Bound by Wish and Mistletoe (Highland Legends, Book 1.5) (4 page)

Those sky-blue eyes mesmerized him. Her full lips parted just as they’d done while she’d slept in his arms. Without thought, he dipped his head and brushed his mouth against hers wit
h the barest touch.

Susanna gasped but didn’t pull away.

He pressed further, making full contact with her lips, flicking his tongue out to taste her.

Sweet. Soft.

A gentle moan came from her throat.

He growled and deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue along the seam of her lush lips until they parted. His tentative licks over the tip her tongue emboldened her, and she soon tangled hers over and under his. She pressed her weight further into his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her.

For the first time in the presence of a woman, he truly relaxed, all thoughts drifting from his head. Desire coursed through his veins, hardening his cock, making him want more than the skittish doe in his arms had likely ever imagined.

Increased pressure where her hands rested on his chest sounded warning bells in his head that she’d lost herself. Much as he wanted to keep her under the spell of desire, he pulled away. He sucked on her bottom lip, groaning as he released it.

He gazed down at the temptress in his hold. Black pupils in those sapphire eyes had blown wide and her lips were plump and red from the kiss. Her cloak had parted enough for him to see her chest heaving.

Susanna swallowed hard and took a step back.

Then another.

He followed, step for step, continuing to hold her. He feared if he let go, she’d fall over, the way she heavily swayed.

She blinked up at him in shock, like he’d stolen her most precious treasure...and she couldn’t believe she’d let him. Her mouth opened. She shut it wordlessly, lifting her fingertips and brushing them over the lips he’d just ravished.

“Aye, Susanna. That was only a hint of the pleasure I spoke of.”

She took a deep breath and let out a long shaky sigh.

He did the same, rattled to his core by a woman—something he’d never imagined possible.

CHAPTER FOUR

Susanna stared up at Robert, unable to grasp the fragmented thoughts whirling around in her head as her heart thundered in her ears, her chest, and—to her extreme shock—between her legs. How could her body feel this way?

How could a
man
be the cause of it?

Robert stood easily as tall and broad as any warrior in her clan, if not more so. His dark, silken hair cascaded over his shoulders, a braid hanging from each temple. Eyes so dark they appeared smoke black had gazed down at her when he embraced her with gentle care. Harsh angles in his cheek bones and jaw that had once seemed sinister had changed into something
...
not at all offensive.

Her gaze fell to his mouth—an amazing mouth that had seconds ago done wondrous things to her with the merest of touches. She pulled her fingers away from her still-tingling lips and looked down at his chest, shaking her head. The fresh perspective on what a man could be—what no man she’d encountered had ever been—confused her.

Men were selfish bastards who took what they wanted, leaving destruction and despair in their wake. She took a deep, clearing breath, vowing to remember the true nature of men.

A puzzling flash of compassion lit Robert’s eyes as he pulled away, rubbing her upper arms. “Come, lass. We’ve to catch up with the men.”

As soon as he broke contact, she instantly missed his strength and warmth. Dismayed by her out-of-control feelings, she pulled her cloak tighter around her and looked beyond him to register again that only Robert’s horse remained.

“You let them take my mare.” She spun around, remembering he’d said so. But the reality of how they’d now travel escaped her, since Robert had thoroughly muddled her thoughts with the first kiss to ever grace her lips.

“She’s with my men,” he replied, his tone patient as he mounted his horse.

While she still worked to process what had happened between them, Robert extended a hand down to her. She stared at it. A surprising new part of her wanted to accept his offer, yet she hesitated with everything she’d been trained to believe. Ignoring the ingrained alarm bells in her mind, she closed her eyes and slid her arm into his grip, leaping into unknown territory.

Robert closed a strong hand around her forearm and hoisted her up, seating her in front of him on the enormous stallion. She shifted in the cage of his arms, trying to distance herself from intimate contact without toppling to the ground. Although Robert had freed her hands, her legs had become tangled in her dress, curled to one side.

Despite her struggles, he tucked her tight against him, rendering her immobile. Exhausted from the effort, not to mention her lack of sound sleep over the last several nights, she slumped back into his chest.

