At the Highlander's Mercy

by TERRI BRISBIN

  ‘Have you changed your mind, then?’ Rob asked as he watched her with eyes filled with desire. She smiled at him, for she heard the undercurrent of worry in his voice as he asked.

  ‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. She had not. ‘But it is cold here and I prefer no witnesses to what happens between us.’

  It was not as though every person living or staying in Keppoch Keep did not already think them lovers. Or think that Rob had not taken advantage of her favours while sleeping in his bed together. Most of them even believed his hard use of her the cause for her limp. Somehow, though, she suddenly felt shy about letting them see that it was real.

  She lost her breath in the next moment as he bent over, lifted her into his arms and carried her to the doorway. Lilidh encircled his neck with her arms, but he held her securely as he made his way down the steps towards his chamber. She tucked her head down against him as he waited for one of the guards to open the door. A smile played on her mouth as Tomas asked if she was well.

  The slammed door in his face was the only answer Rob gave. A hearty laugh echoed across the chamber as Tomas gave his reply.

  ‘Are you well?’ Rob asked as he let her feet touch the floor. ‘Your face?’

  ‘Does not pain me,’ she said as she allowed Rob to remove her cloak and toss it aside. Now inside, now that the moment was nigh, her nerves struck.

  He’d refused to marry her because of the damage to her leg four years ago. Would it diminish the desire he felt for her now? How would he react to the sight of it when they joined?’

  ‘But something worries you,’ he said, lifting wind-loosened hair out of her face and lifting her chin so he could look at her. He winced and she knew the various bumps and bruises were quite visible now. ‘We can stop now. It is your choice.’

  ‘I thought I was a prisoner without choice?’ she asked.

  ‘You are a prisoner. But in this matter between us, you have but to say the word and I will not.’

  Did she want this? Truly? Looking at him now, knowing that everything would change as soon as her family arrived and that she would never get this chance again …

  Yes, she did.

  ‘Which things will you not do, Rob?’ she asked coyly.

  He’d whispered wicked promises to her as he touched her and stroked her body those times before. Now she wanted to hear those promises once more and she wanted to feel all that she should have—so she would have the memories of it when she left.

  Her body filled with a sense of anticipation as he walked behind her and stood so close they almost touched. She could feel his breath on her neck and he untied the strips holding her hair into a thick plait and unravelled the length of it. The movement of his fingers as they slid over her scalp and into the tresses, separating and then mixing the strands all the way down to its ends tickled and excited her. Rob avoided touching her injury, yet seemed to massage every inch of her head.

  He lifted the length of her hair to one side and touched his mouth to her neck there. Shivers shot through her at the warmth of his mouth. Then he leaned her head away and kissed the cord of muscle between her head and shoulders, making her gasp at its sensitivity.

  ‘I think I should just learn your body before we do more,’ he said in a husky whisper. She felt her body ready itself for his attention, which she hoped would be soon.

  Then he moved his hand across her, gently touching her before coming to rest on her breast. Pulling her back against him, he cupped the fullness of her and flicked his thumb over that sensitive nipple. She arched against him, against that part of him that had come to life between their bodies. With her trapped under his arm, he bit her neck then, gently along that delicate cord until she gasped over and over.

  When he slipped his other hand around to rest on her hip and then caress her thigh, she let go and leaned against him fully, allowing him to touch where he would. Her head fell back on his shoulder and his breath grew ragged against her ear as he continued to touch her. Her hands fell to her side and in a bold move, she placed them on his legs, revelling in the firmness and strength of his body. He moved then, the proof of his arousal hard against her, hissing in a sharp breath.

  Then, just as her body urged her to completely surrender, the fear took hold and she pulled away from him. Breathing hard, she turned to face him, for she needed to see his eyes when she asked that question that plagued and terrified her.

  ‘Is this just another way to shame me, Rob? Will you use my desire against me as you did before?’

  She took in a breath and let it out quickly, pushing out the real question as fast as she could before she lost courage. For under it all, the humiliation she’d suffered due to his cruel words and rejection was something she did not think she would survive again.

  ‘If you did not want me before, and because of my leg, how can you want me now?’

  Chapter Fourteen

  He stood looking into the damage he’d wrought to her with his cruel and unforgivable words. The vibrant spirit had been crushed. The girl he’d loved had been killed by his actions and this woman carried the injury to her heart and her spirit even more than the damage to her leg. Rob rubbed his face and pushed his hair back as he gazed into her eyes.

  ‘You think I will use your willingness against you? That this is just a ploy to hurt you, again?’

  What else could she think? Though he’d not ordered her brought there or mistreated, he’d allowed it. The last time they’d met alone, he’d left her to seek out her father for permission to marry her. Instead of returning to her with words of love and promises for a future together, he’d broken things with her in front of her family and used her leg, her ‘maimed and disgusting leg’, as his excuse. He wanted perfection in his bride, he’d said, and when he’d discovered how bad it truly was—during some scandalous mischief alone with her—he knew he could not stomach nights with her in his bed.

