Derric behind her. Truth was, she was glad he’d joined her. This was not the time to go off on her own. She slowed her horse again and said, “Do you think you can keep up with me, old man?”

  Derric hollered, “You’ll pay for that later.”

  She laughed, and for a few minutes they raced on their horses, Dyna enjoying the wind in her face, but the seriousness of their mission set in as soon as they were off Grant land.

  “Diamond, wait,” Derric called from behind her.

  She slowed enough for him.

  “Do you have a plan or are we wandering aimlessly?”

  “Sometimes I travel based on my intuition. ’Tis what will guide me today.” Her gaze searched the area all the while they spoke, looking for anything to trigger her special talents. Anything that would have meaning for her grandfather.

  “I’ll accept that for a while, but if we find nothing, we’ll need a new plan.”

  She couldn’t argue with that reasoning, and besides, she felt certain they would find something. In fact, she suspected they would find that cottage she’d seen in her vision days before. This was the day she’d predicted.

  There were multiple patrols out, but they didn’t know the Highlands the way she did, nor did they have her abilities as a seer. Sometimes the knowledge came to her so clearly, it was like someone whispering in her ear. It was like that now, and she knew precisely which way to go, almost as if a hand rose and pointed in the correct direction at every crossroads she reached.

  They traveled for about two hours before she felt guided off the regular path, to a familiar cottage. It was the one she’d seen in her vision. She pointed to it, leading Derric there as quietly as possible.

  Smoke came out of the chimney, indicating someone was there. They left their horses tied to a bush and crept closer, not completely surprised to trip over something along the way.

  The arm of a dead man. Busby.

  So her grandsire was alone with another captor.

  Dyna said, “I’m going inside. You stand watch out here. We don’t know where the other man is yet.” Something told her she should allow Derric to go first because it would fit with her dream, but she couldn’t wait. This had to be where he was being held.

  Derric nodded and drew his sword, making his way around the cottage carefully.

  Creeping as stealthily as she could, she made her way toward the closest window, listening for any evidence of who might be inside. She waited just beside the window, out of sight, and although she didn’t hear anything, she was able to shift the wooden shutter slightly. It was enough.

  Grandsire lay on his back on a pallet, and he looked dead.

  Her hand came up to her mouth to cover her gasp. She didn’t see anyone else around, so she moved quietly to the door, opening it quietly and peering around for anyone, her dagger in hand, but the place looked empty. Abandoned. Alex Grant’s long legs hung over the end of the short, makeshift bed.

  “Grandsire,” she cried, flying to his side and dropping to her knees, praying it wasn’t so. “Grandsire, wake up.” She prodded him, shook his hand, poked his shoulder, but he didn’t move.

  Devastated, she recalled something Alasdair had told her. “Hold your hand in front of their nose or mouth to see if they still breathe. If they’re hurt or injured, it will be slow, but you’ll still feel it.” Poor Alasdair knew from experience, having lost both of his parents, one after the other.

  She held her palm under grandsire’s nose, fingers pressed to his upper lip, and thought she felt a small breath. Her hand reached to his forehead. He was still warm, which was a good thing, but then she noticed something she hadn’t seen from the window.

  His hands were tied together and he’d been beaten. His eye was black and crusted over with blood. He had bruises on a cheek, and a cut lip that had swollen up. She released his bindings, but he never reacted to her touch.

  Dyna did the only thing she could think to do. She rested her head on his upper body and sobbed. “Grandsire,” she whispered. “Please come back to me. I’m not ready to lose you yet.”

  He still didn’t move. She put her ear to his chest, hoping to hear a heartbeat, but it was difficult to listen over her sobs. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t stop her tears.

  She didn’t hear him until he grabbed her from behind in a bear hug.

  “I knew you’d come inside. He’s not dead yet, but he will be soon.”

  She sliced the man’s arm with her dagger, dark blood spurting out from the wound, but he knocked it away and cursed her.

  “Bitch!” He dragged her over to a chair and tried to tie her to it while she kicked and bit at him, doing everything she could to fight him off. “My, but you are a feisty one, are you not? Wait until I get you in my bed.”

  She fought with all her strength and shouted first Derric’s name and then her grandsire’s. This is why the dream showed Derric as the one to save him. She would be useless tied up. “Derric, hurry! The bastard is in here!
”

  Her captor slapped her three times to silence her, then tossed her on the floor. He tried throwing himself on top of her, but she kneed him in his groin and shoved him off of her.

