He loved her like this. He wanted nothing but to fill her with that beautiful bliss. He leaned back against the pillow and took hold of her hips. He drew her down on his lap. “Aye, lassie. Aye.”
Her eyes locked on his face. Oh, the rapture of watching her eyes roll back in her head when she sat down on his stiff member. She grabbed it in wanton ecstasy and aimed it where she wanted it. Her puffy tissues swallowed it in all its raw raging power, and he disappeared inside her.
His heart ached, and his body convulsed from the pressure of her contracting muscles all around him. Her inner anatomy stroked him in rhythmic pulses. She sealed her hot flesh against his skin, and he almost died of happiness.
He threw back his head and closed his eyes, but her mesmerizing face always drew him back. He had to stare at her. He had to watch her undulating in sinuous pleasure on his shaft. How could any man survive this heady mix of torture and bliss?
She tightened her fingers on his chest. She thrust him home to her deepest recesses until he thought he would explode. Her beauty enthralled him. He had to touch her all over. He had to cradle her swaying breasts and follow the majestic curve of her hips and waist. He had to massage her ass until she moaned in orgasmic fulfillment.
Her juices dribbled around his veins. His nuts compressed into her molten fissure. Her iron muscles clenched him so tight he couldn’t stand it. All the time, her gaze held him captive. He couldn’t take his eyes off her sex-starved face. She swayed between astonishment and craven lust and spiritual attainment.
He touched her face, and she turned aside to kiss his fingers. She sucked his fingers into her mouth, and the hot wet sensation shot a lightning bolt through his guts. His midsection contracted and shoved his prick deeper into her burning channel.
That quick thrust set off a chain reaction. She pumped her hips against him in a rapid-fire beat that rocketed him into outer space. He heaved off the bed and grabbed her in both arms. He pounded up into her from below while he dropped her down on his tool from above.
She shrieked louder than ever, but she didn’t try to stop him. Her breast appeared in his face, and he took it in all his animal madness. He bit her nipple while her glorious spongy wetness welcomed his hard piston pumping into it.
She arched her back against him. Her body tensed on the brink of a massive release. She submitted to his domination. She screamed to the heavens, but he couldn’t stop. He would never stop. He would take her with him into the stratosphere before he ever let her go.
She clung to him for dear life. He split her open until the steamy cocktail flowed out of her. She screamed and screamed. Her voice ripped the silence apart and woke the spirits from their slumbers. She called on this mausoleum to release its ghosts back to life.
Jamie folded his legs under him. He launched himself onto his knees and propped her up on his lap. She stared up into his eyes in shock, but she still didn’t stop. She wrapped her body around him and accepted that wicked spike plowing into her burning channel.
He couldn’t hold back any longer. The sight of her in mortal ecstasy rocketed him over the edge of the greatest climax of his life. He howled and roared in her face. She only screamed back in torrential completion. Her hot insides welcomed his life’s essence until they both overflowed to anoint each other in heaven.
Chapter 29
Grace took one last longing look around the castle entrance hall. Her eyes dallied over every stone in the floor and every tapestry on the walls. She inhaled every detail one last time before she pulled the door shut behind her.
Jamie leaned against the stone pillar at the bottom of the steps. He gazed off into the forest. He showed no sign of noticing her until she descended the steps to join him. He hopped up. “All ready, then?”
“I’m ready. Are you?”
“I’m allus ready.”
She snorted. “That’s a good one.”
He moved away from the steps, out into the yard. In an instant, he dropped onto his hands and changed into the golden dragon. He crouched there with the sun glinting off his scales, and he pumped his wings. The wind rushed into the trees and set the forest roaring.
Grace smiled up at him. She worshiped him like this, so strong and brave and powerful. She came to his side, but before she could climb onto his back, he reared onto his back legs. He thrust out his wings and screeched at the top of his lungs.
