Highland Seer (31 page)

Ellie glanced around. Her eyes lit on the entrance to the keep. “Except...”

“Shut the bloody damned gate!” Donal yelled to the MacKyries lads near it.

Inside the great hall, after Nan had clucked over Donal’s injury, cleaned and bandaged it to Ellie’s satisfaction, they settled by the fire with cups of the MacKyrie whisky.

“Tell us what happened while we were gone,” Jamie demanded. “I canna wait any longer to hear the tale of the wedding that wasna a wedding.”

Donal sat next to Ellie and refrained from commenting, although he was as eager as Jamie, if not more so, to hear the tale.

Ellie huffed out a breath and shook her head. “’Tis quite simple, truly. The MacDuff showed up with his men, demanding that I wed him. He forced me to sign a contract joining our lands together.” Donal raised an eyebrow at Jamie, but Jamie was already half out of his seat. “Where is it?”

“If ye didna find it on his body, then likely it’s hidden in his chambers. I’ll have Micheil fetch it and show it to ye later. Ye wished to hear about the wedding, aye?”

Jamie grunted and reseated himself. “Aye.”

“Friar Tam officiated. His is an interesting story. He worked with the fathers at their distillery up on the north coast. Before he came to MacKyrie about three years ago, they caught him selling some of the monastery’s whisky on the side...and defrocked him.”

“Defrocked...ach, that’s brilliant.” Jamie settled deeper into his seat, leaned his head back and chuckled.

Donal didn’t see anything funny in the tale. “Ye took a big risk. What did ye intend to do when the MacDuff found out the marriage wasna valid?”

Ellie sobered. “I prayed ye’d come to stop him before that happened,” she answered simply. “And ye did.”

“Were ye going to go through with it if we didna arrive in time?”

Ellie stood and moved to the hearth, staring down into the flames, then she turned to Donal, and the anguish in her eyes nearly broke his heart. “What choice did I have?”

Donal’s nostrils flared along with his temper. “Were ye at least planning to kill him before he took ye?”

Ellie threw her hands up in exasperation, then planted them on her hips. “Do ye seriously think his clan wouldna avenge him? And rain destruction down on mine? Ye. Were. Gone.” She pointed at Donal, then Jamie, then Donal again as she spat the words, then sighed, wrapping her arms around herself. “The best I could do was keep my people safe, even if it meant sacrificing myself.”

Despite his anger, Donal’s heart swelled with pride at the bravery Ellie exhibited. “That’s noble, aye, but ye had to ken I would be back.”

Ellie shook her head. “If ye’d been a day later, the MacDuff wouldha claimed me and mine.”

“But he didna,” Jamie said, interrupting the budding argument. “And the result wouldha been the same. He’d be dead and ye’d be free of him.”

Donal watched the muscle work in Ellie’s jaw, suddenly fascinated by her restraint. Nay, it wouldna been the same. She’d have been forced by the MacDuff and would always have that stain on her memory.

“Nay, no’ the same,” Donal answered for her. He shot a reproving glare Jamie’s way, then focused on Ellie. Her eyes were brimming. He feared she was imaging how it would have gone. He had to distract her. “It didna happen, Ellie.” He stood and reached for her, wrapping her in his embrace, not caring about the pain it caused his injured arm, or the fact that that Jamie sat nearby, watching. “He didna touch ye, did he?”

“Almost. He’d started undressing as the fighting broke out. It came that close to happening.” Ellie hiccuped back a sob and turned her face into his shoulder. “Ye arrived in time.”

Donal realized she was shaking and finally understood she’d been as primed for battle as ever he was, swinging a sword. She’d been fighting for her life and her honor, seeking the only way left to her to escape her fate. She had been preparing herself, given the chance, to kill the MacDuff, or if she could not, then to submit to the most unspeakable violence a man could visit upon an unwilling woman. Even as she spoke aloud her greatest fear: her people would suffer for her actions. Even though she couldn’t admit it to herself. But she’d watched as Donal brought an end to him. For that, he would always be thankful. She would not carry that death around with her for the rest of her life, yet she had the satisfaction of seeing her greatest enemy destroyed.

“Let’s get ye upstairs, lass,” Donal murmured into her hair and lifted her from her feet. Suddenly, he wanted to be away from Jamie and all the others—and alone with the woman in his arms. That had been too close a call. It was time to claim her as his.