  “Slap me, hit me, all you want,” she seethed, “but you’ll never stop me. I’ll kill you, but not before I thrust my dagger between your legs, you bastard.”

  She grabbed the dagger up off the floor, but the man had clambered to his feet again, and he knocked it away from her. Then he yanked her head back by the plait so he could stare at her. “I was going to pay him back, but you don’t look anything like her. Your eyes are the wrong shade of blue, your hair is too light. I grabbed the wrong one. There is one who looks just like Maddie.”

  “You’re a slimy piece of shite,” she ground out. “Why in hell would any woman want you? You smell and look like an overstuffed pig. You make me gag.”

  That put him over the edge. He grabbed her hair and held a dagger to her throat, then bellowed so loudly Derric was sure to hear him if he hadn’t already heard her. “Who is she? Who’s the one who looks like Maddie? Tell me, or I’ll cut your grandfather’s throat right in front of you.”

  Dyna spat in his face.

  He cursed and grabbed a chair, throwing her into it. “I think I’ll have my fun with you before I kill you.”

  ***

  Derric woke up with a raging headache, confirmed by the knot in the back of his head and the crusted blood on his neck. He sat up to get his bearings and noticed a large rock not far from him, speckles of blood on it. “I can’t believe that didn’t kill me.” His next thought was that it knocked him daft because he was talking to himself. He rubbed his head again, winced, and glanced around him, surprised to see no one at all.

  Where the hell was Dyna?

  As soon as he heard her scream, he stood up and headed to the cottage. “Bloody hell, Diamond. There’s never a dull moment with you.”

  He approached the window of the cottage. Peeking through it, he saw Dyna tied to a chair, held captive by a man who waved a dagger about screaming something about Maddie.

  While he wished to charge in like a fool and attack the bastard, he knew better. The element of surprise was his best weapon. He’d wait until the man had his back to the door, then rush him and a plunge a sword into his back, aiming for a kidney. Not the most sporting approach, but the man had imprisoned his wife. He wasn’t taking chances.

  He moved to the closed door and opened it just a touch, wanting a better look at the scene he would be entering. The kidnapper was a large man with a small protruding belly. He guessed him to be around five decades old, something that surprised him.

  Alex Grant lay motionless on a pallet at the back of the cottage. Derric closed his eyes and prayed the Grant patriarch wasn’t dead. Dyna would never cease to blame herself if she lost him like this. Mayhap he was a fool to wait. They needed to get Alex to a healer.

  He was about to rush in when he heard Alex’s voice. “Hamish, you’re a daft fool. Maddie never loved you.”

  “You’re lying. You ruined everything.” Derric heard scuffling feet and then another sound that he suspected was a chair scraping across the floor, though he couldn’t imagine why. Where was he dragging her if she was tied to the chair?

  Alex began to yell again to draw the man’s attention from Dyna, shouting, “Maddie thought you were a sad fool, Hamish. Aye, the only emotion she felt toward you was pity. If you hadn’t left, I would have killed you for approaching her, you bastard.”

  Hamish erupted, which gave Derric exactly the opportunity he’d been waiting for. He swung the door open and charged Hamish from behind, aiming his dagger at the man’s broad back. And mayhap it would have worked if the bastard hadn’t swung around and cut Derric’s arm, causing him to drop the dagger instantly. The man kicked him in his bollocks so hard he thought he would vomit.

  There was naught he could do but fall to the floor. His vision dimmed and he fought to keep his eyes open.

  No, no, no.

  It seemed as if everything that could have gone wrong had. If he didn’t do something soon, the future he saw with Dyna—the life of love and laughter and the little bairns with yellow hair—it would never happen. With Dyna’s hands bound behind a chair and Derric incapacitated on the floor, their captor was firmly in control of the situation. It didn’t matter that Derric would be stronger than him in a man-to-man fight, or that Dyna could shoot ten arrows from a treetop.

  Derric gagged, holding his arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding, then coughed to draw the man’s attention away from Dyna. “You think you can hold her down? She’s tougher than you’ll ever be, you ugly old bastard.” Hellfire, his bollocks hurt. He did his best to push himself to his knees, but it was a struggle.

  The man called Hamish spun around and tried to kick him, but Dyna tripped the man, her glorious long legs knocking him to the floor in an instant. Hamish’s head hit the stone hard.

  So hard it knocked him out, which would have been excellent if not for one problem.

