by Joanne Rock
“It is no more than you’ve already done for me.” Her gray eyes matched the color of the overcast sky full of mist. “This place is so lovely.” She looked around the glade where he’d reined in. A brook babbled nearby, the water making a soothing music as it rushed over the rocks. “Do you know it?”
How had he known to stop here? He hadn’t even made a conscious choice to bring the horse to rest in this place.
“Aye. I know it well.” Sliding out from beneath her, he dropped to his feet and then reached to help her down. “This is a magical glade. A place where sidhe lands meet that of mortals. A place where time does not touch.”
She slid easily into his arms, trusting him more every time she came to him. Knowing that cut him deeper. Would make their inevitable parting all the more impossible.
“Truly?” She frowned, her expression growing fierce as he let her go. Touching her was a temptation he could not battle for long. “How can we be safe in lands so close to your enemy?”
“The enemy can reach us anywhere. Yet here is a bit safer because time moves so slowly that you can stay here for days and the rest of the world thinks you’ve been gone but an hour.”
A fair eyebrow lifted as she looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
“An appealing place for lovers.”
He all but swallowed his tongue.
When he recovered himself, he found she stood even closer to him, as if she knew exactly the implication of her words.
“Elizabeth.” He shook his head, knowing what she wanted even though he did not understand why. “I have naught to offer you. My life is already doomed to an existence I would not share with you, no matter how selfishly I might wish it.”
Birds called and sang in the trees all around them, the glade teeming with life as if nature was more verdant here. Even the leaves seemed greener, fuller. The trees rustled gently in a breeze that chased the Highland mist to the edges of the clearing.
“I am not asking you for that much.” She shook her head, the blond waves dancing along her shoulders like a water nymph’s. “I wish an afternoon. An hour. Just a short window of time to share with a man who does not find me a lurching and plain-faced mockery of womanhood.”
There was no bitterness in her words, just honesty. Still, hearing she had ever been subjected to such vile stupidity made him itch to withdraw his sword and ride to London to skewer whole ballrooms full of spineless men who spewed such venom.
Now, it was impossible not to touch her. His fingers came to rest on her cheek and he stroked the downy skin there.
“I will admit I am grateful that you have spent your time with such stupid oxen that they cannot see past their noses to the incredible treasure you are.” He had never spoken such pretty words to any woman. Not even his long-ago love who had been dead for nearly a century.
At this moment, he could not call to mind her face, his thoughts so full of Elizabeth that he knew it was time to put the past to rest. Elizabeth deserved his full attention. His whole heart.
“You have kind eyes.” She smiled warmly and her simple beauty dazzled him more than any celebrated debutante.
“I am…” His store of pretty words ran out, his tongue helpless to say whatever she might need to hear. He wanted to tell her she was beautiful to him. That she was selfless. Strong. Brave. All things he cared about even more than her finely made limbs and subtle curves.
But at that moment, the lure of the moment and the woman and the glade were too much. She had saved his life this day and no one had ever given him such a gift.
Saints forgive him, he slanted his mouth over hers and kissed her with all the emotions he could not put into words.
Chapter Five
There was no stopping this kiss.
Elizabeth felt it in her blood like a rising tide, the heat and the passion of the man in her arms affecting her like a fever as his mouth claimed hers. She closed her eyes to better experience the moment she would never have back again.
If one hour or one day with Magnus Darroch was all she would ever know, she planned to savor every second. Every touch.
Strong arms wrapped around waist and back, sealing her body to the sculpted muscles of his chest. The thick ridge of manhood between his hips. She molded around him as if she was made for him, her whole body melting into him while he coaxed her lips apart with the tender pressure of his. His tongue danced with hers in an exquisitely soft caress so much different from what their bodies were doing.