****

Ellie stood in her chamber, wrapped in the arms of the man she had feared would never return to her. The man in her dreams. The man who had saved her from the MacDuff. But would he stay to finish the job and protect her people from the vengeance that was sure to fall on them when word got back to the MacDuff keep of what had happened here tonight? He’d carried her up the stairs and now held her like he had no intention of ever leaving her again.
Please, God, let that be true
.

She shifted in his arms and looked up at him. His ice-green eyes were watching her. The tilt of his lips gave her hope. They almost formed a smile.

“Are ye better, lass?”

“No’ quite yet. I need ye to hold me for a few moments more.”

Donal tightened his grip and smoothed one hand up and down her back. “I canna complain about that. Ye were very braw today, lass. I’ll hold ye as long as ye like.”

Ellie held her breath. “Forever? Would ye do that?”

He tensed. His heartbeat accelerated against her chest. Then he kissed her hair and his thigh caressed her hip as he hugged her closer. “I came back to ye. I couldna get ye out of my mind...or my heart. Yer idea is seeming better and better each time I think on it.”

Ellie’s mouth fell open and her brows drew down. “I canna believe what I just heard.”

“Believe it,” Donal said, chuckling against her ear. “We’ll send for that priest Jamie brought. If he’s a real one, unlike yer friar, then we have another job for him to do.”

“No’ yet,” Ellie murmured, arcing up into Donal’s embrace. “I need ye now, Donal. Ye must take the memory of Lachlan’s hands on me and replace it with yer touch.”

“If we do this, Ellie, there’s nay goin’ back.” He tipped her chin up. “Ye ken that, aye?”

“’Tis what I want, Donal. Ye ken that. I’ve tried to tell ye, many times.”

“And many times I fought ye.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe he’d done that.

“No’ this time, Donal. The time for fighting is over. I need ye and want ye. But most important, I love ye.” She cupped his face, forcing him to concentrate on her words. “I shouldha said it sooner. Ye are the man in the Seeing, the one meant for me. I’ve nay doubt of it, nor of ye. But even if ye werena, it wouldna matter. I love ye.”

“I’ve had a hard time accepting that, lass, though I’ve wanted ye since I first saw ye.” He kissed her palms. “But I do love ye, Ellie. More than ye ken. I meant what I said. I no longer wish to fight with ye on this. I’ll marry ye, and gladly.”

“Truly?”

“Aye. I’ll say it as often as ye like. I love ye and I wish to marry ye. Tonight.”

Ellie stroked his face. “Later, Donal. No’ tonight. Tomorrow.”

Just before his mouth claimed hers, his eyes grew dark with a bright-green ring, the kind of green that preceded the most furious summer storms. He pulled her tight against his hard body as his tongue plundered her mouth. Her blood heated in her veins. She slid her arms around his neck, tangling her fingers in his shaggy hair. Then his hand slipped between them to fondle her breasts and unlace her dress. The heat of his palm seared her through the cloth and her nipples tightened in response to his touch. He’d done this that night in the solar, and then stopped. Would he stop now? Nay, he wouldn’t. She wouldn’t let him.

Ellie kissed him back with all the passion she had in her. It had been so long since she’d felt like this, and Donal had been a temptation she’d yearned for since he’d arrived. He’d thought he wasn’t good enough for her. Daft man. She wanted only him, and she intended to spend the rest of their lives together proving it. She’d never thought to love again, never really had loved, not like this. This was brighter, fiercer, than what she’d shared with her husband. Every breath she took belonged to Donal. She craved him all the more.

She slid her hands down his shoulders and chest to his waist. His belly tightened under her hands as she unbuckled the leather circling his body and dropped the belt to the floor. She pulled his shirt free of his trews and ran her hands under it, up to his chest, tracing his scars with her fingertips. Donal groaned. Ellie smiled, pleased at his response. God, it had been so long since she’d touched a man this way. So familiar and yet so new. Donal’s body was nothing like her husband’s, who had been a younger, thinner man. Donal’s muscles told the story of his life with every ridge and ripple, all heat and hard sinew, scarred and battle hewn, now bent on conquering her. Aye, he’d win this battle, too, and many more like it. Ellie exulted in the freedom to touch and taste and smell this man.

The heat radiating from his body nearly singed her palms, but she’d waited too long for this to let that deter her. She kept them on his skin, slipping her fingers across the tiny nubs of his nipples while her tongue dueled with his.

