Enticing the Weary Warrior

by Tammy Jo Burns

  When she could not stand to wait a moment longer, Megan leaned back on the desk, pulling him with her. She once more hooked her legs behind his so that he couldn’t leave her. She placed the tip of his manhood against her throbbing feminine portal. Megan broke the kiss and pulled him closer so she could whisper in his ear, “Make me yours again, Liam.”

  They watched one another, and just when she thought all would be lost and he would pull away, he tightly gripped her hips and tilted forward. She held onto his powerful upper arms as he slowly entered her tight sheath. Her breath caught at the fullness and how her body stretched to acclimate itself to his girth once more. “I’ve missed you so much,” she muttered hoarsely. She moaned when he pulled almost all the way out, but then he was there again, moving so achingly slow that she wanted to scream at him to hurry.

  She saw the sweat beading on his body and knew the effort he was expending trying to wait for her. “Go ahead, this is for you,” she leaned up and kissed him gently against his lips.

  “No,” he shook his head. “Together,” he managed to say.

  Megan felt him reach between them and locate that ever so sensitive bundle of nerves. He alternated between rubbing and lightly pinching, all the while speeding up his movements. Liam leaned over her and took her mouth in another passionate kiss. The combination of everything he was doing sent her flying over the edge only seconds before her deliciously handsome husband.

  Chapter 15

  Megan’s eyes fluttered open. She no longer sat on the desk. In fact, her bottom was rather cushioned. Her cheek rested against a warm chest covered with dark, springy, coarse hair. Her dress was tucked around her body. Fingers gently combed through her hair, from temple to end, then repeated the soothing movement over and over. Megan tried not to move, tried to keep her breathing slow and steady, so he wouldn’t know she had awakened and wouldn’t try to push her away, for she feared that was exactly what he would do.

  She knew this man well. He would say they had tempted fate once and come out the winners. Better to savor that victory rather than to taunt that particularly fickle mistress. Would he ever touch her again, or would she be forced to live off the memories of this last encounter for the rest of her life? A tear trickled down her cheek and she bit her lip to hold back the sob that threatened to escape.

  * * *

  Liam was well aware that Megan was awake. The slight change to her breathing let him know she was now alert to her surroundings…and him. He didn’t let on that he knew. Instead, he kept slowly sifting through her hair, letting his fingers start at her temple and slide through until he reached the very end of her silky, brown locks. Then he would start the process again.

  Her weight on his lap felt reassuring and right. It felt as if they had never been apart, and the past five years had simply dissolved into history. Liam placed a kiss on top of her head then rested his chin there. He savored her skin pressed against him. Her dress covered both of them, keeping them warm. He continued to sift through her hair as his mind wandered.

  “How long are we going to sit here not saying anything to one another?” Megan broke the silence at last.

  “I knew you wouldn’t be able to stand the silence.” He chuckled when she reared back and gave him a speaking glance. “Besides, I would say that we’re talking now,” he said.

  “Remember how we used to sit like this at the loch and you would play with my hair until I fell asleep in your arms.”

  “Yes,” he replied hoarsely. The times she mentioned played vividly through his memory. He swallowed past the lump in his throat. Liam found himself wondering how their lives would have been different if he had not made the choice to join the War Office as an agent. He had still not been completely honest with Megan, for he had been in the war effort much longer than anyone knew.

  “You’re lost in the past again, aren’t you?” Megan asked. He watched her pull away and study him intently. “What do I have to do to keep you here with me? In the present,” she clarified. She draped her forearms on his shoulders and lightly clasped her hands behind his neck. Her dress slipped to her lap.

  She leaned towards him, and he moaned as he felt her breasts brush against his chest. He cupped her face with both hands, his thumbs softly rubbing her cheeks, and his fingers speared her hair. Liam dropped soft kisses along her lips, nibbling at their delicate softness. He felt her hands playing with his overly long hair.

  “I’ve missed your kisses so much,” Megan sighed.

  “I will always regret—”

  “Stop. No regrets. No past. Just us. Now. It has to be this way if it’s going to work. Now, kiss me, husband,” she ordered, pulling him to her.

  “I will attempt to assuage my lady’s needs,” he said before seizing her lips once more. He lazily plundered the recesses of her mouth. She was right, they had always done this very well. His heartbeat began to thrum slow and steady through his body only to gain in speed as the kiss progressed, and for the second time that night a miracle occurred. He felt his body coming to life once more. He felt Megan shift towards him, rubbing her hip against his reacting manhood. “Easy.” He placed a hand on her other hip and gentled her movements. “Stand up,” he coaxed hoarsely.

  She did and gave him the look of a well-trained vixen as she let the dress fall to the floor. Liam retrieved it as he stood and wrapped it around her middle, and covered as much of her as possible. He shocked her as he swept her up into his arms.

  “What’re you doing?” she demanded as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “If we’re going to be so lucky as to make love again, I refuse to do it on a desk, on the floor, or in a chair. I should have had more control last time and taken you to bed instead of rutting like a wild animal.” He carried her out of the study when he felt a sharp pinch on his upper arm. “What was that for?”

