The very tip of Mairi’s tongue raced across her bottom lip. The gold flecks in her green eyes flared just as they had the first time they’d enjoyed each other’s bodies. A long tense moment passed. Long enough for Ronan to hope Mairi was about to choose him.
“Give me the damn plaid.”
Victory was bittersweet as Ronan shook out the plaid once more and snugged it securely about Mairi’s shoulders. “There now.” He thumped the brim of her hooded raincoat then affectionately tapped the tip of her nose. “Is that no’ better?”
“Fan-freakin-tastic,” Mairi snarled as she jerked away. She’d stomped only a few feet when her boots snagged in the rolling hillocks of sedge. She stumbled and fell face forward into the tangle of frost-covered grass. “Dammit all to hell! I hate this. I hate this. I hate this.”
Ronan clamped his mouth shut and held his breath. Lore a mercy. If he dared laugh at the lass now, she’d surely kill him. “Be ye all right?”
“I’m fine, dammit.” Mairi floundered to a sitting position, took off her rubber boots, and flung them across the hillside.
“Ye canna travel in sock feet through the Highlands in the dead o’ winter.”
“I don’t care. My feet might freeze but at least the grip of my toes through my wool socks will keep me off my ass.” Mairi yanked the thick woven socks all the way up to her knees.
A heavy sigh escaped Ronan. What a woman. His own fiery hellcat. A gust of wind shoved against his back, urging his attention to the darkening sky. Ronan scowled upward. They best get moving. A winter storm was on its way. The oncoming weather made up Ronan’s mind. He caught up with Mairi and before she realized what was going on, he scooped her up and draped her over one shoulder.
“What the hell are you doing?” Mairi thumped a fist between his shoulder blades as she squirmed against his grasp. “Put me down! Now!”
Ronan smacked the flat of his free hand across Mairi’s ass. “Still yerself. Ye canna walk in sockinged feet and ye canna walk in yer boots. A storm approaches. We’ve no more time to tarry.”
Mairi elbowed the back of his head and pummeled her fists against his back as she twisted and tried to slide down his chest. “You better put me down now or I’ll—”
Ronan smacked Mairi’s ass again. “Ye’ll what? Freeze to death in winter’s first snow because yer so damned hardheaded ye willna see reason? Still yerself. Now.” Ronan couldna help but smile. His woman’s fine round arse was bouncing against the side of his head with every step. Was there any better way to walk across the Highlands?
—
Mairi snuggled closer to the wall of warmth pressed against her. Without opening her eyes, she hitched the blanket higher about her neck. Damn, my room’s really cold tonight. Someone must’ve shut the stairwell door again.
A lonely high-pitched yowl shattered Mairi’s semiconscious state. She jerked bolt upright and looked around. Reality crashed in with a vengeance. Mairi sagged forward, rubbing the heels of both hands against her eyes. Dammit. She wasn’t in her room. She was in thirteenth-century Scotland wedged between a boulder and Ronan. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Mairi shuddered with a weary sigh.
“Lie down, lass.” Ronan pulled her back down against his chest and nuzzled a kiss onto the top of her head. “The storm should be spent by the time the sun rises. Lie down and keep warm.”
It was then Mairi noticed the sounds all around them. Freezing rain pelted every possible surface, sounding like tiny pebbles falling through a sieve. The wind shushed overhead like a mother quieting a child. A stronger gust moaned through the cluster of trees, setting their icy branches to crackling. Pine boughs, heavy with winter’s kiss, bent low over the boulder, sheltering them beneath a frozen wall of green. Ronan had tucked them up against the embankment of limestone centered in a stand of pines. The wall of rock paired with the thick branches of the trees made a fair shelter against the howling wind, freezing rain, and snow.
“I’m still mad at you,” Mairi warned as she curled up tighter against him. His welcoming warmth enveloped her better than any fire. In spite of the anger and hurt simmering in her heart, Mairi felt a calming sense of completeness. Dammit. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she needed him. “I haven’t forgiven you,” she hurried to add.
“Aye, lass. I know.” A deep sigh shifted Ronan’s chest beneath her cheek.
“And I’m going back as soon as I’m done here.”
