He rolled her sideways. Then he tumbled onto the bed with a laugh. He kicked his clothes onto the floor and tore at the bedding in playful fury. “Come on, lass!” he cried. “Get in bed. I dinnae want to freeze to death afore I get a hold of ye again.”
She burst out laughing, and the both dove into bed. They snuggled into the blissful warmth of two bodies together, the same way they did at the Tower House. Ivy wrapped him in her arms, and he settled down with a satisfied groan. “Ah, that’s much better.”
Now that they got into bed, fully naked as man and wife, the tension diffused and vanished. They were just each other, with nothing hidden. Their skin met, and the barrier between them dissolved in delicious heat.
She wrapped her legs around his thighs, and her velvety breasts stroked his chest. He kissed her forehead, down her cheeks to her mouth. Inch by inch, he pulled her against him until their passion mounted.
The silky sensation of skin on skin turned to moist desire. His knee slipped between her legs, and her aching tissues found their release on his hardened bones. He worked his way between her legs until he found her wetness waiting for him.
His mouth nuzzled down her neck to her taut breasts. She rocked in his embrace and moaned in deep ecstasy. His hair cascaded all around her, and his hands enclosed her to bring her to an epic crescendo.
She wanted nothing more. She let herself collapse into his commanding movements. She followed where he led, and she sighed in ultimate passion when he slipped inside to fill her aching void.
Without meaning to, she moved in time to his rhythm. The slippery glides of his hardness against her drove her to dizzying heights of rapture. She didn’t know how it happened. The mystical beat of one body against another informed her how to swallow him into her depths.
Everything they experienced and endured together came to fruition in this moment. She saw eternity written in his eyes. Her face reflected on his moist cornea. The self she saw there was the brand new self she received when she married him.
The shallow, empty existence she left behind no longer haunted her. She left it behind and became a mother, a wife, a more complete person. She belonged to a Clan. She belonged to an island and a country. She was a ghost brought back to life by the touch of love.
She could never fathom the mystery of his skin under her hand. His breath rasped between his teeth when he thrust into her. Those thrusts sent jets of fire through her soul. She wanted so much of him, she could never get enough. His hot flesh inside her barely scratched the surface of everything she wanted.
He propped his arms on either side of her head and loomed above her. His shoulders spread to fill her whole view. His midsection contracted down to the root where his body met hers. His contorted face glared down at her from on high.
She stared up at his face twisted in passionate determination. She hardly dared touch his rippling chest. He mastered her and instructed her to rise to meet him. She heard her voice mewing and sobbing in agonized desire. Nothing existed for her beyond their two hearts meeting face to face.
His lips moved in silent words. His soul commanded her beyond the limit of her comprehension. She didn’t have to understand. Her body understood. Her spirit joined with his to create something explosive and world-changing.
She saw so much more than this powerful man towering over her. She saw the wolf in his soul, the quick, playful creature running and frolicking and wrestling with Martha and his brothers in the woods. That was the man she touched. That was the man who fathered her child.
He collapsed on top of her, and she hugged him into her neck. His massive weight undulated over her while he moved between her legs. She inhaled him to her deepest recesses. He nudged her soul awake until she couldn’t stop the rapture pouring out of her.
She arched her back to kiss his flesh with hers. She met him coming down. He moved his panting mouth to hers, and the circuit closed. The energy rising out of her being circled through her. Each rotation escalated to a blistering eruption where bodies ceased to exist and only spirit reigned.
Her hands slid down his back, through the furrow where his spine spread to muscle. She trailed down his curved ass to his thighs. She guided him into her the way she wanted. She couldn’t stop the ripples of power flooding through her. She didn’t want to stop them.
Her nectar stung her tissues. The pain of his intrusion whipped her to greater delirium. She met his mouth in glorious passion, only to rip away and swim through his eyes and his skin and the sweat dripping off his hair.
