by T C Archer
“The richest of the rich,” Cat had boasted a week ago when she called to invite Margot to Scotland.
Scottish castles didn’t come cheap—Margot had checked. Castle Morrison sold for three-hundred and seventy-two thousand. Total renovations would set Cat back a cool million, but she would make up the expense in the fees guests paid for the privilege of sleeping in a Scottish castle. A two-week stay ran sixteen thousand pounds—twenty-five thousand American dollars. Cat had a waiting list that stretched into next year. In the next twelve months, she stood to gross twenty-one million dollars.
Helluva business deal, Margot had noted after Cat’s call a week ago. But what woman bought a Scottish castle with the money she inherited from the husband she murdered?
Even better: what murderer invited her cop friend to visit?
“Thank you, Toby.” Cat looked at the bellhop. “That’ll be all.”
He nodded and left, as Cat faced Margot. “You can put your things in the wardrobe.” Cat nodded to a modest built-in armoire on the far wall.
Margot released a sigh. “If I don’t get some rest I’ll get cranky.”
Cat laughed. “And none of us want that.” She crossed to the door. “Come downstairs when you wake up.” She grasped the door handle, then paused and looked over her shoulder. “Oh, stay off the balcony. The wrought iron railing is dangerously loose. I don’t want you falling into the water below.”
Margot jerked her gaze onto the French doors that opened onto a balcony. A shiver snaked up her spine, and ex-Deputy Sheriff Margot Saulnier jumped at the soft click of the door shutting.
Chapter Two
Margot turned right and another hallway in the castle stretched out before her, this one in deeper shadow than the last. She glanced behind her. A single sconce created an eerie shadow dance across the stone walls and floor. She startled at sight of a heavy oak door on the corner of the bend in the hallway. The doorway hadn't been there when she’d walked past. Besides, how could a room be built on the corner of two hallways? Margot hesitated, then faced forward, took one step, another, and another until a door came into view on the left.
She stopped at the door, grasped the handle, and pressed down on the latch. The soft click of latch releasing from catch sent a prickle up her arms. In the last two hallways, door after door had been locked. Her fingers trembled on the handle. Well damn, what would the boys back home in Wilkinson County think of Deputy Sheriff Saulnier unnerved by an unlocked door?
Margot released the handle and pressed against the wood, easing the door open. To her right, low flames bobbed in a fireplace. A sword and dagger hung over the mantle. The blades pointed toward an antique bowl and pitcher sitting on a small table between an open door in the corner of the room and the floor-length curtains opposite her.
She leaned forward and peered around the door. An ornate four-poster bed stood against the left wall, gray draperies swaged between posts. The burgundy quilt that covered the bed was turned back as if in invitation to crawl between the snow-white sheets. An odd sense of familiarity nudged. Had she been here before?
Hairs on the back of her neck rose to attention. She swung her gaze to the right and sucked in a breath. A man stood in the corner doorway. Intense brown eyes stared back at her just as they had that afternoon when she’d seen him standing in the main entrance of Castle Morrison.
Butterflies tickled the inside of her stomach. Standing this close, she wanted to run her fingers through the tousled dark curls that brushed his shoulders. Low firelight softened the square jaw shadowed by stubble. The green and red checked sash that had draped his shoulders earlier now hung loosely about a kilt held in place by a thick leather belt and buckle. A crisp, white shirt stretched taught across his muscled chest. Margot released a silent breath. Memory hadn’t done him justice. He seemed taller, broader…more dangerous.
His eyes narrowed. “How did ye get here?”
Despite the soft burr that caressed her like a summer breeze heavy with damp heat, she couldn’t miss the recrimination in his voice. She didn't know how she’d gotten here, any more than she knew how he had appeared in the painting of the castle that hung over the fireplace in her room. When she'd arrived at Castle Morrison that afternoon he hadn't been in the picture. But she'd woken from her nap two hours later to see him standing in the main entrance, his expression of anticipation painted in exquisite detail. He’d been waiting for someone. A woman, she realized.
“Did your lady friend show up?”
Surprise flashed in his eyes, but vanished in thin-lipped disapproval. “You will return from whence ye came, if you have any sense about you—” his tone suggested she had no sense, “—and quickly.”
His gaze raked her body, and she glanced down at the gold colored, satin pajamas she’d worn to bed. Her nipples stood at attention. Tit for tat, she figured, and shifted her gaze past the kilt to his bare legs. Her pulse skittered. She’d heard that Scots didn’t wear underwear under kilts. No doubt about it, underwear or no underwear, that outfit would get him arrested in her hometown of Woodville, Mississippi. The entire population, a whopping one thousand, two hundred and fifteen, would show up, Bibles in one hand, rifles in the other, to ensure he dressed as every God fearing person was meant to dress.
“I felt certain you had more sense than the others,” he said, then added in a mutter, “Foolish girl.”
“What others? You know me?”
“If you believe he will let ye escape—”
Awareness zipped up her spine. She glanced sharply behind her through the open door.
“What is amiss?” he demanded.
The faint crash of waves caught her attention and she looked to the curtains at the far side of the room. Memory struck a cord. She had been here before—or in the castle, that is. This was Castle Morrison. She’d arrived that afternoon. Desire ripped through her.
Margot yanked her attention back onto the man. “You wouldn’t be dabbling in bayou magic, would you, sugar?”
She’d never put much stock in the black magic the women back home secretly practiced, but neither had she felt anything mess with her insides like that.
“Magick?” he repeated.
Unease brought the hairs on the back of her neck to attention. “You stay right there,” she ordered, and turned back to the hall.
