“Still night, but that’s not saying anything. Being the shortest day of the year, the sun doesnae rise till late in the day. But that is by-the-by, I’m more interested in how ye came to be here. Did Buchan threaten ye when he found out about the bairn?”
Her bottom lip took a beating frae her teeth. “Ach aye, the bairn. Well nae I wasnae threatened, my father isnae even aware of its existence, not yet. I had to leave when the time came that I could nae longer hide my secret beneath a plaid. There’s nae saying what he would do when he discovered the truth.” She paused, and he wasnae sure if it was just for effect, but what she said next stilled his heartbeat. “I heard my father and Hadron talking about yer family and the Farquhars of Dun Bhuird having a gathering with the McArthurs at Cragenlaw for Yule, and there were nae best pleased about it. Hadron would have it that you were making plans to gang against the Buchan clan. Father wasnae completely convinced, but Hadron always manages to talk him round. However, I decided this could be the perfect time to run away and find ye. I should have tried sooner, but I was always hoping that one day ye would ride up to our Keep and rescue me.”
“And I was waiting for a messenger with news frae ye, and I’m sorry I did. Ye must have been terrified. My only excuse is I had nae way of discovering if ye still wanted to be my wife. A hand-fasting isnae as immutable as marriage, and that must be the first order of our day. To protect our bairn, we must be wed by a priest,” he told her in a low voice, almost a growl. He didnae want to scare her, but she had to realise how important it was to their future together.
“Ye have nae doubts about the bairn then?” In contrast to the noise he had made, her voice was quiet, hopeful. “Nae worries that the bairn wasnae yours?”
Without hesitation, Jamie answered, “Not for a moment. How could I mistrust you when I knew for certain you had eyes for nae other man frae the first time our glances met in the King’s great hall? And how could I forget the time I took your maidenhead? It was like a gift frae God, redemption for a man who was certainly nae better than he should be.”
“Whist Jamie, I dinnae like it when ye put yerself down.” Her hand cupped his cheek. “Ye were honest with me, told me of yer past and that wicked woman who seduced ye while ye were but a lad, before ye had enough years under yer belt to resist her wicked wiles,” Eve asserted, her belief in him shining frae her eyes.
He chuckled at her description; Eve could always make him laugh, though she wouldnae find much humour in him being accused of possessing a few wiles of his own. A trifle he disdained consideration, too caught up in the feel of her hands on his face and the discovery how much he had missed the way she liked to touch him, placing her hands on him even when they weren’t making love. Little touches that had helped to soothe his soul and the guilt he carried there. It pleased Jamie that she had absolved him of blame, however his conscience wasnae so easy swayed. His only defence was that before he met Eve, he hadnae seduced a virgin the way Brodwyn had him.
Now she was here with him, it was hard to remember he’d had doubts, qualms that he’d ne’er rid himself of the picture in his mind, the one of Eve walking away frae him escorted by her father and Hadron.
The act of leaving was easy; he had firsthand knowledge and all the regrets that accompanied the action. Staying was harder. Did she have the gumption to see it through? “I have but one question for ye Eve. Do ye still love me?”
Her big green eyes widened as she stared at him, made more limpid by the tears forming above her lower lid; disbelief drowned in her expression. The pink fullness of her bottom lip quivered and her breasts rose, grazing his chest. “I came all this way to find ye. I almost died.” Her tongue slipped between her teeth to dampen her lip as she sucked in a breath to add the clincher when he didnae respond, “I’m having yer bairn.”
Not quite the answer he had expected. How hard was it to say, ‘I love you?’ “I never questioned yer word, or hinted that it wasnae my bairn acquit me of that.”
“Seems to me there is more accusations in this bed than there is love, Jamie Ruthven. However, I might ask the same question of the father of my bairn. Do ye love me?” Eve finished with a lift of her finely arched brows.
He should have expected that the clever little lamb would hit him with his own demand. “I should think ye could tell that without asking.” He flexed his hips till the head of his prick nudged her belly. “It’s not something I can hide nor intend to, I want you Eve … all the time.” Sliding his hand betwixt her arm and her breast, he brushed the tip of her breast with his thumb. Her response was immediate, her nipple tightened, hard as the bead of pink quartz it resembled.
