The Capture of Highland Desire (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (4 page)

Chapter 4

              After a restless but admittedly inspiring night full of some of the most erotic dreams he’d ever had, Eian saddled his horse and headed for Lochain Castle. Because he was the brother to the laird of an allied clan, he would be welcomed by Laird Leon as an honored guest, as was written in the age-old rules of highland hospitality.  Though he knew that he was in fact taking advantage of that hospitality only because he wanted to see a particularly stunning lass again, he really couldn’t help himself.  All night he had tossed and turned on the course straw mattress in his room at the inn.  But it wasn’t the uncomfortable bed that made him so restless; after all he was a hardened warrior, used to sleeping on the ground and worse.  No, at first it was his
thoughts
that had kept him awake long into the night.  Every damn time he had closed his eyes, he saw
her,
clear as day.  Then he had of course started to imagine her naked, which naturally led to himself being naked with her, skin to skin, breath to breath, kissing her as deeply as if he were actually starving for her.  It was odd, because he didn’t usually fantasize about women so… vividly.  And he didn’t actually kiss many of the women he bedded, though he hadn’t been able to get enough of it when he was a lad, when he could go for hours with one session of lips on lips.  Of course, he didn’t know yet about the even more pleasurable things one could do with a woman.  Now, somehow a kiss seemed more intimate, far too personal for a casual tupping.  It seemed to him that a kiss really had nothing to do with fulfilling the needs of his body, and so was to be generally avoided, lest the lass he was with get the idea that there could ever be more between them.                 

When finally
he slept, he dreamt of the girl on the bay mare.  Aye, he had kissed her in his dream, over and over again, and it had felt like the most natural, perfect thing on earth.  As essential as the next beat of his heart.  And those kisses had fired a hunger in his blood the likes of which could surely only happen in the fantasy of his sleeping mind.  She had tasted of sunshine and honey, and he couldn’t get enough.  He had eagerly licked and sucked at every part of her, all the while grinding his hips hungrily against her soft flesh.  He would have thought that in his own dream, he could have gone as slowly as he wanted, savoring every moment, but he had been desperate for the lass, practically crawling out of his own skin to be inside her.  Then, damn it all to bloody hell, just as he was about to thrust his cock into the soft warmth between her thighs, he woke up, shaking and sweating and hard as a spike.  Needless to say, he had had to finish himself with his own hand like a lad of fifteen years. 

Twice. 

One night was more than enough of that.  Now he wanted to have the real thing, because even if it didn’t come close to what he had felt in that dream, he knew the sex was still going to be damn good.  And obviously he needed to tup her to get whatever obsession this was out of his system.  Once he had had her, he was certain he’d be back to normal again.  He knew from experience that feelings this intense just didn’t last very long.  And so what if he was going a little over board with making a formal visit to Lochain just to see a certain lass again?  Certainly he deserved as much for slogging through all of those caves.  It was all in the name of the pursuit of carnal pleasure, a very worthy goal in Eian’s book.  He even thought he would like to kiss her, at least once.  After all, once he went back to Creagmor in a few days’ time, he would likely never see her again. 

              A short time later Eian rode into the bailey of the castle, a man on a much different mission than the one that had brought him here.  After leaving Dair and a list of instructions for his care with a stable hand and tossing him a large coin that made the lad look up in surprise and smile, Eian strode towards the keep to be announced to the laird.  He knew that he attracted a slew of feminine gazes as he crossed the bailey, he always did, but he couldn’t be bothered to so much as look right now.  He had another agenda.  Already he had concocted a plausible reason for his being here on the coast, one where he would not be lying, only stretching the truth a bit, which he figured wasn’t anything that hadn’t been done before.  Then, after the usual formalities were out of the way, he would mingle with the other castle residents and guests until he saw the lass again, or at least found out more about her.  A lass
that
lovely was bound to be talked about.  A half-lidded smile spread across his face.  He was confident that he would have her in his bed within a day or two of meeting her, and for that he couldn’t wait.  He hadn’t looked so forward to bedding a lass in a long, long time, and the novelty of it was refreshing to say the least.  Och, and damned if he wasn’t hard as a post again just thinking of it!               

***

              After spending far too much of the day in her chamber being fitted for new clothes, having her hair styled, and just plain pacing the room or staring out the window, Allia was almost eager to go down to the hall for dinner, even if she had to sit with Uncle Leon again and be all but ignored.  She wasn’t at all used to sitting around idle and waiting, and all of the nervous energy she had at the moment wasn’t helping matters.  Her uncle had seemed a bit edgy yesterday, and certainly more blunt with his words than she remembered or was used to, but surely he couldn’t be as bad as he had seemed.  She had probably just been tired, overwhelmed and far too sensitive.  She was so used to the men of the 21
st
century, generally polite, and comparatively inhibited.  She had forgotten that the men of this time were much different.  Harder, and yes, edgier… because they had to be.  She couldn’t seem to get a good read on Leon though, and that bothered her. 

She brushed down her skirt a final time and looked around
again at her chamber, still trying to feel something… anything that said
home
.  It was still a very nice room, decorated in subtle shades of cream and beige, with tapestries adorning the walls, most depicting romantic scenes of ladies and flowers.  Definitely a girl’s room, as the bed was equally feminine, covered with fluffy pillows and frilly blankets.  The two maids who had apparently been assigned the job of making her presentable had just left, but earlier she had been bathed, her hair washed and combed out until it shone, and dressed in a new gown which, she had to admit, was much more flattering than the one her former guardian had given her.  That dress must have been at least ten years out of style, though she would certainly keep it, to remember Mairi by.  The woman had always been kind to her, if a little less than motherly.  She had surely done her best, faced with caring for Allia and preparing her for what was to come, all the while knowing she herself would likely never return home. Allia had grieved a long time for her, and had made sure her grave was well cared for and always had flowers. She had always felt a little guilty though, because she was happy to be free from watchful eyes, if only for a little while.

