“He had two blades,” Keenan said (27 page)

He knelt beside her, naked and fully male in the warm glow of firelight. He watched her cover him with her eyes, lingering on him for a moment. Her perusal fueled his own desire. Keenan touched the edge of her shift ready to pull it up, when a glint of fear dampened the desire in her eyes.

“Och, lass. Doona fear me.” He bent down over her for a sweet kiss then moved over to her ear, touching it teasingly with his hot breath. “Let yerself go.”

Keenan felt her breaths quicken, and he kissed her again before teasing a hot trail along the delicate lines of her neck. His hand cupped her breast, and he began to roll her nipple through the silk. Serena moaned and he worked his mouth down to the searching peak, sucking it tight through the damp fabric.

“Keenan,” she murmured and then gasped as he grazed his teeth against the sensitive flesh. His hand rubbed and massaged along her leg under her shift, pushing the fabric higher until he reached her hip.

His hand smoothed over the soft roundness of her abdomen, pausing to dip into her navel. Keenan continued to raise the shift until the thin fabric pulled over Serena’s head breaking the kiss. The shift caught Serena’s hands for a moment, holding them hostage extended above her. The flickering flames glowed against her flawless skin.

Serena’s round breasts stood full and erect, rising and falling with her breaths. Keenan’s eyes traveled down along the slope of her torso to the soft amber curls at the juncture of her legs. His gaze came back up to the birthmark on Serena’s stomach. He released her hands and touched the unique mark.

“The dragonfly.” He kissed it tenderly. Serena shivered and he lay back next to her, his hands stroking her exposed skin. She stared back into his eyes and nodded. “Na’ tingling along it right now?” he asked in reference to the spirit crone.

“No tingling there.” A small smile crept onto Serena’s lips. “Perhaps there is some tingling elsewhere.”

“Lass,” he drawled out in his deep burr. “When I’m loving ye, ye will tingle everywhere.” He kissed her forehead. “From the top of yer sweet hair,” he ran his parted lips along her throat, down between her breasts until he crouched, placing feathery kisses on her stomach. He looked up. “To the soft skin over yer womb.” He ran his finger from her naval down to the soft curls at the vee of her legs. “To yer sweet, slick lips,” he said and watched her as his fingers gained entrance to her heat. Her eyes fluttered nearly closed, and she moaned softly. “To the tips of yer curled toes, ye will tingle.” He began to work his fingers, moving between the wet folds against her nub and then inside to a most sensitive spot. She moaned louder and closed her eyes.

“Nay, Serena, keep yer eyes open. I want to see yer passion.”

Serena’s eyes, dark and sultry, opened to watch. Keenan’s muscles bunched within him. She was ready and he could no longer wait to feel himself within her.

Without stopping the purposeful stokes below, Keenan laid on his side next to her. His thumb rubbed rhythmically against her sensitive nub and he bent his head to catch a peak between his lips. She gasped, arching up against him.

“Keenan, please…please.” She was lost in the storm brewing within her body. Her skin flushed and dewy, warm and soft yet seemed strung as tight as Keenan felt.

“Aye, wife, let it come.” His ragged breath moved back up to her ear. “Let me hear yer pleasure.”

Serena’s eyes closed as she threw her head toward the blankets. A deep, resonating sound, somewhere between a moan and a scream came up through her to fill the clearing. Keenan’s fingers continued to move in the flooded folds while her body pulsed. Before it completely ebbed, he moved above her.

In one swift motion, Keenan pushed himself inside her at the same time his lips met hers. His tongue moved intimately inside her as he drove through her maiden’s barrier, fully claiming her as his own. She tensed for a moment and he stilled, fully embedded within her sensuous frame.

Keenan kissed her, his hands stroking through her hair, waiting until she grew accustomed to his intrusion. His forehead beaded with sweat as he fought to remain still within her tight passage. Slowly he felt her relax as he kissed the side of her long, smooth neck.

“Does it feel better now, Serena?” he asked as he pulled back to see her eyes.

“Aye, it does,” she said mimicking his brogue and pressed her hips gently upward. “Except that ye arena’ movin’.”

Her teasing lilt was also reflected in her eyes. It was all the permission Keenan needed. Serena rose upward again.

“Prepare to tingle, lass,” he said, his own teasing tone all but ruined by the rough need rushing within him. A need to move within her, to sweep her up with him. Breathing rapidly, he captured her mouth again and moved. Slow at first, but as Serena increased her rhythm, he took over. She moaned under his weight, meeting him with unexpected strength. Keenan felt her body begin to clench as his own body neared the precipice.

“Open yer eyes, Serena lass,” he ground out while grabbing a length of Maclean plaid lying next to them. He slowed their rhythm as he wound her hand and his together in the wool. Glazed and liquid, her eyes stared back to him.