Margot glanced right, then left, and spotted another door up ahead on the right. Well, damn, another door had magically appeared. An uncomfortable flush warmed her as she took a step toward it. Another wave of longing tightened her belly. Strong fingers closed around her arm and yanked her back into the room. The door slammed shut with a crash and he shoved her against the hard wood. Margot yanked her gaze onto the stranger’s face. He stared down at her, the dark irises swirling as if a tornado raged in their depths. She sucked in a breath. Bayou magic, if ever she’d seen it.
A prickle dug into her flesh like tiny needles, but she kept her gaze locked with his. “I don’t take kindly to be accosted.” She tried stepping past him.
He shoved her back against the door. “Do no' be a fool.”
“Not many folks call me a fool to my face.”
“If you answer his call, you will be a dead fool.”
She tensed, but said in her cool cop’s voice, “That sounds like a threat.”
“No threat. Fact.”
“I like threats even less than being accosted.”
His eyes darkened. “He shall not have another victim.”
He yanked her to him. His belt buckle dug into her stomach, but the pressure of his erection against her belly caught her attention. The need to impale herself on him halted the fist she had ready to punch his belly. Sweet Christ, it had been some time since she'd had a man, but had it been so long that the first hard cock to come along was enough to induce her to fuck a stranger?
He unbuttoned two buttons of her pajama top and pushed the sleeves down her arms. Cool air puckered her nipples even tighter. His gaze dropped to her breasts. It hadn’t b
een so long she'd forgotten the meaning of his sharp intake of breath. Desire pooled between her legs. Hell, it seemed that needing to be fucked was enough after all.
Wouldn’t the boys back home love that? Miss I’d-as-soon-shoot-your-ass-as-fuck-you was hot to trot. Being runner up for Miss Mississippi hadn’t helped when she became deputy sheriff. It seemed all of Wilkinson County’s male population thought beauty queen turned cop was a ready-made recipe for cock and pussy.
Firelight glinted off his eyes in the instant before his head dipped. Moist lips closed around a nipple. Margot arched into his mouth. He emitted a low growl. He slipped warm fingers beneath her top and around her waist to the small of her back, then pulled her against him. The soft fabric of his shirt tickled the tiny hairs on her skin.
Margot ground her taut belly against the steel of his abdomen. Her heated flesh cooled, then warmed again in sync with his warmer body. Teeth gently tugged at her nipple. She gasped. He sucked, flicked his tongue against the sensitive bud, and sucked again. She wrapped her hands around his ass. Muscle tightened as he sucked harder. Margot rolled her sensitive nub against his rod. He growled.
“That’s it, sugar,” she coaxed.
His hand covered the other breast as he released her nipple and kissed her mouth. He flicked his tongue against her lips. Margot opened and his tongue swept inside. Damn, he tasted like brandy. Just like the movies. What fantasy had she conjured him from? She slid her hands around his waist and flattened her palms on his chest. His heart raced like a thoroughbred. Margot shifted her hands upward and her shirt bunched. He grabbed her lapel and yanked the remaining buttons free of their holes. Two buttons pinged off the wall and bounced noiselessly to the carpet.
Margot glanced at the shirt, then lifted her gaze to his face. “You ruined my best pair of pajamas.”
The awareness that had grabbed her attention a moment ago sliced into her thoughts. She twisted in an effort to see the door she was still pressed against. “What the hell’s out there?”
He scooped her off the floor and pressed her tightly against his broad chest.
“Whoa!” Margot threw her arms around his neck.
He strode to the bed, tossed her onto the mattress and came down on top of her.
She lifted a brow. “Ready to step things up a notch?”
He stared for a long moment, then laid a palm on her stomach. Her flesh quivered as his warm fingers glided downward. He slipped his hand beneath her waistband. Margot yanked his kilt up, wrapped a leg around his naked hip, and arched into the fingers sliding through her curls. He grazed her clit with a fingertip and she pulsed against the long digit. The finger dipped between her folds and into her wet channel.
His head dropped to her neck. “Faigh muin,” he said in a hoarse voice.
Margot gave a low laugh. “I don’t know what you said, but I like the way you said it.”
Warm breath bathed her neck. He slid the finger in, then out, starting a rhythm. Feather light kisses moved along her neck to the hollow in her throat. Soft hair tickled the underside of her jaw. She startled when his thumb brushed her swollen sex. His in-and-out rhythm didn’t miss a beat.
What the hell was she doing? She’d never before waltzed into a stranger’s room and let him fuck her. Pressure mounted in her core. Familiarity edged to the surface. What was it—
Sweet Christ, I’m dreaming.
Pleasure shot through her. Well, damn, how long before she woke up? Margot shoved a hand under his kilt and grasped his steel-hard cock. His intake of breath hissed in her ear. Satisfaction shot through her when his rhythm faltered then started again with renewed vigor. She rubbed the mushroom shaped tip and a trickle of thick, sticky cum coated her fingertip. He groaned. Her nipples tightened and throbbed in sync with the ache building in her core. He gently flicked her pleasure point. She gasped.
He thrust into her hand. She tightened her grip around him, until the edge of her hand met pubic bone, then he lifted and slowly thrust again. His thumb slowed on her nub, teasing, keeping her release in sight, but just out of reach.
He rose up on one elbow, his eyes meeting hers as he pulled his finger from inside her and began rubbing her clit in quick strokes. She squeezed his cock, sliding her hand up its length, while pulsing her hips against his finger. Pleasure rose on a hard wave, building for a mind numbing orgasm. She released him and covered the hand massaging her. Margot jammed her eyes shut and bucked against him. Light burst behind her lids.
“Don’t stop.” She bucked harder.
A ripping sound filled the space around her. The hand moved faster. Pleasure tore through her. A finger dipped inside her channel as another stoked again, then again, and one last time while the orgasm tightened her channel and locked her insides in spasm. She arched into his hand and pleasure exploded between her legs.
Labyrinth is available at your favorite distributor.
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