by Fiona Faris
Daividh lost his patience. “’Tis nae about the bet. Do nae speak of it in public. This night is nae about the bet. I do nae want Lorraine hurt and Alison is vengeful enough.”
Glenn nodded and walked away.
Glenn had fitted the large dining room with several tables and much to Daividh’s dismay, Alison had ended up on his. Each table sat up to fifteen persons. On their table, Daividh, Lorraine, Glenn, Maxwell, Kyla, Alison, Kenneth, and eight other people who Lorraine didn’t recognize were seated.
As the meal was served, it became obvious that Alison’s eyes were trained on Lorraine. In her eyes was a malicious look. It was when the party began to eat that she spoke.
“So, Lorraine, who is yer da? I must admit that I have ne’er heard of ye prior to today.”
Beside her, Daividh flinched and Lorraine saw Maxwell stiffen.
“Me da is late,” she replied stiffly.
“Oh,” she gasped dramatically. “That is terrible. I am sorry,” she said in a way that showed that she was not sorry at all.
Lorraine said nothing but faced her food. The appetite she had had before vanished and the delicious duck looked bland.
However, Alison was not done. “When he was alive, however, who was he?” Alison pressed further. The air at the table was tense.
Daividh put his hands on hers. He wanted them to leave but Lorraine took her hand from his. Her father had not labored all his life and taught her all that she knew to be denied at a table of men. With all the pride she could muster, she looked up to Alison.
“When me da was alive, he was humble mason. He was a skilled man of many talents.”
“Oh,” Alison said feigning shock, “So ye mean he was a commoner?”
“Aye. He was but to me, he was nae. He was more than that. He was a wise man. He taught me the basics of healing, He taught me to fend for meself in his absence – things that many taught only their sons. He was kind, brave, loyal, and he was a strong man. So, aye, he was more than a commoner.”
“Touching,” she said raising her voice so that most of the room could hear. “But do ye nae think she should nae be in a place like this? Sitting at the table with yer superiors? Clinging on to the laird of yer clan?” Her eyes glowed with malice.
The silence in the room settled like a heavy cloak.
“Excuse me,” Lorraine said quietly, and pushed from the table before exiting the room.
She managed to make it out to the carriage and instructed the driver to take her home before the tears dropped.
The carriage had barely moved before it stopped and had the door thrown open.
Daividh climbed in and shut the door. “Take us to her home,” he said.
Lorraine tried to wipe at her tears. She didn’t want him to see her cry but it was too late. To her surprise, Daividh took her in his arms.
“’Tis alright,” he murmured against her soft hair, “’Tis alright to cry sometimes.” He soothed her, holding her to himself.
The carriage drove gently as she cried against his chest. However, soon the tears dried and Lorraine sniffled.
“Are ye better?” he asked in a gruff voice.
“Aye,” she nodded, “Thank ye.”
“I am sorry. This was me fault. We should have left once we saw that she was there. I do not know what Glenn was thinkin’ by invitin’ her,” he groaned.
“’Tis alright.” She placed her hands on his. “The worst is over. At least I had no ointments on my face that would rub off with the tears,” she laughed. “Tell me, do I look dreadful?” she asked him.
“Lorraine-”
“Perhaps once we get down,” she said and looked away from him.
“Lorraine-”
“’Tis dark already. Time does fly by fa-”
“Lorraine!”
But she would not look at him and once more he took her in his arms.
“I am sorry.”
With a sigh, she relaxed in his arms. It felt much better when you had someone to lean on.
“Alison can be evil but ye must ken that if ye will be seen with me, ye will have tae open yerself up to the people. When ye do this, there will be some bad but most will be good. Alison is simply jealous that she does nae have me and ye do. The things that she asked me to do with her and I refused are things that I did with ye on me own today. She is a sore loser.”
He held her hands and left them to turn her face to him. Lorraine liked how cool his palms felt against her cheek.
“Ye defended who ye are today and that is good. I do nae want to be seen with a person who puts the society over who they are. Ye won today, Lorraine.”
“It doesnae feel much like it,” she confessed.
“I ken,” he nodded, “Sometimes, during battle, the enemy is strong and even after they die by me bloodthirsty blade, the pains and aches on me body don’t make it feel like I won but I did.”
“Somehow, we are now speaking of yer victories. Have ye no shame?” she asked, but she was smiling.
“None.” He tilted her face to his.
Lorraine felt his eyes bore deep into hers and suddenly, everything had a deeper meaning. “None?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
“Nae in the slightest.” His voice was hoarse, thick. “Perhaps, if I did, I would nae be doin’ this,” he said and closed the distance between their lips.