“Aye, lass. I remember yer sayin’ as much.”
Mairi spread her fingers against the hard muscular ridges laddered down Ronan’s taut stomach. She didn’t know which was worse: freezing to death or aching for the very man who had deceived her.
“Ye must know I ne’er meant to hurt ye.” Ronan’s husky whisper rasped through the shadows. His steady heartbeat thudded beneath her cheek. Or was it her own pounding heart drowning out the muffled sounds of the wintry storm?
“I thought you were different.” Mairi prayed Ronan didn’t hear the pitiful squeak in her voice. She’d been so vulnerable to him. How had he weaseled his way into her heart so fast?
Ronan shifted back a bit, ran a finger beneath her chin, and gently lifted her face to his. “I am different. I love ye with such a fury, it frightens even me.”
“Please don’t hurt me again,” Mairi whispered. She hiccupped a soft sob as her eyes overflowed. She squinted her eyes shut against the determined stream of tears and tried to pull back.
Ronan caught her closer, prevented her from turning away. “Lore a mighty, m’dear sweet love. Can ye e’er forgive me?” Ronan’s voice broke. He slid his thumb through the trail of her tears then caught her tighter against his chest. “Forgive me,” he whispered into her hair. “I beg ye.”
Mairi slid her arms around Ronan, pulling closer until she melted into him. His hand slid down her back, across her hip, and down to her thigh. As Mairi raised her mouth to his, Ronan pulled her leg across his body. “Forgive me,” he repeated, his ragged whisper hot across her lips.
Mairi moved her hands up to his face and found his mouth. She dove into the taste of him, plunging her tongue deep into his mouth in answer to his request. She kissed him full, kissed him hard, kissed him with every last shred of emotion crashing inside her. Mairi finally pulled back, still holding his face between her hands, her lips barely brushing his as she spoke. “Just love me,” she said in a breathless whisper against his warm, sweet mouth. “I just need you to really love me.”
“Done,” Ronan groaned as he rolled her back and settled his body over her.
Mairi wrapped her legs around Ronan’s tensed body, arching into the heat of his claiming kiss. The hard ridge of him rubbed against her with a maddeningly sensuous rhythm. Ronan slowly, methodically rocked with her, teasing her through the layers of their clothes. “You’re killing me,” she panted against his mouth.
“Ye’ll surely freeze if ye shed yer trews.” Ronan raised up a bit then rocked between her legs with an even harder thrust as he slid his hand inside her neckline and found her breast. He nuzzled a burning trail down Mairi’s throat as he fondled her nipple. With an impatient huff against the neckline, which would stretch no more, Ronan pulled his hand out of her shirt and attacked the job from the hem.
Mairi giggled as he yanked her multiple shirts free of her jeans and pushed them up out of the way. Somehow, the combination of icy wind and Ronan’s hot mouth on her breast took her breath away. A delicious shudder rippled through her as he suckled her nipple deep into his mouth. Freezing or not, she had to get out of her pants and into his. Mairi pushed him away.
Ronan lifted up, his brow furrowed with concern.
Before he could say a word, Mairi undid her jeans, pushing and wiggling them down to her ankles, her panties nested inside them. The freezing air kissed her burning wetness and the cold hard ground bit at her back. She didn’t care. As hot as she was, she’d thaw the entire mountain. Mairi kicked the clothes aside and tugged at the waistband of Ronan’s pants.
Ronan co
vered her hand with his and held her still. “I have none of yer wee condoms.”
A montage of safe sex and birth control speeches flickered through Mairi’s mind. Now, what the hell was she going to do? Her lovely little prescription pretty much guaranteed no baby, but she’d always believed in the added protection of condoms. A throbbing fire burned inside her, demanded to be tended. To hell with the condoms.
“I need you,” she groaned as she rubbed her bare thighs against either side of Ronan’s frustratingly still clothed hips. She rocked up against the hard ridge that promised delicious relief.
“Lore, lass. I need ye as well. But I willna take ye and have ye regret it.” Ronan hovered above her, supporting his weight on his elbows, propped at either side of her shoulders. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers with a heavy sigh. “Tell me what ye truly wish. Whate’er ye say, shall be done.”
