by Alisa Adams
“Tis Cruim, me love,” Ceena said distractedly as she studied the cat. It was so peaceful now. “That huge, hairy, injured man helped a cat,” she said, more to herself.
“Hairy yes, but under all that?” Aunt Hexy said with a sigh. “The man has been wandering, hurt, for days alone in the woods...” Aunt Hexy said as she continued to watch her niece help the large man up the stairs.
“We found Crumb in the woods…” Aunt Burnie murmured.
Aunt Hexy turned her head to Burnie then looked back at Tristan and Ceena. Ceena grew thoughtful, her eyes narrowed as she looked up the stairs.
Tristan excused himself and left the great hall.
6
Ina helped Beiste to his bed. He sat down heavily, worn out from climbing the stairs and from his swim earlier. Ina quickly tugged his shirt open to inspect his ribs, ignoring his snort of surprise and the look of amusement on his face as he spread his arms open for her to inspect his bare chest.
“Do you like what ye see lass?” his voice rumbled, trying to sound at ease, but then he grimaced in pain. “Did you not see enough out in the water?”
Ina huffed out a breath. “I am just checking your ribs ye silly mon.”
“Och I am sure that is all you are doing.” He grinned, not wanting to show any pain. He must leave, soon. He could not bring violence upon this family. Upon Ina.
“Those wounds are healing nicely. Tis your ribs still paining ye I think.” She tsked as she looked him over. There was a spark in his green eyes with that slash of gold in them that made her hands tremble, just slightly, as she touched his bruises gently. He was so rugged, looked so rough. And all that wavy, tousled, long hair that she just ached to run her fingers through, and that dark beard. He was every bit of a man. All man. Even with his beautiful lips outlined by his dark beard, he was the definition of man.
Ina knew she had surprised him when she had tugged his shirt open. She did not want him to see how it affected her. His chest was wide, incredibly muscled, with only a little bit of hair disappearing into the top of his leather breeches. She swallowed, thinking of how he had looked in the sea today. She looked away, blushing.
She took a long strip of leather and wrapped it around his lower chest and waist. She watched as he smiled, raising his arms high so she could wrap it around and around his large chest. Then he tried moving a bit. Satisfied, he smiled approvingly.
“It feels good,” he said with some surprise.
“Did ye doubt what I was doing?” Ina asked him with her hands on her hips.
Beiste could not help but smile.
She did not wait for an answer but bustled about, checking a cut on his upper chest. She kept up a long string of conversation that really did not require him to do more than make a grunting sound now and then. But he listened, and he learned more about her. And he found that he liked who she was. Very, very much.
“I said does this one hurt?” She prodded a spot near his neck.
“Ow, well when you poke it that hard it does,” he grumbled.
“Och ye weren’t listening, I just surprised ye is all.”
“I didn’t know I was supposed to be answering. I was letting you do all the talking.”
Ina pouted at him. “I talk too much, I know I do.”
“No,” he said firmly.
“Yes,” she said sadly.
“I enjoy it.”
Their eyes locked on each other.
I want her with a force I cannot imagine I have felt before, Beiste thought. There can be no one else, please let there be no one waiting for me somewhere.
I am drawn to this man like no other. No other, Ina thought. He is a good man, I know he is. I feel it. He is a good man. Those words repeated over and over in Ina’s mind as her body vibrated with emotion. He is a good man. He is a good man.
“Och ye dinnae enjoy me ramblings,” she managed in a lilting whisper.
“I do,” he said as his eyes slanted partially closed with desire. Then he took a deep breath and continued in a lighter tone, “You do enough talking for the two of us.”
Ina looked at him and frowned, then she poked him again with an impish grin.
“Ow, you are so cruel to this poor injured man!” He gave a short, gravelly laugh.
“Och I dinnae think it hurts ye at all!”
“No, that spot doesn’t actually,” he said and grinned at her. “But there are other spots that do hurt.”
