"So, what were you doing attacking each other, if it was all going so well and good?"
Elizabeth smiled suddenly, and he decided that whatever her reputation, Ava could stay on for a bit if she made Elizabeth smile like that.
"Oh! Ava was telling me that every woman should know how to defend herself. See, she gave me one of her daggers."
Quicker than Reade would have credited, she pulled out a wickedly sharp knife, a little shorter than her forearm, sturdier than an eating knife, lighter than something that might be carried into battle. He inspected it, and then glanced at Ava, who was watching him with an odd look in her eyes.
"It's well done of you," he said. "Thank you."
"Not the response I was expecting, but I hardly did it for you. Now she's a little more dangerous, and that won't go amiss in this world of ours. Would you like to sit down before you fall down, MacTaggart?"
Reade winced when she said that. Now that the adrenaline was leaving him, yes, he would very much like to sit down, and maybe get a nap, if the exhaustion that came over him was any indication at all.
He nodded, and then Elizabeth was there, her shoulder shoved under his arm and supporting him back to the hut. The fire had died down a little, which was a relief, but the bed, as poor as it was, looked like heaven.
"Will you stay with me a while?" Reade asked.
He saw the yes in her body. She smiled and started to sit down on the pallet next to him, and he could almost feel her body snuggled up against his. He knew it would feel good, so very good, but then she was pulling back, shaking her head.
A shadow fell over her eyes, and if Reade was less exhausted, he would have sat up, asked after it, seen what he could do to quell it.
"I... I shouldn't. I would like to learn more from Ava before she and her men move on. They're leaving tomorrow morning. I'll be back though, in a few hours. I won't leave you alone, I promise. Will that be all right?"
Reade felt a little hurt at that, but he could hardly question the fact that she didn't want to lie next to him while he slept the sleep of the healing. If there wasn't something thorny and slightly pained in her voice, he wouldn't have wondered at it at all.
"That's fine, lass. Give as good as you get and remember that she's faster than a striking snake."
That won a laugh from Elizabeth at least, but he couldn't hear what she said next, because the depths pulled him down again.
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chapter 24
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Elizabeth had always considered herself fairly graceful. At least, she was quick on her feet at the dances that her parents had taken her to, and she never broke the dishes when she was bringing them to table the way some of her friends in London had.
That day with Ava FitzWarren taught her about a new kind of speed and grace, however. Ava was only a year or so older than Elizabeth, but she seemed at least a dozen times worldlier and at least a thousand times quicker. Elizabeth followed along well enough when Ava slowly showed her a few tricks with the knife, but when Ava did it at full speed, Elizabeth couldn't keep up, no matter how hard she tried.
Finally, when she almost cut herself in an attempt to try reversing the blade to stab instead of slash, Ava called a halt to it.
"And when you nearly take off a strip of your own skin, it's time to be done, I think. Don't look so glum, my girl. It's not something that may be learned overnight, after all. If you practice, it'll get quicker, and I imagine that your MacTaggart will show you more."
Elizabeth filled with a warmth she didn't quite understand when Ava called Reade hers. It made it a little easier to forget that soon enough, she and Reade would be going their separate ways.
"You should ask his brother as well," Ava said easily, walking toward her own camp. She had given up her claim to the hut when she saw that it was being used to keep Reade warm, and Elizabeth wondered how she would ever thank the other girl for her help.
"His brother? You know him?"
"Oh, aye. Everyone knows the MacTaggarts, older and younger. Did you marry all unawares?"
"Oh, of course not, I was just..."
Ava looked at her curiously, but just then one of Ava's men announced that there was food to be had, and Elizabeth was grateful for the distraction.
She had never met a woman like Ava before, who dressed like a man and who wielded her authority over her band as easily as a sergeant in the army might. Elizabeth was growing to trust Ava, but she wasn't sure of the men she commanded, so she murmured her thanks for her portion and Reade's and retreated to the hut.
Reade was sleeping when she came in, but he sat up when he heard the door latch.
"Is that food?"
"It is. Are you feeling well enough to eat?"
"Famished as a wolf after a long winter."
"That's a good sign. You've had little beyond the broth that I've been dribbling down your throat for the last little while."
Reade grinned at her, and she supposed that it was a sign of how much better he was getting that she felt her heart beat a little faster. For the past few days, she had been so worried about how sick he was and whether he would come through it, but now it was like she was remembering all over again the fact that he was a good-looking man, one of the most handsome that she had ever seen.
"I thank you for that. I'm sorry you had to do it, but I'm right grateful you did."
They both sat on the blankets and ate, and Elizabeth did her best to forget that Reade's chest was bare, and to ignore the voice in her mind that told her to touch him, to see how warm he was.
“Thank you.”
She looked up, surprised at his words.
“You don't have to thank me. Anyone would have done the same.”
“I have been alive long enough to know that is not the truth. But I suppose that I should have expected it from you.”
Elizabeth found herself smiling just a little.
“Now I know the fever addled you. You are saying all this without making fun of me at all.”
“I don't always make fun of you.”