  “Don’t you dare diminish what we just did. It might not have taken place in a traditional location, but that fact doesn’t make it any less special to me.” She finished the argument with a captivating kiss that made him pause until it ended before he could climb the stairs to their bedroom.

  * * *

  Megan woke with the sun as she always did. She extricated herself from her husband’s arms and stretched the kinks out of her body. After she saw to her morning ablutions, she pulled on her light, cotton night robe, then crossed to the windows. She pushed the drapes far apart and let in the beautiful sunshine. She stood there a moment, stared out the window, and enjoyed the day before her. She refused to worry about anything, including the future.

  She heard a groan and couldn’t help the smirk that played at her lips. Megan walked over to the bed and took in the form of her husband sprawled out on his stomach. The sheets rested along his waist, leaving his upper half bare to her gaze. She sucked in a harsh breath, and a hand quickly flew to her lips. Interwoven scars laced Liam’s back. Some she could identify what had made them, others she couldn’t.

  “You can touch them,” his words were muffled and drifted to her as if through a fog.

  She crawled up on the bed beside his hip and braced herself across him with one arm. The fingers of her other hand lightly traced his back, drifting from scar to scar.

  “Are these the only scars you have?”

  “No.”

  “May I…” Her voice dropped off, not knowing quite how to phrase such a delicate request. She watched him stiffen, and she patiently waited for his decision, which was extremely difficult.

  “Yes,” the word sounded like a hiss as he finally relented. His body remained stiff and his hands were drawn into tight fists.

  Megan continued her slow inspection of his back, hoping he would relax beneath her touch, but he did not. “Do they hurt?”

  “The skin pulls sometime, but other than that, no.”

  Megan thought to visit Jack again and see if she could conjure up something to rub on his skin that would give him relief. She brushed light kisses over the bigger scars before she moved on in
her inspection. She steeled herself for what she would see as she pulled the sheet lower. More thin lines criss-crossed his buttocks and the back of his legs. Sprinkled amongst them were puckered marks varying in size and shape, most being round or oblong. “What are these?” she asked, lightly caressing one that lay particularly high up on his thigh, near his scarred buttocks.

  “Burn marks.”

  His voice sounded strained to her ears. “Is something wrong?”

  “No.”

  “You’d tell me if I were hurting you, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did they burn you?”

  “I wouldn’t give them the information they wanted. When the whippings and beatings didn’t work, they moved on to other methods.”

  “I’m so sorry about my attitude earlier when you and Da’ came back from London. You deserve everything they wish to bestow on you, plus more. You should be the bloody king of England for all that you’ve endured.” He shifted and made eye contact with her. “I mean it. I couldn’t see past my own suffering to understand what you went through. For that, I’m sorry.” She placed a tender kiss on his shoulder.

  He rolled over so that his front was available for her viewing pleasure. She began her inspection with his feet and slowly worked her way upwards. Burn marks and whip lines graced the front of his legs as well. Megan gently caressed his erect manhood, leaving it more so before moving upwards to his stomach, chest, and arms. “Your face?” she asked.

  “That’s why I’m not clean shaven as society prefers. It covers the scars.”

  “What kind?”

  “A few slashes. More burn marks. It became their favorite form of torture.”

  “I wish I knew where these men were. I would—”

  “Do what, Megan? It was war. We did the same thing to their men. We killed enemy agents and soldiers when they didn’t talk. I was extremely lucky. They thought I knew a great deal and what I knew was important enough to keep me alive. If we had married, you could have very well been left a widow or been used as a pawn against me.”

  “That was a chance I was willing to take,” she responded.

  “But I wasn’t. Perhaps if I’d known about the bairn it would have been different, but I had to help in the fight. I couldn’t leave you tied to someone who might not ever come back. I couldn’t risk your life.” He paused a moment and looked intently at her. “I’d been working as an agent for two years before I left.”

  “What?!” Megan asked incredulously, her voice rising. “I don’t believe it.”

  “It’s true. There had been talk about people taking payments to help smuggle French spies into the country. I befriended some of the smugglers and helped catch several spies as well as arrest the smugglers.”

  “But you never said anything.”

  “I couldn’t.”

  “We told each other everything.” She studied him, hoping he would say something to alleviate the hurt she currently felt that he had not confided in her. “All those times we were together, did you know you were leaving?”

  “Not at the beginning, but at the end—yes.”

  “And you said nothing.” It was an accusation.

  “If I had, I could have put you and your family in danger.”

  “Did you know that Justin was an agent?”

  “Not at that time. Mack’s very good about keeping his secrets close to him. Besides, we worked for two different departments.”

  She slipped from the bed and crossed back to the window. The warmth chased off the chill that had entered her body. One lone tear escaped, the only physical sign, besides her stiff body, of how this news affected her. She heard the bed creak followed by the padding of his feet on the wooden floor. Soon Megan felt his heat behind her. She saw his hands hovering out of her peripheral vision before they fell to his side. He did not touch her.

