To Tempt Highland Fate (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (51 page)

             
Still, there was only so much a man could take… and he was nearly at his limit.

             
“Lass”, Drust ground out, “have ye no modesty?”

             
“No”, she said simply.  “Why?  Do you think I should be ashamed of what Nature gave to me?”  She narrowed her eyes in challenge.

             
“No.  No’ ashamed.  It’s just that I… I can see every damned inch of ye!”

             
“And you don’t like what you see?”

             
“Aye… I mean no… Och, lass, will ye just put some clothes on?”

             
She looked at him as if
he
were trying
her
patience!

             
“Of course.  I need to get a dry shift from my trunk, and a clean dress.  This one needs washing.”   She frowned at him.  “Why are you so on edge?”

             
With that she turned and headed back down the path to the cottage, in front of him, with a tantalizing outline of her behind showing with every step she took.  He wanted to roar in agony.

             
Thankfully, Willa put on dry clothes.  And if she was trying to break his resolve and his sanity, she was doing a good job of it.  Only the tantalizing smell of baking sweet buns saved his thoughts from complete debauchery.  His stomach rescued him.  She pulled the pan from the oven and set it on the table before him.

             
“Wait till they cool a bit.”

             
He waited a minute at most before grabbing one, not caring that it was still too hot.  He bit into it and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head.  Och, but the lass could cook!  Finishing off the first, he reached for another.

             
Willa laughed at him, and he almost smiled back at her.

             
“Looks like your appetite is finally returning full force, Warrior.”

             
He polished off two more before she had finished even one.  Then she stood to start cleaning up, and Drust helped her clear the dishes.  Though she wasn’t hungry for supper, Willa left Drust eating some apples and cheese while she went to feed her horse. 

             
The pretty mare was wandering in the paddock behind the stable, her silhouette a dark shape in the twilight, the gentle breeze blowing her mane and tail to the side.  When she saw Willa, her ears pricked up and she trotted over for the hay and oats she had brought, nickering softly.  She stayed with the horse for a while, scratching her between the ears while she crunched her dinner.  Darkness was falling, and Willa looked up at the night sky as one by one the stars began to appear.  The sky was completely cloudless tonight, a rare enough thing in Scotland, and there was no moon.  She wondered if she had ever seen so many stars at one time.  Looking up at them in awe, she wandered over to a grassy spot and lay down on her back with her hands behind her head, breathing in the sweet night air. 

             
She didn’t know how long she lay like that, lost in her thoughts, when a shadow fell across her face she gasped in surprise, lifting herself up onto her elbows.  But she would know that figure anywhere.

             
“Drust!  God, you scared me.”

             
“What are ye doing out here?  I didna ken where ye…”

             
She smiled.  “Come here, sit down!”

             
Her voice was so mesmerizing to him that he did so, without even thinking about it.  He settled himself next to her on the soft ground, and immediately felt her hand on his shoulder.

             
“Now lie back.”

             
She pulled him gently down to lie beside her.

             
“Isn’t it beautiful?”

             
Aye, it was.  The night was so dark and the stars so bright, not even the usual fog or mist to obscure the view.  It had been a long time since he’d laid down just to look at the stars, years in fact.  It was something he used to do often, when he was younger.  Then, the vastness of the night sky made him feel as if he could do anything at all.  As if time would stand still for him while he conquered the world.  Now looking at the heavens made him feel… alone.  He stared up at the sky, trying not to think about how close Willa was, or how isolated they were from anyone else.  She could take away some of the loneliness.  All he needed to do was roll over, and he’d be on top of her.  His cock filled and throbbed.  He fought to keep his breathing even. Wait, had she just moved a little closer?  He should really get up and go back inside, but he couldn’t seem to muster the will.  Despite the unsated lust burning like fire in his body, he felt strangely at peace lying here with her.  More so than he had in a very long time.

             
“On nights like this”, Willa said softly, “it almost feels like anything in the world is possible.  As if time stands still for just a little while and we’re outside of it, looking in.” 

             
It was an echo of his own thoughts.

             
She turned her head towards him, though in the dim starlight, he more felt than saw her movement.  “I wish you could tell me more… I mean, I wish we could know each other better.”

             
“That’s no’ going to happen, lass, so ye’d best forget about it.  I’ve told ye, as soon as I can, I’ll be leaving.  We’ll likely never see each other again.” 

