Highland Hearts 03 - Crimson Heart

by Heather McCollum

  “Lower,” he repeated, his voice rough like a growl. He watched her face as he ran his hand down from her breast along the plane of her stomach and around to her hip. Elena nearly bucked off the fur as her ache grew wilder within her.

  She gasped as he tongued heat along her hip bone inward.

  “Gràdh geal mo chridhe.” The words rolled out from deep within Searc, sending a thrilling chill through Elena. His hand wound down from her naval, over the gentle roundness of her abdomen and lower still. She cried out as he touched her, closing her eyes and writhing over the fur. One mighty hand clasped her hip as the other tormented her, finally dipping down to press against her inner thighs, nudging them apart.

  There he paused and she slammed her small fists into the fur. “More,” she nearly yelled.

  “Aye, Elena. So much more.”

  Her fingers curled into the fur as she opened her eyes, looking at him. Searc breathed heavy as if he ran. He knelt alongside her, his magnificent body bared and primed. Her eyes opened wider at the sight of him but he immediately stroked her body, making her forget her worry. Only the ache mattered, the ache where he must touch her or she would die without it. Such exquisite torture.

  “Please.” She panted and ran her legs around his calves again, even going so far as to push her foot against his muscled backside to press him toward her.

  He leaned forward then, hovering over her, his hand still stroking her body. “So soft, cho maiseach ris a’ ghrèin, lass.” His rough whispers by her ear dripped with intensity. She moaned his name as he moved back to love her mouth, his thumb rubbing over and over. He nipped the corner of her mouth softly as she groaned and pressed against his hand.

  “Oh God, Searc.”

  “Aye, Elena,” he moaned as he pushed his fingers inside. More Gaelic words followed as he worked her flesh and she thrashed. She felt his length against her and thought she should be frightened, but she was far from it. The ache had changed her, made her wanton. She wanted to be consumed, devoured, completely revealed by Searc. Elena raised her legs to entrap her Highland warrior’s hips, urging him forward, begging him with her body to claim her.

  He moved on top, kissing her mouth wildly. She met each kiss with her own, sliding and tasting, exploring him as she raked his shoulders with her nails. She ran her hands down his bulging arms, marveling in the muscles as they flexed while he centered himself above her. His fingers left her and she nearly screamed, but then he pushed forward into her.

  With a swift motion he plunged into her body, tearing quickly through her, giving her no time to worry over the act. She gasped and he stilled, holding himself on his elbows so that his biceps encased her head. She blinked her eyes open, realizing that she’d squeezed them shut.

  “It will feel better,” he promised through gritted teeth. She nodded and he stared into her eyes as they breathed together. Elena felt the hard thudding of her heart and realized that the burn below was fading. Little by little.

  “Kiss me,” she instructed softly and he leaned into her, gently at first, holding himself apart. But she wanted his heat again, his breath against her skin, his strength pressing her into the furs. She pulled him down to her, not caring that he could easily crush her with his weight. He remained buried within her, so brutally hard, pinning her to the furs. The thought sent a sizzle of heat coursing to that spot and she moved upward, feeling the fullness even more. Searc groaned and buried his face in her hair. She pressed upward again, reveling in the new sensation, the stretch, the carnal breaking, and felt Searc tremble. Elena stroked his wide back. She’d made this mighty warrior tremble. A small smile broke over her lips.

  “Keep going.” She pushed upward again. The pain was ebbing, giving way to the other sensations that throbbed within her body with the beating of her heart. Searc lifted up and stared into her eyes. She smiled.

  The half-sided grin crept back on his handsome face. “As ye command.”

  He set a slow rhythm as he closed his eyes in obvious pleasure. He caught her breast with his palm. The heat flooded back through her as he loved it, palming and pinching. She moaned and he lowered his mouth back to her flushed skin. His body picking up a tempo that teased the hot ache over and over.