Suddenly he pulled her hands free and lifted her kirtle over her head. Surprised, she laughed. At that, he stripped his shirt off and kicked his boots away. He reached for her, then stopped as Ellie looked up at him through her lashes, coyly playing with the ties to her shift, the only thing between her body and Donal’s sight. She studied the muscular planes of his arms, chest, and belly. He was magnificently built, still browned by the summer sun and hardened by hours of weapons play—and battles for his life, his laird, and his adopted clan, judging by the many scars on his arms, shoulders, and chest. But the leather trews, straining against the bulging flesh beneath them, had to go. Soon.

His eyes narrowed. His gaze bored into her, watching her fingers deftly untie the string at her collarbones and stretch the gathered neckline wide. She waited a moment, holding the garment to her breasts, enjoying the beat of the pulse at his throat, the gathering frown of frustration on his brow. She’d never thought to enjoy his frown, but this one, aye. She crooked up one side of her mouth in amusement and invitation. Then she let go and the shift drifted to the floor, leaving her naked before him.

Donal’s eyes widened as he looked her up and down. His smile as his gaze returned to hers told her what she needed to know. It was true and real. A smile, not his usual quirk of his lips. Of appreciation. Of her. The last straw. She could wait no longer. She reached out and unlaced his trews, shoving them down his hips and freeing the engorged member they had contained. “Ellie,” Donal groaned as he kicked them the rest of the way off.

“It’s time, Donal,” she told him. “Past time.” She stepped into his embrace and gripped his tight buttocks, reveling in the hard length searing her belly. “I want ye to take me. Make me yers. Forever.”

Donal’s oath was wrenched from the depths of his soul. He pulled her upward onto her toes and covered her mouth with his hungry one. His cock nestled against her curls. Close, so close. But she wanted him inside her. Needed him inside her. Her womb clenched and wept its frustrated need to the point of pain.

But nay. His mouth left a trail of kisses down her throat to her breasts. Ellie cried out as the sensation of hot, wet pressure from Donal’s lips and tongue arced from her nipples to her core. She gasped, lifting her chest, demanding more as he licked and suckled.

Then he dropped to his knees and kissed his way down her belly to the juncture of her thighs.

Ellie’s knees buckled. Donal scooped her up and carried her to the bed, depositing her gently onto the covers at the edge. She reached for him.

“Take me, Donal, please.”

He grinned. Grinned! “No’ yet, love. There’s more of ye I wish to explore before I do.”

Ellie lifted onto her elbows and eyed his rampant cock. “Truly? It’s been years since I’ve seen a man thus, aye, but ’twould seem to me ye’re more than ready.”

In answer, Donal knelt before her and urged her legs apart. He licked the inside of her knee. Then her thigh. Then the other thigh. Ellie’s head fell back onto the bed. He worked his way slowly upward, dropping kisses and nipping with the edge of his teeth until Ellie was writhing in anticipation, head thrown back, eyes closed. She heard him inhale and softly sigh just before his tongue stroked her core and she nearly leapt off the bed. Lightning raced through her veins. Her eyes flew open.

“Like that, do ye?”

“Do it again if ye wish to ken.”

Donal bent to obey her and the lightning came back, coursing from her core out to her fingertips, heating her blood to boiling. Her toes curled as Donal licked and sipped, slipping two fingers inside her and running the tips along the front of her sheath.

Ellie broke into a thousand pieces, crying out as she shattered. Donal continued his intimate caress while he kissed and licked her nub until she finally stopped writhing. Then he withdrew his fingers and teased her with his tongue once more before kneeling over her.

“Now, my Laird, it’s time.”

****

Donal leaned over Ellie’s beautiful body. He could barely believe he was here, but her scent lingered in his nose, her taste on his tongue, and his gaze feasted on her flushed skin.

Nay, she was no virgin. He was glad she would be a willing partner, even this first time, rather than frozen with fear and dread of what was to come. But she was a woman untouched for years, though she’d responded to his kisses and caresses even more ardently than he’d believed possible. He vowed he would care for her as he had cared for no other.

Aye, she was beautiful. She was also strong and brave and wise—and his. Or would be in moments. He paused to savor the idea. This amazing woman was about to become his. Wanted to be his. Had asked, tried to seduce, all but begged to be his.