She gulped, her fingers itching to touch him, to smooth across his delectable skin. How frustrating.
“Come, let’s continue our argument in the water.” He scooped her into his arms, one hand underneath her bare bottom and the other her back. “I also need you to come around to my way of thinking. How might I persuade you, do you think?”
“We have fought over who is right and who is wrong about us being soul bound since the beginning.” She wound her arms around his neck as he walked into the pool, and unable to help herself, caressed his skin right over his heart. A soft rumble—perhaps more akin to a purr—vibrated in his chest then rose and escaped his lips. Water lapped her bottom then washed across her middle as he gently lowered her to her feet on the sandy pool floor. Oh goodness. She’d missed his warmth terribly since being denied it. She caught his hands, slid them around her waist and when he stretched his fingers and spanned her bare skin more fully, she softly sighed. “I like it when you touch me, and far too much.” She settled her cheek on his chest where the heavy beat of his heart thumped. Such comfort washed through her. “I wish the rising of the full moon was closer.”
“We can’t wish it to come forward, unfortunately, so let’s continue to take it one day at a time. We need to remain together and never apart. That’s all I’m asking of you, to listen to my request.” The darkened water rippled as he backed her deeper into the water, his gaze sweeping her breasts before she walked farther back and they disappeared under the rising surface. His gaze lifted again to hers, his golden shifter eyes gleaming a molten shade in the cavern lit by the thin stream of sunlight coming from the end of the tunnel near the loch. “I want the right to touch you, Ailith, as freely as any man does with his mate.”
“You’ve already touched all of me.”
“There is still more I wish to touch.” He covered her midriff with his hands, his fingers brushing the undersides of her breasts. “I want to speak handfast vows with you, in the old way.”
“Are you asking for marriage?”
“I am.” He cupped her breasts under the water, flicked his thumb over first one nipple then the other, his move sending a bolt of heat shooting straight to her core. “Will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife, Ailith?”
“A handfast is only for a year and a day.”
“In three weeks, we’ll speak marriage vows, as soon as the full moon has arisen. What do you say?”
“Nay.” She desperately wanted to say aye, but that she couldn’t do. Needing a moment to clear her head, she dove and swam underneath the water, a wave rippling outward as she kicked hard for the shore.
Hunter burst from the water behind her, clamped one hand on her ankle and dragged her back to him. He flashed a smile full of challenge, his teeth white and sharp, his claws extended. “Never run from a hungry bear, Goldilocks.”
“I wasnae running. I was swimming.”
“You do like to argue every point I raise.” He carried her to the beach, a happy rumble echoing about the cavern as he laid her down on the wet sand. He eased onto his side next to her, flicked her hair away from her breasts and tweaked her nipple.
A fiery tingle radiated from the sensitive tip and flared outward. Her toes curled at the delicious sensations he always stirred within her, and she clutched his arms, dug her fingers into his skin. “Do you remember now why you call me Goldilocks?”
“Aye, because that first night, I found you asleep in my bed, your golden curls falling across my pillow as you rested.”
“I’m still unsure what you mean.”
“Have you never heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears?”
“Nay.” Somehow, she’d missed hearing that tale.
“It’s about a girl called Goldilocks, with golden ringlets just like yours. She goes for a walk in the woods and comes across a house belonging to three bears, who aren’t at home at the time. She partakes of their food, then becomes tired and falls asleep in one of their beds.”
“Oh, I see, and you found me sleeping in your bed.”
“Aye, with no knowledge of who you were, which is why I named you Goldilocks.”
“I see.” Smiling, she rubbed her body against his body, drawing his scent back into her skin. She likely shouldn’t, but she couldn’t help herself.
“I need to touch all of you.” He tweaked her other nipple and more tingles flared.
“You have a way of seducing all rational thought from my head.” She pushed his legs apart with her knees and snuck one leg between his legs, his erect cock hot and thick and swollen between them.