His weight shifted forward, and his hot breath tracked across her ear, sending chills down her entire right side. “Aye, just relax, lass. Save your fight for later.”

The tone in his voice rippled a cascade of heated goose bumps over her skin and spread warmth inward, deep inside her body. She swallowed hard, concerned about his meaning. “I thought you meant to protect me. Whatever would I need to fight for?” she asked, needing to allay her fear of the unknown.

A low chuckle rumbled out as he sat more upright, sparing her from the heart-pounding threat of overheating. “You’ll see soon enough that sometimes fightin’ happens with protectin’. Were it not so, somethin’ would be verra wrong in the world.”

She shook her head, thoroughly confused.

Robert tightened his hold on the reins, and the horse opened into a gallop, quickly covering the distance over the snow-covered ground of a great meadow. Susanna closed her eyes against the cold wind in her face, inhaling the fresh mineral scent in the air. She licked her lips, almost tasting her freedom, relieved they finally headed away from the threat which most assuredly chased her.

His stallion brought them into another section of sparsely treed land, and within minutes, they encountered Duncan and Seamus on their horses. They led her mare and the horse that towed their pine tree in a pole-and-canvas litter they’d harnessed behind the animal. His men guided them wide around more densely treed areas, keeping their cargo free from snagging on the surrounding brush.

Her gaze remained fixed upon the bound tree, and her brow furrowed as she wondered why they’d do such a thing. Unused to voicing spontaneous questions, she held her tongue about the oddity.

However, the stark silence amid a company of men unsettled her.
Being
in the company of men—and in such close contact with one particular man—made her increasingly nervous.

Images of how it felt to be held by Robert, to be affected so intimately everywhere when only his lips had touched her ear, and her mouth, replayed in her mind. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath as she scanned the forest, looking for something to distract her mind, but not finding it in the monotonous scenery.

Somewhere within her, a brave thread snapped taut, and she forewent her curiosity about the tree, delving straight into her strongest interest. “Tell me of your clan, Robert.”

His body shifted, but he didn’t reply. She looked up, and he glanced down at her before looking ahead again. “I doona understand the question. ’Tis a family like any other. Children laugh and play, women tempt men with their charms, and our warriors protect them all, keepin’ them safe from harm.”

“Oh,” she said. It sounded like a dream. The picture he painted was nothing like the brutal, frightening world of tyranny she’d fled. She gripped her arms around her midsection, painfully aware that she’d been born into the wrong clan. But then, she wouldn’t have been with Mama...or been born into a Scottish clan at all. Unfortunately, her very existence was due to the one man who’d tormented them both.

Robert transferred the reins to one hand and wrapped his free arm around her waist, pulling her tighter into his protective warmth. His voice softened to just above a whisper. “Susanna, what did your father do to you?”

She stiffened, her spine going rigid.

Robert’s chin dropped, touching the top of her head. “If it distresses you, doona speak of it.”

His gentle tone calmed her. Too many unexplainable things coursed through her mind. All the men in her clan, and all those visitors she’d met, followed the same proper decorum and wielded the same charms as her father did—
in public.
Her mother had warned her that all men harbored the same beast inside.

They all wear pretty masks that come off in private, Susanna.

With only her mother’s advice to guide her, she kept silent. For all she knew, the dominant stranger who held her had eaten at her father’s table. He might even share her father’s beliefs. Men were the enemy. And even though Robert showed her unwarranted kindness, once he discovered half-English blood ran through her veins, his compassionate feelings toward her would surely harden.

“I doona wish to,” she stated.

Robert tightened both of his upper arms around her shoulders for a few brief seconds then relaxed them. The surprising action comforted her heart, like a hug from Mama. But her roiling mind rapidly transformed his embrace into just another cage. She knew all too well that one didn’t need bound wrists to feel imprisoned.

She forced her mind to calm, silencing questions she’d rather not think of, let alone answer. A long hour stretched into two before they reached the edge
of the vast section of forest.

Another broad, open field spanned ahead of them. The dark ribbon of a year-round stream flowed to their left, despite encroaching snow and ice. Duncan and Seamus dismounted and led the four horses under their care to the rippling water.

