A Noble Deception (The Douglas Clan) (16 page)

He was fascinating to observe
, a man nothing short of magnificent: his contoured chest gleamed in the dull morning light; long, powerful limbs skimmed the pool’s surface with vitality and grace. As if he were water itself.

When he was finished bathing, Alex hoisted
himself from the pool, unknowingly exposing his nakedness to Glinis. Emitting a strangled gasp, she ducked behind her knoll once more and prayed that he hadn’t heard her.

But Sir Alexander MacByrne was a warrior and knight. He was trained to detect small sounds that did not belong in a place. He
had
heard. The scrape of his blade against its scabbard confirmed it.

“I ken yer’re there. Show yerself.”

His voice was harsh
. A chill ran down Glinis’s spine; A warrior’s voice had made the command. It was a side of him she’d not yet seen. It frightened her... and thrilled her at the same time.

Muttering a prayer, she crawled
out from behind her hiding place, her cloak and gown forgotten. She looked defiantly at Alex, every bit the countess she was, but for her traitorous cheeks which burned crimson.

He’d hastily fastened his tartan around his waist, but other than that he was still naked. He
brandished his sword, the steel gleaming against the steel grey sky. When he saw her, his fierce expression melted into one of bafflement.

“Lady Glinis?”

“Aye, Sir Alex. I... em... I do say, this is rather awkward.”

“What are ye doing here,
and by yerself?”

She bristled at
the question. “I am countess of Kildrummond, these are my lands. I should be asking
ye
what
ye’re
doing here.”

“I discovered this place soon after I arrived at Glendalough. I’ve been coming here most mornings since
the weather’s grown milder.”

“Well
I
discovered this place nigh on twenty years ago. I’d say that makes the claim of it mine.”

“Then I concede.” He bowed low
, but his eyes stayed on her.

Glinis shifted
from one foot to the other. The way he was looking at her made her nervous. The fact that he made no move to dress himself made her even more nervous. She was keenly aware of her lightweight shift, which skimmed her skin with each wisp of breeze.

He knew the effect he was having on her.
“Why d’ye keep yer distance, my Lady?” he purred, his voice like velvet. “Are ye afraid of me?”

“Afraid? Nay
, I am no’ afraid. I keep my distance because I dinna trust ye.”
Nor do I trust myself
. “Ye’d best dress yerself, ye’ll catch yer death of cold.”

“’Tis nothing
. The water is cold, aye, but the air is warm enough once ye’re out of it. Besides, I’ve warm blood.” When she gave him a disapproving look, he lowered himself to the edge of the pool. Tossing his broadsword behind him into the grass, he dangled his bare legs in the water. His hand thumped the grass at his side in invitation.

Glinis’s conscience
begged her not to entertain the idea.
No good will come of this, woman. Dinna be a fool, ye ken what he wants.

Her heart hammered madly
at her ribs. It made a different plea, in a language that had no words.

“Oh, very well,” she sighed.
She stepped lightly, closing the gap between them. Raising her shift to her knees, she sat and slipped her own legs back into the pool. She tensed at the icy throb, then relaxed as the cold subsided.

Alex laughed. “Aye, ‘tis no’ summer yet, I suppose.”

“'Tis beautiful here in summer.” She smiled wistfully. “I have many regrets in my life, but becoming lady of these lands has never been one of them. ‘Tis a beautiful place.”

“
And what regrets
do
ye have, if I may be so bold? D’ye regret marrying his Lordship?”

Glinis chewed her lip. “I used to—no’ that
marrying John was ever
my
choice, mind. I were barely fifteen, and my father wasna one to dote on his daughter. He bartered my hand away in exchange for kinship wi’ the Douglases as easily has he would have bartered a horse for seed grain.”

“
'Tis common of noblemen,” he offered.

“Aye, and I dinna wish for yer sympathy, Sir Alex. Many women of my status end up in situations worse than mine. I’m no’ fool enough to be ungrateful for the comfortable life I’ve led. But there was once a time when I did regret. It was long ago; I were a young, silly girl, and thought I’d stay young forever, as silly girls do.”

“What was that regret?”

She glanced sideways, then away again. “I regretted
that I didna defy my father and run when I had the chance. And later I regretted that I didna run from John, when he betrayed his marriage vows and took up wi’ that—”

The word
whore
died on her lips before she uttered it. It was a strange word now, felt strange to say it without the force of her hatred for Lilian MacInnes behind it. Oddly, that rage was gone now. There was an empty place where her heartache had been. The word held no significance anymore, no power.

Seeing
her thoughts flicker across her face, Alex slid closer. Only a sliver of space remained between them.

“I’m glad ye didna run. I never would have met ye otherwise.”

The lull of his voice made Glinis tingle from her forehead to her toes.

“I dinna wish to be a young man’s prize,” she
said, almost pleading.

Alex slid closer still. His thigh grazed hers. “Aye, ye’ve said. ‘Tis a good thing I dinna want a prize.”

“W-What do ye want?”

He leaned into her, and s
lid his arm around her back. Bending his head to her neck, he brushed his lips along the length of her jaw.

Glinis closed her eyes; a tremble started in her core
. She felt like she was drowning, being pulled under by the sensuous spell he was weaving over her. She held still, seeing nothing but the darkness behind her lids, waiting for his lips to find hers ...

A
shove at her back wrenched her from her spell, and she was propelled into the frigid water. Her head went below the surface, and she pushed against the rock bottom to stand. Her lungs pulled in sharp, shallow breaths at the sudden shock, and before she could take stock of what had just happened, Alex’s strong arms wrapped around her, pressing his warm body to hers.

She opened her eyes to find him gazing intently at her. Then her eyes slid to the edge of the pool where they’d been sitting ...

His plaid lay in a heap on the wet grass.

“Sir Alex, this i-isna app-ropriate,” she
stuttered through chattering teeth.

“Then
let go of me,” he whispered, rough-tender.

He did not wait for her to answer. Or perhaps
it was she that did not wait—it was unclear who had made the move. But he was kissing her, devouring her with an urgency that took her breath away. And she was kissing him back with a fury to rival his. The water drew a deep shiver from her, but she didn’t stop. Never wanted to stop, even if she froze to death where she stood.

They were not in the
pool long. She was vaguely aware of being moved through the water as Alex pulled her to the edge and onto the grass. His lips parted from hers for only the briefest second to hoist her out of the water. Then he climbed out himself. His hard, lean body came down on her with a delicious weight.

Glinis’s head
disintegrated; every inch of her skin surged under his hands, which skimmed her body with insatiable need. Her need matched his; her own hands drifted over the ridges of his chiselled back, the slim line of his waist, the hardened swells of his buttocks.

He moaned against her lips, a rumble that came from deep within his chest.
“My God, woman, I’ve wanted ye since I first laid eyes on ye.”

She believed him.
And knew that his want of her was more than plain lust. Of course, Glinis had heard such declarations before, but had dismissed them out of hand. Those foolish, handsome young men had thought to flatter her with their inflamed sexual urges. Their flattery had meant nothing to her; their lust for her had meant little more.

Alex did not flatter her now. His decla
ration was a statement of fact, his want for her far deeper than carnal desire.

Or perhaps her own
want of him made her willing to believe it. If that was so then she didn’t care. When he tugged at the neck of her shift, drawing it down over her shoulders and her breasts, she wriggled the rest of the way out of the sodden garment.

Her naked skin, stippled like gooseflesh, melded with his and was warmed. The evidence of his desire, rigid between his thighs, pressed into her belly.

He did not claim her, though. Not right away, for he was not one to seek only his own satisfaction. His mouth roved over her bare flesh, moving downward as he shifted his body atop hers. His tongue teased the peaks of her nipples, slid below the soft, plush mound of her breasts: first one, then the other, then to the base of her sternum before dipping lower to her navel.

The cold was
forgotten. Glinis’s entire body blazed with unseen flame. She released a tiny cry of surprise when his tongue flickered over her womanhood.

Sinner
, shouted the voice in her head.
Your husband is still alive, yet you give your heart another man.

My husband gave his love to another woman, and this man gives his heart to me
, she shouted back.

Defying the voice and the last of her reservations, she yielded to
the pressure of Alex’s hands upon her knees, and allowed them to part. When he put his mouth to her fully, she bucked upwards. Her eyes flew wide and her hands threaded through his hair, clasping him to her. An unbidden moan wrenched from her lungs.

He was skilled. He knew where the most sensitive flesh lay,
knew how to tease by pushing and withdrawing in a seemingly endless, pleasurably frustrating rhythm. Her legs moved restlessly against him, and her gasps came short and sharp, making her grow light-headed.

When she could stand no more, when she thought she would die
without fulfillment, she coaxed him back up.

Alex obliged. H
is eyes met hers, heavy lidded and dark as a stormy sea. Her body was racked with a new kind of shiver that had nothing to do with the cold. Nonetheless, Alex reached for his rumpled plaid and blanketed them both with it.

Beneath the cover of his
feileadh mhor
, he eased himself inside her, gentle but deep. A shudder rippled through his body, and his mouth was on hers again. His lips moved, urgent and demanding, mimicking the rhythm of his hips against hers. Soft grunts pillowed at the back of his throat; driven wild by the sound, Glinis dug her fingers into his back, demanding that he move faster. He obeyed, bringing her closer and closer to the edge of a climax.

She was too close, to
o mad with need to notice that he held back his own pleasure for the sake of hers.

Her climax crested in a blaze of light and heat. She buried her face into his neck, crying out against his skin. Her body convulsed against his manhood as he continued to thrust, determined to wrench every last ounce of pleasure from her.

When it was over, she leaned her head back and looked into his eyes. The heat of his own need burned in him, his brows were pulled together with the intensity of his torture.

She nodded. “Now,” she whispered to him.

Yes, now. He closed his eyes, giving himself over to the sensation which had built and strained within him. His breath came hot and fast over her skin, and his fingers threaded through hers, gripping her hands above her head as if for dear life. The moan which tore from his chest when he found his climax was nearly deafening; it echoed off the rocky hills surrounding them. The evidence of it came slick between her legs. She hugged her knees to his waist so that he might gain the most satisfaction possible: a carnal reciprocity.

Spent, Alex collapsed against her, trembling
as much from the exertion as from his release. When he’d caught his breath, he rolled onto his side, and gathered Glinis into him. Laying her head on his broad chest, she listened to the frantic beating of his heart. It matched the pounding of her own. The plaid which he’d tossed over them trapped the heat of their bodies, warming away any remaining shivers that were left from the cold water of the pool.

“
Ye’re no’ sorry, are ye?” he asked after a while, trailing his fingertips up and down her arm.

Glinis smiled—a small, private smile. Shoving against his chest, she raised herself into a sitting position and reached for her sopping shift. She wrung it out as best she could and pulled it down over her head. The fabric was still cold; she flinched when it touched her heated skin.

Pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, she looked at him.