“When two people make love, rational thought isn’t needed.” Pain edged his husky tone. “I’m completely and utterly addicted to you, of being with you and I long to be your lover, in every single way.”
“I’m addicted to you too.” She swept her hands down his body and wrapped her fingers around his shaft. She stroked him in long pulls, looked deep into his eyes. “I love being this close to you.”
“Ailith.” He groaned into her neck, pushed her inner thighs farther apart and pushed two fingers deep inside her channel below. He twirled them about until he hit a spot that had her gasping for breath.
A depth of wonder filled her, her love for him swarming her heart and wrenching deep at her soul. She could never lose him, not now, not ever. “Keep touching me.”
He hit that same spot again and she gulped air.
“I—I—” More gulping.
“I feel the same way too.” He moved onto his hands and knees, lifted her onto her own hands and knees as well, then from behind, gripped her hips and crawled in overtop of her. With his chest to her back and his cock in hand, he rubbed it along her slit. Such excitement bubbled deep inside her and she pressed her bottom back into the cradle of his hips and smiled as he rasped in her ear, “My bear is pushing close to the surface and demanding I take you like this. He wants a primal joining.”
Her lashes fluttered down, anticipation and heady desire thrumming strongly through her. “You can take me however you please, but all I ask is that you dinnae take my maidenhead. I willnae remove your choices come the next full moon, no’ if you arenae mine.”
“Not exactly the answer I wanted, but I’ll abide by your decision. You’ll remain intact.” He reached one hand around her thigh and stroked along her entrance, then caressed her nub as he continued to glide the head of his cock back and forth along her wetness.
She wanted him to surge through her barrier and stake his claim on her, to not miss such a chance of a joining, but…but… Ugh, so many dratted buts. Moaning, she squeezed her eyes shut, reached underneath her and grasped his shaft in her hand. He bucked into her hold, his fingers inside her going deeper. She stroked him harder, just as he stroked her. A sweet pressure built in her core. She wanted him to claim her, in every single way, just as she wanted to claim him in return.
“Hell, you’re so wickedly tight.” He slid his fingers exquisitely deep then glided deliciously over her nub. “I want to be inside you.”
“I want you there too. I truly do, but ’tis too soon.” She moved with him as her orgasm continued to build.
“Come for me, Ailith.”
“No’ without you.” Pumping him harder, she balanced on the edge of a cliff she longed to fly from, but only if he could fly right alongside her.
“I can’t hold on much longer.” He flicked her nub and she soared, her core rippling with wave after wave of mindless bliss, and a kaleidoscope of brilliant colors burst in a beautiful display behind her eyelids. Breathtaking.
Slowly, she came back down and opened her heavy eyes.
Sated and still on her hands and knees, she smiled at him over her shoulder. Sultry steam swirled as Hunter still worked his cock in long pulls, his body a mass of muscle and heat covering her back. “What do you need me to do?”
“Turn over,” he demanded. “I want you on your back, right now.”
Content and sluggish with her moves, she did as he bid and once
she was on her back on the sand, he gripped her knees and thrust them apart. Kneeling between her legs, he searched her gaze as he took himself in hand again and pumped hard. Another fisted pull and he jerked, his seed splashing her folds. His essence flowed over her intimate flesh, then he was there, capturing her mouth with a fierce kiss.
Such intense heat built in her middle once again. More. She needed even more. She grasped his hand and guided two of his wicked fingers inside her. “I love you,” she whispered against his lips.
“I love you too,” he whispered right back, his fingers going deeper.
Liquid heat surged through her middle and she cried out as she rode another orgasm in a fiery blast. Such pleasure overtook her, and she clung to him, her fingernails digging into his shoulders as she held on. “Hunter, there is no one else for me, other than you. I pray you truly are my mate.”
Chapter 15
Misty warm air swirled and Ailith stirred awake. Hunter’s scent surrounded her, although not the man himself. She breathed deep, a trace of his scent floating to her on the breeze wafting through from the passageway leading outside the cavern, beyond the rock wall.