Chapter Fourteen
Lorraine lost all ability to speak as his lips closed in on hers. It was at that moment that she lost control of her own body. On their own accord, her eyes closed. His tongue slid across her bottom lip shocking her and eliciting a gasp from her.
It was the opening that Daividh needed. His tongue coursed along hers and Lorraine melted. The taste was delicious, forbidden, and yet she wanted more.
He sucked on her bottom lip and pulled her closer to him. Her arms moved once more, on their own and held on to him in an act of self-preservation. She held on to him for dear life.
Each taste was sacred, a memory she did not want to ever forget. She willed her heart to remember how he smelled in that moment; of the wonderful masculine scent he possessed of pine trees. It was the only smell that invaded her senses.
Slowly but surely, she let herself go. For the first time, she handed the reins to another, and it was worth it.
Daividh felt her give into the kiss. It was an advantage he would not let go of. He held her to himself and pulled her even closer than she already was and stroked his tongue along hers.
It was instinctive, her reply. She replied to his stroke with one of her own just as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The low growl in his throat was the only approval she needed.
All too soon, they were in an even more dangerous zone. His mouth was hungry, desperate for hers and she realized all too soon that she was just as hungry as he was. She felt him suckle on her bottom lip and then thrust his tongue into her mouth. It was there that she met heaven.
He wanted to taste her – every bit of her. His tongue probed deeper and deeper into her mouth as he relished in the moans they commanded.
He kissed her as he had always wanted to. It was in that moment that he realized how long he had craved her lips on his. His lips left hers suddenly, leaving her bereft with a feeling of emptiness that was new to her. Gently, his lips made a trail from her lips to her cheek, and to her neck.
Without warning, he bit down on her neck, his arms tilting her head backwards to gain better access. Another moan escaped her lips as the world spun right in front of her. He covered her neck with his kisses, leaving his love bites in every spot until he came to her sweet spot.
Painstakingly, he suckled on it, holding her down even as she thrashed against him, pulling him to her yet pushing him away.
He had to stop this, he realized; if he went any further, he would not be able to stop.
“Daividh.”
She moaned his name in his ears and he felt all his control fly out the window. His palms slid all around her body, touching her, teasin
g her. He held onto her slender waist and gripped it tight even as he made love to her mouth.
The fire between her legs was a new feeling, as strange one. It made her half-mad with its urgency. She grinded her hips against him and in the blink of an eye, he had pulled her atop him. In a rush, he lifted her skirts and traced his fingers along her smooth legs.
Lorraine realized that she was to feel shame, she was to feel embarrassed, but in that moment, all she felt was him, his glorious body touching hers. The sensations flowed through her like a heavy flood. Slowly, the pressure built inside her; the tiny call had become a loud demand and she was desperate to answer it.
His forefinger touched her thighs first and Lorraine felt that she would explode. The heat was a furnace now – a hot and burning furnace that would take no prisoners. He was knowing her intimately, she realized. He was touching her in a way no man ever had – in a way she wanted no one else to ever touch her.
But did it matter? she asked herself as he nibbled on her neck.
Another moan escaped her lips and she shuddered. In that moment, she knew it didn’t. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else except him and her.
She turned to him and kissed his lips as he had kissed her. She didn’t over think – she didn’t think at all. She felt. Lorraine took what she wanted; the taste of him, the addictive delicious taste of him. She suckled on his lips and felt the world spin again. How could he taste so amazing?
Then, like an odd note in a beautiful song, he pulled away from her.
They stared at each other with lust-filled eyes, breathing heavily.
“Lorraine,” he said, “We have to stop. By God’s blood, ye are the most addictive woman I have ever kend. If we continue, I would nae be able to control meself and ye deserve more than a carriage for yer first time.”
Lorraine’s cheek burned but he took her in his arms and sat her beside him. She looked at the closed window and struggled to right her breathing.
How had been able to stop when she hadn’t?
“And do nae e’er think that I did nae want ye,” he told her, reading her mind. He grabbed her hands and slid them to his groin to feel his hardness.
Lorraine gasped softly but did not pull her hands away.
“I have ne’er been that hard for a woman. Ye deserve a better first time and I will give it to ye,” he promised.
Lorraine smiled at him and nodded and silence filled the carriage.
Daividh pulled her to himself so that she was close enough to feel his distracting heat. It was in that manner that they sat until the carriage arrived at her home.
Daividh stepped down from the carriage and offered a hand to Lorraine. He walked with her until they reached her door.
“Ye will be fine?”
“Aye,” she nodded.
“I will see ye soon,” he promised.
