“Do you have a cabin?”
“I have a bunk, and for now that is sufficient,” the older woman said. “Enjoy this respite, Mariam. Once we arrive on the isle, there will be many demands placed upon you.”
Mariam had wanted to ask what she meant, but was cut off from speaking as the boat carrying Cameron’s men pulled aside The Fortune and the men came on deck.
Within minutes, the ship set sail. Time and again, Mariam’s gaze shifted from the waters of the Firth to where Cameron stood on the forecastle. His hand on the tiller, he guided them steadily as the wind filled the sails.
When Cameron’s gaze suddenly met hers, he turned to the seaman beside him and said, “Take the helm. I’ll be below deck.” He strode down the steps and across the deck.
Mariam watched as gusts of wind tossed Cameron’s dark hair about his face as he came to her. “The wind is sharpening. Allow me to take you to your cabin.”
“Now I understand why you like the sea. Out here it feels as though you are at one with the world. If that is the way it feels on the Isle of May, I wonder why my mother ever left its shores at all.” Mariam tipped her face up into the wind and closed her eyes. “If she had stayed, never ventured to the mainland, she never would have met my father. Her life, and the lives of her family, would have been different.”
“She wanted something more. She got that in you.”
Mariam opened her eyes, but kept them fixed on the horizon. “And it cost her everything.”
“Nay,” Cameron said, taking her hands in his. His warm fingers curled around hers. “It gave her everything she ever dreamed of in you. Somehow she realized she had to leave her home in order to fulfill her destiny as your mother.” The passionate intensity in his voice brought her gaze to his.
“You think it was her destiny to bring about the end of her people? Or for her to be murdered by her husband, my father?”
He released her hands. There was a sudden chill where his touch had been, a tiny shiver. He did not move away. He stood close, so close she could see the pulse of his heartbeat at his throat. “I don’t pretend to know any of the answers. All I know is that I am grateful you are beside me.”
“I—” She didn’t want to talk about her mother anymore. “I’m grateful to be here . . . with you,” she said, trying to steady her trembling fingers and the quick, loud pounding of her heart.
His eyes were dark with emotion that pulled at her, making her feel warm and shaky. He extended his hand to her. “Will you come with me belowstairs? There are things we need to discuss—personal matters—that deserve privacy.”
He led her below deck, to the captain’s chamber. He didn’t release her when they entered the room. He simply shut the door behind them before turning to her. In the flickering light of a candle that sat on a table near the bed, he met her gaze.
Her heart fluttered at the look of desire in his gray eyes. His thumb moved over her hand, stroking as it went, then he released her and stepped closer. Raising both hands, he framed her face, tipped it up to his. He looked down for one long moment before he bent his head and kissed her with a sweetness, a tenderness, that was devastating.
Mariam gasped at the longing that curled inside her. Cameron caught the sound in his mouth, muffling it with a groan of his own. When their lips finally parted, they were both breathing hard. Warmth crept from her chest to tingle through her limbs. “You wanted to talk?” She tried to pull away, but could not find the strength.
“I need to tell you something,” Cameron replied as he caught her lips. His hand slid into her hair, cradling her head.
She closed her eyes, allowing herself to focus only on the exquisite sensation of Cameron’s caress. She clutched his shoulders, totally unprepared for the intense pleasure of his touch. His fingers flared across her ribs and teased the fullness of her breasts. A shiver of yearning rocked her when his hands stroked the sides of her torso, then down her thighs. Never had anything felt so enticing and unnerving all at the same time.
“Look at me, Mariam. Before we take this any further, I must know . . .”
She opened her eyes and felt a spark of amazement lancing through her desire. No one had ever looked at her with such longing before.
“Be with me, not just for now, but forever,” he said. “The two of us can share this life, never having to be alone again. Together, we will be happy, and you will be safe.”
Stunned by his words, Mariam drew a breath then another before she spoke. “Are you asking me to marry you?” Her voice was faint to her own ears and hoarse with emotion.
“I can no longer imagine my life without you.” He pulled her close, kissing her forehead, resting his lips against her hair. “Aye, Mariam, I want you as my bride, my love, and the mother of my children.”
Mariam’s mind was reeling. Her throat went dry. “I cannot marry you.” She released him and stepped back. Looking into the turbulent tumult of his gaze, her heart stumbled, and for a moment she reconsidered her words, until she steeled herself. “I cannot bind you to me in such a way when so many things remain uncertain.”
“Nothing we discover on the isle will change my feelings for you.”
“How can you say that? I still do not know who or even what I am.”
He reached for her, wrapped her in his arms and simply held her. He waited with his cheek against her head until at last she relaxed, until she leaned against him. He tightened his hold, allowing her to feel what was in his heart, in his soul. “I know what you are. You are a gifted woman. You are magic. You are the embodiment of hope and life and love.”
“Those are just words. Nothing to build a life upon. These last few days have taught me that I will be hunted by those who fear me because of my gift. And anyone close to me will be in danger as well.”
“I have fought many battles. This is only one more that I will win with you at my side.”