  She gasped and cried out as he caught her nipple with his teeth at the same time he thrust back into her. She was nearly split apart from the full sensation. What little pain that had remained was washed away by the building force growing into a tempest of fire. It made her move against him, urging him forward into a rhythm. Between the fur at her back and his heat over her body, Elena writhed. The pressure climbed, squeezing higher and higher with each thrust, with each lick of Searc’s tongue, each nibble of his teeth, each hot, wet kiss along her inflamed skin. The surging of her own blood, her own need, was too much, growing and pulsing until she couldn’t hold herself together a second longer.

  “Searc!” she screamed as the ache exploded. The wild, pulsing sensation washed through her. It caught her breath and she clung to Searc with all her strength. He answered her with a growl that seemed ripped from deep within his chest. He thrust harder into her open, willing body, filling her completely.

  …

  For long moments they just breathed. Elena took full inhales, enjoying the feel of him around her. He leaned in and kissed her lips gently. She smiled up at him and he rolled them to the side, wrapping one strong leg around her hips and pulling over her the fur that had been tossed to the side.

  She traced the lush line of his bottom lip with one fingertip. “’Tis amazing what a mouth can do.” She punctuated the compliment with a small kiss.

  Searc chuckled quietly and the sound filled Elena with contentment. “Agreed. Although I will show ye even more, lass.”

  “Mmmm…” she sighed but raised her eyebrows in surprise. “More sounds good.”

  He wrapped her up in his arms, pulling her to rest on his chest. He kissed the top of her hair. “I like discovering all about ye, Elena.” His voice had grown serious. “Trust makes the loving sweeter.”

  Elena stilled, her ear pressed to the skin over his heart. Trust. He wanted to know exactly who she was. He’d stopped her before, wanting only to revel in their lovemaking, but now…now he wished for more. “I want to tell you, Searc. I will. It’s just…” She closed her eyes. “Thomas knew my secrets and ended up dying because of them.”

  “It would take more than mere secrets to kill me, Elena.”

  Her head rose and fell with his deep breathing. “You’ve held onto secrets too,” she whispered. “You know how hard it is to let them out into the world.”

  They lay together, neither of them in a hurry to move apart. Searc stroked the side of her hair. She felt him breathe deeply once more. “Perhaps some of them should be let out.” He shifted slightly. “I didn’t give my people a chance to know about me, what ye said about hiding my power all this time.” His voice grew serious. “I thought I could keep it hidden, that by not telling them I was protecting them.”

  Elena propped her chin on his chest. Searc rested his arms back over his head, one arm over his eyes. “What were you protecting them from?”

  He glanced down at her. “From me.”

  She shook her head, her hair scattered across his warm skin. “How could you think that?”

  She watched his lips open several times as if to talk, but then he closed his mouth. Finally he exhaled long. “When I was a lad, maybe ten summers old, I came across a wretched old peddler in the woods on the edge of Munro territory. The old man was shouting, waving his arms and I sensed pain and fear, so I came closer.”

  The words seemed stuck in Searc’s chest. Elena heard his regret and stroked her fingers lightly through the light hair sprinkling his chest as he continued. “The bastard was beating his horse. He’d walked the beast until it was lame and couldn’t go on, yet he beat him anyway.” Elena felt Searc’s muscles tense under her hand and cheek. “I…I reacted. I didn’t think, I just felt, the horse’s pain, the man’s fury
. I ran to the peddler, grabbing him, shouting at him to stop. He tried to shake me off but I held tight. My fear turned to anger and my hands glowed against his arm. Before my eyes, the man wilted, sunk to the ground under my touch. I…I stood there, full of fury and sucked the life from him until he was only a pile of clothes on the forest floor.”

  Tears burned behind Elena’s eyes and she closed them. “You were saving an innocent animal. You were a child, Searc.”

  “I was a child with the dark magic of a demon.”

  She blinked open, narrowing her eyes as she stared at him, frustrated at his short sightedness. “You were a child with a weapon that could be used for good once you learned to use it. Like a sword or bow.”

  He kept the arm across his eyes. “I went to the horse.”