“Before the stars, within this enchanted place, I claim ye, Serena. I bind ye to me, I bind ye with my body,” he growled, circling his hips and grinding into her. She moaned, her eyes closing and then opening. He stopped until she focused again on him. He leaned down to her lips. “And I bind ye with my heart.” His breath mingled with hers. “Do ye claim me lass?” he asked still not moving despite her attempts to continue.

She nodded. “Keenan, please.”

“Say it, lass, the words,” he gritted out, his last bit of strength obstructing the tide within his straining body.

“I claim you, Keenan Maclean, I claim you with my body,” she said and Keenan thrust deeply, ripping a scream from her. She grabbed the back of his hair, her nails biting into the sides of his head, and pulled his lips down toward hers. She pierced him with her eyes as her climax began to crest. “I claim you, Keenan Maclean, with my heart,” she yelled. All her passion erupted, pouring through her, pulling along his shaft.

Keenan pounded into her, all control gone, lost to the crashing wave of ecstasy that now toppled over him. His roar thundered through the clearing as he filled her, following her into bliss.

****

The blaze behind Keenan relaxed into that of a normal fire, and Serena curled contentedly in his arms. Keenan cocooned them in the blanket on a pallet of moss. Serena nuzzled into the side of him, exhausted. He kissed her forehead and she sighed in her sleep.

His one free arm pillowed his head as he stared up at the clear night sky ringed by the trees. Stars glittered in the inky blackness, unblocked by clouds. One star shot across the circle. Keenan followed its wide arc until it disappeared. A shooting star.

Elenor had told him as a child that he must wish upon every shooting star he witnessed. She said that they were magic and would grant him his wish. For decades he had watched stars trail across the wide skies of Britain, but had never once wished upon one. For Keenan Maclean didn’t know what his wish should be.

Should he wish to defend and die quickly, without prolonged agony? It didn’t seem right to wish for death, it went against the warrior in him that battled. Should he wish to live a long life? A life full of missed opportunities because he refused to fully live knowing that he was meant to die. That would be a torture much worse than death. So instead, he just followed them with his eyes as they shot across the night, watching him, listening perhaps for his wish, a wish that never came. Until tonight.

Serena murmured contentedly in her sleep, rubbing her leg across his thighs. Keenan pulled her closer and caressed her hair, while his eyes searched the circle above. There, off to the right, another one. His hand stopped in a soft tangle as he watched. The star blazed a trail across his view, its tail so bright it seemed to etch the darkness. Keenan’s breath caught as he watched the pinprick of light begin to fade. For the first time in his life, there in that magic-filled clearing, Keenan Maclean, second son of the Macleans of Kylkern, wished upon a shooting star.

Chapter 14

“Caoch!” Drakkina cursed as she hurled a flash of energy at the brass basin of swirling water, causing it to pitch off the granite slab at the center of ten stone monoliths. The water soaked into the tall grass. Drakkina kicked her hazy foot at a clump of yellow wildflowers. The flowers waved as her foot passed through them.

“Caoch! Where are they?” she yelled into the wind whipping through the circle where once Gilla and Druce’s house had stood near the western shore of Scotland’s Highlands. All that remained was the hearthstone and the stone altar. The altar had once served as their table at the center of their cottage. It was a table built for purpose, built with magic. Drakkina collapsed upon it, resting her cheek against its cool solid structure. At least the magic alter held her form.

Self pity rolled through her, mixed with frustration. “They married, that should be enough,” she growled up at the passing clouds. “And now they’ve disappeared,” she grumbled and looked back down at the tumbled brass scrying bowl. She tapped her gnarled finger on her full lip. “Where could Serena and her mate have disappeared to? The demons?” Drakkina frowned, but then shook her head. “They have no idea in what time she’s hidden.” Drakkina shook her head again, slipping her loose indigo veil off her gray hair to fall around her shoulders. “Serena and Keenan are still here somewhere, just hidden right now. Hidden by some other power, not Serena’s. The child doesn’t know enough yet to hide from me. There’s magic all over this world that she could have slipped within.” Drakkina frowned. “My pull on her has also been severed.”

The sun grew heavy and began to drop toward the horizon. If she listened deeply, Drakkina could just make out the roar of waves hitting the beaches beyond the stones and pines. She sighed. “If I can’t look to find them, perhaps I can scry a bit into their future.” Drakkina focused a thread of energy out of the center of her wrinkled palm toward the abused basin. The bowl teetered in the tall grass, slowly rising up to sit once again on the stone table. She closed her eyes, imagining the small brook not too far from the circle. Once again Drakkina threaded her power to the brook, gathering a fistful of water, pulling it through the trees, past the stones and back to hover over the basin. As she released the water into the bowl, she leaned against the table. “Don’t be so quick this time to knock it over,” she chastised herself. “This is no time to waste energy.”

