Highland Song (41 page)

Lainie looked up, thinking how short her time with Slade was going to be. Already she was beginning to recognize landmarks, places her brothers had taken her once so long ago. She didn't want to tell Slade they would be home in a few days.

"What are you thinking?" Slade asked. 'Your eyes look as if you are far away in some distant place where only you can go." He stroked her hair and rubbed a strand between his thumb and forefinger.

Lainie closed her eyes and nodded, wishing he was touching other parts of her but afraid to ask.

"Lainie?"

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I was just thinking."

"Of what?"

She gave a short little laugh. "Of what my life is going to be like without you."

Empty. My life will be a huge dark hole with no life inside.

He bent and gave her a butterfly kiss. Then his arms tightened around her, holding her close as if he didn't ever want to let her go.

Lainie could only dream. She knew he would leaver her at the MacPherson castle then ride off into the sunset without looking back.

She turned to him, her own hunger mercuric. "Kiss me, Englishman," she whispered. "Kiss me so I'll never forget you."

There was a moment of surprised silence then Slade laughed. "You don't have to ask me twice." He gave her a long, deep kiss. It was a kiss that explored and tasted every part of her.

She met him move for move, longing for the moment to last forever. When the sensation of his mouth on hers vanished, Lainie watched Slade. With a gentle smile, he offered her the food he'd set on the blanket. She accepted it graciously.

"What will Bertram do?" Lainie asked.

"About what?"

"When he finds out you're not taking me to Edinburgh," she said, touching his arm.

Slade shrugged. "He won't let me resign my commission. I'm sure of that. He can't do anything else. The charges he has against you are false. If he pushes this, it will hurt his career more than mine."

"Can you prove the charges are false?"

"I don't have to. He makes a mockery of justice."

"Isn't there some penalty for trumped up charges?" she asked.

Slade laughed aloud, hugged Lainie hard and quick. "Not in a corrupt system."

"There should be," Lainie muttered.

Slade stretched out on the bedroll his hands behind his head. Then he patted a place by his side. "Come look at the stars with me."

She watched him for a moment, and did as he bade. The trees made a kind of tunnel to the stars. They were bright and twinkling with light.

"They're beautiful, Slade." She smiled as she spoke.

"Not as beautiful as you," he said.

Slade sat up slightly leaning on one elbow and looking at her. The he kissed the corner of her smile.

Lainie watched him with sensual memories in her mind and a hungry yearning in the pit of her stomach. Almost as if he didn't trust himself looking at her, he turned Lainie until she faced forward with her back to him. She sat between his legs.

Her hips pressed intimately against his thighs. She recalled another time he'd sat with her in this same position. She'd almost given herself to him that night.

Almost.

She felt him harden in a rush that made her burn.

"Slade," her voice wavered.

Long fingers wrapped around her thighs. He pulled her close against him then released her with a whispered word that shook Lainie. She had not thought that simple contact would leave her aching.

Slade rose in a swift movement. He stood close enough to Lainie that she still felt his heat as plainly as she had felt the heat of his thighs against her own. Her nerves were stripped raw.

A quick glance told Lainie she had indeed been right. Once, Slade's bold arousal would have embarrassed or unnerved her. Now it simply made heat splinter delicately through her. She remembered what it had felt like to give herself to Slade's raw power and heady sensuality. She hungered for him again with an elemental need that was still new to her.

Slade's easy expression and banter vanished. "I'm going to take a look around. I don't know when I'll be back."

"Slade?" she asked, understanding that in some way, she had caused this hasty need to leave.

"Best you get some sleep. The ride tomorrow will be long and hard. I don't like the dark circles around your eyes."

Before she could speak, he vanished into the black velvet of the night, leaving Lainie with a vague sense of uneasiness she didn't like or understand. She lay back on the bedroll, alone and stared at the evening stars.

One of the hobbled horses snorted, interrupting Lainie's dismal feelings. She pulled her jacket, which she was using as a pillow closer to her head, blaming her wakefulness on the hard, lumpy ground rather than on her disturbed thoughts and fears that she had somehow pushed Slade away.

The ground had always been hard and she'd never had trouble sleeping until now. Plumping her makeshift pillow and turning over didn't make the ground softer, nor did it make her morose thoughts vanish. All she managed to do was get a better view of the trees, and the blackness where Slade had vanished as if something had swallowed him whole.

Just when she began to think she understood the man and that he was beginning to respect her, he turned full circle, baffling her. This afternoon had been easy and carefree but moments after they stopped, he acted as if he thought her the little tease he had so often called her. Her breath rushed out in a long distraught sigh.

Without a sound, he walked into the clearing, appearing as mysteriously as he'd vanished. His strong, broad-shoulders were silhouetted against the darkness of the trees. Her breath caught in the back of her throat.

"Slade," she began in a whisper but then thought again. She didn't want to intrude.

When she blinked, he'd turned and was watching her. She wanted to ask him where he'd been and what he'd seen. She wondered too, if he'd seen anyone who might be looking for them. And if he knew, she was watching him just as intently as he seemed to be looking at her.

Then he spoke to her.

"You should be sleeping," Slade said in a low, husky voice.

"The ground is too hard," she muttered, wondering if he'd believe her lame excuse.

I couldn't sleep because I was worried about you and where you'd gone
.

He walked over and sat on his haunches next to her bedroll. "I can't do anything about the hard ground." His hands were clasped in front of him. He reached and swept a strand of hair away from her face.

"I know," she told him. Her
body thrummed with the need to have him touch
her, to kiss her. But she didn't think he would. Something had happened today to change everything.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" she asked, unable to think of anything else. "And where did you go?

Slade's smile flashed faintly in the starlight. "Been thinking."

"So have I," she said, regretting her words. She didn't want to give him an excuse to probe into her thoughts or her fears. She didn't want him to know that she'd fallen in love with him.

"Are you worried about Jericho?"

"No, I'm more worried about your brothers. But not enough to keep from sleeping." He inhaled deeply, watching her.

"Then what's keeping you awake?" she asked, reaching out to touch his arm.

"You." He moved away from her fingers.

Lainie sat up. Watching Slade through the dim light she wondered what expression he would have if she could see his face more clearly. Would it be the grim man she first met, or the easy carefree man who she'd just spent the day with?

"I tried not to make any noise," she told him sardonically.

He laughed. "No, I could hardly tell you were awake you were so still. Perhaps it would have been better if you'd been asleep."

Lainie waited, watching him, hoping the Slade of today would plop down beside her and start teasing her again.

"Then--" she began but he placed a finger on her lips stopping her.

"Little darling, every time you move," Slade said, "I start remembering and thinking--I told you I'd been thinking--how warm it must be under your blankets. Then I think it would be nice if I were there with you, exploring places I haven't touched yet."

She coughed. "I can't think of anywhere you haven't touched."

"I'd like to find out."

"I didn't think you wanted…" Lainie's voice faded.