Ina paused as she was about to answer. Was there something different in his voice? Something dark? Whatever it was, it was causing sparks to run through her body. “Where?” she said huskily and cleared her throat and tried again. “Where do ye hurt?”
“Alas, I cannae tell you,” he said seriously. There were spots on his body that were black and blue that she did not know about. Whoever did this to him had pummeled or kicked him while he was on the ground.
Ina thought a moment, watching his face. Those green eyes with the flash of gold in them undid her, as did his full lips that always seemed to be just on the verge of smiling.
“Ye must tell me. I am trying to heal ye,” she insisted with an arched eyebrow as she watched his mouth. She could not look away. She licked her lips, slightly.
He shook his head no.
“What if I say please?” Och, I dinnae know how to do this! she said to herself.
She watched as his eyes darkened.
She is teasing me! he thought. Does she take my comment to mean something else? He could only imagine the passion that was in this exquisitely beautiful woman. Then it slammed into him. He wanted her.
“Be careful what ye ask for Ina. You do not know who you are playing with.”
Ina blushed and lifted her chin. “Ye dinnae know either as it turns out,” she said pointedly. She turned her back to him, missing his frown.
She reached for one leg and bent to pull off his boot.
“What are you doing now?” he asked her. His voice was careful, she was too tempting by far.
“Pulling these boots off so that ye may lie down,” Ina said as she tugged and tugged on his boot.
Beiste looked at the delectable derriere presented to him as she bent over his boots. Though she was in a long tartan skirt it still outlined her pert, petite figure. She may be tiny but she is all female, he thought as he enjoyed the view.
“Ina. Lady Ina,” he said more directly as he pulled his booted foot out of her grasp and stood up. “You do not need to wait on me,” he said with chagrin.
“And how do ye suppose ye’ll be getting yer boots off with those ribs of yours hurting ye?” she said, glaring at him.
“I shall leave them on,” he answered as he looked down at the feisty, golden fairy. He took a step towards her. How can I not be drawn to her? How am I to resist?
Ina’s eyebrows rose. The look in Beiste’s eyes was intent. There was a vibration in his voice she had not heard before.
He was commanding, as he took another step towards her.
He was demanding, as his lids lowered in desire.
She caught just a glimpse of green through his black lashes.
She wanted to leap into his arms.
Instead she took a step back.
He took another step forward. “I can take them off myself if I need to,” he said, staring down at her.
Ina took another step back. “I dinnae think ye can manage it. Though now I shall not help ye even if ye ask when ye find that it’s too much for ye, so that’s that.” Her own voice trembled with her desire as she was caught and held by the look of fire she saw in his eyes.
Beiste stepped forward again. “What if I say please?” he said, mimicking what she had said earlier as his voice dropped lower.
The power coming off this man was overwhelming Ina’s senses. She felt the wall at her back and splayed her hands behind her against the cold stone. Anchoring her to this earth. For though she knew she told her sisters about wanting to kiss a man, now that there was a man in front of her that looked li
ke he wanted to kiss her, she was terrified. And also terrified that if he did, she would never want him to stop.
Beiste took another step. He rested his hands on either side of her head against the wall. He stared down into her magnificent, beautiful, clear blue eyes.
His breathing slowed.
His heart thrummed heavily in his chest.
She was everything.
“Are ye gaunnie kiss me?” Ina whispered.
“I would like to,” he whispered back. It was almost a question. He could barely speak, his voice deep with want and need. “More than life itself.” He leaned into her, pushing her flat against the wall. “You are not yet betrothed…”
He waited.
Waited for her acquiescence.
She looked up at him, her eyes flaring with desire, her lips open. She breathed in the scent of him, drinking in his maleness with a craven desire she could not hide nor deny. She reached up and ran her hands over his beard and then up into his long, wavy dark hair.
