by Caroline Lee
Smiling, he lowered his chin and nuzzled against the side of her neck. He liked the way she sighed and tilted her head to give him better access. As his lips skimmed over her skin, he couldn’t decide if he appreciated her short hair or not. It meant less hair in his way, but he couldn’t sweep it out of the way. What would she look like wet?
The thought of Saf naked and dripping wet made him hungry.
“Where are ye taking me?” she murmured.
Anywhere ye want. But instead he said, “Somewhere close. Where we can be alone, and ye can finally wash my back, as ye’ve been begging.”
“Good,” she said. “Ye stink like a man who’s been training all day.”
He dragged his tongue across the smooth skin below her ear, reveling in her delicate taste and loving the way she shivered.
“Ye like it,” he growled.
“Aye.”
When she shifted in his lap, his cock jumped in excitement, and he found himself grinning against her skin. It was like the decision he’d made had lifted a weight from his shoulders.
He nudged the horse to move faster.
“Is it safe?” she asked suddenly.
Knowing she was thinking of the attack from the Lindsays, he grunted. “’Tisnae far from the keep, but nae one will bother us.” He tightened his hold around her middle, hating the thought of her fear. “I’ll no’ let harm come to ye again, ye have my word.”
“I trust ye.”
He used his chin to move some of her hair to one side. “Aye, Saffy? Enough to tell me why ye’re on my land?”
It was like she knew he was trying to keep the mood light. “Nay, Devil, no’ quite that much.”
Despite her denial, her tone was light, and he found himself chuckling.
They reached the waterfall soon enough, and he swung down and reached for her. “With the horse here to announce our presence, we’ll no’ be disturbed.”
She was looking around in wonder. “So, we’ll be completely alone? To do whatever we wish?”
No’ quite whatever ye wish, lass.
He shrugged and moved toward the bank. To his left, the stream tumbled from a height twice a man’s reach, over a series of boulders until dropping off and crashing into the pool before him. He knew from past explorations that the area behind the last fall was private, and a bit magical.
Were he the sort of man to believe in magic, that is.
He felt her move beside him, and when she slipped her little hand into his, he turned and smiled down at her.
“’Tis beautiful here,” she whispered, staring at the waterfall, its roar nigh covering her words.
“Aye.” As he agreed, he pulled her away from the water, away from the noise. “I thought ye might like it here. We have much to discuss.” Like his announcement that he had every intention of giving in to her seduction, if not actually claiming her as his own.
She hummed, but followed willingly. “Like what? Ye didnae drag me out here to punish my boldness?”
With a small grin, he wrapped his arms around her, and liked the way she laced her fingers behind his waist and cocked her head back to meet his eyes.
“Yer boldness deserves some sort of response, ’tis true. What do ye suggest?”
“Hm. Well,” she said with a shrug, “I suppose I could take all my clothes off and climb over yer lap, and ye could punish my bare arse.”
His brows rose. “And that’s something ye think ye would enjoy?”
“Oh, nay.” Her eyes twinkled as she wriggled against him. “I was rather counting on ye being distracted once ye had me in yer lap.”
He had to chuckle at that. “I would be, aye. And I have nae intention of punishing ye.” He blew out a breath. “Nae one, not even Gavin, has had the audacity to stay my hand when I was prepared to mete out justice.”
“Nae one?” Her brows rose in surprise.
Well, there’d been once… “Many years ago, I caught a lad reiving on my lands. He was part of an outlaw band, but I caught him with the ewe in his arms, so I hanged him.” He watched her pale slightly, and wondered at it. “He didnae die instantly, but I was determined to mete out justice. I should’ve drawn my sword and ended it. When the laird I was with finally drew his dirk, I assumed that was his plan, but he cut down the lad and lectured me on second chances.”
“And the lad?” she asked with a strangled whisper. “What of him?”