Mairi slid her hands up Ronan’s shirt. Their mutual need was palpable, a tingling force humming against her flesh. She’d always been so careful. So levelheaded. Mairi ducked her head and nuzzled the salty sweetness of Ronan’s throat. His scent, his taste, his trembling body decided it. Screw careful. Screw levelheaded. Where the hell had that ever gotten her? To hell with the condoms roared through her mind again like an ancient battle cry.
“Take me,” she gasped into his ear. “Take me now.”
“As ye wish, m’love.” Ronan rolled sideways and shed his pants in one hurried move. A rumbling growl escaped him as he lowered his hot naked body back between her legs.
Mairi arched into Ronan’s lunge as he buried himself inside her. She rocked and met him, thrust for thrust, writhing beneath him as he filled her. Mairi raked her fingers down his back and then the world exploded with an overload of sensory bliss. Wave after wave crashed through her, taking her eons away from the frozen mountain and the troubles of the day.
Ronan roared, pounding harder until his entire body tensed then jerked to a stop and shuddered. Mairi closed her eyes as Ronan collapsed atop her. A satisfied smile warmed her face as he took care not to crush her.
Ronan reached back and pulled the plaid up over them both while still remaining inside her. “There’s nary a thing so fine as sleeping inside yer woman’s sweet warmth.”
Mairi slid her hands down Ronan’s back, cupped his buttocks in her hands, and snugged him even tighter between her thighs. “Agreed,” she whispered as the coziness of their icy cave lulled her into contented oblivion.
Chapter 17
Ronan squinted against the sun’s sparkling reflection atop the thin crust of snow. Scattered clouds, wisps of pure white brushing across the saltire blue of the sky, promised a clear day ahead. He stretched his arms wide and filled his lungs with the crisp clean air. Not for the first time since meeting his sweet Mairi, a sense of peace flowed through him.
“Thank you for finding my boots.” Mairi came out from behind a tangled cluster of young rowans, straightening her clothes as she walked.
“Yer quite welcome.” Ronan loved the way the cold air heightened the color of Mairi’s cheeks. “I like yer hair loose.” He smoothed a windswept curl out of her face then combed his fingers to the nape of her neck and pulled her close. He breathed in the delicious scent of her and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“It reminds me of how ye look when ye lie beneath me,” he whispered against her cheek. A hungry groan escaped him as he brushed his lips against the sweet softness of the skin below her ear.
Mairi melted against him then cleared her throat and gently pushed away. “We really need to get to the keep.” She pressed one hand just beneath her throat and shivered with a quick intake of breath. The tip of her tongue raced across her barely parted lips. A pleasant knowing warmed Ronan’s heart. Aye. She hungers for me too.
“Aye, we best go.” Ronan reluctantly forced himself to concentrate on the frozen landscape around them. Mairi was nay accustomed to traveling in such a manner. She needed shelter. She needed food. Loving could come after. Ronan glanced up at the position of the sun then turned north. “The keep lies a bit farther beyond that stand of trees. Just a wee stretch of the legs.”
Mairi shielded her eyes and looked to where Ronan pointed. “I think I see smoke rising past those treetops. Is that the keep?”
A familiar howl interrupted them, echoing down the mountainside behind them. The chilling cry rose to a high pitch then tapered off to a soft whisper. Máthair. Ronan scanned the rough terrain, paying particularly close attention to the cluster of boulders and low-growing scrub just above them. The howl sounded again, deeper this time, and ended with a sharp yip. Nay. Not Máthair. One of her older charges.
“Is that a wolf?” Mairi blew into her cupped gloved hands as she peered worriedly toward the sound.
“Aye, but dinna fear. They’ll no’ harm ye.” Ronan tensed against the deep primal urge burning within. His wolf strained to emerge and howl to the winds that at long last he’d found his true mate. He couldna shift. Not now. He couldna bear what would be lost if he broke Mairi’s trust again.
Mairi kept her gaze glued higher up the mountain. “It sounds like there’s more than one. What makes you so sure they’re not looking for breakfast?” She edged closer to Ronan. “I’d love to see a wolf but not if I’m on the menu.”