With effort,
Allia shook herself out of that train of thought.  There was no use feeling sad over what she had never had the power to change.  She took a deep breath and let it go, refocusing on the moment, and, yes, despite everything, feeling a bit like a princess in all her finery.  She had never really been one to dress up much, before.

She
made her way down the narrow, winding stairs to the main hall, pausing at the bottom in the shadows of the doorway to take in the scene before her.  Dinner wasn’t being served yet, and dozens of men and far fewer women were milling around the large room, talking and laughing with one another, or enjoying drinks in front of the huge open hearth.  There was no fire burning, since the summer night was balmy.  Allia didn’t know a single one of the people she saw, and so she stayed where she was and just watched, feeling completely out of place.  She wasn’t willing to just walk into the hall all by herself, with no one to talk to.  The feeling was not unfamiliar to her, as many times as she’d started over in a new place.  Her eyes scanned the crowd, looking for any sign of her uncle, but she didn’t see him.  Another small crowd of men poured in through the main door.  Good lord, how many people ate dinner in this hall every night?  Or was this some kind of special occasion?  She didn’t remember there ever being this many in the hall when she was a child, but then she and her mother had usually taken their meals upstairs, away from the chaos and general drunken bawdiness of the main hall, which was really no place for a child. 

Her gaze moved across the room again,
searching for a familiar face that she could latch onto.  Suddenly her eyes stopped cold one man.

He was standing near the far wall,
apparently holding court with a group of fawning women, though by his posture it seemed he was somewhat bored… or distracted. Although she couldn’t be sure, she thought he was the same man she had seen in front of the inn, and if he was, he had managed to utterly capture her attention yet again.  Oh yes, her heart was speeding up its rhythm even now. 
Who on earth was he, anyway?
 

Grateful for a diversion while she waited,
and because she was barely able to look away even if she wanted to, Allia watched him.  After a moment she had re-affirmed that he indeed had ‘bad-boy’ written all over him.  Even from here, where she couldn’t quite see the details of his face, she could tell he was the kind of man women flocked to, even
knowing
he would just use them and break their hearts.  She had dated a guy like that once, about a year ago, and oh yes, quite predictably, he had broken her heart.  Of course she’d known on some level that because of her circumstances, their relationship could never go anywhere, but when she’d caught him with another girl, he hadn’t even
tried
to make up an excuse.  That’s how little Allia had meant to him, and that hurt far worse than the cheating had.  Lesson learned, both in this time and the other. Drop-dead gorgeous bad-boys: great to look at, fine for a one night stand if you were into that kind of thing, but
not
good relationship material.  Maybe life, and men, in some ways, were more similar here than she had thought.  Of course they were, because even though technology had changed through time, human beings and their behavior essentially hadn’t changed at all.

             
And of course women, no matter what time in history, liked to look at handsome men, and this one was
definitely
worth looking at.  As he slowly moved through the crowd and drew closer to where she stood (and was immediately surrounded by more women), Allia’s heart jumped with recognition and began pounding erratically.  It
was
the man from in front of the inn, the one who had locked his gaze on her as she rode by.  She looked at him now more closely, confident that he couldn’t see her from where he stood.  He was tall, built like a classical Greek statue, and had devilishly handsome features: a strong jaw with a squared, dimpled chin, broad, high cheek bones, and a wide, full mouth.  But it was his hair that really drew her attention.  It was dark brown with chestnut highlights from the sun, and fell in loose waves to just below his shoulders.  He had pulled a section back at each side of his face and tied them at the back of his head.  The look was just… downright sexy.  But beyond his obvious physical appeal, he just seemed to exude charm and charisma.  It was in the animalisticly graceful, confident movements of his body, that would draw people to him almost as quickly and unconsciously as his easy smile.  Yep, he was one to stay away from all right.  Someone should probably warn the three giggling girls he was currently entertaining.  Allia leaned against the door frame and watched as they unabashedly flirted with him, and he flirted right back, expertly, as if this was a dance he had performed a thousand times.  He was no doubt at this moment deciding which one would have the privilege of sharing his bed next, she thought, realizing she felt a small pang of jealousy at the idea.  She wished for a moment that she was
that
kind of girl, and could go off to enjoy a man as beautifully made as that one…

             
But she wasn’t.  Shaking her head, Allia scanned the crowd again and noticed her uncle at last.  Gathering her courage, she stepped out of the doorway and into the hall.  She had a fleeting moment of reprieve before anyone saw her, but then, to her dismay, the room grew noticeably quieter and heads began to turn her way.  Was she really that different?  What kind of stories about her had been circulating for the last thirteen years, that her mere presence caused such a stir?  Maybe it was just that she was a new face… Lochain
was
relatively isolated compared to other highland castles.

Determined not to let it bother her, and to hold onto her pride for all it was worth, she smiled at Uncle Leon and stepped further into the room.  Thankfully, he made his way over to her and took her arm to escort her to the table, even pulling out her chair for her.  Once she was seated, she felt better, well, less conspicuous anyway.  And once the wine and then the food was served, she at least had something to do with her hands.  After a few too-polite words to her, Leon turned to the other men at the table, introducing her to them one by one in a monotone voice, as if it were a chore he didn’t relish.  She smiled demurely, knowing she was too on-edge to remember any of their names.  And after the introductions were over, none of them spoke to her again anyway.  She glanced up and down the long table.  Nope, no other women were dining at the high table tonight.  Only her.  Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb.