Redeeming Vows (16 page)

Fin watched until his father and Simon disappeared from sight. Then he turned and found Lizzy’s fist pounding into his chest, nearly throwing him off balance.

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“Why? Why did you let him do that?”

Fin accepted her fists as they hit his chest with each word. The tears streaming down her face brought home how frightened she’d been. With Lizzy, anger always followed scared.

Her accusation didn’t surprise Fin. “You said you’d watch over him, keep him safe.”

“Is he not safe?”

“He couldn’t turn back. God, what would we do if—” “He did shift back. Everything is fine.” The fire spitting from her eyes put the blame squarely on his shoulders.

“Simon told me that he was talking to you about trying a new form.”

Which was true. While the three of them were alone, Simon had approached the subject. For a moment, Fin thought it wouldn’t do any harm for Simon to try, so long as no one from camp saw. This was surely the reason why he felt guilty when it happened. He hadn’t stopped Simon in time.

Then again, the three of them had been distracted.

He tried to reason. “Simon felt Grainna’s presence.”

Lizzy ran a dry hand over her wet cheeks.

“Yeah, well, he wasn’t the only one. Why do you think we were frantic to find you guys?”

“Before we knew it, Simon had changed,” he explained. “I think his fear caused his reaction.”

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“You should have stopped him.” She swiveled away from him and started pacing.

“I did.” He had yelled out for him to stop, but it was too late. As seconds passed, then minutes, and Simon didn’t shift back, Fin knew they had a problem. “You would have fared no better in stopping him than I did.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” She stormed his direction again, stopping only when her chin was a breath away from his chest. “I would have,” she said, poking his chest with her finger.

Enough.
He grasped her hand in his, halting her assault. “You’re scared, worried, and perhaps even mad at yourself for not keeping Simon within arm’s reach. I understand that. The boy is fine, Elizabeth.

Grainna didn’t touch him.”
Thank God.

Her shoulders rose and fell with each heated breath she pulled into her lungs. Her pert little nose flared as her eyes swiveled back and forth between his. Fin knew the moment the ranting fled her body and relief took its place.

She laid her head on the chest she’d stopped poking and gave into the flood of tears.

Fin wrapped his arms around her lithe frame and absorbed her cries.

God she was fragile, delicate, and in need of protection just as Logan had hinted days before.

Fin ran his hand over her cold shoulders and leaned his body into hers. He closed his eyes for a moment and opened his mind to hers. What he saw there wasn’t a frightened mother. What he found petrified him. For a brief moment he envisioned Simon lifeless and at the feet of Grainna. His heart lurched in his chest and had him holding Lizzy tighter.

“I’ll never let that happen,” he pleaded, praying she’d empty her mind of such images. They would surely give her nightmares.

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Her sobs echoed in the forest.

When Fin couldn’t take her pain any longer, he placed his hands on both side of her head and gently pulled her face from his chest. He stared deep in her sky blue eyes and did the only thing he knew would take her mind off what might have been.

He kissed her.

Salty tears wet her lips and reminded him of how brittle she was. Lizzy’s breath caught in her chest and for a moment, she simply accepted his mouth on hers, his touch, his taste. Then her fists that clutched his chest moments before raked behind his shoulders and forced him so close he wasn’t sure where his body ended and hers began.

His body responded with an urgency reminding him of his youth. Lizzy swiped her hand down his back and over his ass, inflaming his need of her to a feverish pitch.

Their tongues dueled, each demanding possession. Fin spread his fingers wide and traced the length of her back until he found the curve of her backside. She shuddered in his arms and melted against him. Under her kiss, he felt a slight triumph. She nibbled and sucked his tongue into her mouth until he knew every inch of it.

Lizzy pulled away, forcing his eyes to open. Her chest rose and fell with quick, heated breaths. With sober eyes, she released his body.

He wanted to beg, weep to have more of her.

Liz reached behind her and loosened the laces holding her dress together.

Mesmerized, Fin watched the length of her finger trace a line along her gown until it sat in a pool by her feet. Within seconds, she kicked away her clothing and stood naked before him.

Beautiful. He knew she would be, but to see her against the backdrop of trees and to hear the birds calling above them, Fin thought he’d died and found 136

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heaven.

The rosy tips of her breasts tightened with the cool air, and with her hands clutched by her sides, they were the only indicator that she waited for him to stir.

In the seconds it took for Fin to move her way, Liz held a rare moment of self-doubt. His stare penetrated into her mind as he devoured her body with his eyes. He left her moist with wanting.

She needed this, him. Release. Denying it proved useless, and if the past year of her life hadn’t reminded her how short life was, nothing would.

Fin’s dark eyes swirled as he approached her.

Finally, he responded to her invitation and took her in his arms again. His hands smoothed over her body until the cool open air around them disappeared.

His lips possessed hers and heated her completely before moving to the long column of her neck. The soft wisp of his beard sent an erotic shiver down her spine.

Skin, she needed to feel his. Liz found the clasp of his sword and worked it until it fell from his side.

The mantle over his kilt followed quickly.

His fingers brushed against her breast and gave her pause.

“Do ye know how long I’ve wanted this, Elizabeth?”

Yeah, she had a pretty good idea. But she wasn’t about to tell him that.

“How long?” she asked while her nimble fingers inched the edge of his kilt higher.

“The first night, when you arrived with Myra…”

He gasped when her hand found the curve of his bare ass. Tight. He was so firm absolutely everywhere.

“The first night?” she redirected his words.

“When you
told
me to call you Liz.”

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She remembered. He’d been such an ass.

Forcing his ways down her throat.
“You’re Lady
Elizabeth,” he’d said. “Widow and mother to Simon.”

She’d corrected him, but he didn’t budge. He wasn’t going to have Simon humiliated by her past indiscretions. In a way, he’d protected her, too. Not that she saw it that way at the time.

“You were such a shithead that night.”

“And you, unmoving.”

Her free hand wrestled with his kilt and shirt, wanting them off. Fin shrugged his shoulders and released the garments.

Pure, hard muscle met her eager hands. “You pissed me off.”

“Your fire made me need.”

Need what?
she mused. But her eyes traveled down his long torso and followed the ripples of his chest until they met his
need
head on.

“Good God, MacCoinnich, what do you feed that thing?” She licked her lips and prayed he hadn’t seen her response.

He didn’t answer until her gaze returned to his.

“Blondes.”

She gulped, batting down the smile she didn’t want him to see.

Before reaching for her, Fin spread his plaid on the mossy surface of the forest floor. It wasn’t a bed, not that she needed one. All she had to have was him. His powerful arms gathered her in, warming her. Soft lips returned to hers. Liz felt her eyes roll back and her head grow faint. Everywhere he touched fluttered with sensation. Desire.

Fin eased his thigh between hers. The friction delighted her deep inside. Her hips buckled and her knees weakened.

“Oh, lass,” he moaned as he helped her to their makeshift bed. His thigh pinned her down, the 138

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weight a small token of how strong he was.

A callused hand cupped her breast and gave a not so gentle squeeze. She arched into his touch, urging him to explore further. His breath skimmed over her collarbone, his teeth grazed her skin with tiny bites that had her thrusting her mound over his thigh.

His tongue swirled over her nipple, teasing the soft space under her breast until she screamed.

“Suck it. Deeper into your mouth. Please.”

Her plea brought a teasing chuckle from him, and her desired response soon followed. His lips latched on, shooting flames straight to her core.

The long length of her leg lifted over his hip, his erection hard against her thigh. Liz reached between them until she held his heated length in her hand.

Fin stilled. His moan elicited a giggle from her. She stroked the velvety softness to an impossible length.

Fin’s breath caught, his forehead came to rest between her breasts. “How I’ve dreamed of you touching me like this.”

Smiling, Liz shifted her weight until Fin lay on his back, his eyes gazing into hers. She ran both hands up his taut chest. “Have you dreamed of this?”

she asked before dipping her head and circling his hardened nipples with her tongue. She nipped as he had and awaited his answer.

“Aye,” came his guttural cry.