He arched his long neck, and his head flailed against the sky. His voice rose to the mountains high above and rang off the rocks. He stood on his hind legs and pawed the air with his claws. He gleamed golden in the sunshine.
He landed on all fours in front of her, and she jumped on his back. His neck curved to hold her in place. With a few powerful strokes of his wings, he took to the air. He soared over the mountains on a winding spiral into the clouds.
They passed the mountains, and Jamie cut down a long, steep ridge between two pinnacles. It stuck out into an open plane like a bird’s wing, and a tall, thin man stood almost naked on its peak. He raised his stick to the dragon and waved.
Jamie let out another ear-splitting shriek. The sound thrilled Grace, and she whooped to the skies. She was free at last! They were on their way to Urlu, to the new and wonderful life awaiting her there.
She lifted her arms to the sun, and the blessed air filled her lungs. By the time she thought to look down on the village, it already passed far away to the east.
Jamie flew over a wide stretch of inland water before he turned his head for the open sea. He mounted higher on twisting thermals until the whole landscape dwindled to a painting below.
Grace drew a deep breath of freedom. She never looked back at the life she left behind. She never dreamed of her house and her job and her retirement account so far away in America. Nothing could induce her to go back there even if she found a way to do it.
Jamie didn’t streak away westward like a burning fiery arrow, though. He lingered in the clouds and surveyed the landscape below him. While they drifted on the jet streams, Grace spotted something moving down below. She murmured in his ear, “Jamie, look!”
He turned his head, and they both saw a distinct black cloud hovering on the horizon. Grace’s blood ran cold. It blocked her view of the country beneath it, but she clearly detected a bright outline of an island against the cold grey sea. It was the Isle of Mull. Those black things crowded over it in such thick swarms she could barely see the island itself.
Jamie looked away and started flying. He headed due west, away from Mull. Grace’s heart leapt into her mouth. He picked up speed. He would fly away and leave the McLeans to defend their homeland alone.
Grace couldn’t allow that. She couldn’t turn a blind eye to the McLeans’ trouble, not after everything they did to help her when she really needed it. She lay down low on Jamie’s neck and whispered to him. “We have to help them. We can’t leave them like this. We have to do something.”
He didn’t respond. He flexed his wings and flew faster than ever. The wind beat against Grace’s eyelids. She couldn’t watch him fly away from another Clan in distress. She buried her face against his warm scales and closed her eyes. “Oh, Jamie!”
All of a sudden, he tipped over sideways. She cried out in surprise, but he already banked hard to his left. He zoomed down out of the sky flying faster than a bullet. He pulled in his wings and stretched out his neck and tail until he made himself a burning rocket cutting through the air.
Grace held on for dear life. The Earth caught them and hauled them toward the ground at terminal velocity. Jamie plunged down fast. He only adjusted his course at slight angles to turn his slit eyes on Mull.
In seconds, the island rushed at Grace’s face. Jamie let his fire rip, and he blasted his way through the clouds of winged creatures. Grace never got a good look at them. She ducked her head low while Jamie cleared a fiery path across the island and left nothing in his wake.
He rocketed into the air over the wide ocean. Grace didn’t have time to raise her head to see what
destruction he left behind. He whizzed around going the other way for another pass.
In the distance, Moy Castle raised its square walls out of the rocky fields. Torrential waves smashed against the coastline. The next instant, Jamie exploded into the cloud of flying monsters and scorched them to cinders.
Men on the castle walls waved their weapons at him and cheered, but Jamie never slowed down for an instant. He punched through the swarm blasting his fire in all directions. He didn’t stop until he gained the heights and turned in the clouds to take aim on his enemies again.
After each pass, the winged demons filled in the gap he left with his fire. They flooded in to crowd the castle with their black bodies. Where did they all come from? Jamie paid no attention. He stooped for another assault, and when he hit the swarm, dozens of the things bounced off his tough hide.