She opened her telepathic link and touched his mind, “Do you care to tell me where you are?”
Warmth flooded her mind, then his voice, “The last thing I wished to do was leave you, but it’s late and your belly was rumbling. The sun is about to disappear below the horizon, and I’m going to set a snare and catch us a meal for the coming night.”
“You didnae wish to return to the keep?”
“No, I wish for more time alone with you, in my lair.”
“Then dinnae take too long.” She wished for more time with him too. ’Twas impossible not to. She closed their connection, pushed to her feet on the soft sand and stepped into the warm water of the pool where it lapped gently in and receded. She intended to enjoy this magical place a little longer yet. She waded in then went deeper and dived. Glorious, and so divine. She kicked below the surface, glided right across to the far side of the cavern then emerged and swam with lazy strokes back to the beach.
Head tipped to the side, she wrung the water from her hair and flapped out her clothing. The leather breeches clung to her damp legs as she pulled them on, the cream tunic sticking to her skin as well, but she’d dry soon enough. Golden dust still sparkled within the grains of sand under her feet. Cherub shouldn’t have spelled the return of Hunter’s memories the way she had, although she couldn’t remain mad at her aunt any longer, not when it truly hadn’t been right that she’d been keeping Hunter’s memories from him. Still, she and Hunter needed to resolve their issues, which meant finding a way to fix their current dilemma. Only where did she start? Mayhap with her skill and her vision which had first brought her here.
She lowered to a crouch, pressed one hand to the warm sand and sent her senses swirling outward. A vision swirled, a heavy rush of images crashing in and through it the shape of a heavily barred door shimmered through. A cell. No windows, although a candle burned in a holder on the wall, its meager light flickering over the gloomy gray-black stones. A pallet lay in one corner, ratty gray blankets tossed over it and a MacKenzie plaid folded across one end. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, one draping low over a small side table. In the center of the table sat a trencher with bread, cheeses, nuts and wait, was that salmon and were those sugared plums too?
She strode toward the table, her boots clipping across the dusty, scratched up stone floor. She was still dressed as she had been on board the vessel, in a tunic and black leather pants, her leather vest unlaced and the sides flapping free. She stepped up to the table and prodded the fruit with one finger. ’Twas indeed a sugared plum. She picked up the confection and slipped it between her lips and oh my, it melted in her mouth, so sweetly ripe on her tongue. Her belly rumbled and cramped. Why was she starved of food when a tray overflowing with these kinds of glorious offerings sat right in front of her?
She stalked to the door, pressed her ear against it and waited. Not a single noise filtered through the heavy metal, the door bolted shut. Slamming her fist against it, she yelled, “Is anyone there?”
“Step back, lass.” Keys jingled and the lock clicked open. The door swung wide and a massive warrior in a padded leather war coat leered at her through oily black hair falling in stringy locks across his beady gray eyes. Behind him, another candle burned on the blackened wall of the dungeon.
“Where is the slain warrior?” Hunter was gone, never to return, and she sensed that loss to the depths of her heart and soul. “I wish to oversee his burial.”
“We tossed him overboard into the mud flats, where he sank into the muck and slime.” His evil laughter boomed at her. “He now rests where he belongs, well and truly buried.”
She’d done this to Hunter, ensured his death instead of his survival by taking him to the past. She searched outward along her telepathic connection toward Cherub, but got nothing other than an endless black hole. Damn it all. She must be too deep underground to be able to reach her aunt. That could happen if too much rock and metal lay between her and her kin.
“Stand aside, Medrick.” MacKenzie issued the order as he stepped through the door, and the man left the cell with a curt nod and a grating thump as he closed the thick panel of steel.
“What do you want from me?” She’d stand her ground, never waver before him.