He scooped her up off the bed to sit on his lap. He lifted her against him and plowed into her from below. He bounced her on his penetrating tool, and she couldn’t hold herself back. She cried out to the stars of joy and ecstasy blended with the painful mystery of everything.
He sank his teeth into her shoulder. He bit down to her breast. She seized handfuls of his hair and crammed her breast into his mouth. The torrential waves of fulfillment cascaded through her on one unstoppable pulse after another.
He growled in her ear. What he said, she couldn’t understand. It might have been another language, or it might have come out of some primordial language she could never understand. He plunged deeper than she ever thought possible. The endless peaks kept spiking her into the stratosphere, one after the other without end.
She shrieked her excited bliss at every peak. Just when she thought she would sink into a pleasure coma, he plunged in again and sent her reeling through another mind-blowing climax. Would it ever end?
She heard him roaring from far away. His sweat stuck his skin to hers. It tore at her delicate flesh when he pumped up on his knees to blast her apart. His cocktail gushed into her and flowed out to anoint them both in ecstasy.
He fell back on the bed. The air touched their moistened skin and cooled them both. His sweat evaporated, and she rode him down onto the bed. She never thought she could experience anything greater than that moment of completion, but the moment she straddled him, she wanted more.
She draped her body over him. Her hair covered his face, and she devoured him in mouthfuls. She rode him harder in ravenous hunger. She never wanted to stop. She wanted every inch of his length for as long as she could get it.
He sank back under her attentions. He struggled to catch his breath, but he didn’t try to stop her. He submitted to her mouth and her swollen opening and her sweet breasts caressing his chest.
He moaned and sighed, but she wasn’t near done. He lay still while she kicked her hips against his shaft. He closed his eyes and lay still, but after only a few moments, he hardened inside her and took hold of her hips to encourage her.
She fixed her eyes on his face. She had to have him. She had to consume him now before he slipped through her fingers. She had to take every inch of him and milk him for all he was worth. She would never be satisfied with him—never.
Her inner muscles clamped around his length. Her mounting desire stroked him to rigid hardness again. He opened his eyes and watched her rise into her power. She sank her fingernails into his chest and pumped him deeper than ever. She engulfed him and rocketed into heaven on endless jets of bright erotic lightning.
Chapter 36
Lachlan burst into a sitting room on the ground floor of Duart Castle. He scowled at Ivy. “Just what exactly do ye think you’re doing?”
“I’m arming these women,” she replied. “They all want to fight to defend this Clan, so I’m arming them. Aiden and Ronald have agreed to train us so we’re ready next time.”
“Ye cannae arm every woman in the castle,” he returned. “Some of them have families to attend.”
“I’m not arming every woman in the castle,” she replied, “only the ones who want to arm. You said yourself we need every blade ready to fight, and we’re short of men. Martha told me at the Tower House that a bunch of the women wanted to fight. I’ve never forgotten that. Now we have a little time before the next assault. We should take advantage of it to train as many as possible who are willin
g to fight.”
“And what of their families?” Lachlan fired back. “What do ye mean to do about the bairns when their mothers fall in battle?”
Ivy scanned the group of women around her. They all watched the exchange to see what would happen. “I don’t see any mothers of young children here. The ones that want to tend their families will keep doing it. Most of them have already evacuated. These women are ready, willing, and able. If you don’t like it, why don’t you argue with them about it? They’re all perfectly capable of speaking for themselves. I’m only doing what they asked me to do.”
Lachlan scanned the onlookers one more time. Then he grabbed Ivy and pulled her out of the room. “What do ye think you’re trying to do to me?”
“I already told you,” she replied. “I don’t see what’s so hard to understand. You’ve seen women fighting before.”
“Ye and Martha and others of your kind,” he returned, “no’ these. These are Highland mothers and wives and grandmothers. Ye cannae arm them.”