“He devoted himself to that laird.” The name of the Sinclair Hound, the loyal bodyguard, was whispered in awe throughout the Highlands. “And despite my anger at the man countering my justice, I saw the rightness in letting the lad live. ’Tis why I…”
He shook his head, not needing to go into the story of his attempted alliance with the Sinclairs. But she pushed.
“Why, what?”
Speaking of his past, of hard lessons learned, had softened his ardor somewhat. He loosened his hold on her and sunk down on a thick patch of grass. Still holding his hand, she followed.
“’Tis why, in the spring, I approached that laird and requested a marriage alliance with one of his daughters. Allying with the Sinclairs would allow us to stand strong against the Mackenzies. Not only because of our matching strength, but because one of Sinclair’s other daughters is now married to the Mackenzie Regent.”
She dropped his hand and pulled her knees up to her chin, then wrapped her arms around them. He knew he hadn’t confused her—not with her sharp mind—so what was she thinking to make her frown like that?
“Is that the only reason you made the alliance?”
The alliance had fallen apart when the daughter Duncan Sinclair had offered broke the contract to take holy vows. Only, Merrick had heard she’d married someone else instead. No need to bother Saf with all that.
He shrugged, resting his elbow on one knee and staring at the waterfall.
“I needed an heir. I still do, I suppose. Willie is a good lad, smart and strong. But his mother…”
“Anna,” she said in a strange voice.
He glanced at her and frowned at the way she was hugging herself. “Aye,” he muttered, shifting until he was close enough to touch her. He rested his weight on the hand he planted in the grass behind her back. “Anna was…I was barely a man when I met her. She was older than me, but had a love for life that made me…happy.”
Whatever he’d said must’ve touched something in her, because Saf’s shoulders loosened with a sigh, and she dropped her arms from her knees. “Will ye tell me about her?”
He shrugged again. “No’ much to tell. Da refused to let me marry her, but that wasnae unusual. He had a dozen bastard children, of course, and so did his father. The whispers say that when a Sutherland laird joins with a lass, she’ll bear his babe.” It shouldn’t be possible, but it was hard to ignore the evidence. “I thought I’d follow in his footsteps, until…” Until he’d held wee Mary, then wee Willie, and known he’d move heaven and hell for them. “Well, once I became laird, maybe I would’ve married her. But Anna died bringing another bairn into the world.”
Her hand covered his. “I’m sorry, Merrick. Did ye love her?”
He blew out a breath. “Aye,” he said simply. “Da told me I was a fool, but I’m no’ sure the man kenned how to love.”
“’Tis so hard to lose someone we love.”
Her fingers threaded through his, and they sat like that for a few minutes, watching the waterfall. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking of, but he wasn’t thinking of Anna, not anymore. She held a place in his heart, and he’d always be grateful for his time with her, and the gifts of their children together.
But the woman sitting beside him…Saf was the one who held his attention now.
Held his heart?
A smile tugged at his lips. The Sutherland Devil falling for a lass’s spell? What would his men say?
And did he care?
“And yer wives?”
Her quiet question jerked him out of his musings, and he glanced at her. “What about them?
”
“Did ye love them as well?”
Had he really never spoken of Elizabeth and Katharine to her? He shrugged and lay back on the ground, his fingers still twined with hers, and his other arm stacked behind his head. It was easier to speak of them than Anna.
“Da made the alliance with Elizabeth’s father to strengthen our southern border. But when she arrived for the wedding, she was nothing like we expected.”
“Oh?” She shifted until she was sitting cross-legged beside his hip, holding his hand in both of hers.
He closed his eyes, enjoying the peace, despite the topic. “She was young, aye, and verra beautiful. But she was little more than a child, and too sickly for a braw young man.”
She snorted and poked his thigh hard enough to make him growl. But when she began to rub and knead the spot she’d poked, the sound turned into a groan of satisfaction. Who knew the muscles in his thighs were that tight?
“Elizabeth?” she prompted, her hand working down to his knee.