She moved lower, her mound still straddling one of his thighs. She kissed his stomach and ran her tongue along his rib cage. His abdominal muscles tightened, quivered. This was nice, having Fin on his back and at her mercy. Liz allowed her hair to graze over his erection. Her hands skirted his hip until she leaned over to taste his skin there. The heat of his shaft was close to her cheek, the scent of his skin penetrated her mind.

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looked his way, caught his eye, and angled her lips to taste him for the first time.

With the first contact, Fin let loose a long-winded moan. Her tongue lapped up the vein on the underside of his cock and back up to the tip. The size of him stretched her abilities to take him in, but she gave it a try. Salty and warm and oh-so-Fin was his taste.

“Sweet Lord,” he said when she pushed him further down her throat. A few more strokes and he reached to pull her away. “Perhaps later ye’ll let me come in your mouth, but this time I want to be buried deep inside of you.”

Deep? Oh, that sounded so good. He leaned her back and took possession of her mouth in another soul-wrenching kiss. His knee pressed her thighs wider, the cool air around them sending a wave of raw pleasure throughout her body. Had she ever made love outside, in the open, where anyone could come along and catch her? Liz knew she hadn’t. For as much as she prided herself on not being a prude, she certainly wasn’t
that
experienced.

“I want to taste you,” he said between kisses, but his erection pressed closer to her moist center.

The fire in the pit of her stomach burned so hot. She simply wanted the
buried deep
part he’d just spoke of. “Later,” she promised. “Please, Fin.” Her hips lifted toward his, leaving no doubt as to what she asked for. “I need you now.”

He positioned himself above her, his tip slid between the folds of her sex, grazing her. “Ye’ll never need to beg me, love.”

“I’m not begging.” But they both knew that was a lie. His eyes bore into hers as he pressed his length past her swollen nub and slowly inside.

Her body opened in small degrees, accepting, 140

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until her body completely engulfed his shaft.

Once fully seated, Fin said, “Finally.”

Yes, this coupling was a long time in coming.

Neither of them had been able to deny their attraction. But Liz didn’t want to think beyond this act, at least not now.

Fin set the pace, his hips rounding over hers in just the right way to have her seeing stars long before her body started to build toward climax.

“Ye’re going to have to get used to me, Elizabeth.” His lips met hers again, not giving her time to speak. Not that she knew what to say in response. Except maybe she could get used to this, to giving her body to him to the way his body could make hers sing, just the way he was doing now.

“Oh, Fin,” she managed when he nearly drew all the way out and plunged back in. He filled her so completely she wanted to cry. Although he quickened his pace and his body shook with the force of his passion, Fin held fast to her body with such tenderness she felt frail and yet completely protected at the same time.

Months of longing fired deep in her belly with every pass of his sex inside her. Her legs wound around Fin’s hips to press him even deeper. Her cries broke the silence of the forest. He leaned down and grasped her nipple between his teeth, shooting her over the edge, and shattering her into sparkling pieces of pleasure. Every muscle tensed as wave after wave of her orgasm washed over her. Her sheath constricted around him with each spasm.

Fin’s eager thrusts lasted only seconds longer until she felt his heated seed flow deep inside her.

His head fell back and his body trembled.

When he opened his eyes, a smile lit his face before he collapsed on top of her. He moved to the side enough to keep from crushing her. Liz burrowed into his chest with a satisfied sigh.

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Grainna soared above the gathering, her stomach churning with the revelry below her.

Merriment presented itself with laughter and raised voices. Children ran and played and even a piper played a tune.

It made her sick.

She flew to distant hill and landed on human feet. Fog meandered in from the sea at a snail’s pace.

It was time for chaos. “Time to see some self implosions,” she mused.

Grainna tucked her chin deep into her chest and closed her eyes, lifting her palms to her sides and up into the air. “Come this way,” she bid the fog. “Flood these people with doubt and fear. Make the first wish of every family come to pass. As wishes are granted, so give the remaining family the knowledge of who extracted these desires. Let friend turn on friend, lover on lover, family on family. Let no one go unscathed.”