His hands roamed up and down her spine, his fingers straying lower and lower with each caress. She breathed in clean mountain air and musky male, the scent of his skin making her want to taste more of him. She didn’t question what she was feeling, but merely let her hands start exploring the hard planes of his shoulders and back while she learned to kiss him the way he kissed her. When his lips left hers to sear a trail down her throat and to the bodice of her tattered gown, she felt shivers race down her spine in a heady tingle.
He drew her forward and her steps followed his without question. She felt safe here. Safe with him. So she wasn’t surprised when he broke away from her enough to show her the garden bower overgrown with moss and primrose in bloom. It was like a big bench seat in an old-fashioned English garden, only this one was far from any house or village. Dark ivy draped over a hawthorn trellis like a green curtain.
With a nod, she allowed him to draw her within the ivy curtain to the soft moss-covered seat that might have been a fallen tree trunk or a slab of granite. It was too overgrown to tell. She simply followed him down to lie at his side, her head pillowed by his arm.
Then, he drew her close again, his lips finding hers and stirring the soft warmth inside her again. She ran her hands along his cheeks and the rough new growth of beard that shadowed his jaw. The scruff bit lightly into her palms and her chin.
He gripped her hip and eased her closer, his palm cupping her thigh and lifting it, bringing her feminine heat in sharp contact with the hard ridge beneath his plaid. She gasped at the feel of him and the surge of desire that shot through her in response.
Nerve endings tingled to life everywhere, her whole body coming alive in a way she’d never experienced. She felt breathless. Hungry. Anxious for more of him and what he was doing to her.
With trembling fingers she searched the folds of the plaid to find a way in. She could not find how to unfasten it, so she settled for sliding her hands beneath it, her palms learning the feel of his bare skin stretched taut over sinew. When she reached lower, tracing the contours of his abdominal muscles, Magnus shifted to unfasten the plaid. She did not see where he reached or what he touched to manage the trick, but like a magician he made the fabric all but disappear. Wool slid to one side until only his hips remained covered, and that solely because her hips were pressed so tightly to him that her body held it in place.
She wanted to tell him she was ready for more, but even as she thought it, he turned her to her back, covering her. Her eyes flew open, wanting to see him. Eyes as green as the glade stared down into hers and she arched her neck to kiss him hard, with all the desire steaming through her.
His hands worked beneath her spine, unlacing ties and tearing at buttons until the gown loosened. He hauled the fabric down and off.
“How many layers of clothes do ye wear, lass?” He peered up at her and grinned wolfishly. “Dinna think for one moment that it will deter me.” He set to work on the next layer, an elaborate corset cover.
“My mother commissioned more undergarments for my trip to London than I will ever wear in the hope I would feel pretty, I think.” Elizabeth guessed she should be more grateful that her parents were so generous. Yet she also knew she’d been a bartering chip for them, an investment they took seriously.
“I thank my stars then, that your luggage is lost forever.” He tore free the fabric only to arrive at her corset. “There is more still to unfasten?” His eyebrows furrowed into even more fierce lines.
Elizabeth laughed, an oddl
y small and joyous moment in a day of fears, risks and dangers. She lowered her gaze, taking in his now bare chest and shoulders. His body revealed was a marvel. Better than any warrior depicted on the Invergale tapestries.
“The corset is to give me curves.” She knew some women appreciated the way the corset smoothed bulges, but hers were padded to provide a bit more in the areas where she’d always been… smaller. “But I hate it as well and I’m only too glad to see it go.”
She moved to unfasten some hooks between her breasts. He stayed her hand.
“I will not be defeated by a woman’s undergarments, no matter how unnecessary.” He moved his fingers to the task, deftly unhooking one button after another. “My reward is so close and I can feel it.”
He skimmed a knuckle down her breastbone as the material gapped. Her back arched, her body craving his touch even as her eyes fell shut again.
“Mine too,” she murmured, delirious with the rush of sensual feelings his touch inspired and knowing that she wanted to experience everything a man and woman could share.
Here. Now. With Magnus Darroch.
