A Highlander's Home (12 page)

             
He slowed the movements slightly
,
and she yipped in despair.  However resistant she had been before, she was that much more agreeable now.  Her hand grabbed his and pushed it down harder.  He smiled,
laughing
slightly.  She was close
to the brink of ultimate abandon,
and he knew it.  He pushed harder
,
and she moaned louder.  He pressed the palm of his hand over her mound and thrust his finger over her sweet spot with reckless possession.  He slammed his lips over hers and took her moans into his mouth, plunging his to
ngue to the back of her throat.  Her tongue met his thrust for
thrust, and
her hips met his hand just as wildly. 

             
Her back arched and her knees slammed together while her nails dug into his hand, but he did not stop the torture.  Stars were bursting behind her lids and she raised her mouth to his, nearly toppling them both.  His finger slid down until he entered her
,
and she bucked against his hand.  Showing no mercy, he slid in and out of the wet cave until she was arching again, her thighs spread and her hips in the air.

             
When she finally opened her eyes and the waves stopped crashing in her ears, she looked at him through half lids.  Her eyes were startling bright, glazed with desire as she stared at him.  His own blue eyes kept her gaze as he lightly kissed her swollen lips.  He gently pulled
her skirt back into place and
rested his hand on her belly.
  His smile was warm, and
…
victorious. 

Reality crashed against her like a cold wave against the surf.

             
Shoving him, she drew her legs up and kept her back to him.  When he put his hands on her shoulder, she shrugged him away, saying coldly, “Don’t touch me.”

             
The heat in his gaze turned to ice as he retorted, “That is not what ye were saying a mere moment ago.” 

He had thought to pleasure her, show her that he was not the brute she accused him of being.  For a reason that escaped him, he had obviously failed.

He brushed past her and grabbed the reins of his stallion and started towards the barn door.  She was not exactly sure what she may, or may not, have said a moment ago, but she surely would not admit it.  The rain had stopped and the sun was peeking through the edges of the clouds, creating a silver outline, promising warmth and brightness for the rest of the day.  Raine doubted it.

             
Pulling the reins of her little horse, she guided it out and around
Leith
.  After mounting it, she dared to say in a voice much steadier than she would have thought possible, “
That
,” she nodded towards the barn, “was an accident.  Be assured,
my lord
, that it will not happen again.”

             
His eyes narrowed, contrasting with the wicked grin tugging at the corners of his full, wonderful lips.  She had to make an obvious effort to pull her gaze away from them and meet his eyes.  “We shall see about that, now won’t we,
wife.
”

             
“Not if I can help it!” she yelled after him, but she doubted he heard her over the thundering of the hooves that was taking him away from her.

             
She placed her palms over her cheeks to ease the heat creeping up from her neck.
Tucking stray hairs back into her braid and pulling out pieces of hay, she groaned.
How could that have happened?  How could she have let him do those things?  Never had she gone that far with a man before, and yet here she was, centuries from home in a time where propriety and virginity was everything, and she was on her back for him with barely a moment’s notice. 

She groaned.  Then groaned again followed by a sigh.  How would she ever face him when she knew what he knew she was thinking?  And she knew deep in her heart that she would not quickly forget his
masterful, and oh so wonderful, administrations to her body.  She failed to stop the smile as she remembered the bursting heat that had started deep within her abdomen and then burst forth, the feel of his lips as he crushed them against hers.  Her hand moved lower to her woman’s place.  Her breath caught, and she shook herself.  Enough now.  It’s not like she was the first woman to do these things with a man.  A ha
ndsome man, with strong fingers, and strong shoulders, and wonderful lips, and eyes the color of the sky she had seen this afternoon.

             
The trip back to the castle was long and lonely.  Funny,
she thought, that
it had seemed much shorter the first time.  Activity was not so rampant when she entered the gates as the sun was midway in the sky.  A few more hours of daylight and then the night would come and bring these people, and her, one day closer to the impending wedding.  A wedding she was not sure how to stop.  Or if she even wanted to stop it.  Did she want to stop it?  One advantage would be to share his bed without guilt or consequence.  She smiled.  Perhaps he would appreciate the fact that s
he was a virgin and be as gentle
with her as he was today.  But then again, the downfall would be that she would be deceiving him when she would be forced to say the words, “Until death do us part” since she would be leaving as soon as she could map her way to the stones and return to her own time.

Chapter 10

             
The next few days passed in a blur of activity with chaos seeming to abound in every crevice of the castle.  Raine stepped back and tried to stay out from being underfoot but still, she seemed to be in the way.  She decided to watch from the sidelines and ponder her situation of being from the future and trying to find her way back.  She repeated the lyrics to the spell that the Professor had said that night in the pouring rain so as to instill it in her memory, almost chanting it to herself.  She wandered in and out of the castle, learning her way around and observing the comings and goings of the people, watching the hustle and bustle transform the already beautiful stone castle into a castle fit for a princess.