  Elena held her breath, thinking of Searc’s love for animals. I won’t abandon an animal. “What happened to the horse?” she whispered.

  “It was in so much pain. I think its leg may have been broken. My father might have put him down had he been there, but I knew that if I could get it to my mother, she could heal it with her magic. I only meant to lift its leg, try to help it.”

  Elena stroked his chest and quickly wiped away a tear that had gotten by. She waited and watched Searc squeeze his lips together.

  “I lifted him easily with the strength of the other man running through me. It surprised me and I lost control, dropped him on his bad leg. He was screaming terribly. Have ye heard a horse scream?” He lifted his arm to look down his length at her.

  She shook her head, sliding her chin on his chest.

  “It’s bloody horrible.”

  She squeezed him. “What happened?”

  “I killed him. I couldn’t carry him with all the thrashing and he was frantic. I unleashed the same magic I’d used to stop the peddler and pulled enough life out of him to end his pain.”

  Oh Searc. Oh heavens no. So many sentiments sat on her tongue. He’d been a just a boy, a lonely boy who knew very little about his magic. He had no one to turn to, no one to help him mourn and he’d ended up only hating himself. But she couldn’t say all that. He would only take it as pity. “You did what was needed.”

  “I had no bloody idea what I was doing. I hid the peddler’s clothes and left everything. My father found the horse and abandoned wagon and assumed the peddler had left them, wandering off. I kept to the woods for days until the strength completely wore off.”

  “Was that the first time you realized you had this magic?” She firmed her voice to keep any pity from it.

  “Aye, though I had always been able to feel dark emotions: pain, fear, fury, lethal intent. He pulled his arm from his eyes and turned his forearm upward so she could see the long line that snaked around his skin. “I’ve had the mark since birth.” She reached up to trace it with her fingertip. He let her follow its swirling tail up his arm and the lines that wrapped around across the top. She studied it, tracing the pattern. It was the first time he’d let her examine it.

  She glanced up. “It is a dragonfly.”

  He glanced at his arm. “Nay.”

  “Look,” she said and traced the long sweeping lines as it circled in a rough outline of wings that wrapped around themselves bending back around his arm. “It is just very large and wraps around itself.”

  Searc sat up in the bed, twisting his thick arm back and forth. Elena tucked her knees under her to hover over his arm. She traced the lines again to show how the lines connected.

  “I’ve…I hadn’t seen that,” he admitted.

  “You are so close to it. It’s hard to see something when you can’t stand back and look. I suppose you haven’t let anyone else take the time to examine it either.”

  “As a child, my mother must have, though it didn’t darken on my skin until after the peddler.”

  “Hmm…the first time you used the power.”

  “My mother has a dragonfly mark from birth, but hers is small and colored in. All the females in my line have it and their light is blue and heals.”

  “Amazing.” She followed the trailing lines again. “Your power is from the same source.”

  “But it kills.”

  “So does a mending needle if used in a specific way.”

  “Ye have a very skewed view of my magic.” He dropped his arm and fixed the blankets over them, pressing her back in the pillows with a slow kiss.

  Perhaps he was just trying to stop her from talking. She kissed him anyway until he leaned back, tucking her against his side. Elena yawned as she settled against him in the warm bed.

  “Ye need to sleep, lass.”

  She sighed. “So do you.” She turned on her side with him spooned against her back. She felt him kiss her head and sighed. Her muscles languid, her body warm, the feel of strength and…possibly affection at her back. Elena drifted on her breaths to sleep.

  …

  The warm, dark world rocked under Elena. “What?” she mumbled and stretched out under the covers. Her hand brushed her bare breast. Naked? She blinked at the daylight filtering in the window slits and saw Searc walking across the room. Naked.

  “Did I wake ye?” He turned without a shred of embarrassment.

  Elena pushed up on her elbows, feeling the new aches from a night she’d never experienced before. “I needed to wake anyway. It must be well past dawn.”

  He stalked to the press, scooping up his kilt along the way. Elena watched the muscles of his backside and legs as he moved and felt a flush begin to heat her inside once more. He was truly magnificent. A powerful beast who could be gentle one moment and ravishing her the next. The small pebble of desire in her began to grow. So much for thinking to only assuage her curiosity. She wanted more.

  Elena slid off the bed with the fur around her and saw the telltale sign of her maidenhood across the linen. She grasped the end of the sheet, tugging.

  Searc halted her hand. “If ye are safer with it known ye are no virgin, then leave it for the maids. Word will spread to those interested.”

  “But I’ve lied to Marie and Father Renard about us,” she said.

  Searc shook his head. “A maiden’s mistake.”

  “All night long?” she asked, unconvinced.

  He let a small grin lighten his eyes. “Ye’d be amazed at what I could do to ye all night long, even without taking ye fully.”

  “Oh?” She raised one eyebrow. The thought only added fuel to the pleasant sensation teasing inside her.

  She looked back at the sheets. He was right. Let Lord Randolph find out her value as a potential royal bride was tarnished.

  Searc caught her up to him, turning her away from the bed. “Ye fell asleep fast last night.”

  “Several times if I remember correctly.” She grinned.

  But his face was serious. He leaned in and kissed her, then leveled her with a searching look. “I wanted ye to have last night as Elena only.”

  Elena breathed deeply. He’d shared his secrets with her. Now he wanted hers.

  “Now, lass. Who are ye exactly?”

  Her gaze drifted past him to the hearth and he turned to follow it where the gold chain hung undisturbed.

  The clopping of boots filtered through the door from the hall.

  Rap, rap, rap. “Lord Munro?” came a man’s voice.

  Searc moved to the door, his sword drawn. “Who is asking?” He tipped his head toward the clothes press. She ran for it and threw a clean chemise over her head to poke her arms into the holes. She drew out the beautiful blue gown Marie had given her for dinner the first night at court.

  “I am page to the queen regent. She has sent for you and Mistress Elena to come to St. Margaret’s Chapel at the top of the hill.”

  The chapel? Elena paused but then continued to shrug into her stays, running back to Searc and turning her back. He re-sheathed his sword and began to nimbly brush down her back, tugging and tying.

  “We are not dressed to be received by the regent,” Searc called.

  “She
commands your immediate attendance. Come dressed as you are.”

  “We are not dressed at all,” Searc said. Elena spun and glared at him. He shrugged and pointed back to the bed where the gown waited.

  “We will wait to escort you both to the chapel. Make haste.” It sounded as if the man leaned against the door.

  Elena threw the gown over her head. When she surfaced Searc was by the hearth, wrapping the sash of his kilt over one shoulder. She ran her fingers through her wild curls as she sought her slippers. Searc came to her, turning her to fasten her buttons and tie her sleeves into place. He worked so efficiently she cringed inside.

  “Please tell me you have a sister whom you helped dress,” she murmured.

  “Only two brothers.”

  “Then how are you so knowledgeable about a woman’s dress?”

  His lips sent a shiver down her neck as they rested near her ear. “Ye may know all my secrets, Elena, but do ye really want to know about my exploits with other lasses?”

  She spun, her face red, and opened her mouth, but the rapping at the door stopped her from whatever retort had fled her mind.

  “Nearly finished.” Searc’s face grew hard and lethal as he checked his blades. From what Elena could see, he had at least three planted about his body. He handed her a short, black-handled dirk. “It is a Singh dubh. It is made to be hidden easily within yer bodice. Just don’t pierce yerself.” She spent several more minutes finding a suitable folding of material within her pocket to sheath it.

  Searc turned the key once she’d found a spot. Elena glanced at the mantel, her heart jumping to her throat.

  “It took you long enough.” The guard stood in front of a small pack of armed men.

  “Are we under arrest?” Searc wore a scowl despite his casual voice.

  “Not unless you refuse the regent’s command.” The guard glanced in at Elena, eyeing her barely pulled together appearance. She hardly noticed, though, with her throat so tight.