When he reached the last of the corset hooks, his knuckles grazed the nest of curls at the juncture of her thighs. Her breath caught and would not return. Breathless, she waited to see what would happen. What he would say.
Did he find her less appealing now that she was naked?
She wrenched open one eyelid only to find a rapt expression on his face as he bent to kiss her left breast. He did not appear to be anything less than pleased.
Thinking ceased altogether when his tongue curled around one tight peak. Spring breeze cooled some of her skin, but right there, at the center of so much feeling, his tongue laved a hot path around sensitive nerves until she writhed beneath him, seeking more contact.
Fingers spearing through his hair, she savored the heady kiss, her toes curling with pleasure. Tension coiled inside her and he switched his attention to her other breast. Sweet sensation pooled in her belly. Even her hair felt like a sensual caress where it shifted along the bare skin of her shoulder. Everything felt decadent and delicious, the scent of primrose and heather wafting on the breeze.
And when he cupped his palm around her sex, a guttural cry escaped her lips before she could stop it. Pleasure rose, warming her skin and stealing her breath. She gripped Magnus’s shoulders, holding tight while he fingered her gently, playing in the dampness between her legs until she was coated with wetness.
She braved a glance at him once, unsure if this was good or normal or expected, but when she found his green eyes glittering intensely, he leaned down to kiss her with a possessiveness she felt to her toes.
Encouraged, she rode the sensations, her hips rolling as she found a pleasing rhythm against his hand while his fingers plucked at her sex and then rubbed lightly. After the third time that he’d teased her thus, she could not hold back the need for more. Her hips thrust against his palm, seeking firmer contact. He slid his finger deep inside her and held her there while wave after wave of pleasure coursed through her.
The response was so keen and so strong it felt as if she’d been tossed about by rough waves and spat back out upon the shore, although the end result was a spent satisfaction she could never have envisioned. Her chest heaved. Her breathing slowed a bit after a long moment.
When she opened her eyes again, she found Magnus rimmed by a clear blue sky, his full attention on her.
“I’ve never seen anything or anyone more beautiful than you just now.” He spoke with a plainness that undid her. Any last shred of herself that she’d held back from him was lost to him now.
“I’ve never felt more beautiful,” she admitted, her whole body glowing. “I think there is more than a little magic in this place.”
“I prefer to think it’s the magic of hands that appreciate you properly.” He trailed a soft touch over her belly and she had to close her eyes again to savor the keen pleasure of it. “Although more likely, it is that our feelings are so strong they seep out through our touches.”
Hot tears stung the backs of her eyes although she wasn’t quite sure why. More emotions, she guessed. And he was right, she couldn’t hold them back.
“I want to make you feel what I just felt,” she admitted, not sure what more she should confess at a time when her whole world had been turned upside down. “Can you show me? Or help me figure that out?”
“Are you sure?” He thumbed away one tear that escaped and studied her with concern. Tenderness.
All the things a maid could hope for her in her first lover. She wished he would be her only one. Forever. And that wish had caused the tear.
“I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life, and even though that is not nearly as long as yours, I can assure you the certainty is bone-deep.”
Magnus cupped her chin in one hand and kissed her softly. Slowly. Until she almost forgot what she’d requested.
“I will show you, but it’s a small thing compared to what you’ve already made me feel.” He lifted her palm and kissed it then lowered it to his hip. Nay, his…manhood. “Guide me home. To you. And that will solve all the rest.”
She stroked him gently at first, and then more firmly as he seemed to like it. And since she refused to ask for more instruction, she followed her instincts and kept her eyes closed tight.
When she had him positioned where he’d touched her before, she held her breath and hoped for the best.
“Relax,” he whispered in her ear. “Think on this.” He touched her sex with his thumb, reminding her of all the pleasure he’d given her moments before. “And how good that feels.”