“My beast,” she whispered hoarsely, and she gave his hair a tug. “Dinnae stop now, dinnae ye be changing yer mind, not when ye have made me all weak and I feel so hot, and ye are staring at me with those green eyes, and they are slanted and filled with lust and your lips are making me lose myself and I cannae take it anymore—”
He interrupted her by licking her top lip, lightly, playfully, and was that his teeth?
Beiste’s quiet laugh rumbled in his chest where she could feel it against her own. It became one with her body, resonating throughout so that it became hers. He quickly leaned down again to stroke just the very tip of his tongue on her bottom lip. Then he nipped her top lip as the breath shivered out of his mouth against hers.
Ina stilled. Breathing in his breath. Feeling him trembling against her. Reveling in the feelings rushing through her in a sudden torrent. She was all nerves and feelings and emotions. She didn’t know where her breath ended and his began. Her eyes slid closed as her lips opened slightly.
Beiste felt her breath release in a small pant.
“More,” she said hungrily, her voice going husky with desire.
“Ina…” he said with wonder as he lowered his mouth to hers again.
This time his lips took hers fully. He caught the tiny moan that escaped her lips just as he slanted his own across hers. He pressed his body flat against her. Felt her hands clinging to his hair, holding him to her.
Ina held on. She opened her mouth, following his mouth with her own. When she pulled him tighter to her she felt more, then heard the deep groan in his chest as one of his arms wrapped around her like a steely vise, pulling her up on her toes against his broad chest. He thrust his tongue into her mouth and swept her tongue with his own. Ina was shocked at first by this intimate parrying but then reveled in the silken feeling of his tongue against hers. Never had she expected it to be like this. Lightning was shooting all through her body as her mind screamed for more.
They kissed as if they had known each other forever.
They kissed as if they had been made for one another.
It seemed to go on forever.
Intensifying.
Until Beiste regained his control.
He pulled back, lowering his forehead to hers. He held her tightly to him. Their breaths mingling together as both tried to regain control.
“More please…” Ina pleaded in a whisper.
“Ina, my angel, we mustn’t,” Beiste said in a hoarse, quiet voice.
“Why? I like kissing. I had no idea it was this wonderful,” she said as she placed a sweet kiss on his lips.
Beiste pulled back and looked at her. “Have you never been kissed? Was this your first kiss?”
“Yes,” she said simply, looking up at him. Her hands were resting on his chest now.
He slowly pulled his arm from around her, letting her slide down his chest. Her feet were back fully on the floor now.
“That was not well done of me. I lost my head,” he admitted.
“Oh twas vera well done of ye Lord Beast. Vera!” she said and laughed softly.
“A gentleman does not take advantage. And though I cannae remember much I do think I was and am a gentleman.” He ran his hand agitatedly through his hair as he took a step back.
Ina stepped forward. “I asked ye to Beiste. There was no advantage taken here.”
He looked down at her sweet face staring earnestly up at him. His chest ached just looking at her.
“Twas wrong of me because you are almost betrothed and, knowing this, I still kissed you.” He hesitated. “What if I am betrothed? Or married?” he wondered aloud.
“I think ye would remember that wouldnae ye?” Ina said desperately. “Even if I am almost betrothed to that man, I know he would easily forget me. I would hope any husband of mine would never forget me…nor I him,” she said and bit her bottom lip.
“But that is just it,” he said stroking his beard in frustration. “That man may become your husband, and I do not know what I have even forgotten.” He looked at her starkly, hunger clear in his eyes. “I should not have kissed you,” he said with an ache in his deep voice. “Not until I know who I am. What I am.”
“Not until yer memory returns and ye know if ye belong to someone else?” Ina said softly. “And if I do?”
Beiste reached down and gently pushed a pale golden curl off her cheek. “Aye,” he whispered. “Until then we cannae be, for each of us may belong to another.”
Ina started to say something but he put his finger on her lips.
