‘I had not realised your taste was so good.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
‘I can quite see why you wanted her to wife.’ She paused. ‘What is much less clear is why she agreed.’
‘Don’t flatter me, Jeannie, whatever you do.’
‘You forced her to wed you, did you not?’
‘When the king commands it is unwise to do anything other than comply. I had no more choice in the matter than Ashlynn. Malcolm solved the problem with as little inconvenience to himself as possible.’
‘And yet you have not done so badly by the bargain.’ She shook her head. ‘In truth it is Ashlynn I feel for. A woman has no chance when pitted against the will of powerful men.’
‘She has an honourable position here. The alternative would have been a lot worse.’
‘So you were the lesser of two evils then?’
‘If you choose to put it like that.’
‘Oh, I do. As I said, I know you well, brother. All the same, I’m fascinated to see you in the role of protector to a lovely woman.’
‘I can assure you it is a role I take most seriously.’
‘I’m glad to hear it. The lass has had a bad time of it by all accounts.’
‘Aye, she has, but that is over now at least. Nothing shall hurt her again if I have the power to prevent it.’
The words were quietly spoken but Jeannie heard the resolution that underlay them and looked up in surprise, yet there was no mistaking the ingenuous tone. Recalling the cold and bitter man he had been before, she realised that something fundamental had changed and her heart knew a glimmer of hope.
Iain tossed off the remainder of his wine and cast another look across the room. Seeing his wife surrounded by a crowd of admirers all vying for her attention, he experienced a re-awakening of the feeling he’d had when he saw her with Robbie that day in the courtyard. Annoyance turned in on itself. He had no grounds for jealousy. Ashlynn was beautiful and men admired her, wanted her. Yet for all her banter and smiles she knew how to hold them at arm’s length. That of course just had the effect of making them try harder. He should know. He too was fully alive to his wife’s physical charms. At night he lay awake knowing there was but a door between them and that he had the key, knowing how easy it would be to use force. However, he wanted more than mere bodily submission. She must come to him or it meant nothing. And so he waited…and waited. Just when he thought he was making progress he found himself back where he’d started.
Watching her now he saw her excuse herself from the group and move to speak to her brother who was standing nearby. She put an arm about him, a casual and loving gesture that meant nothing and everything. His jaw tightened as jealousy resurfaced for the second time. What on earth was the matter with him that he should lose his customary sense of perspective over something so trivial? Ban was her brother and she loved him. Why should she not? The lad was handsome and brave and good company withal. In his presence she opened like a flower in the sun. With him her smile was unforced, her laughter from the heart. Ban too played his part well. It was a testament to their spirit that they would not inflict their sorrows on others even though the wounds were still raw.
His admiration grew, along with his frustration for, while he knew that Ashlynn wasn’t totally indifferent to him, she never looked at him as she looked at Ban, never smiled in quite that way. He had once told Ashlynn that she would see him every day of her life whether she wanted to or not. How ironic then that it was he who now suffered the torment of seeing her every day, of speaking to her, of being close enough to touch her and yet knowing himself as far away as ever. Be that as it might, he would know the cause of her displeasure before this evening was over.
* * *
Ashlynn felt only relief when the female members of the company started to drift away. Soon she too could escape and seek the sanctuary of her chamber. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Iain talking to Duncan and Jeannie. She saw him take his sister’s hand and smiled to herself, glad to see that some degree of amity had been restored. The two of them strolled towards the door to be joined by several other ladies. There they paused while he bade them all a courteous goodnight. When they had disappeared from view he turned back to the room at large, his gaze searching. It found Ashlynn at once and held her. If she had been expecting him to return and mingle she was mistaken; he remained exactly where he was, waiting. The message was plain. To leave the hall she must pass him first and he wasn’t about to let that happen.