She offered him a hesitant smile. “You are very persuasive, but everything between us must remain as it is until I know what I face on the Isle of May.”
“Everything?” He brought her hand to his lips. His gray eyes locked on hers, he kissed her fingertips, then turned her hand and pressed his lips into her palm. He let them linger just long enough for her to feel their heat, before he lifted his head. With his hold on her hand, he tugged her closer. Of their own volition, her hands lifted to his shoulders as his lips came down to take hers.
Soft kisses teased her senses until she melted against him. He held her close, but not so close she couldn’t pull away if she wanted to. He was giving her a choice about where this moment went.
And she knew what she wanted. “Nay, not everything. Neither of us knows what awaits us on the isle. Let us grasp this moment while we can. We will worry about the rest later.”
She brought her hand up to his chest, atop his racing heart. “Love me.” The words drifted from her lips to his as she gave herself over.
He kissed her gently, waiting for her response before coaxing her into more, until her passion escalated, burning hotter, brighter, into full-blown need.
Without releasing her, he led her toward the bed at the side of the chamber. Only once they were there, with the mattress at the backs of her legs, did he release her as he worked at divesting her of her dress while her own hands hastily unlaced her stomacher beneath. He stripped away her chemise without ever taking his gaze from hers. Then her shoes slipped from her feet and her stockings followed until she stood naked before him.
Her heart pounded in her chest, so much so that she thought it might leap from her breast. Cool air whispered against her skin, but she wasn’t cold. Raw, unveiled passion reflected in his gaze, fastened on the pink tips of her breasts, warming her from the inside out.
“You are so lovely.” A trail of scorching heat caressed her skin as his gaze shifted from her nipples down her body to the soft hair that encircled her womanhood. He reached out and touched her belly, then his fingers trailed down to the curls that had so absorbed his at
tention and beyond to her thighs. The feel of his touch was so indescribably erotic, that she gasped.
His eyes grew darker. “You like that?”
She couldn’t answer. Her voice no longer worked. Her breath jumped to her throat as awareness pulsed in the tips of her breasts and between her legs.
His fingers moved behind her, until his palm stroked the back of her calf, moving higher past her knee, skating up her thigh to cup her bottom.
A hot shiver went through her as she closed her eyes and concentrated on the heat of his hands and the roughness of his calloused fingertips against her silken flesh. He gently guided her down onto the bed for which she was grateful because she was trembling so violently, she wasn’t sure she could have remained upright. He followed her down as his hand curved around her bottom then up and over her hip to graze the small red triangle between her legs.
His fingers brushed her, tracing little swirling patterns in her curls first on her pubic bone, then lower and lower until his finger delved inside her folds to flick the most sensitive part of her. Shock. Heat. Hunger.
She arched back with a cry as his thumb pressed and then began moving in a slow, erotic circle. Sensation after sensation tore through her, spreading like wildfire across her nerves as her flesh heated, flushed.
His dark eyes were intent as he pulled back and reached for his boots. They were off as well as his breeches before she could so much as catch her breath. When finally he stood naked before her, she let her gaze roam as his had done. He was all muscle and strength, with wide, strong shoulders, and the light sprinkling of dark hair that spread across his chest. She followed the narrowing line down, across the rippling flatness of his stomach to the most male part of him. At the sight of his arousal, a wild, almost uncontrollable heat flared inside her.
The mattress gave beneath his weight as he settled against her, allowing her to adjust to the sensation of his skin next to hers before he kissed her neck, then her shoulders, then farther down until he reached her breasts. He nuzzled them slowly, for endless moments, before his lips closed over her taut nipples, first one, then the other.
She tangled her hand in his hair, feeling the thick, cool silk slide through her fingers and breathed in the heated, musky scent of his skin. “Cameron,” she gasped, her senses spiraling. Each touch, each kiss sent all rational thought further from her mind until she could only feel something wild and primitive building inside her, racing through her veins, seeking an unknown release.
He pulled back, allowing her to see the unbridled passion reflected in his eyes. He wanted her, needed her, every bit as much as she needed him. Moving over her, he eased his hard thighs between her legs until his swollen shaft met the soft folds of her womanhood. He thrust into her, filling her body with promise and heat.
She gasped as pain shot through her. He became still, buried deep, joined, pulsing within her. As the pain faded, other sensations took hold. Fullness then hunger. Slowly, she moved against him. “There is more, is there not?”
“Aye, my sweet. There is more.” Only then did Cameron begin to move, slowly at first, then faster, deeper, filling her with each thrust of his hips. The fire that had smoldered like embers in her belly burst into flame. The heat of it filled her, consumed her, as she moved her hips against his, seeking whatever it was he tried to give her.
Over and over, he pushed himself into her depths only to retreat and push forward again. Mariam teetered on the brink of oblivion, filled with sensations too intense to bear in silence. She heard breathless cries of pleasure she knew must be hers, but she could no more control them than the mounting waves of honeyed fire that tightened her muscles and arched her back.