“She…” He sighed in pleasure. “She wanted to take holy vows. But her father had threatened her, so she cried through the ceremony and confessed before I could take her to bed. She was so frail…” He shook his head, trying to banish the memory of the wee lass sobbing in fear in his bed, her skin so pale it was nearly translucent. “She was more ill than anyone kenned. I couldnae have bedded her, even if I’d had the inclination.”
“What happened?”
He swallowed past the memory of those dark days. “She wasted away some months after the wedding. I sent for the abbess a sennight before, released Elizabeth from the marriage, despite Da’s objections, and she was able to take vows.”
He could hear the smile in Saf’s voice when she spoke. “She died a nun.” When she poked him in the thigh again, it didn’t hurt as much. “Ye do have a heart, Devil!”
Remembering the way Elizabeth’s small hand had felt in his as he’d sat by her bed, he winced. “I hated watching her, kenning how easy it was to catch ill and slip away. I spent most of my days training, trying to forget that…but Da made another contract before Elizabeth was cold in the ground.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I didnae think much of it. ’Twas the way of things, I suppose. Katharine was lusty enough, I suppose, but I’d learned my lesson with Anna and Elizabeth, and refused to let her into my heart.”
Saf hummed. “Maggie is about the age to have come from that union?”
That wasn’t a topic he was prepared to discuss, so he pulled his leg from under her hands and sat up once more, the abrupt motion startling her into leaning back.
“I told ye Sutherland men have nae problem planting babes. Katharine fell pregnant on our wedding night, and died—the bairn with her—from a fall on the ice on the keep’s steps six months later.”
The beautiful, bold woman next to him gasped, her eyes wide with pity. “Oh, Merrick,” she finally whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
His chin jerked once in acknowledgement as he ran his suddenly sweaty palms down his kilted thighs.
Why was his heart pounding? Because of how close she’d come to his secret? Or because despite that fact, despite talking of poor Elizabeth and Katharine, his cock was still hard, just because of her touch?
He swallowed. “They deserved better, but I tried to give them both what they wanted. They were good lasses—good women—and they kenned their own minds.”
With one fluid movement, Saf pushed herself to her feet and kicked off her shoes. Then she shrugged off her surcoat.
“What are ye doing?” he asked in a hoarse voice.
“Undressing.” She pulled her shirt from over her head and used the bottom of one foot to roll down the opposite stocking, then the other. Her breeches followed. In a matter of moments, she stood clad in only her braies and the linen wrapping around her breasts.
When had he stood up? He couldn’t recall. All he knew was that she held him in some sort of spell, and his pulse was pounding in his temple. “Saf?” he choked out.
“Anna and Elizabeth and Katharine kenned their own minds, Merrick,” she said, her hands on her hips and her tone scolding him. “Ye saw it with them, and respected them for it. And just an hour ago, I saw ye reconsider yer intentions and acknowledge that yer own daughter is a strong woman whose opinion should be respected.”
Mary? How did Mary come into this?
Merrick shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts…but they kept coming back to how lickable she looked standing there in the dappled shade beside the pool.
Unfortunately, she took that as denial. “Aye,” she said firmly. “Ye are a good man, Devil, despite the stories. All I ask now is that ye trust me when I say I ken my own mind, my own desires.”
With that, she reached for the knot under her left arm and set to work untying the linen strip around her chest. As she unwound it, she held his eyes in challenge.
But when the linen at last pooled around her feet, Merrick’s gaze dropped.
Gods wounds, but she had beautiful breasts. Small and perky and just right for his hands.
He fisted his hands at his sides, his palms itching from the memory of the way he’d cupped them last night in the darkness. But to see them like this, free and proud in the sunlight…? His mouth went dry.
She dropped her hand to the waist of her braies. “Ye’re overdressed, Merrick, if ye want me to scrub yer back.”
As soon as her braies hit the grass at her feet, she turned and jumped into the pool.