“I ken ye want me as much as I crave the feel of ye inside me.” She reached betwixt them to touch him, a contact that contained as much pain as it did pleasure.
“Are ye sure of that Eve?” The way his larynx ground up the words as if in the pain wasnae imagined. “For I can assure ye, Eve, if I get started, wild horses willnae be able to part us.”
Chapter 6
Eve released a wee sigh, feeling slightly safer than she had a moment ago. It mattered naught that he was acting cagey, substituting the word want for love. She kenned what men were like, she’d lived with three of them all her life, and if anybody was sweered to admit what they actually felt, it was a man. Sweet words of love and prose were the coin of minstrels. Real men showed their emotions with the slide of a steel blade, the way his friend Rob had. Jamie had told her all about that night—the night he had cut his ties with the woman who had bewitched him.
She slid her fingers down the hard length of his shaft, enjoying the heat against her palm. After falling frae Mirabelle’s back into the snow, she had discovered what it was like to feel her life’s blood freeze in her veins. Gradually, the air in her lungs appeared to solidify, making it hard to breathe, while all her warmth had shifted lower to concentrate in her womb, saving her bairn.
Aye, her journey had been rash, wild even, but it was all done to save her bairn and her bairn’s father frae the Buchans. She hadnae told Jamie all, frightened that if she did, he would feel the same disgust with her as she did with her family’s plans. For heaven’s sake it was Yuletide, a time for clan celebrations, not slaughter.
All she had intended was to reach Jamie and Cragenlaw afore her father and brothers. Her uncle Hadron despised Jamie, had told her so o’er and o’er while she listened, with her hand pressed against her belly. Hiding both under her plaid, she sought comfort frae the part of Jamie that lived inside her womb, counteracting his neglect with thoughts fashioned in dreams of what their life together could be.
Early on, as the first months passed without sight of Jamie, she had wondered what would happen if one day he arrived to rescue her. Later, she had prayed he never made the attempt, for any assault on the Buchan Keep could mean Jamie’s end, his death, at her family’s hands.
The feel of him in her hand swamped her with memories of how it had been between the two of them. She had had no other man yet could imagine naught so perfect as the feel of Jamie moving inside her. To her dismay, her questioning his love had almost spoiled her chance of discovering if Jamie’s lovemaking would always lift her to the heights of passion. “I’m sorry about earlier. That was fear talking, fear that you wouldnae want me back, had found someone else…” She let the question hidden in her words fade away.
Nervous that she had spoiled their reunion, Eve felt tempted to make a silly jest, but before the thought could take shape on her lips, Jamie’s hot breath scorched her ear in a rough growl of amazement that she could slur his honour. “I ne’er looked at another lass, ne’er thought of such a thing. Frae the moment we met, all other women are but a shadow of yer beauty in my eyes, the need you engender inside me is like a conflagration. To even imagine being with another lass would unman me, make such an event impossible. All that has filled my mind is your bonnie face, the touch of your lips and the feel of your body pulsing around my prick as you cleave to me. It hurts that you should be
lieve me capable of other.”
He dipped his head till their foreheads met and his breaths, short and sweet as if in desperation, beaded like wee kisses against her lips. “I confess that my imagination hasn’t always been filled with sunshine, that a grey heaviness filled my mind every time I remembered you leaving, the way it did when my mother ne’er came back after promising me she would when I was a wee lad. I admit that I raged against fate for taking you away frae me. Ye have nae notion how I often contemplated killing yer father and brothers … and Hadron, ach what plans I had for him.”
Eve heard him out without any feelings of astonishment. He wanted to kill her father. He might have to before the day was out. More difficult to believe was his assertion that he hadnae looked at another lass frae the day she left. Eve always had her priorities in the right order and said simply, “My father is probably on his way here. By now he will have dragged my destination out of Gillian, my maid. She’s not strong enough to withstand him.”
She drew a breath of air that tasted of both her and Jamie and, filled with the need that shimmered between them, she made her confession. “It pains me to reveal that my father and clansmen would have arrived at the McArthur’s gate whether or not I was hiding here. It’s yer father and his friends he has a grudge against, and instead of lying here abed, we should be warning them of what foul deeds are about to happen.”