Robert swung to the ground and reached his arms up, slightly lifting his eyebrows. Unaware of a safer means to dismount with her legs tangled in her dress, she leaned toward him, placing her hands on his shoulders, and their gazes locked as he lowered her down.

Her breath caught under the unexpected power of his gaze. It seemed each time he looked into her eyes, he saw deeper inside of her. She forced herself to look away, needing to find the means to breathe normally again.

The jagged snowcapped mountains off in the distant northwest had remained the same as they’d journeyed north and east—the same direction she’d been headed. She glanced back to the south and saw dark storm clouds gathering on the horizon.

“Why did we stop?” she asked. No shelter appeared within sight, and she grew restless with pent-up anxiety. The clear weather they’d had throughout the day afforded her pursuers the same effortless travel Robert and his small company benefited from.

“We stop because we wait. While we wait, we hunt,” he said.

Robert tied his horse to an old oak snag alongside the rest of the horses. Seamus and Duncan each unfastened a bow and quiver from their saddle packs.

“Wait for what?” she asked, stepping closer to them.

A biting wind gust whipped her cloak open. She grasped the edges, hugging the material around her. Robert moved to shield her, buffeting her from the cold. He lifted a hand to her cheek, feathering fingerti
ps across her skin in a caress.

The storm clouds that pressed into her view of the sky fell short of the intensity in Robert’s dark eyes as he gazed down at her. Strands of his black hair whipped across his face an instant before the swirling wind blew them back again.

“You’ll see with your own eyes. All things reveal themselves in time, lass,” he said.

Stunned by the kindness in his voice, she blinked up at a man who remi
nded her of Mama. Wise. Caring.

She narrowed her eyes, unable to believe a man could have the same qualities as Mama, a woman who’d become a saint in her eyes, the one person who’d been subjected to unimaginable torment and had endured it all for her. Mama had wished to spare Susanna the same fate and, in protection, warned her about men.
All men.

Robert turned back to his men.
Duncan stood in a relaxed stance, facing his commander. Seamus pulled each arrow from his quiver, examining the steel points on the tips.

“We’ll stay here with the horses,” Robert said. “You circle around to the other end of the stand of trees. If you flush any beasts this way, we’ll be ready.”

Duncan squinted at Susanna. “We? This woman had a blade to your throat yesterday. Now you hunt together?”

Expressionless, Robert glanced at Susanna. “Do you plan to attack me, lass?”

She opened her hands and held out cold-pinked palms. “With what weapon?”

All three men stared at her for a long moment. Seamus broke the silence with sudden laughter. “Come,
Duncan. We’ll kill a prize stag long before it has a chance to run this way. Robert’s sure to have his hands full.”

Robert gave a heavy sigh. He glared at the two men as they jogged left into thicker foliage and disappeared.

“What did they mean when they said that you’ll have your hands full?” she asked.

He leveled a deadpan look at her. She waited for him to respond. After a moment, his expression softened, and he let out another sigh, shaking his head. “Doona concern yourself with the teasin’ of men, Susanna.”

She scowled. She didn’t care what men thought, but she had become their captive by their authority. No stranger to imprisonment, she learned everything possible from men who forced her to abide by their will—knowledge enabled escape.

Robert came up behind her, blocking the unrelenting wind, and placed his hands on her shoulders. He led her to a gargantuan pine with twin trunks that sprouted from the ground, and he turned, pulling her shoulders to his chest as he leaned back against one of the trunks.

The shock of being as close to Robert as they’d been on horseback—without necessity—sent her heart racing. She tried to pull away, but his hands gripped her upper arms, holding her tight.

His silken hair brushed against her cheek as his lips pressed down on the top of her head. “You needn’t fight me, Susanna. Nothin’ will happen between us.”

His statement surprised her. “Nothin’ will happen?”

He dropped his head, soft lips barely touching the top of her ear. Hot breath fanned down across her ear and neck, and its heat flowed straight into her veins, settling down between her legs. She shifted at the sudden discomfort, but the sensation only intensified with her movement.