“I don’t see any difference,” Ivy replied. “They’re women, just like the rest of us. Martha was a regular Highland woman. Okay, so she had some interesting powers, but these women are all wolf shifters like the rest of you McLeans. Why shouldn’t they fight if they want to? All they need is some training. Not even I had that when I first started. None of us did.”
“Ye cannae go around changing the whole world, lassie,” he told her. “Ye kenned what ye were getting into when ye married me. This is no’ the world ye come from, and these are no the women ye used to live with. Ye cannae remake this world into something it’s no’.”
“I’m not trying to remake it,” she replied. “I’m trying to defend this castle with the available fighters we’ve got. Why should they sit aside when they want to fight and they’re ready to learn to fight? You never balked at me fighting before. Why shouldn’t they do the same thing?”
“Now that’s no the same thing at all,” he returned. “Ye ken that.”
“Explain it to me. I’m a woman and they’re women. Why shouldn’t they?”
He glared at her for a moment. Then he threw up his hands and smacked his lips. “Aw, what the devil. If that’s the way ye want it, you’ll get no argument from me. Their deaths’ll be on your head, no’ mine.”
She rushed at him and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you. I knew you’d understand. Actually, their deaths will be on their own heads. I’m not making anybody do anything they don’t want to do. They could evacuate with the others if they wanted to.”
He cast a quick glance into the room. “I can see I’ll no’ be Laird of this Clan for long with this going on.”
He stormed off, and Ivy returned to the room, where all the women stood around waiting for her. They stared with wide eyes to see what she would say. “All right. Neila, we’re going to have to do something about that broken finger of yours, and Aidena, we’re going to need to find a way for you to work with that twisted foot. Each of you has a unique challenge. The process of learning to fight means learning to accommodate your personal challenge and working around it.”
“What did the Laird say about us fighting?” Neila whispered.
“He said it’s fine,” Ivy told them. “He’s more worried about your safety and your families’ well-being, but when I told him you were all prepared to take responsibility for yourselves, he agreed to go along with it.”
Aidena gasped and sank into a chair. “Och, thank the heavens! I thought my heart would stop when he looked in the door.”
“So did I!” Neila exclaimed. “Did ye see the look on his face? I thought he’d have the lot of us whipped for being unnatural.”
“He couldn’t exactly do that,” Ivy pointed out. “He’s seen me fighting enough times.”
“You’re different,” Neila returned. “We all ken that.”
“Well, I don’t see any difference,” Ivy replied. “I come from a world with certain rules. Now I’m here with a different set of rules. You’ve been living with these rules all your lives, but you all signed up for these rules. Now it’s up to you to decide you’re not going to go along with them anymore. It only makes sense every able-bodied person should stand and defend this place, whether they’re male or female. All our lives are in danger here, so it’s as much our responsibility to do something about it as the men’s. I see no reason to stand by and let them fight our battles for us. Me being from another world doesn’t change that, and Lachlan knows it.”
The other women exchanged glances. Aidena jumped up. “You’re right, my Lady. Come on, lasses. Let’s get started.”
Ivy smiled at them. Once they got over their initial nerves, they had as much fighting spirit as anybody else. When the next attack came, they would fight and die with the best of them. They just needed training.
While she sorted out the weapons, Christie walked in. Ivy’s eyes widened when she saw him. “You’re just the person I was hoping the see, Christie. I want to arm these women, and no one knows better than you do how to arm a person who’s not strong enough to wield a heavy saber. Could you go through and fit out each of us with the right weapons for our stature and strength the way you did for me at the Tower House?”
“I’m sorry, lassie,” he replied. “I cannae do that.”
“Why?” she asked. “Don’t tell me you don’t approve of me arming these women.”
“Ye ken I approve of ye doing anything ye set your mind to, lassie,” he replied. “I cannae do it ’cuz I’m leaving. I only came down here to say good-bye to ye afore I go.”
“Leaving!” she cried. “What are you going?”