She did as he asked, gladly thinking about the way he’d touched her before. The way he touched her now. And somehow, that made the rest work. He eased inside her and she understood the wetness now. That was a good thing.
Breathing deep, she saw the logistics of the union even though she’d never had the wedding night talk with her mother. On her own, she now fully appreciated the beauty of it all. And arched her hips to take more of him. When she heard his groan, she knew she’d pleased him and it gave pleasure back to her in spades.
She understood the heady joy of coupling and knew the hurt from this first time would not last.
Still, Magnus treated her carefully. Waited until she’d grown accustomed to the feel of him before he moved again. Even now, the hurt faded. The sensual reward beckoned once more. She moved with him, meeting his thrusts until he found his own pleasure. When he would have withdrawn from her—and she guessed that he might—she locked her ankles about his hips and kept him there.
She felt the hot rush of his seed inside her and hoped it would not be the only time she experienced the joy of this union. Because Magnus was right. Their touches were their feelings expressed. And theirs were too great to be denied. Too strong to remain captive to one night, no matter how long they remained in this glade.
Contentedly, she lay with him in the aftermath, their bodies cooling in the breeze of a Highland summer. She was half asleep when he whispered words in a foreign language. Gallic, maybe.
“What did you say?” She nuzzled his cheek and wished he would not send her away.
“I said you are the heart of my heart. And you have it always.” He cleared his throat and edged away from her. He held her gaze with his. “But you cannot stay here, Elizabeth, no matter how I feel. I will not curse you to this life I lead. Even now, the seconds tick down until dusk when I will be pulled away from this place to roam through time and the Highlands, ever searching for the sister I don’t believe we’ll find.”
She sat up, drawing her tattered gown into her lap and sliding it over her head. She left her corset on the forest floor.
“But who says I will be cursed too? Maybe our love can break it the way Iain’s and Lily’s—”
Magnus placed a hand over her lips and held it there.
“Dinna even speak it.” His warning was gentle, but she could see he was utterly serious. �
��I will not leave my brother Alexander to wander every night alone. I cannot curse him to a fate worse than he already lives, a solitary existence bearing this burden alone. I told you that the sacrifices the Darroch make for the clan are different than the one you made for me, and even though I am more humbled than I can say by what you did, I cannot turn my back on my brother for…what we share.”
Everything inside her deflated.
“I am not enough for you.” Why would she think differently? She had never been enough for any man.
With Magnus, she had allowed herself to hope. And that made this crash into reality all the more heart-wrenching.
“That is not true. Dinna believe such for even a moment.” Magnus wrapped his plaid around himself with hands that had done so for a hundred years, his odd gift of speed making the movements hard to follow.
Not that it mattered. Her brain was just latching on to anything to distract her. Anything besides the fact that he would never choose her.
“You do not have to explain.” She fastened the cuffs on her sleeves as tears stung both eyes. She watched the buttons go in and out of focus with the accumulation of tears. “My one enticement in the past has been the social connections of my family. And I understand that, in your world, they are too superficial to mean anything to you.”
“That is not fair.” He gripped both her hands in his. “Elizabeth, after what we just shared, you know how much I wish I could be with you again.”
“Then why won’t you take a chance? What if this—” she dared not speak of love “—what we share—could save all of you? What if your clan is saved when you all know the feeling of losing what you hold dear? You said your father stole away a woman beloved by her people. Maybe the sidhe wish to make you all experience the same?”
“Even so.” He edged farther from her on the moss-covered bench seat, his shoulder pinning back some of the ivy so she could see the rest of the glade outside the bower. The lands that had seemed so pretty a moment ago now stretched like an endless, lonely void without him. “How can I leave my brother to wander and wait on the hope that he will come across a woman who will feel about him as you care for me? Once he has to wander endlessly every night of his life, he will be too weary to move in the daylight hours. Even if you could possibly love me, I would not be a man worthy of such love if I selfishly doomed my brother to such a fate just to grasp happiness for myself.”