She covered her hair once again with the thin shawl and peered past the small pool reflecting the deepening sky above. “Once again then, but a little different to search for what is to come,” she murmured and threaded her power in an intricate weave above the water. Once the colors lay in a perfect pattern hovering in the air, Drakkina lowered her hand and the woven magic lowered onto the surface of the water in the brass basin. The colors swirled across the slick surface, bending and mixing. Drakkina watched, her breath shallow as she waited for the images to coalesce into something meaningful. “Speak to me of Serena and her mate,” she whispered, her breath reaching the shadowy surface. “Show me what is to come of them.”

Images began to collect on the surface. Serena and Keenan kissing. Drakkina smiled. Then Keenan charging off into a battle, gun smoke, blood curling around his figure as he grimaced in pain. Serena’s image appeared, sobbing.

“No, no.” Drakkina yelled at the water. “This can’t be their future. They are wed now, bound to one another. She loves him, I heard her confess it.”

The images swirled apart melding into others. Serena and Keenan smiled at three grown children who rushed into their arms. Bountiful orchards, fluffy fat sheep. Then the image changed. Serena held a wee baby against her while she cried, clinging to a grave marker. Lachlan appeared, spitting angry words, then hiding, then charging.

Drakkina shook her head silently. Keenan’s image appeared again, throwing himself before his brother. Keenan turning from the battlefield, fear changing his face to stone. Serena laying in a pool of blood as it gushed from her belly.

On and on the images swirled under Drakkina’s tense stare. When the images began to repeat, she took a deep breath in and closed her eyes, releasing the scrying spell. “It’s no use. The future’s still not firmly set. No matter how hard I look, I only see possibilities.”

Drakkina leaned back. “Caoch,” she whispered. “What more can I do to force this love between them? I threw them together by sending William toward the bridge when Grant was killed. I trapped them in the cave. I cleared up their problem with William. I chased away that gypsy man before he could take more than kisses from her. I even altered time so Keenan could reach Serena before her idiot father forced her to marry the other.” Drakkina tilted her head to the side. “Which was very tricky by the way.”

She floated off the table. “But does anyone care or appreciate my help? No,” she said dramatically to the surrounding stones.

“Love, it should be easy enough to orchestrate,” she flapped her hands through the air as she frowned. “Get each daughter to find their mates and fall in love,” she shrugged. “That’s all I have to do.” She began to pace through the tall waving grasses. “That and get them here,” she glanced around at the calm clearing. Drakkina tied her cowl under her chin. “Before the demons rip the threads that hold each time in its proper place.” She looked out past the stones again and sighed dramatically. “Get them to love one another?” Drakkina snorted. “I can’t even find them.”

****

Serena woke to the heavenly smell of roasting rabbit mixed with campfire and sweet spring air. Her stomach growled, bringing her fully awake. She rolled onto her back and stretched before opening her eyes to blue sky above her encircled by large oaks. Memories of the night before ran from her mind down into her body. Her hand moved under the Maclean blanket. She was still naked and a bit tender. Without moving further, Serena turned her head toward the fire and smiled.

Keenan wore only his boots and trews as he crouched down turning the hare over a low smoldering flame. Through the fog of wood smoke, Serena could see his eyes. They held mischief, and yes, happiness.

“Ye’re awake finally, lass.” Keenan stood up, and Serena swallowed hard as her eyes traveled across his naked torso and chest.

She rose up on one elbow as she held the blanket against her breasts.

“In time to break yer fast on roast hare and blackberries.”

He kicked at some of the blackened branches to scatter the flame and walked over to her. Serena glanced around for her clothes but didn’t see them. Keenan reached under her arms and lifted her up to stand. Serena yelped, trying to grab the blanket before it fell away. Keenan chuckled deep and wrapped Serena in his warm hug while his free hand tucked the blanket. He stepped back but kept his hands on her bare shoulders, his thumb massaging the tense muscles stretching from shoulder to neck.

Serena couldn’t stop her blush. It was one thing to be naked with him in the muted glow of firelight. Serena had never thought herself shy, but after what they’d shared last night, she had trouble meeting his gaze. So she stared at the hollow at the base of his strong neck where she could make out the faint beat of his heart.

“I overslept, I suppose.”

Keenan used his finger to lift her chin, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Mmmm, ye were up late last eve.” He ran his hand across her cheek and into her tangled hair. “Ye have the look of a lass properly tupped.”

Before she could frown at him he bent to kiss her. Serena’s stiffness melted as soon as his lips covered hers. It was a slow kiss, unhurried, gentle. He pulled his face away as if they had all the time in the world to just taste one another, breathe in one another.