Knowing there was no point in delaying the inevitable Ashlynn excused herself from the company. Iain watched her come. For a moment they surveyed each other in silence. Then he took hold of her arm. The grip didn’t hurt but it would not be resisted either. He drew her with him into the corridor. Ashlynn glanced up, expecting him to stop but he didn’t. Instead, and much to her consternation, she was conducted up two flights of stairs and along the corridor to his room. He pulled her in with him and closed the door behind them. Then he leaned upon it, surveying her keenly.
‘Now that we are quite private, you and I going to talk, lass.’
‘There is nothing to say.’
She took a step towards the door but he did not move. ‘I think there is, and you’re not leaving until this matter is resolved.’ He paused. ‘Now, tell me what it was so offended you that you must avoid me all the rest of the evening. I cannot believe it was just a kiss.’
Ashlynn shook her head sadly. Just a kiss. That really was all it meant to him. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It does matter. If my memory serves me aright, you spoke of playing games. It carries an imputation I don’t much care for.’
‘Did it strike a nerve, Iain?’
His eyes narrowed a little. ‘You think that my kissing you was some kind of game?’
‘Wasn’t it?’ she replied. ‘Wasn’t it just a charade for the benefit of your guests? You did it very well too I may say. I think they were convinced.’
He gave a hollow laugh. ‘Is that what you think?’
‘What else is there to think?’
‘That I might have kissed you because I really wanted to, that the passion wasn’t feigned, that you’re so beautiful I don’t know how to keep my hands off you.’
‘Because you want me in your bed you mean.’
‘Aye, I do, in case it’s not already clear. What’s wrong with that?’
She swallowed hard. ‘Everything, when you love someone else.’
‘What!’ His brows drew together. ‘Who is it that you think I love, Ashlynn?’
‘Eloise!’ She flung the name at him. ‘You told me as much yourself. She’s the reason you never remarried, would never have remarried until the king commanded it. I believe you only agreed because you needed heirs to continue your line.’
For a moment he was quite still, regarding her intently, his face white. Then, when he was sure he could keep his voice under control, ‘Do you so?’
‘It’s the truth.’
‘I think you and I need to get a few things straight.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Since you’ve raised the subject we’ll start with Eloise.’
‘I don’t want to hear it.’
‘You’re going to hear it,’ he replied. ‘You’ll not make such statements without giving me the right of reply.’ He fixed her with a gimlet stare. ‘You accuse me of loving Eloise still and so I do, but not in the way you seem to think. What I cherish is not a hopeless, pointless passion but the memory of a brief happiness; happiness I never thought to have until I met her and which, for a long time after her death, I believed was lost for ever. Then you came into my life.’ He made a vague gesture with his hands. ‘I’ll not pretend I fell in love with you at first sight; it wasn’t until the first time I kissed you that I realised there was an attraction. Even then I tried to deny it, but the longer I was with you the more difficult it became.’
‘Very difficult,’ she agreed. ‘So much so, that it was the king who ordered
our marriage.’
‘Malcolm had his own reasons. Whatever they were he was several moves ahead of me at that point. But, when he compelled us to marry, it made me think about what I really wanted.’
‘Oh, and what did you decide?’
‘That I want to build a future with you. That I want a family, children who will grow up knowing a father’s care. If all I wanted was to sire heirs I’d have done it long since. The reason I haven’t is that I never met the woman I wanted to share that with. After what I had with Eloise I could never settle for anything less. I thought I could never have that again, until I met you.’
Ashlynn’s gaze searched his face, her heart thumping painfully hard. The words had sounded sincere. ‘Is that the truth?’
‘On everything I hold sacred.’
Ashlynn turned away, trying to make sense of her chaotic thoughts. They both wanted the same things—almost. He had not spoken of his desire for revenge but the word hung there between them. She knew it hadn’t gone away; that it was still an issue; that they needed to confront it. But if she spoke its name the spell would be broken, the moment lost. She had alienated him once tonight already through ill-considered words. Now he was trying to put things right. How could she destroy what had been so hard won?