He was still rocked by that glimpse of the curls between her legs and the flash of her bare arse. But the shocked noise she made as she hit the cold water had him grinning.
Somehow his clothing joined hers on the grass.
They came together in the center of the pool, where the water was deepest. He could stand, the water lapping against his chest. It seemed natural for her to wrap her arms around him and allow him to support her.
The way her breasts rubbed against his bare chest, the water lapping both of them, had his cock jumping against her belly, and she smiled.
“I didnae drag ye out here to wash my back, Saf,” he warned in a low tone.
“Aye?” She wiggled against him, causing him to suck in a breath between his teeth. “Then why am I here?”
“What ye did today, what ye said…” God’s wounds, but it was hard to concentrate with her in his arms, all slippery and willing. “Ye are a strong woman, Saf. And I respect ye enough to believe ye ken what ye want. And ye’ve made what ye want verra clear.”
“I want ye, Merrick.”
“I love the way ye say my name,” he admitted.
“Which is why I so rarely use it, Devil,” she teased.
“Aye?” he growled as he lowered his mouth to the skin at the base of her neck. “Ye confess?”
“Aye, Merrick!” she cried as she wrapped her legs around his waist. “I want ye.”
His lips trailed over her shoulder.
With her hanging on like this, his cock was so close to her warmth, he could barely stand it. When she moaned and shifted impatiently, his thick staff slid between them in a delicious mockery of what he wanted to be doing.
But his long-ago vow limited him to just pleasuring her, and that’s what he’d focus on.
Of course, the damn vow was hard to remember when he lifted her to draw one perfect, pert nipple into his mouth, and she made the most erotic sound he’d ever heard.
“Merrick!” Her fingers wrapped in his hair as her head dropped back. “Please!”
This wasn’t the place for it. But there was a place he wanted to share with her.
He straightened and pulled her closer as he pushed his way toward the waterfall. She met his gaze just as they reached it.
She was the woman for him. She matched him completely.
Smiling, he tightened his hold on her and plunged through the wall of water.
Behind it, there was a small rock ledge where he and Gavin and Robbie and the other lads
used to play at as children. The bottom sloped up, until the water was barely knee-deep.
He carried her to the ledge and placed her bare arse on the carpet of moss which grew there. He’d made the right choice to share this place with her. The power of the water was clear and never failed to make his heart pound.
But when she smiled in excitement, his heart pounded for an entirely different reason. And when she opened her arms and beckoned him to return, he almost lost his resolve and plunged into her right then and there.
But her joy, her determination, was why they were there.
So he showed her what she meant to him with his mouth, hands, and fingers.
When he circled her nipple with his tongue, then nipped at it, she gasped, then groaned. He used that chance to drop one hand to her curls, stroking his thumb through her slit.
“Merrick,” she sighed in pleasure and dropped her weight back on one splayed palm. The other hand rose to the back of his head, as if to hold him in place.
Aye, she was a lass who knew what she wanted!
He switched his attention to the other nipple, his hand replacing his mouth on the first one as she squirmed under his touch. Between one heartbeat and the next, he slipped a finger inside her.
She relaxed against him and pressed her hips upward in a silent plea. His thumb circled her pearl as he slipped another finger inside her, and she arched against him.
“Merrick!”
Aye, that was all the urging he needed. God in Heaven, but he wanted nothing more than to slam his cock home.
He wouldn’t.
Instead, he dropped to his knees, his hips just above the cold water, and lowered his mouth to her opening.
The noise she made was somewhere between a sob and a moan as he dragged his tongue along her slit, then circling her pearl. He used his thumb to press against her, to coax her into release.
Under his assault, she moaned and squirmed and called his name in a way which made him proud. He was giving her what she wanted, aye?
The familiar pressure built behind his ballocks, and he wished he could do more than lick her. Her muscles tightened around him, and he knew she was close.
Suddenly, she clamped her thighs tight. “Devil take you, Merrick!” she panted. “This isnae—”