  God damn him to hell! Regardless of the weakness within him that allowed him to say such terrible things, the effects of them could still be seen in the fear in her eyes. Not for any physical act that would happen between them, nay, but for the possibility of him tearing her heart and spirit apart once more.

  No matter that her father had insisted that he repudiate her in the worst way so that there was no hope of reconciliation, he should have stood up to Connor and refused. He should have demanded Lilidh as his wife, laird—father—earl be damned!

  Instead he’d let the man he respected and admired, the man who’d trained him as warrior and mentored him as a leader, force him into actions that had destroyed both of their lives. The only thing he had left her with was her love for her father, for he had not and would never admit to her that they would have been together if not for Connor MacLerie’s demands and orders.

  Looking now into her eyes, eyes filled with desire and hope and fear, he could still not destroy the love she bore Connor.

  ‘Lilidh, I was a stupid boy, full of himself with no idea how to handle things like love. Or a woman’s heart,’ he admitted now. ‘I have learned much in these last year so that matters that seemed so important then are not now.’

  He took her hands in his and held them. He must ease her fears, for he had no intention of allowing this chance to make the past up to her to be lost. It had nothing to do with shaming her before his clan—it had to do with restoring her confidence and showing that he was the unworthy one and not her.

  ‘This is between us. I will not speak of whatever happens between us with anyone else. And I will not force you to my bed or take that which you do not freely give.’

  Though doubt filled those deep-green eyes, he watched as she made the decision. No matter what, he would do whatever he needed to do to keep her safe, pay whatever price he owed at whatever cost it was to him, to make up for what he’d done to her.

  When she pulled her hands from his and began unbuckling his jacket, he knew she’d made up her mind to trust him and he let out the breath he did not know he held. He dropped
his arms to his side and allowed her to do whatever she wanted. After opening the jacket and pushing it down off his shoulders, she went to work untying the laces of his shirt and tugging it off over his head.

  The touch of her fingers on his skin nearly caused his knees to give out. She outlined his ribs and then used both hands across him, touching him as he had done to her. He fought the overwhelming urge to let loose his control and to show her all the pleasure now. He held still as her fingers traced lower and lower and reached his belt. With nary a pause, she tugged on the belt until it came free and then let it and the tartan it held in place fall to the floor around their feet.

  He had always been the leader, taking her through the first steps in their intimate dance, but it pleased him now to allow her to have her way. He closed his eyes and gave himself over to whatever she wanted to do—a benefit of making love to a woman of experience rather than a virgin.

  Her hands followed the hair on his belly down further and further until she reached his manhood. Standing thick and firm, it jutted out from the curls at its base and the expression on her face, a mix of interest and hunger, made it pulse and move. He waited for her to touch him there and it was worth every moment of the four years since he’d last laid eyes on her. She slid her gentle hands over and around it, taking hold and then stroking the length of it. Then she lifted his bollocks in her grasp, caressing them together.

  He thought he was dying then. His blood rushed so fast and hard through every part of him that it hurt to take a breath. His skin burned. His hands itched to touch her. And he would, all in good time. For now, he let her roam over his body, accepting the exquisite torture of it.

  But when she bent over and moved that mouth of hers closer to his aroused flesh, he took her by the shoulders and straightened her back up. Her mouth on his cock. He needed to be lying down or he would fall over at such a thing.

  So he kissed her and began to untie and undo the various layers she wore, touching and caressing her body as he did. He let his hand linger on her breast and he untied the laces of her gown. He let his finger graze over the curls at the juncture of her legs. He touched and tasted her skin as he uncovered her bit by bit. When he felt her tremble beneath each caress, he knew she was ready.

  Reaching down, he took the edge of her shift and began to lift it up. Anxious to hold her naked, with nothing between them, her hand on his surprised him. Ah. She did not want him to see her leg, no matter his words that it mattered not. He let the garment go—there were ways to deal with it—and lifted her into his arms to carry her to bed. Rob laid her down and climbed in next to her, kissing her mouth and keeping the fires of passion stoked within her.

  Not allowing the thin shift to slow or stop him, he kissed her breasts through it until she arched beneath him. The heat pulsed through him at her reaction, his body demanding that he take her soon. Instead, determined that this was for her, he turned his attentions to her other breast, suckling the tight bud this time. She gasped and stiffened under him.

  Kneeling over her, he slid down her, using his face and mouth and teeth to tease a path towards the place he wanted to taste. The fabric was no barrier to what she felt, for her breathing became erratic and when he placed his head on her stomach, he felt the pounding of her heart. He slid down a bit and moved his mouth over the curls there, just once, but she let out a moan and so he used his tongue to tease them over and over. When her legs fell open, he moved his face down and kissed the uninjured thigh, easing his way towards his goal—the place that would make her soar in pleasure.

  At first, she urged him on with her hands tangled in his hair, but then they fell aside and her fingers curled in the bedcovers. Her hips urged him on that way.

  ‘Take it off,’ she rasped out then.

  Rob raised his head to make sure he’d heard her correctly. ‘Your shift?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He would not waste time now so he grasped the top edges of the garment and ripped it open. Her lovely body lay open to his view, her soft curves making his mouth water once more. Although it had been a big step for her, he did not want her uncomfortable during this, so he tucked the now-freed edge around her scarred leg, giving her a measure of privacy in that.