  The man had fallen directly on top of Derric, knocking him back down onto the floor and pinning him. He landed with an oof, the tumble leaving him breathless for a moment. “Well done, wife,” he said between breaths, trying unsuccessfully to move the unconscious man. “But couldn’t you have pushed him the other way?”

  “Pardon me, husband, but if you have not noticed, my hands are tied.” She hopped in her chair, trying to get closer to Derric.

  “Kick him off me, the big piece of lard is dead weight. He’ll suffocate me for sure.”

  “I’m trying,” she mumbled, jumping with her chair.

  “Hurry because my bollocks still hurt. I don’t know if I can heave enough to move him off of me.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Derric. They’re just hairy sacs. Can you not just suck it up? Why must you act like they’re made of gold?” She made it over to Derric and managed to put both feet on Hamish and push.

  Derric gritted his teeth and said, “They’re harder than boulders right now, Diamond, but they may get squished to naught if you don’t help me. If that happens, there’ll be no bairns for us.” He gritted his teeth, ignored the pain in his sacs, and pushed for all he was worth at the same time. “And my arm is still bleeding, or haven’t you noticed?”

  “Quit crying like a bairn,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “Crying like a bairn? How would you feel in my place?”

  “I’d still be able to push harder than that. What happened to your muscles?” she asked as she clenched her jaw. “I have to get my feet underneath him somehow. Can you move him with what few muscles you have?”

  “My muscles are buried under the flab and fat of an old man, doing their best to crush the breath out of me.”

  The two pushed at the same time and a sudden storm erupted outside the cottage, flashing bolts of lightning illuminating the hut just before a heavy downpour started. At the same exact time, the two managed to heave together and pushed Hamish off of Derric, sending him airborne quite a distance. Derric rolled over onto his side, gasping for air. “I thought the bastard was going to suffocate me.”

  “Untie me, husband.”

  Derric could barely see straight, but he managed to find the dagger on the floor and cut her free. She threw her arms around his neck and said, “My thanks for saving me.”

  Derric nuzzled her neck, grateful to have her in his arms. “I think you saved me, Diamond.”

  A voice from behind him said, “So you two are supposed to save Scotland? I’m going to have to ask Maddie about this.”

  “Grandsire! You’re hale.” Dyna rushed to his side and hugged him tight.

  But the old man pushed her back and said, “Dyna, would you like to explain to me how you know what his bollocks look like?”

  Derric quickly stepped in front of her and asked, “Alex, may I have your approval to marry your granddaughter? We handfasted, and we both agreed to abide by it, but I would like your approval of the match. Thoug
h I’d also like your approval to chew her arse out for leaving without more guards.”

  “That depends. Did you meet your quest?”

  “What quest?” Dyna asked, her head jerking from one face to the other.

  “Never mind,” her grandsire said. “I posed the question to Corbett.”

  “Aye, I’ve seen it more than once. With her sister and especially with you. You opened my eyes.”

  Alex gave him a stern look, but followed it with a nod. “Then you have my approval, Corbett, but she’ll get an arse-chewing from more than one person. You can count on it.”

  “Fine. Chew my arse out. At least we found you,” Dyna said, staring at her beloved grandfather and kissing his cheek. “I thought you were dead.”

  “Nay, I’m fine, lass. He gave me a potion to make me sleep. ’Twas hard to stay awake. You may have to help me get on a horse, though. He did a fine job battering me.”

  “We’ll do whatever it takes, Grandsire.”

  “Is the bastard still alive?” He tipped his head toward Hamish on the floor.

  She moved back, leaned down, and placed her hands at his neck to see if his heart still beat. “I think the fall killed him. I cannot feel anything.”

  “Shall I bury him?” Derric asked, noting the man’s color was turning a dusky gray.

  “Leave the bastard there. I’ll send a few guards back when I find some,” Alex said.

  She stopped for a moment and said, “What did you mean by you having to ask Maddie? When did you see her? Have you had another dream?”

  Derric rubbed the stubble on his chin. “And what was that comment about saving Scotland?”

  Alex sighed, pushing himself to a standing position, though it was clearly a struggle, so they both rushed to his sides to assist him. “I had a dream a while ago. Maddie said you were the last important piece to the spectral swords, Derric. Did you not hear the heavens explode when the two of you combined your efforts to get Hamish off of Derric? Or how high you tossed his body into the air? You had some assistance in that endeavor.”