Iain didn’t move, made no attempt to touch her, but his voice was calmer now, steadier. ‘I know as well as anyone can what you’ve been through, lass, and no one could have faced it with greater courage. When you took my name I swore to protect you, and if I had the ordering of the world nothing should ever harm you more.’ He paused. ‘With you I have found what I never thought to have again with any woman. I hoped that you had begun to care a little for me. Was I wrong?’
She shook her head. ‘No, you weren’t wrong. It’s just…’
‘Just…?’
‘That I was afraid.’
‘Of me?’
She turned to face him again. ‘Of being hurt.’
‘I would never deliberately do anything to hurt you.’
In spite of all attempts to blink them back the tears welled in her eyes and spilled over. Very gently he drew her against his breast and let her rest there, safe in the circle of his arms, and for the first time all the tension went out of her and she knew only the rightness of being there.
He dropped a kiss on her hair and then, as she looked up, another on her mouth. Ashlynn returned it, a slow and lingering embrace that turned his blood to fire. For a moment the dark gaze burned into hers and saw there what he had hardly dared to hope for.
‘I want to kiss you again, lass, but I’m afraid if I do it’ll not stop there.’
‘Who said I wanted it to?’
His heart performed a sudden and dangerous manoeuvre and for a moment or two he didn’t move, being entirely unsure he had just heard her aright. Then she reached up and drew his face down towards hers. This time it was she who kissed him, a passionate affirmation of the feelings she could no longer conceal.
He lifted her in his arms and carried her into his bedchamber and undressed her there, laying aside her garments before removing his own. Ashlynn caught her breath, taking in all the lithe and sculptured beauty of the hard-muscled body. Then he was beside her, drawing the furs over them, his mouth on hers, his hands exploring the curves of her flesh, subtle, arousing. And the world became a fusion of sense impressions, the coarse linen sheet and the soft wolf pelts, flickering light from the fire, the faint smell of wood smoke and the warmth of his flesh against hers, the erotic scent of musk on his skin, the taste of wine on his lips. His mouth moved lower, caressing neck and throat and breasts, sending a delicious shiver the length of her body. Ashlynn yielded herself up to it, wanting this, wanting him, no longer able to deny what she felt. Now there was no fear or doubt, only the sweetness of belonging, as though something long sought had been found.
He took his time, restraining desire, controlling passion, fighting the predatory urge that would make possession an act of violation. She would be his, finally and absolutely. He knew now he had wanted this from the first, a knowledge he had tried to deny, just as she had. And so he relearned the beauty of her body whose perfection his eyes had ascertained long before, his hands moving across waist and hip and thigh, and thence to the secret place between, gently stroking, teasing, rousing, feeling the answering rush of hot warmth, feeling the first shudder in her body’s core. A body made for this. His knee parted her thighs and he entered her, gently, encountering resistance, moving past it and then deeper into her, moving in slow rhythm, holding back, feeding the fire and bringing her with him.
Ashlynn gasped, feeling him thrust deeper into her, moving with him now, her body arching into his, each rhythmic stroke sending pleasure coursing through every fibre of her being. The cry caught in her throat. And then restraint was gone and there was a final fierce possession before release and the hot sweet rush of a mutual shuddering climax.
For a little while he remained inside her, breathing hard, looking into her face, seeing there an echo of his own wonder. He had expected to enjoy this; what he had not anticipated was the sheer soul-filling delight of it. Gently he withdrew and collapsed beside her, deliciously sated. He had given her pleasure in order to leave her wanting more; he had not realised that the effect might rebound on him with such force.
Beside him Ashlynn drowsed, exhausted. He smiled and drew the pelts over her again, dropping a kiss on her shoulder. Then he curled his body round hers and held her close, listening to her soft breathing until he too fell asleep.