Grace bent her head to let them fly over her. She listened to the resounding thunk of the things pelting Jamie from all sides, but she never doubted she was safe. Jamie would never let anything happen to her.
Just then, she noticed the pounding noise didn’t diminish. It kept on thudding his sides, on and on without end. One of the winged creatures hit her in the head. It bounced off, and another one hit her in the shoulder.
Faster the impacts came. She dared not open her eyes or raise her head to see what was going on. At that moment, a thousand tiny claws pierced her skin. They tugged and tore her in a million directions at once.
She cried out in alarm, but it was already too late. She barely got her eyes open in time to see those things crowding all over her. They clustered so thickly around her head and body she got a slim glimpse of Jamie a few feet in front of her.
The things covered his skin and blacked out the golden gleam of his scales. He fought with all his might to shake the things off. His fire shot out every which way, but he couldn’t shoot them off himself.
He lashed his tail around and slapped them away right and left, but there were just too many of them. The instant he cleared one patch of skin, thousands upon thousands of them attacked him from all sides. He bellowed in rage, but he couldn’t do anything.
Grace fought back, but they came at her so fast she couldn’t react. Before she could do anything, they seized her by the arms and legs and hair and clothes. They dragged her off Jamie’s back, and she plunged into the open sky.
Clear blue sea spread out below her. The things pecked and scratched and tore at her, but they couldn’t stop her falling. She plummeted downward. She screamed for Jamie, but he couldn’t get to her in time. She hit the water with catastrophic force. It crushed her to a floppy bundle of pulp and bone, and she sank into the cold black depths.
Chapter 30
Jamie whipped around when he felt Grace’s weight lift off his neck. He screeched out loud. He flapped his wings hard enough to free them from the winged menace, but he couldn’t get to Grace in time. He lost sight of her beneath the waves.
The creatures hounded him to the spot. They fluttered into his eyes. They tangled up his wings so he couldn’t fly. They weighed him down with their sheer numbers. He had to find a way to fight them off. He had to get to Grace.
He wriggled hard to shake the things off, but they sank their pernicious little claws into his scales and hung on. He loathed them with all his soul. He spat his fire at them, but more and more appeared out of nowhere. Where did they all come from so fast?
An idea popped into his head. He beat his wings and tilted upward, into the wide blue yonder. They tried to clamber onto his wings to stop him flying, but he overpowered them. He could flap harder than they could hold him.
He climbed as high as he could into the sky, but they held on tighter than ever. Nothing would shake them loose. He paused at the very apogee of his flight. The tempestuous winds of the high atmosphere tore at the creatures’ flappy wings, but not even that could dislodge them.
Jamie bent his head forward and dropped. He let his wings go limp, and he fell to Earth. The winged monsters held on tighter than ever. So much the better. The harder they stuck, the harder they would fall when the time came.
He squinted against the sun and wind. He let his tail stream out behind him. He reveled in his own weight dragging him toward the ground. If he kept going at this speed, he would smash into the solid Earth.
At the last second, he craned his neck sideways. He veered a few degrees to one side and plunged headfirst into the ocean. The impact stripped the horrid little beasts off him. The icy water embraced him all over in fresh clean cold, but he couldn’t enjoy it.
He dove deep into the black depths. His momentum propelled him a long way. After that, he extended his wings and flew through the water. He hunted everywhere, but he couldn’t find Grace.
He plunged deeper. Where was she? She hadn’t been underwater more than half a minute at the most. She had to be here. He couldn’t lose her like this—not after all they’d been through.
He started to panic. He couldn’t see anything, and his other senses didn’t work underwater. Where could she be? He floundered all over the place. He darted right and left. He swam deeper. Then he searched closer to the surface. His mind spun in a thousand directions. His soul screamed out, Grace! again and again, but of course no one answered.
This couldn’t be happening. He wouldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t just vanish off his back like that, just when he finally took her home. She wanted this so bad. He couldn’t let her down. He had to find her, and fast.