“Ye will be fine, too?”
Daividh smiled. “Fear the man that does nae fear me.”
Lorraine grinned and turned away from him to enter her house.
Chapter Fifteen
Lorraine woke up late the next morning. Much to her angst, she had slept in and her mother and brother were gone by the time she had woken up.
“Ye picked the wrong day to wake late,” she scolded herself as she washed and dressed herself. She quickly checked the animals in the barn and was relieved to find that Maxwell had fed them all and had even left a piece of fish and a bowl of milk for the kitten who seemed in a much better shape that it had the previous day.
Skipping breakfast, she opted for a single apple and ran for her horse. With her breeches on and her hair in a firm ponytail behind her, the events of the previous night seemed more like a dream. Except it wasn’t.
For the life of her, she knew that she would never forget the taste of his lips of hers. She would never forget the fire that had burned between them. She wondered how things would be between them now. Would he tire of her company?
The thought brought pain to her chest and so, she pushed all thoughts of him from her mind and concentrated on the work at hand. She had to pick up several things from the market before going home. She was almost out of her most used ointment and needed to make more before it would be used.
Despite how much she tried, she found it hard to push away the events of the previous night and soon, she found herself in a battle with her own mind.
So absorbed was she in her own mind that she didn’t notice she was getting a lot more stares than usual. The stares followed her as she made her purchases in the market and even as she visited the only child that she had to visit.
However, by the time noon came, it was impossible for her to ignore the whispers and the stares that had by then significantly increased.
Feeling self-conscious, she rushed through her remaining errands before getting on her horse to go home. Home, she believed, would offer a sanctuary from prying eyes.
When Lorraine got home, however, she soon found that that was not to be.
“Ye are Lorraine?” a man dressed in an expensive coat asked.
“Yes,” she said tentatively, alighting from her horse.
“Ye do nae ken me but I heard of ye. Ye are a healer of animals?”
“Aye.”
“Me beloved horse is sick and has eaten naught for days. I have tried all but naught seems to work. I had given up before I heard of ye. Please come quick as I fear it may be too late. Me house is nae too far from the castle grounds, ye will be safe – I give ye me word.”
The urgency in the man’s tone made it impossible for her to ask him how or where he had heard of her. She went into her chambers and reappeared with all the tools she felt she might need in a large saddle bag.
However, no longer distracted and occupied by her thoughts of Daividh, Lorraine noticed just how many people looked at her as they rode by. At first, she assumed that they whispered about the man who seemed to be a very wealthy man, but when the whispers got to her, she realized that it was indeed her and not the man that they spoke about.
“’Tis her,” they seemed to be saying. “Lorraine, they say she is called,” the whispers said.
Soon enough, they arrived at the man’s manor. She had been right, Lorraine realized. Indeed, he was a wealthy man.
Disregarding the servants, the man himself took her to the barn where the horse was lain. He looked sick, just as had been described, and Lorraine forgot all of her hesitation and got to work.
The man watched eagerly and as she examined the horse, he explained why it was so dear to him.
“His name is Ash. He was me wife’s favorite horse before her passing. I do nae want him to die without doing everythin’ I can to save him.”
Lorraine nodded but said nothing as she continued to examine the horse. Moments after, she stood up relieved.
“He has an infected bone. He had an injury recently, yes?” she asked the man, “this leg?” She pointed to the horse’s left foreleg.
“Aye,” the man nodded, shocked, “How did ye ken?’
“The symptoms are clear,” she said, “I do nae yet ken the extent of the infection but I will after I examine him a bit more. He is in great pain so I will give him somethin’ for that first.”
“Will he die?”
“Nay. Nae if we treat him. If the infection is advanced, ye may need to amputate the leg, but ye may be lucky and the treatment will work.”
The man looked to her with respect and awe in his eyes. “I must admit that when I heard of ye, I had me doubts. But with the way ye speak, ye have proven me wrong.”
Seizing the opportunity, Lorraine asked, “And where did ye hear of me?”
The man laughed. “Ye were with the heir of the MacDougall feast last night. I was nae there but news travels fast. Everyone kens of ye now, girl.”
Lorraine nodded stiffly, panic flying through her veins. However, her face was a blank, hiding just how much terror the statement had caused.
“I have several materials I would need. Usually, I w
ould get them myself but there is little time.”
“Say no more,” he shook his head, “I will have servants here for you. They will get you whatever is needed.” The man called for three of his servants who appeared promptly.
He was obviously a wealthy and kind man. His servants looked well-fed and were well-dressed. Even better, they seemed eager to serve him. If that was anything to go by, she could be sure that he was indeed a good man.