“I had nary a doubt in my mind that he hated us, but ’twas only yesterday that my sister revealed the reason; my father has always refused to discuss the feud with me.”
“Tell me, what started this terrible feud that has parted us for all yon months. What did yer sister say? Tell me, please, Jamie,” she begged, afraid of what unthinkable insult in their parent’s pasts could have led to such enmity. He felt her quiver with anger in his arms. “Why do families pass down hate and loathing as their children’s inheritance?”
“Hmph,” Jamie expelled a short, sharp breath of derision. “To ken that would surely make me omnipotent. Unfortunately, I’m only a man my darlin’, with nae more notion of how the human mind works than you have. As for the cause of it, that can wait, as I wouldnae upset ye more than ye are already.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Nae, but mayhap it’s a skerrick too personal, too close to our own situation. Does that make sense?” He quirked his eyebrows at her to help loosen the tension he felt in her shoulders. In this instance, his chuckle was forced. “If, as ye say, the ravening hoards are about to ascend, I wouldnae care to meet them without sharing one last ride with ye, and nae arguments or worries about the time it will take. It’s been snowing all night and frae what I remember of the Buchans, they dinnae have wings. Yer family won’t arrive yet awhile. Long enough to take our pleasure and warn the McArthur before the next member of the Buchan clan arrives at his gate.”
He rolled onto his back and lifted Eve astride him. “Ye wouldnae deny a man under threat the comfort of yer body love,” he said, running his wide palms up the smooth length of her thighs towards the temptation, the heaven, that lay behind the red curls guarding her entrance. He touched her there, softly, curiously, an action that drew a shudder frae her—one he could see as well as feel, and he ached. It had been so long.
To Jamie’s eyes, the rounded bulge of her belly merely added to her beauty. “Can I test to see if yer ready for me? Do ye mind,” he said cautiously, worried if carrying a bairn would change what he longed to take place. For the first time in years he was smote with a moments uncertainty.
Not so Eve. “Test away, though I’m certain ye will find me hot, wet, and more than willing,” she said, with a slight lift of her hips in invitation. He in his turn eased her back to admire the glorious fullness of her breasts. His palms cupped her hips and simply stared at the bonnie lass carrying his bairn within the sweet curve of her belly. His gaze flicked to her face, watching her intently as he used one finger to find her entrance. She leaned back on her hands. The whites of her eyes showing as her head tipped back. Eve’s hair tumbled o’er her shoulders as bright as the flames in the hearth. He slid a finger inside her, watching her eyes close as he found a haven of damp heat ready for his eager prick to slide inside.
“I dinnae want to hurt ye, Eve. That’s the last thing on my mind, so we’ll caw canny and make sure yer body craves this as much as mine does.”
“‘Ach, Jamie,” she gasped, “when has my body not craved yours?”
He placed his hands on either side of her narrow hips, suddenly struck by their slimness and the miracle that was their bairn, sitting snug between them. For once he questioned, would he fit? He did slowly, surely, filling her, his teeth gritted against the impulse to surge inside, as if that would complete her, complete them both.
Embedded inside Eve, he paused, grappling with his control as he slid his hands the length of her arms, pulling her shoulders forward until her breast hung within a breath of his mouth, enticing. “Strangely enough, sweet lass, for once, I’m afraid. Yer too precious to damage in any way, so ride me as you may, as you will. Tonight ye have a slave.”
Jamie never said a truer word, aye it was strange to be gi’en control, could she please him? Her heart raced at the magnitude of him, a Scot, handing his power o’er to her. “Are ye certain, Jamie? I’m used to following yer lead.”
“Lass, if ye want to pleasure me, do what ever feels good for ye. After all these months I’m easy pleased.”
All these months? Eve swallowed against the heart that had leapt into her throat leaving her speechless. Had Jamie told her true, that he hadnae lain with another lass since they became hand-fasted? Was it that he truly loved her?
She felt both nervous and elated as she began to move on him, and sought confirmation of her efforts from the expression on his face. Gradually, Jamie followed her rhythm, his hips surging against her, brushing the wee bud of sensation betwixt her thighs. Her breathing quickened at the wonder of it, the sensations. Her breasts swayed toward Jamie’s face. Greyness blurred her vision as she panted, almost in a panic, sucking in air she couldn’t get enough of. The way she could ne’er get enough of the man caressing her insides with his velvet sheathed hardness sliding in and out. She groaned as his mouth found her breast, drawing her deep into his mouth—tongue teeth and lips robbing her senses as once more he took back control. “Ach, Jamie, lad,” she moaned, “dinnae stop, dinnae stop…”
If Jamie ever had a vision of where heaven could be found, he must have followed that notion into her arms. Perfect, Eve was perfect. They fit together like hand in glove, made for each other. Above him, Eve’s face wore an expression of awe as if that moment of wonder was right there within her grasp. His body burned, shaking with need and determination that she wouldn’t take that leap without him and suited the flex of his hips to the race they were running.
Sweat coated their bodies, his, hers, who could tell? The chamber echoed with the slap of skin against skin, the sound of each thrust cleaving a pathway to a personal paradise, until finally Eve clenched around him and he let a yell of release rip frae his throat.
Had it ever been this perfect before?
He had his doubts that the air above the Lynn ever quivered with such euphoria as he felt here in this stone chamber, listening to the wind whistle past the deerskins covering narrow slits in the wall. Eve had collapsed atop him, moaning and squeezing his prick with her insides as if she couldn’t bear to let go. His head buzzed with the noise of his blood pounding at his temples and he lay abed simply holding her until the room stopped spinning and sense began to seep back into his brain.
She was his miracle; there would ne’er be another like her. Eve had saved him from the ruins of his life.
Aye, holding Eve in his arms felt like an act of God, but if he didnae want it to disappear into a tug-o-war between Chieftains he would have to act quickly. His father and the others would have to be warned, but there was something he had to accomplish first.
He rolled onto his side taking Eve with him. Her
body felt lax and sated; as had his own until his brain began working and sense prevailed. He pushed her red curls back frae her face, wondering how he had ever have compared her to Brodwyn. In their months apart, thoughts of Eve made him burn with want and need, his whole being aflame frae the loss of his hand-fasted wife. Whereas, Jamie realised, his memories of Brodwyn had filled him up with anger as cold and hard as the ice forming around Cragenlaw.
“Listen to me, lass. Much as I’d like to lie abed with ye all day long, we have to prepare for yer father’s eventual arrival. Are ye fit to get up and get dressed?”
“I am if there is anything for me to wear,” Eve said, pushing up on her elbow to look at him, her eyes bright, gleaming in the light frae the fire, as if she hadnae been at death’s door when he joined her in the big bed.
Aye, this was the lass he remembered, brimming with mischief, without a fearful bone in her slim body. Merely staring at her made him want to take her again. His heart raced and his cock stirred until the notion was thwarted with a kick frae inside the belly pressed against him, as if to remind him there were more than just the two of them to consider. “I believe my sister Iseabel has spread your garments near the fire to dry. She and Kathryn Comlyn undressed ye and tried to get ye warm. They had almost gi’en up on ye till I arrived and they discovered who it was we had found in a snowdrift. I told Iseabel about us being hand-fasted, and it was she who suggested the best way to warm ye…” He paused for a moment, unwilling to throw a bone of contention into the loving atmosphere they had created, but it had to be said. “Did you realise how dangerous was riding out into the cauld and snow for both you and the bairn?”
“Nae more dangerous than biding where I was.” She pushed the covers down, baring her hips and belly. “Look at me. How much longer do ye imagine I could have kept my condition hidden? I had to leave before I was found out. My father wouldnae have to think on whose bairn I was carrying. He would ken in an instant. And aye, he might have let me have the bairn, but after it was born, what then? Would a Buchan allow a wee Ruthven to live? As for my uncle Hadron, he has such an inexplicable hatred for the Ruthvens, he frightens me. I had night terrors that he would rip my bairn frae my body, killing us both without a second thought. Nae, I might have taken a risk, but it was a lesser one than staying.”
The Chieftain's Feud Page 5