  “Why tell me all this now?” she asked. “You came back. We’re married, thanks to Da’. The marriage has been consummated, so unless we want to create a huge scandal, we’re stuck with one another for the rest of our lives. You have me. So, why tell me this now?” She continued to stare out the window, refusing to turn and look at him.

  “You had a right to know. I wanted to be completely honest with you.”

  “You were that.” She laughed harshly.

  “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “You didn’t want to hurt me?!” She spun around. “You hid a part of yourself from me for years. You didn’t trust me with the knowledge of who and what you were. Then you disappeared from my life allowing me to think you were dead, after you’d promised to come back and marry me. You knew full well you weren’t returning, yet how many times did you promise? All the plans we made for our life together were just lies to you,” she accused.

  “They weren’t lies. They just weren’t going to happen as soon as you thought.”

  “I thought you loved me.”

  “I did.”

  “Apparently not enough. I have to go work Legend,” she said, trying to step around him.

  “Meg, don’t leave angry. Cry, scream, hit me. Just do something.” He gripped her upper arms and halted her progress.

  “I am. I’m walking away.”

  “What in bloody hell is that supposed to mean? You can’t leave me, we’re married.”

  “I will not repeat myself. I don’t run away,” she said as she pulled free of his grasp. “I will be here every day for the rest of your natural life. Do you ken?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you certain, because you do not sound sure. I might be angry with you, but I will remain with you, if for nothing else than to make every day you spend on this earth miserable.”

  “That I understand,” Liam said with a smirk on his face.

  “You think it’s funny, do ye? Well, I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I think you deserve to know. I’ve known what happened to you in Spain and America for a while.”

  “How?” he asked, stiffening.

  “I eavesdropped as you told the recruits.”

  “Is nothing bloody sacred to you? Can a man not have a conversation in his own home without fear of the wrong person overhearing?”

  “It wasn’t your home, and am I the ‘wrong’ person for you? Is there someone out there a better fit to be your wife?”

  “Dammit, that’s not what I meant.”

  There was a moment of tense silence before Megan abruptly said, “It was wrong of me.”

  “You’re apologizing? For what?”

  “Eavesdropping.”

  “Miracles still occur,” he chortled.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” She crossed her arms beneath her bosom and sent him a chilling look.

  “Nothing,” he wiped the smirk from his face.

  “Yes, I listened in on your private conversation—”

  “Which,” he emphasized, “you weren’t supposed to hear.”

  “If you’ll give me a moment, you just might hear me apologize for something.”

  “I don’t believe it. You, apologize?” Megan tried to push past him when he halted her progress. “I will not say another word. Please continue.”

  “Are you certain you don’t have anything else to say?”

  “Quite.”

  She took a deep breath before she continued her earlier speech, “I know I shouldn’t have listened in on your speech to the trainees, and I apologize. But I did it because we were too busy avoiding one another to talk,” she added. “I didn’t know, at the time, if you would’ve ever told me, and I needed to know. I needed to understand where you had been and what you had endured.”

  “Then why did you make me tell you again if you already knew? Do you enjoy tormenting me? Is that it?” he demanded. “Were you having fun at my expense? Do you think it’s fun for me to relive those horrors over and over?”

  “That’s exactly what I thought,” she replied sarcastically. She tried to walk past him to go to the wardrobe when she felt his fir
m hand on her upper arm, stopping her once more.

  “You’re playing with fire.”

  “I like the heat,” she tossed back at him. “I have things to do. Do you mind removing your hand?”

  “Don’t even think about leaving me. I know it would take a miracle, but you might be…”

  “What?” She watched a flush sweep across his body. “What, Liam? I don’t have all day.”

  “There could be a bairn.”

  “As you said, it would probably take a miracle, and I think the two of us have run out of those, haven’t we?” She jerked her arm free and stomped across the room.

  “Meg, I…”

  Megan thought he sounded desperate. Good, she thought evilly. Let the man suffer. She pulled out the clothes she wore when training Legend. Minutes ago, she had been ready to put off her training session for another lovemaking session with her weary warrior, but that had been before his confession and their ensuing argument. Now she needed to expel her anger, and while she could do that with a bout of lovemaking as well, she needed some time away from Liam. Time to assimilate all that he’d told her, and he needed time, too. She pulled on her men’s breeches and fastened them, then dropped her robe to the floor, fully aware that her husband stood naked across the room, watching her dress. She took a long piece of cloth and bound her breasts by tightly wrapping her chest.

  “What a waste,” she heard Liam mutter.

  She smirked as she turned, and picked up a shirt from the floor. Megan pulled it on, allowing it to float over her head and engulf her in Liam’s scent. She heard a barely audible moan from him as she fastened the buttons down the front of the shirt, then quickly tucked the shirt tails into the waist of her pants. Megan bent low, and heard a moan come from Liam. She knew she was evil incarnate, tormenting her husband as she was, but she rather enjoyed it and took an extra long time finding a pair of socks, occasionally shifting from leg to leg. Megan crossed to the chair, pulled on her socks, then stood and stomped into her boots. She gave him a jaunty salute as she crossed to the door. Her hair hung down her back in thick, brown waves.