A gentle breeze cooled Serena’s bare backside. She gasped, looking down. The blanket crumpled at her ankles. Before she could bend to pick it back up, Keenan pulled her up, his hands stroking down her back, her breasts pushed up branding his hot naked skin. She felt his length press along her belly and her nipples hardened as his fingers cupped together under her round backside. The bright light and the twittering birds around them began to fade away in Serena’s mind. Warmth pooled in her abdomen. Desire wrapped around her limbs, filling her with languid heat. When he lifted to mold her tingling body against him, she moaned.

He pulled away from her lips and rested his forehead against hers. “Och Serena, I want ye.”

“You have me,” she whispered.

His hand moved between them to cup one of her breasts. His gaze narrowed with a fierce heat as he stared. Then he lowered his eyes and gave a frustrated sigh before bending down to pull the blanket up to wrap her tightly.

“It would hurt ye so soon after last night.”

Serena frowned. “You mean we can’t…” she indicated the mossy pallet that had been their bed last night.

Keenan smiled broadly. “Doona fash yerself, lass. I’ll be loving ye soon enough.” He adjusted himself in the tight trews and went to pull the hare off the spit. “We are getting a late start this morning, and I have a waterfall I’d like to show ye by this evening.”

Serena sat down to pull apart some of the tender meat. Keenan handed her a cup full of fresh blackberries.

“Blackberries, this early? They don’t fruit until summer,” she questioned as she popped one of the plump berries into her mouth.

Keenan sat down next to her. “It’s a mystery.” He shook his head as he studied the little bumps on the outside of the fruit. “No matter what time of year I come here, there are always plump purple blackberries.” Keenan popped the thoroughly inspected berry into his mouth and chewed. He leaned back on his wrists, the muscles in his shoulders cording under his weight. Serena took a steadying breath and looked out at the trees.

“Huh,” she said several minutes later.

“What is it?”

She tilted her head at him. “I don’t feel the pull I usually have, the one that pulls me West.”

“Ye dinna walk in yer sleep last night, but I thought that was because ye were a wee bit exhausted.” Keenan chuckled when Serena’s face reddened. “Wife, I foresee many long nights. Perhaps we need to work in a nap time for ye.”

Serena threw a blackberry at him and it broke against his forehead leaving a purple juice mark. She laughed at his shocked expression and then squealed when a volley of plump berries came her way. She jumped up, clutching the blanket and ran around to the other side of the clearing to catch another handful of berries from the bursting bush. Within minutes the two of them were covered with the sticky sweet juice.

Keenan raised his hands in surrender. “I’m unarmed, lass.”

Laughing, Serena dropped the few remaining berries she had in her now purple hand. She tucked the end of the blanket into the valley of her breasts and walked into his open arms. She stuck her tongue out and licked a purple blotch on the inside of Keenan’s bicep. It was sweet and tangy and mixed with the fresh pine and leather smell that was Keenan.

Keenan’s deep laughter stopped abruptly as her tongue continued down his arm licking at the little purple marks. She saw another one out of the corner of her eye on his chest and moved her mouth over to it. Her lips closed over the sticky juice while her tongue swirled around his smooth skin. She closed her eyes. His skin felt hot and stretched as if over granite. As she moved over to the purple splotch on one of his nipples, she felt his body jerk. His hands closed around her shoulders. The sweet juice lay sticky against his skin. Serena swirled her tongue around his nipple until she couldn’t taste any remains of blackberry.

“Serena,” he gritted out. “Ye doona ken what ye are doing to me.”

She trailed licks across to his other nipple, her hands stroking up the sides of Keenan’s naked torso. “Perhaps I know exactly what I’m doing.” Her words came out mumbled as she spoke against him. Keenan’s large hands released her shoulders and moved to gently grasp her head. He groaned low in his throat, so low that she could feel its vibrations through his chest.

“Serena lass, a man can only stand so much of that before,” his words turned into another groan as she trailed her tongue down his chest.

Serena couldn’t help the smile that turned up the corners of her lips as she laved at another purple splotch under the fine sprinkling of hair in the center of his tight chest. He was enjoying this. She could hear it in the rush of his breath and feel it in the rigid length of his body. He was enjoying this greatly, and she was in control. What wonderful power she had over him, she thought and leaned up on her toes to kiss a blackberry mark in the beating hollow of his throat. His pulse pounded beneath her tongue as she dragged it across the valley.

Keenan’s arms circled, pulling her up against the strength that lay beneath his hot skin. She felt his hardness seek the juncture of her thighs through the Maclean blanket. She relaxed her arms, letting the fabric slide down to her hips where it remained pinned between them.

Keenan reached both his hands to hold her face and tilt it up to meet his lips. Serena opened her eyes. What she saw sent a bolt of hot giddiness through her. Untamed heat glazed Keenan’s eyes. His hard jaw flexed as if his strong will alone kept him from devouring her in one bite.

As he slanted across her already wet sweet mouth, Serena’s last coherent thought was that she had been so wrong. She was not in control of this powerful man. The fire she had kindled began to blaze out of control.