  The rest of her was more spectacular now than before—her body had matured into a lithe, curvaceous woman from the girl he’d known. He’d adored her then—he loved her now.

  Lifting her uninjured leg up and over, he opened that most sensitive place to his gaze. Kissing down from her knee, along her thigh, he finally placed his mouth where it wanted to be and she moaned out a sound of hunger and longing and pleasure. Rob tasted her arousal, until she panted, barely a moment or two away from reaching satisfaction. He plunged his tongue deep and sent her over the edge. Her body pressed against him, her hands tangled again in his hair, but he did not stop until she throbbed.

  She pulled his hair then, dragging him up to face her, their bodies sliding along each other and letting her know that they were not done yet. Lilidh’s eyes were wild, filled with pleasure and desire when she gazed at him.

  ‘Now, Rob,’ she urged. ‘Finish it.’

  Lilidh’s body sung, from his touch and from the scandalous kisses between her legs. She was ready for the next step—she wanted it, wanted him. Inside.

  Inside where no man had ever been.

  Rob moved over her, once more working his magic as he sent her body into another needy frenzy. Her hips lifted, begging him to fill her. Her breasts, heavy and aching, needed him inside her to ease the building tension. Her very core throbbed in anticipation of having his flesh within hers, touching her there, joining their bodies as one.

  He moved slowly, tasting his way along her body, until she was ready to beg him.

  Nay, she would beg.

  ‘Please, Rob,’ she whispered. ‘Please.’ When he placed his erection at the opening to her most intimate place, she held her breath and waited that incredibly small amount of time before he began to push inside her.

  Would he notice? Would he know? Did it matter to him?

  As he moved in, pressing deeper, he paused and looked at her. She met his gaze and saw the question there. Holding her breath, she arched and lifted her hips, seating him deeply within her aching flesh. Then, for a moment, she could not tell where he ended and she began. Closing her eyes, she revelled in the feeling of joining with him.

  It was all that she’d imagined and dreamt it would be.

  ‘Lilidh?’ Rob asked. She opened her eyes and met his beautiful blue gaze. ‘Are you well?’

  ‘I am.’ There had been only some tightness, but that eased with each moment he remained inside of her.

  ‘You should have told me.’

  Did he regret this already, then? Tears began to burn in her eyes and in her throat. His mouth on hers was a surprise.

  ‘I would have had a care for you, my love.’ He kissed her lips and chin and then her neck. The touches inflamed her body once more and she felt him lengthen and thicken inside her.

  She thought he would withdraw, but instead he began to move, slowly at first, drawing out a bit and then sliding back in. Then he moved faster, pulling back and plunging until he could go no further. Her flesh clung to his, creating an exhilarating tension there and all through her. The same excitement he’d caused before, but this time so much more intense. Her heart pounded and her blood boiled as he thrust over and over, bringing her to that edge once again.

  Lilidh grabbed his hips and pressed against him, urging him to the same edge and then she felt all the tension and tightness inside of her release. She gasped as their bodies pulsed together.

  It was some moments before she came back to herself after such an experience. She lay still, enjoying the closeness of him.

  A few seconds or minutes passed before he moved. Slowly he withdrew from her, leaving her feeling empty in a place that she’d never known could be. Lilidh knew a reckoning was coming and she dreaded facing him, now that he knew of her deceit. His act
ions surprised her instead.

  She watched as he silently left the bed and gathered some things together before returning. A basin, some hot water from the pot on the hearth, cloths, a cup of wine. He carried them back to the bed and, after pulling the bedcovers and torn shift from under her, he first handed her the wine. Its sweet flavour eased the dryness in her throat as she sipped it.

  Then dipped a cloth in the hot water and cleaned himself … of her virgin’s blood. The next cloth he offered to her and she accepted it, handing him the wine, and cleaned the signs of their joining—and her first—from between her legs. Using the ruined shift as a drying cloth she finished as quickly as she could.

  Her body felt heavy everywhere and when he climbed back next to her in the bed and pulled her to his side, she moulded to his body. Surrounded by his arms, warmed by his heat and the layers of blankets and eased by the wine, she found herself drifting into sleep.

  Rob watched as her eyelids fluttered once and then twice before shutting altogether. Her body lay against him, skin to skin now, and she gave herself over to sleep much as she’d given herself to him.

  Totally.

  He was just as stunned now as when he’d felt the thin barrier inside her as he’d claimed her. He’d had no idea of how complete that claiming would be.

  First. Her first. No one, no other man, had enjoyed her body since last they’d been together. He’d been saving that special joining until their marriage. He’d expected that, with her marriage to Iain, her virginity would have been taken by that man.

  So, how was she yet untouched? Why had her husband not claimed his marital rights? He smoothed the hair from her face and studied the arch of her brow, the curve of her chin. He eased his arm out from under her and drew the covers higher around her shoulders. Lilidh turned on to her other side and sighed in her sleep.