             
Leith
watched from the inside shadows of the stairwell as Raine stepped out of the way when the overloaded servants were scurrying on their way.  He noticed the heightened rosiness in her cheeks and the way she
seemed unsure of her whereabouts in the castle.  How lovely she looked as she chewed her bottom lip and
tentatively
made her way outside toward the stables.  His valet, who had been given the task of keeping track of his betrothed, had told him that she often went there and stayed for hours. 
He
had decided that day at the barn that he would abstain from seeing her again, and although the regret was biting him, he stood firm.  He would give her time to think, to adjust to the idea of being his wife, to come to the understanding that she would belong to him by the end of the week.

             
“
Brother
.”  Robbie leaned against the rough wall next to
Leith
.

             
Leith
spared him a glance and replied, “How are the preparations coming along?”

             
Scratching his chin, he said speculatively, “Well, they’re coming.” 

             
At
Leith
’s scowl, Robbie gave a short laugh, slapped him on the back, and answered, “Donna worry, lad.  Things are progressin’ pleasingly.  Are ye thinking about changing ye’re mind?”

             
Leith
couldn’t help but deepen his scowl at the slight note of hope he detected in Robbie’s tone.  With a growl, he returned, “No, I’m not changing my mind.  I’ve already broken one betrothal to take up another.  I’ll not be breaking this one.”

             
He turned and as he walked, concentrated on his steps, scuffing the dirt with the toe of his boot.  “Do ye thi
nk that this is the right thing
?  I mean, do y
e
think, with all her crazy talk of the time travellin’ that we should carry on with the weddin’? 
Some
would say to turn her out and good riddance.”

             
Robbie had wondered if
Leith
had revealed any of the wild
tales
that
the lass had tried to tell.  If the
townsfolk
got wind of the lass’s frame of mind, there would be no stopping the fear that would grip
them.  He did not want her accused of being a witch.
 

             
“Do ye think ye
could get a son on her?  If not, then I say cancel this shenanigan, and bugger what the
Queen
says.” 

             
After a moment of silence, Robbie shrugged and said nonchalantly, “But, I’ve noticed that the wench has a nice set of hips, she does.  Firm, strong.  Sways to and fro when she walks, making her skirt swish this way and that.  Quite tempting if ye ask me.  And,” he shook his head, feigning resignation, “with that temper of hers she might have a head of hair as red as me own instead of silky blonde like she does.  Aye, I’d send her straight back to the stones if ye ask me,
brother
.  Straight back.”

             
Leith glared at him, thinking of the way that the silky blonde hair wrapped quite nicely around his fist as he pulled the wench closer to him so he could better feel the heat emanating from her lush female form.  Robbie, seemingly oblivious to his
brother
’s
boiling
thoughts, continued his lecture.

             
“Or perhaps ye could bed the wench, and then get rid of her.  Och, aye, ‘tis what I would do.”  He looked at his hands and made two fists.  “I’d grab that wench by the – Ugh!”

             
Leith
’s fist made contact with Robbie’s chin before he could finish his thoughts.  Thoughts that were too close to
Leith
’s own, except for sending the lass packing after the wedding night.  His thoughts were more along the lines of wedding, bedding, and keeping her. 

             
Robbie retaliated with an uppercut of his own, only to have a meaty fist make contact with his ribs, knocking the
wind out of him. 
Soon the two men, almost matched in size and strength, were rolling around, scuffling much the same as when they were boys. 
That was how Lady MacGregor found them, and had to shake her head.  Boys.  They never changed. 

She smiled and turned to return to the castle and continue overseeing the wedding preparations when she caught site of someone else watching the two tumbling men.  The bride to be seemed quite concerned about the brawl as she stood there biting her knuckle and shuffling her feet. 

             
Lady MacGregor touched her elbow and said in a reassuring voice, “My dear, ‘tis only play.  They
are brothers
, you see.  Matched as equal warriors, they’ve been like this since they were old enough to walk.”

             
When she noticed that Raine was barely
listening
, she took her by the hand.  “Come now.  Let the boys play.  We have women’s work to tend to.”

             
Raine found her voice and asked incredulously, “Play?  That is playing?” 

She flinched as Robbie spit a mouth full of blood into the nearby dirt, and smiled. 
Leith
examined the cut on his stomach from being dragged over a stone and absently brushed away the red stain that was forming, and smiled back.  Then they both lunged at each other to continue their
play
.

             
Lady MacGregor sighed, and shook her head as she gazed fondly at the site.  “Yes, ‘tis just play.”

             
Raine knew the days were passing and that her
wedding day
was approaching more rapidly than she would have liked.  She had done all she could to try to persuade Lady MacGregor, Robbie, and any servant who would listen to her to take her to the stones.  The servants had been given strict orders by their Laird to steer clear of their new mistress, since she was from a strange and different land, her requests might seem a bit odd to the people here.  They politely smiled and kept on their way, much to the
frustration of Raine.

             
The eve of the wedding day, Raine set out on a mission to find
Leith
and once more try to make him forget this silliness of a wedding and take her to the stones so she could return to her world and time.

             
It was as if he had disappeared.  Raine politely inquired with a number of the people coming an
d
going from the castle if they had seen him but amazingly, no one knew anything.  She asked Lady MacGregor, but she was preoccupied with the final preparations for the celebration and just patted her cheek, and tolerantly telling her to look around outside.