“But if you were mine, I would never forget you. Leave my room now Ina. You must. Please forget this ever happened.”
Ina nodded at him and slowly walked out the door.
7
Beiste did not join them for dinner that evening, though Lord Crumb did. Ina and two of her sisters, Flori and Godet, had taken to calling him that. Which was interesting, Ina thought, because Godet was the one who had held them together with firmness and fairness through the awful time of their Uncle Mungan, and Flori was always so quiet and proper. Even the aunts called him Lord Crumb. Ceena kept correcting them. She also was insisting he was exactly what Ina had wanted. But of course Ceena was the fiercest warrior of all of the sisters, and she liked to get her way.
Ina watched Lord Cruim Hay closely over their meal. He was certainly one of the most handsome men she had ever seen. His features were very pleasing to look at. His smile was surely devastating to most women he directed it to.
Though not to her.
No.
She could not get past the fact that he did not know his horse was a stallion. A male, not a female.
What kind of man was he that did not know this?
Or that he and his men were bested by a single man in the forest?
What kind of man stands by to let his men defend him while he hides behind cover until he can run?
Before their evening meal she had told Ceena and Tristan and her sisters again that she was sure Beiste was a good man.
They tried to dissuade her.
Who knows what he could be, they said to her. Perhaps he is a villain, a thief, a murderer. Perhaps one of the Munroes playing a terrible trick to get into Fionnaghal? Perhaps a wandering crofter? He may have a wife and several children, they said, and the blow to his head could have caused madness.
Ina had listened to them with her chin high in the air. How could she explain to them that she knew, knew Beiste was a good man? A man that was respected and who respected others.
Tristan calmly stated that the King had ordered her to marry Crumb. Tristan would not give him the title of Lord or call him anything other than Crumb. “What is he the lord of?” Tristan had asked.
Her aunts agreed with Ina that Beiste was indeed a good man. Aunt Hexy had finally pulled her little dog out from under her tartan wrap. It had a sharply pointed little nose, beady, bulging eyes, pointed ears, and almost no hair. Its legs were terribly skinny as was its short little tail. Of greatest note w
as what it was wearing, for it had its own little tartan wrap.
“I asked Lord Beiste to look at my wee pet since he looked at Burnie’s cat. He said he has seen these types of little doggies before. They come from a place called Chihuahua. Sometimes they come in on the merchant ships for trade as a lady’s pet. Isn’t that interesting! But he is cold here compared to where he came from so he needs his own wrap.” She held the little dog up for all to see. The animal growled immediately at being held up in the air. “I think I will make him a little bonnet as well, to keep his head warm,” she said stroking the dog’s head. “Lord Beiste is the best of men. I am sure where he comes from he is greatly loved!”
Ina frowned. Beiste had remembered a place called Chihuahua. Perhaps his memory was returning and with that he would remember if he had a wife.
In Ina’s strong belief that Beiste was a good man, she also realized that like Aunt Hexy, he must surely be loved. Therefore, a man such as he would indeed be married.
He must be.
Then the worst pain she had ever felt sliced through her.
Of course he was taken.
What had she done?
She had kissed another woman’s husband! How evil of her! Twas one of the greatest sins there was!
She swallowed and willed herself to calm down.
No wonder he had told her to forget him, to forget their kiss.
The two of them cannot be, he had said.
He had indeed warned her away from him. He had arrived with no weapons. So what kind of man was he really that he carried not even a single knife? Certainly one who was not of her world? What had she been thinking? She looked down sadly. She had a single memory of their brief time together and alas that was all she would ever have. And Cruim had a letter from the King saying she was to accept Cruim in marriage. How could King George do this to me?
Ina looked over at Lord Cruim. She listened to him waxing on about the food they were eating and the delicacies he had tried. Her aunts were no longer enthralled by his male beauty for they were busy eating and sneaking food to the animals under their tartans. Burnie’s tartan wrap was in shreds from her cat.