Chapter Ten
Ashlynn stirred and then stretched luxuriously, her body filled with a sense of well being. Opening her eyes slowly to the new day she became aware of a strange room and for a moment or two couldn’t remember how she had got there. Then memory began to wake and she smiled to herself. Turning her head she let her gaze drink in the details of the sleeping face beside her. While the realities of the marriage bed had come as no surprise, she could never have imagined they would be anything like what had happened last night. The recollection sent a flood of warmth through her loins. The only cloud on her horizon was that he had not actually said he loved her. Not in so many words anyway. Cared for was not quite the same thing. Perhaps he found the words too hard to say.
In the meantime, she was aware of the advancing hour and that they had a house full of guests. Casting a furtive glance upon the sleeping figure she turned away, looking around for her clothes and finally spied them across the room. She began to ease herself from the bed. An arm closed about her waist, pulling her backwards. A moment later she was looking up at Iain’s face. He smiled.
‘Where did you think you were going, wife?’
‘We have social obligations, my lord.’
‘Let them wait.’
‘But it’s broad day. Too late to be lying abed.’
He grinned widened. ‘I assure you, ’tis early yet, my sweet, and in truth last night did but whet my appetite.’
‘You are quite shameless.’
‘You’re not the first person to say so.’
‘I can believe it. Whoever dubbed you Black Iain knew you well.’
The dark eyes gleamed appreciatively. ‘Well then, perhaps I should live up to my name.’
As the implication dawned Ashlynn’s inner demon woke. It might have been entirely seduced last night but that didn’t mean it was tamed. Without warning she twisted, trying to escape the restraining arm but it held her with consummate ease. Iain laughed softly. The sound caused her to redouble her efforts. She twisted again but instead of pulling away threw herself forward, landing across his chest, hands forcing his shoulders back against the bed. She smiled triumphantly. A moment later triumph turned to a gasp of dismay as he rolled, pinning her beneath his weight and cutting off all protest with a kiss. Pleasurable warmth spread the length of her body. Moreover, it was clear her efforts had done nothing to diminish his desire either. Ashlynn writhed, testing his hold. It yielded not an inch.
�
��Let me go, villain.’
‘Not a chance, lass.’
* * *
The sun was considerably higher before they emerged to face the world. However, no one seemed to find it amiss and their arrival in the hall was greeted with amused smiles. As they broke their fast Ashlynn kept her attention on the food, feigning nonchalance and trying not to dwell on recent events in the bedchamber. Even now her flesh seemed to burn with the recollection. When at length she had finished her meal she glanced up to meet Iain’s eye and saw him smile.
‘What shall we do today?’ he asked.
‘Since the snow is here we might as well make the most of it.’
At these words the children who had been playing nearby fell silent, their eyes on her face. Seeing all those hopeful expressions Iain was intrigued.
‘What exactly did you have in mind?’
‘Well, there are some sledges in the barn,’ she replied. ‘Perhaps we could take them out on to the hill.’
A babble of excited chatter erupted and was promptly shushed by the older ones. All eyes turned to Iain and they waited, hanging on his reply with painful longing. He let the silence drag out for a few seconds more and then grinned.
‘Why not?’ he said.
A cheer rent the air. He beckoned them closer. They obeyed, though still keeping to a respectful distance.
‘The older boys can fetch the sledges from the barn.’
At the word sledges other ears pricked up.
‘We’ll go with them, my lord,’ said Hamish, throwing an eloquent look at Donald.
‘Absolutely,’ his friend replied. ‘Just to be sure they come to no harm, my lord.’
Ban got to his feet. ‘I think I’d better go along too. There are lots of children to take care of after all.’
‘Indeed there are,’ Iain replied. Then he looked at Ashlynn. ‘I think some responsible adults should go accompany them, don’t you?’
She laughed. ‘You just read my mind.’
‘Can I come too, Aunt Ashlynn?’ said a timid voice beside her.
She glanced down and saw Fiona. ‘Of course you can come.’ Smiling she took the child’s hand in hers. ‘You shall walk with me.’
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