The lads were but welcoming them back, but Ronan couldna verra well share that truth with Mairi. “I doubt they’ll come out into the open. A wolf is e’ercautious when humans are about. The cry ye hear is nothing more than a call to assemble the pack.”
“To look for breakfast?” Mairi tugged on Ronan’s sleeve. “Come on.” Mairi cast another nervous glance up the hillside. “Let’s get going.”
Ronan slid his hand around Mairi’s upper arm as she skidded across a patch of ice. “Take care, lass. There’s no need to hurry so. I promise ye. The wolves willna attack.”
“I’m not running because I’m scared….” Mairi held tight to Ronan’s sleeve and urged him forward. “I’m hungry too.”
Ronan picked up his pace and ducked his chin to hide a smile. Although Mairi would never admit it, she feared the wolves. He could smell it. An ever louder rumble echoing up from the valley pulled his attention away from Mairi’s false bravado.
Ronan pulled Mairi to a stop and stepped in front of her. He held her firmly behind him against her vain attempts to wriggle around his side. “Stay behind me ’til I can tell who yon riders be.”
Mairi twisted around him once more.
Ronan lifted her up by the shoulders and firmly settled her behind him again. “ ’Tis neither the time nor place to test me, woman. Stay behind me or I’ll tan yer arse once I’m finished protectin’ ye.”
Mairi opened her mouth but quickly closed it and slid behind Ronan as the riders topped the last snow-covered rise.
The pair of dusky black horses thundered closer, their massive strides eating up the ground. Their wild shaggy manes rippled in the wind and their long tails fluttered like dark, threatening banners. The riders resembled great hulking bears. Woolly hides were lashed about their calves and draped across their shoulders. A flash of tartan tied to the horses’ bridles eased Ronan’s mind. MacKenna colors. Granny Sinclair must ha’ sent the riders in search of them after hearing the thunder of the time portal.
As the two men drew closer, Ronan tensed again. The rider on the left resembled one of the dreaded marauding Vikings of the north. Aye, and for sure, ’twas the verra man himself. Colum Garrison. His fiery brows knotted into a murderous scowl as he locked an unblinking stare on Ronan.
The black-haired rider on the right pulled his mount to a stop. The huge warhorse pranced sideways, snorting out great huffs of mist as his hairy hooves dusted the air with loose snow. “Hail, Sutherland.” Gray MacKenna nodded then turned and smiled down at Mairi. “Welcome home, my good sister.”
Mairi edged closer to Ronan. His heart warmed as she leaned into him, silently trusting him to protect her. Mairi shielded her eyes against the sun’s glar
e as she looked up at Gray. “You must be Gray?”
“Aye.” Gray held out a hand toward the other rider. “And this is Colum. Husband to yer sister Kenna. Another brother well pleased to finally meet ye.”
Ronan tightened his arm around Mairi’s waist. The man didna look pleased. He looked as though someone had pissed in his ale.
Colum slowly tore his narrow-eyed glare away from Ronan and looked at Mairi. His face immediately softened, lightening to a less angry shade of red as he smiled. “Welcome, Mistress Mairi. My wife will be overjoyed to see ye.”
“I can’t wait to see her either.” Mairi’s smile faded a bit as she looked first at Colum then up at Ronan. “What’s…” She paused as though struggling to find the right words. “What’s the deal between you two?”
“I’m sure the fine chieftain will explain it once ye’ve had a chance to settle and warm yourselves.” Colum turned and nodded toward another rider, leading two additional horses toward them. “Diarmuid brings yer mounts this verra minute.”
Ronan bit the inside of his cheek to keep from rising to the bait. The way Colum spit out the word fine left no doubt as to how the man felt about Ronan. He nodded toward Colum. “Yer good brother and I share a wee bit of history.”
Mairi arched a brow.
“I’ll explain it all t’ye later.” Ronan turned Mairi toward the small roan-colored mare Diarmuid led over to them. “Allow me to help ye mount so we can be on our way.”
Mairi backed away from the approaching horse, her eyes growing wider with each step. “I’ve never ridden a horse before.”
My Tempting Highlander (Highland Hearts #3) Page 16