“You do it more than a reasonable person would!”
“Then I apologize, and truly, I do thank you.”
She turned her head to grin at him, but at the same time, Reade leaned in to give her a gentle kiss on the cheek. Instead, his mouth landed on hers and that flame that always struck when they kissed fanned into a fire. It started in surprise, but then the kissed deepened, and later, Elizabeth could never be sure whether he had deepened it, or if it had been her.
There had been too much fear in their past, too much war and too much violence. Surely, it would be all right if they had just this small pleasure, just for a moment?
The problem was that once she had started kissing Reade, the last thing she wanted was for him to stop. His body was warm and perfect, and the urge came over her to touch every part of him, to reassure herself that he was still sound and whole after his wounds and illness.
“You want to touch me,” he growled, his voice low.
She didn't even pause to wonder how he had read her mind.
“Yes...”
“Show me. Show me how you want to touch me, lass.”
He was bare from the waist up, and now she allowed her hands to roam his body, gliding over his shoulders, over the strong muscles of his back and chest. She could feel his heart beat like the thunder of a horse's hooves under her hand, and when her fingertips grazed his nipples, she felt her breath catch when he gasped.
“Are you so very surprised?” Reade whispered. “Surely, you know what you do to me.”
“I... I don't know...”
“Then shall I show you?”
He cupped her face in his hands, bringing her close for another kiss. Two sweet kisses to her lips, and then a longer one that sent a deep shiver through her entire body. His tongue pressed into her mouth, exploring her with a gentle thoroughness that made her heart beat fast. She was so enthrall
ed with the kiss that she barely knew he was pressing her down to her back, only realizing it when she looked up to see him silhouetted against the low light of the fire.
“Have you any idea how very beautiful you are, Elizabeth? You look like everything I have ever wanted in my life.”
“You're beautiful,” she said, because he was. Bronzed by the light of the fireplace, there was something intensely compelling, completely desirable about Reade. He was a kind of perfection she had never known before, something she had never known she wanted until the wanting came to take her breath away.
“May I see you?”
She swallowed hard and nodded. It felt as if she were taking a step over a cliff, and she had no idea what would happen when she hit bottom This felt like something she couldn't take back, but she could no more say no to him than she could make the sun rise in the west.
With a touch so tender that it hurt her heart, Reade unlaced her dress and pulled it over her head. He reached for her shift, but then he frowned, touching the ragged hem that barely made it past her hips.
“What is this?”
“I tore it for bandages. For...”
“Oh, lass,” Reade said, and then he pulled her shift away, leaving her completely bare in front of him. Instinctively, Elizabeth tried to cover herself with her hands, but Reade gently pulled them away.
“Ah, but you are perfect, so perfect and lovely. There is nothing here to be ashamed about, little darling.”
She might have argued, but then Reade was kissing her, but this time, he only started with her lips. Soon his kisses were moving down the side of her neck, over the curve of her shoulder and down her body. When his fingertips gently grazed the tips of her breasts, she whimpered.
“Sensitive,” she managed to get out.
Reade chuckled, kissing her so sweetly on the collarbone.
“I promise, I will be so gentle with you, darling.”
Then to her shock, he dropped his head and his lips closed around the tight bud of her nipple. She squirmed, but then gasped as the pleasure from that simple and unexpected touch flowed through her.
“Oh, Reade!”
He moved to her other breast, giving it the same treatment as she writhed underneath him. It was at once too much and not enough. She needed more, even if she had only the barest idea of what more was. She had been taught, like all girls of her class, about her husband's needs, but Reade wasn't her husband, and no one had ever mentioned anything about her needs at all.
She gasped a little when he slid his knee between her legs. The contrast of his rough trews and her soft skin was intense, and for a moment, she could only focus on how very good he made her feel.
“Ah, lass, but you are so very beautiful to me...”
She thought it was an accident when his muscular thigh rubbed up between her legs, but when he did it again, she decided it did not matter whether it was or not. All that mattered was the surge of intense pleasure that raced through her as he did so, the need that filled her, that took her breath away. Her hands tightened in his hair, but if it hurt him, he did not say.
“How can you be touching me like this?” she gasped.
He paused.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No... no!” S
omething frantic in her voice made him groan, and he pressed his forehead against her shoulder.
“You must tell me,” he said thickly. “If you need me to stop, you must tell me because Heaven help me, I will not do so on my own, Elizabeth.”
She whimpered when she felt the thickness of his manhood against her thigh. Even muffled with cloth, she could feel his heat and his shape. She would burn up to a cinder if he only touched her more, and then she felt his hand on her bare thigh, moving upward.
Elizabeth meant to tell him to stop, but instead, she clung to him.
“Kiss me,” she whispered, and somehow, through some kind of magic or perfect understanding, he gentled.
Reade's hand stayed on her thigh, a beautiful brand that made her long for more, but he leaned up to kiss her as well, and this time, there was no fury or storm. His kiss brushed over her upper lip and then her lower, as gentle as a ray of sunshine. The kiss sent tremors through her of a different kind, ones that shook her inside as well as out. She had seen him kill men to protect her. He had taken a spear to the shoulder to save her and to keep her from harm, and why did it make her want to cry that he could still kiss her so sweetly?