             
His words were bold, but Drust felt his chest constrict and his throat tighten, the peace he had felt shattered into a thousand broken pieces.  Why did the thought of never seeing her again bother him so?  It shouldn’t, but it did.  In fact it tore at his very heart…

             
Willa sighed softly.  “If that’s what you want, I certainly can’t force you to talk.”

             
No… no, I don’t think that’s what I want at all. Oh, hell…

             
Drust knew what his
body
wanted, anyway.  His blood was racing through his veins, his skin tingling with the need to be touched.  She was so close…

             
“But I can talk to
you
”, she said.  Not that she would say anything that could compromise her family, but there were other things…  “When I was a child, I hated the city so much.  A few times a year we would go to the country to visit a friend, and I wished I could stay there forever, with all the trees and flowers and wide open spaces.  I never want to live in a city again.”

             
When Drust remained silent, she went on.  “I like to draw.  I would sit outside and sketch everything around me, never stopping until I had it just right.  And… I’ve always felt that my life must have a purpose, as if there is something I was born to do, or a place that I’m supposed to be.”

             
She turned her face to his.  “Have you ever felt that way?”

             
Drust raised his hand, cupping her face in his palm.  His thumb slipped down to trace the fullness of her lower lip, and the heat leaping between them grew even more insistent.  He had never known attraction could be this strong, or that he would come so close to giving in to his most primal instincts.  Mate.  Take.  Claim.  Relieve the brutal ache… God, but he wanted to!  And if he stayed here another moment, he just might.  Dropping his hand, he sat up.

             
“I’m going to bed.”

             
Willa watched him walk back to the cottage.  So close… He had touched her…and she had felt him tremble. 

Chapter 10

             
Willa threw open the door and bright sunshine flooded the room.  Another beautiful day!  A rarity to have so many in a row here in the highlands, although it had been even worse in London.  How she had hated the dreary filth of the city where she had spent far too many days of her life.  She would take a week of torrential rain here in the mountains any day over London.  This was where she truly belonged, where the air was fresh and clean, and one could walk for days in the wilderness and not see another living soul. 

             
Willa walked across the yard and paused outside the door of the make-shift stable, lifting her face to the sky and drawing a deep breath of pine-scented air.  The horse was taken care of, the warrior still dozed in the cottage… what to do with the rest of the hours in the day?  She was unaccustomed to being less than busy, and in truth there was not much to be done in a place where she wouldn’t be staying very long.  If only she had her sketching book and pencil, or maybe some yarn…

             
The distant sound of hoof beats put her instantly on alert.  Surely it was too soon for James and Maura to return?  Unless something had gone wrong… with her heart in her throat, Willa ducked behind the end of the stable and watched as a horse and rider approached from the east.  When at last she saw who it was, she let out the breath she had been holding and ran forward to greet him with a smile, skirts lifted around her knees to avoid falling over them.

             
“William!  How on earth?” 

             
He laughed at her enthusiasm.  Maura’s older brother was like a brother to her, as well, and he had always treated her like a second little sister.

             
“Pet!”  He slid from his horse and enfolded her into a bear-like hug.

             
“What are you doing here Will?  Is everything all right?  Maura and James?”

             
“Aye.  All is well, lass, dinna fret.  I was traveling this way and Maura asked me to look in on you, but not to tell ye she asked.  She worries, ye ken.”

             
Willa nodded.  “Let’s see to your horse, then I’ll feed you.  I was only just wondering what to do with the day when you appeared like magic!”

             
“Well, I canna stay long, I still have a long ride ahead, so perhaps just a bite for my mount.”  William gathered the reins and followed with the horse.  “Are ye bored, then Pet?  Maura implied ye had yer hands full with nursing a dy’in man.  Is he…”

             
“He’s fine.  He’ll live”, she said quickly, dismissively.

             
William narrowed his eyes.  His sister had spoken to him about the situation here in the cottage, and he, too had a feeling that the relationship between Willa and the Warrior had a special significance which would make itself clear in time.  He led his stallion into the wattle and daub stable and smiled when the beast snorted at Willa’s mare in what sounded for all the world like masculine appreciation. 

             
“Och, lad, but she’s a pretty lass, is she no’?”

             
William lifted off the saddle and Willa began to brush down the still-prancing animal, giggling at his antics.  She handed William a feed sack, and he tied it on.  The horse chomped eagerly on the grain.

             
“So this warrior…”

             
Willa’s gaze snapped up.  “Drust”, she supplied.