Heat spiraled inside her, growing stronger and stronger, until the tension inside her erupted, releasing in a wondrous rapture that shook her to the depths of her soul.
Above her, Cameron’s features were tight. He thrust deep once more until he cried out as the same rapture claimed him. She tightened around him, pulling him with her over the edge of glory. Every inch of her body, every fiber of her being vibrated with satisfaction, completion. “I never knew a touch could make me feel like that.”
“That is just the beginning. There is so much more I want to show you, teach you.” He withdrew from her then pulled her alongside him, resting his chin at the top of her head. He pressed a kiss in her hair and curled himself against her back.
With her next heartbeat, Mariam went rigid. Desperately she tugged at the coverlet, trying to hide what she did not want him to see. How could she have forgotten her back? Her scars? The reminder she carried with her every day of what her life with her father had been like?
“Mariam, what is the—Dear God in Heaven!” He stared at her back, at the scars that traversed the length and width of her flesh. The passion that had moments before lingered in his gaze vanished. “Your father?”
Her heart thumping in her chest, she scrambled to her knees, hiding her damaged flesh from him. She nodded.
A curse rent the air. “I should have killed the man myself when I had the chance!” Angrily, he pushed his hands through his hair. “I should have known. All the signs were there, though you never actually said how terribly he treated you. And then I—” He broke off. “I hurt you more just now.”
“You did not hurt me.” She pulled the bed linens up to cover herself. “I wanted what we shared.” She reached out and traced her fingers down the length of his arm. The climax she’d experienced was barely complete, and yet a fresh hunger crept in to take its place. “I want you again even now.”
In the candlelight, his body was golden and hard and looked as though it had been sculpted by a generous God to be not only a warrior, but also her lover. And she wanted more. She wanted Cameron. “All we have is the next few hours. My scars were there long ago. Help me replace the memory of their creation with magic of our own. We have only the next few hours—”
“I swear on my soul no one will hurt you like that again.” He reached for her, wrapped her in his arms and simply held her. He waited with his cheek against her head until she finally relaxed into his arms and leaned back against him.
“Now you know all my secrets.”
At the words he tensed. “Mariam—there is something I must tell you. We are—”
She stretched up and kissed him fully on the mouth. “No more words,” she breathed against his lips. “Fill me again. Take me to places I could never have imagined.” With a groan, he settled her back against the mattress and entered her heat once more. He rocked against her, and she felt every stroking glide of his body light her from the inside as brightly as her own magic had done. The fast and furious rhythm stole her breath and shut down her mind until she and Cameron were lost in a sea of sensation and splendor.
Hours later, when they emerged from their sensual bonding, Mariam sat back against the headboard with a smile, while Cameron’s head rested in her lap. She had never felt so weak or so strong in her life. Every muscle ached, every inch of her body had been licked and kissed and touched and explored as though Cameron wanted to wash away her past and replace all the memories with new ones, tender ones, that would see her into the days ahead.
Cameron turned to stare up at her. “Judging by the afternoon light coming through the window I would say we are approaching the isle.”
“I can feel power inside me that wasn’t there before.” She stretched her hand out before her not noting any changes, but inside something was happening. “It’s bubbling up from inside me the closer we get.”
Cameron sat up and pulled her into his arms, caressing her back with his hands for a heartbeat before he stilled. “Mariam? What is happening?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
His hand smoothed down her back, then up again. The flesh beneath felt almost smooth, unblemished. “Your scars are fading. It’s as though they are melting away.” Wonder lingered in his voice.
She put the back of her own hand against her back. She drew a brea
th and slowly released it. “Magic?” She shivered.
Cameron pulled the coverlet over her shoulders. “It can only be that.”
“There is so much I do not know about who I am,” she whispered, leaning her forehead against his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat near her ear. “What else will I discover? What else will I become?”
He stroked her hair. “I will be beside you the whole time,” he promised with an urgency that sent another shiver though her. He would try to protect her, but how could he save her from something neither of them understood?
“If only my mother had left me more clues.”
“It matters not,” he said. “There is no going back. Together we will see this through.”
She knew he was right. There was no altering their course. She could feel herself changing. It wasn’t just the healing of her scars. There was something far more elemental happening to her.
For years she had tried to be just as everyone else. Ordinary. Unexceptional. Yet in the past few days since she’d broken her shell, she’d come to realize she was nothing of the sort.
She was magical. Different. Perhaps even special.
Mariam reached up and wrapped her fingers about the shell at her neck. It warmed beneath her touch, filling her with strength that hadn’t been there before. “Thank you for bringing me here.” For better or worse, in the hours ahead, she would finally know who and what she was.
“There is nowhere I would rather be than at your side.”
Mariam closed her eyes as the warmth from the shell blossomed inside her. She let it flow through her body as she closed her eyes.
Hours or perhaps minutes later, her eyes flew open and her heart pounded in terror as the remnants of a dream faded.
Death.
She came fully awake as a shudder went through her. It was only a dream. Cameron was next to her, breathing deeply, evenly, his arms still about her in a loose embrace.
A Laird and a Gentleman Page 17