“I’m going in search of the Urlus,” he replied. “I’m carrying Lachlan’s message to ask them to come and help us with these dragons, and to help us find the woman to lift the curse. Lachlan and I talked about it afore…afore the last battle. Now the country’s at peace, so I’m going afore the next assault.”
Ivy threw her arms around the young man and swallowed back tears. “I won’t say I wish you weren’t going. I’ll miss you. That’s all.”
Some of the other women in the room wiped tears off their cheeks. “I’ll be going now, lassie,” Christie replied. “I can see the Clan’s in good hands with ye.”
“I have you to thank for this, Christie,” she replied. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for you.”
“And I wouldnae be here today if it wasnae for ye.” He squeezed her hand. “Take care of my brother, will ye? He’s all I have got left—him and the bairn.”
“I’ll take care of him” she replied. “I’ll take care of everybody.”
“I ken ye will.”
He turned away, but Ivy couldn’t stay behind. She tagged after him on his way to the castle entrance. Lachlan and a bunch of other men waited there, and the whole party wandered down the shoreline to the beach. A trim little boat lay at the water’s edge.
Lachlan put his arm around Ivy’s shoulders while Christie checked the craft. “Where will you go?” Ivy asked.
Christie nodded across the water. “I’ll cross to the mainland first. That’s Cameron land, though I dinnae think any of them kens where Urlu is. I doubt they have ever heard of it, so I’ll just have to start bashing my way northwest until I find it.”
“That doesn’t sound very hopeful,” Ivy remarked.
“It’s the only way,” Christie replied. “The sooner I get going, the sooner I’ll be back with the troops. Try to hold the place until then.”
“If we’re right about this whole thing,” Lachlan added, “the curse willnae strike again unless Alexis is around. We may get lucky, and she can help us until ye return.”
“We can only hope.” Christie put out his hand to his brother. “I’m off. Wish me well.”
“I’ll do more than that.” Lachlan pulled him into a bear hug and thumped his back. “Come back soon. Ye ken you’re my heir until this bairn is born.”
“Ye may want to change that in case anything happens to me ou
t there.”
“I dinnae want to change it,” Lachlan replied. “You’ll come back, or you’ll answer to me about it.”
Christie laughed. He hugged Ivy and his cousins, one after the other. Then he went to his boat.
Ivy snuggled into Lachlan’s arms. She didn’t want to watch Christie leave, but his departure demanded that she watch. She had to cling to the very last sight of him. He did so much for her, and she got so close to him since this whole thing started. She loved him like her own brother, and now he was leaving and might never return.
He busied himself with his boat. He only smiled when he glanced at his friends and kin on the shore. He shoved the boat into the surf and hopped aboard. He waved once and took the oars.
The party on shore watched him row out into the sound. He shipped his oars, waved one more time, and ran up the sail. The wind filled the canvas, and he turned his face northward to the land beyond.
The boat rode high in the water. It got smaller and smaller until it became a speck on the horizon. Ivy laid her head on Lachlan’s shoulder. “Well, he’s gone.”
“Aye,” Lachlan murmured. “Gone but not forgotten. Once he finds Urlu, he’ll be back straightaway. He’ll come home riding a dragon, I’ll wager.”
The idea made Ivy laugh. The sensation of laughing didn’t fit with the deep grief of losing Christie, but somehow, she had to laugh. She had to embrace life, even in the face of loss. Life demanded she keep going. Life wouldn’t wait around for her to grieve over a man who wasn’t dead.
Christie was still alive out there. He only just left a few minutes ago, even though the world rang hollow without him in it.
Lachlan scanned the northern horizon. Ivy could detect no great tragedy in his features, either. They were going to have a child. They had a Clan to rule and people who depended on them.
The other Highlanders turned away and went back to the castle. The women Ivy left behind called her back. Now that she set out to include them in the castle’s defenses, she couldn’t let them down. They had to arm, and she had to organize Ronald and Aiden to train them.
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