“I never want to hurt you, my perfect little lass,” he murmured. “Never, ever. If this was all we did, I would be content. If you only touched my face, my shoulder, my hand, I would be content.”
Elizabeth shivered at his words because she knew how very true they were. He would be content with it, and in truth, it was better if he was, wasn't it? She knew what the truth was, however, and the risk of it took her breath away. She swallowed, and then she felt as if she were casting herself over the cliff, seeing if the wind would catch her or let her fall.
“You may be content with that,” Elizabeth murmured. “I am not at all certain I would be.”
She could feel it, that tide of sensation and passion between them. It swelled like the sea at high tide, the waves roaring up, and as he reached for her, she knew that she would let it wreck them both, whatever the consequences would be.
Reade pulled back just long enough to remove his trews, and then he was beautifully, gloriously naked next to her. She wished that there was enough light so that she could see him clearly, so that she could memorize every part of his body, but then he was sliding back down next to her, and nothing else mattered besides how good he felt next to her, how perfect he was to touch and how good his mouth felt on hers again.
“Reade... I want you.”
The small whisper was all she could manage. She wanted him with a strength that should have frightened her, but it was nothing compared to the need with which he touched her. His hand slid along her belly, and after a moment, she parted her legs for him. It felt as if she were giving him access to everything, trusting him not to hurt her, and she knew in her heart that it would never be any other way.
“Such a perfect girl. Such a beauty...”
She whimpered a little at his first intimate touch, but his mouth, soft on hers, made her forget all about words like wrong or embarrassment. Instead, she could only arch her hips up for more, crying out as his touch grew deeper and more intimate. It was a shock when he pressed a single finger inside her, but he was slow and gentle, touching with so much care that it could bring tears to her eyes. When he touched one particular spot, it made her dig her nails into him, and he laughed.
“Oh, you were made to be loved, little darling.”
Elizabeth started to protest when he pulled his hand away, but then he rose over her, kneeling between her legs, his weight supported on his brawny arms as he kissed her. She could feel the bluntness of his manhood brush against her most intimate place, and she couldn't help stirring restlessly. There was no going back, but there never had been, and she wanted this with him and only him so badly.
He kissed her deeply as his pressed into her, and the pleasure that swelled through her was briefly interrupted with a sharp pain. Before Elizabeth could even cry out, the pain ceased, and Reade filled her perfectly. He was still for a long moment, his breathing matching hers, and then when he started to move, Elizabeth forgot that pain entirely.
The pleasure that he sparked inside her roared to be a bonfire, drawing her body as tight as an arrow would a bow. She felt as if she was too full of sensation, entirely too sensitive, and each stroke pushed her higher and higher.
Elizabeth realized she was whispering his name, and he was calling hers. He was her entire world. Nothing else mattered but him, but this...
Her pleasure rose until she thought it could not go higher, and when it did, she felt as if she were shattering. Her entire body went stiff, and her eyes shut tight against it, but there was nothing she could do. With Reade's sweet vo
ice in her ear, she toppled over the peak, her body alight with pleasure, and when Reade's motions quickened, working into her with a deperate force, she could feel his pleasure, too, perfect along with hers.
The stunning sensations of her climax carried her high into the air, and only now, as her body went limp with satisfaction, could she drift back down. Reade's body was heavy on top of hers, but it felt so good.
He makes me feel good. Then she realized the truth of it.
He makes me feel right. He always does.
* * *
Elizabeth must have dozed off for a moment, because suddenly, she jerked up at a shout from beyond the hut. For a moment, she clung to Reade, startled by the sound, but then she relaxed when she realized it was only some of Ava's men carousing.
As their voices lifted in a rowdy song, Reade made a face.
“No better than bandits, that lot.”
“Ava seems to keep them in line, at any rate.”
"Did any of Ava's men give you any problems today?"
"Er... no. They kept their distance. Ava was mostly just knocking me over and trying to remind me that I shouldn't stand so still and be so easy to knock over."
"Well, that sounds like her, and that's for the best."
"Why's that? Her men seemed kind enough."
"They might be, but they're notorious in this part of the world, them and her."
"Are they? I had wondered if that was simply how Scottish women were."
Reade laughed and reached over to knuckle a strand of hair from Elizabeth's cheek.
"We don't keep our women locked in the house and assume that they'll run off for a wink and a good time as the English do, no, but Ava's a strange one."
"Tell me."
"She's the bastard daughter of Warren Blair, laird of Clan Blair. The old man's crazed, ruling up on Kilbourne Peak like some kind of pagan king of old. She's got a brother, I believe, who stays closer to home, but she was always a rover."
"So... she just gets to roam the land like a soldier?"
Reade laughed, and there was something a little harsh about it that made her look up.
Claimed By The Highlander (The Highlands Warring Clan Mactaggarts Book 1) Page 12