MacKenzie gripped her sides, gave a shove and sent her slamming back into the wall behind her. She lost her breath, but quickly fought to lug it back in and regain her standing. MacKenzie sauntered across to her, locked his gaze on hers as she planted her feet wide. “I’ve admired you and your ability to move amongst Gilleoin’s warriors for a long time, as if you are one with them, just as any man would be. You’re lethal with a blade and can hit a target with your bow and arrow from over a hundred feet distant. You’re also one of the full-blooded fae and that makes you a treasure to capture and make mine.”
“I belong to no one.”
He let off an evil laugh. “Give me your allegiance, and I’ll make your days and nights far easier to bear if you do.”
“If you dare touch me, I’ll slice your head from your shoulders.”
“Strong words.”
“True words.”
“Yet you have no weapon in order to wield that threat.”
“Aye, they’re missing.” She hadn’t felt the heaviness of her weapons since being on board his galley. “But you should never underestimate one of the fae.”
“I shall take your words under advisement.” MacKenzie slid his sword free of his scabbard, shoved her back against the wall and pressed his blade against her throat. In her ear, he muttered, “You show no fear toward me, which I find enticing. I look forward to being able to break you.”
“I will never give you what you desire.”
“I’ll bring a priest here, speak vows with you, and soon you will carry my son and when you do, I’ll have ensured the strongest fae blood runs directly through my line.”
“I will never consent to being your wife.”
He sank his blade even deeper into her neck. Blood trickled, a line that dripped freely, then as he eased his blade back, his mouth curved into a vicious smile as her skin sealed together and healed while he watched with evil fascination. “Aye, you and I shall have fun during your confinement. I shall enjoy bleeding you.”
She ducked low, swung one leg out and tried to topple him, only he shoved his blade into her shoulder and she fell, him pinning her to the floor with that blade as he came down hard on top of her. Everything swayed then went dark.
Chapter 16
Hunter strode along the forest trail, his heart full to overflowing with the love he’d been gifted this night. A few minutes ago, the sun had dropped below the horizon and now under the patchy moonlight trickling through the foliage high above, he rummaged within the undergrowth and found a ropy tree root hanging loose from a tree. He looped the ropy root into a noose, gathered twigs and hammere
d them into the ground and draped the noose over the trap. He knotted the other end to a low branch overhead, tossed a smattering of dry leaves overtop to hide the trap, then along with a wild berry he plucked from a bush, placed it strategically in place as bait. His trap was set.
Shirtless and brushing his hands against his black jeans, he jogged barefoot to the nearest stream winding through their land, knelt at the water’s edge and scooped mouthfuls. He and his clansmen always kept supplies in hutches along this river and he climbed the closest tree, hooked one leg over the V dividing the trunk and opened the hutch door. He pulled out a skin, a Matheson plaid and a shirt from within a waterproof pouch, then closed the door.
Gripping the trunk, he slithered back down, dropped onto the leaf strewn ground and noted which hutch he’d need to return to, to ensure it was restocked. Shirt donned and the plaid hooked over his shoulder, he knelt at the water’s edge. He filled the skin, attached it to his belt and made his way back along the trail. He collected twigs and the odd log as he wandered along the forest path, then grinned as a soft snap pinged from the location of his trap. Perfect. He tramped back to it, carefully removed the rabbit, skinned and cleaned it beside the stream then returned with his catch and kindling to Faodail.
He bounded into the cavern, set his armful of bracken down next to his woman sitting cross-legged on the sand in her black leather breeches, cream tunic and tan leather vest. Dressed again, her golden locks lying in damp, springy curls down her back, she lifted her emerald gaze to his with something akin to fear flickering within their depths.
“What’s wrong?” He dropped onto his knees before her.
“I had another vision, a bad one.”
Damn, but he hated her visions, which always seemed to show his death, and which always inevitably left her wanting to run from him. Hopefully though, since she still remained here, that surely meant she’d chosen to talk about her vision rather than running.
Highlander's Claim: Time Travel Romance (The Matheson Warriors Book 2) Page 13