Out of nowhere, his tail brushed something. It might have been a sea creature for all he knew, but he rounded on it in a frenzy. He bumped it with his snout. The instant he touched it, he knew it was her.
He flew into a fit of manic activity. He lashed his tail around her waist and set off for the surface as fast as he could swim. He pushed his muscles to the breaking point. A stab of pain shot through his injured wing, but he didn’t care. He would break it all over again to save her. He would rip his wings off if it meant giving her the slightest chance to survive.
He hauled her into the light. He broke the surface and gulped air into his lungs. He lifted her out of the water, and the air filled his wings. He carried her to the land, but she hung floppy and saturated from the loop in his tail.
He landed in the field outside the Tower House. He put her down, and she lay still and motionless on the ground at his feet. For an instant, he stared down at her lifeless form. Her eyes stayed closed, and she didn’t breathe.
He fell on his knees at her side. He gathered her in his arms. “Grace!” he whispered. “No, Grace. Ye cinnae be. I winnae let ye go. Do ye hear? Ye mun’ come back. Ye mun’. I cinnae let ye go, no like this. Do ye hear me, Grace? Ye mun’ come back.”
A terrible stillness echoed all around him, but he didn’t hear that. He didn’t see the men standing around staring at him holding this corpse in his arms. He didn’t see the looks on their faces when he whispered into her hair and kissed her forehead.
“Are ye listenin’ tae me, Grace?” he called. “I need ye too much. Ye cinnae go like this. Ye belaing ’ere. We’re goin’ home tae Urlu, Grace, just the way ye said ye wanted tae. Come on. Get up. Ye mun’ get on yer feet and mount up.”
Lachlan McLean came up behind him and laid his hand on Jamie’s shoulder. Jamie heard his own voice rise to a broken shriek. “Grace! Come on, Grace. Get up. Do ye hear? This cinnae be. I’ll no allow it. I winnae let ye.”
Lachlan said nothing. He only squeezed Jamie’s shoulder. Jamie hugged Grace’s wet body against him until the seawater seeped through his clothes and made him as wet as she was. He rocked her back and forth. He couldn’t accept that he hadn’t saved her in time.
She couldn’t be gone. She couldn’t. He got to her in time. He brought her out of the water. She would start breathing again any second now. She would open her eyes, and they would go on with their journey back to Urlu.
He couldn’t go to Urlu without her. He couldn’t face showing up without her and seeing the pained
expressions in his brothers’ eyes. Robbie would have told them all about how Grace and Jamie lived together in their home castle. All his brothers would understand when he didn’t show up with her.
None of them would dare ask what happened, and their strained silences would cut him ten times worse than the worst interrogation. He clutched her against him. He tried to pick her up, but her slippery body slithered out of his arms. She fell flat on her back on the ground.
Jamie collapsed over her. He hugged her and buried his face in her dripping hair.
Chapter 31
Grace struck the water hard enough to rip her clothes. The blow stunned her for an instant. When her vision cleared, she found herself floating in a clear azure sea. The water swirled all around her. It enfolded her in a pocket of warmth.
Her hair floated around her face. She moved through the silky liquid when she waved her arms and legs. She could direct herself right or left, up or down, forward or backward as she pleased. She observed the underwater world all around her. The sun streamed down from above and lit up everything in clear crisp detail.
A huge castle stood not far away. Seahorses bobbed all around it, and fish darted in and out of its doors and windows and drawbridges. Waving fronds of seaweed decorated the sand around it.
The castle dominated the landscape, and it shimmered in the wavy lapping of water drifting past Grace’s face. Without understanding how it happened, she found herself floating toward it. Her mind didn’t function well enough in this curious world to formulate any questions. It just happened.
She didn’t question when she passed through the hazy walls, either. She swam through their rippling surface and found herself in a tremendous hall. Its dimensions encompassed a space almost as big as the castle itself.
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