Highland Sinner (26 page)

He was all silky warm hardness, she thought as she curled her hand around his thick erection. The shock she felt at what she was doing faded abruptly when he hissed in breath between his teeth. She recognized that sound. Tormand liked her touch.

Tormand did not dare speak. He was afraid that anything he said might make Morainn cease her caress and that was the last thing he wanted. Since they were new lovers and she had been a virgin, he had not pressed her to do anything more than let him pleasure her. It appeared that she was learning fast, discovering her womanly powers. He certainly hoped so because he spent a lot of time thinking about all the things he wanted to do to her sweet body once her shyness and uncertainty eased.

Her soft, gentle touch began to drive him mad with need. The silence that hung over both of them as he lay there savoring her touch only added to the hunger. It carried the delicious taste of doing something furtive, something one did not want to be caught doing. He did wonder just how long he could hold still and not do something himself.

His control fled in a heartbeat when her small hand slid between his legs and ever so gently squeezed his sack. With a low growl he pulled her into his arms and rolled over so that she was sprawled beneath him.

The blush on her cheeks and the uncertainty darkening her eyes would have troubled him if he had not seen the telltale signs that touching him had stirred her passion as well as his.

“I should go and tell Simon what ye have seen,” he said, even as he kissed the soft curves of her breasts.

“There are still a few hours before dawn,” she said, crying out softly in delight when he licked at her hardened nipples with an obvious greed.

“That is good for I am nay leaving until I have loved ye so hard ye cannae move.”

“Ye will weaken ere I do.”

Tormand grinned at her as he dragged his tongue over the warm soft skin between her breasts. “I do love a challenge.”

Page 104

ABC Amber Text Merger Trial v
ersion, http://www.processtext.com/abcmerge.html

Tormand forced himself to sit up from where he had been lying boneless and sated at Morainn’s side. He had to be the first to move so that he could claim victory. Although he had always done his best to give his partners pleasure, he had never worked so hard at keeping them teetering on the precipice of delight as he just had with Morainn. While he did still savor her wild cries of pleasure as he had finally given her the release her body screamed for, he had also been nearly blind with the need for release himself. It had been an exercise in control that had sapped his strength.

He glanced at Morainn who was sprawled on her stomach, her face still flushed from the pleasure they had shared and her eyes closed. The only move she had made since they had both shuddered with the force of their climaxes had been to roll over onto her stomach. He was the first to move, but he would be gracious and not loudly declare himself the victor.

It was not until he was buckling on his sword that he sensed her looking at him. He turned to catch her watching him with the one eye that was not pressed against the pillow. She looked like a very well satisfied woman and he felt an urge to preen.

“Ye are leaving now?” she asked in a husky voice that almost had him crawling back into bed with her.

“Aye,” he replied. “I dinnae like how I have to leave ye alone here, but Simon needs to ken what ye saw in the dream.”

“I ken it and I will be fine.”

“Ye ken to hide yourself away if someone wanders too close, aye?”

“Aye, I learned that trick ten years ago. Dinnae worry over me. Go and tell Simon what I saw.”

He opened his mouth to say that he could not help but worry about leaving her alone and unprotected, but the words stuck in his throat. Tormand suddenly realized that he had trained himself to be wary of what he said to a lover, weighing each word carefully so that there was no chance a woman could read a promise or even a hint of caring in his words. He also realized that he did not want to be so guarded around Morainn, but it was going to take time to shake free of that training.

Tormand bent down and kissed her before he started toward the door. “Rest, my sweet. Ye have worked hard and are verra weak. Ye need rest to regain your strength.”

“Hah! I but conceded so that your poor wee male pride wasnae bruised.”

He laughed and hurried away to collect his horse.

Morainn sighed and rolled over onto her back to stare up at the rough board ceiling Simon had had built for this bolt-hole. Her body still thrummed with the pleasure he had given her and she doubted she would be moving from the bed for quite a while. Tormand certainly deserved the claims that he was a great lover. She just wished she could ignore the knowledge of just how he had gained such accolades.

She loved the rutting fool. Nora was right. Morainn had thought that saying she
thought
she
might
would somehow shield her heart from the pain she knew would come when he set her aside. It had been a foolish plan. Her heart knew the truth, and that was that it was held firmly in his elegant hand.

Memories, she reminded herself. She would have memories, beautiful pleasure-filled memories. She
Page 105

ABC Amber Text Merger Trial v
ersion, http://www.processtext.com/abcmerge.html

sighed and closed her eyes. The memories would probably only make her heart hurt more in the end for she would still be all alone.

Tormand looked up when Simon entered the great hall in his modest home looking like he should go back to bed and get some more sleep. Tormand had been sitting in the hall for two hours, reluctant to wake the man too soon. It had given him a lot of time to think and he was not sure he liked the conclusions he had come to. Impatient to talk though he was, he waited patiently as the food was set out for them. To his surprise his equally sleepy-looking kinsmen began to wander in and sit down.

“Have ye all been staying here then?” he asked.

“Nay, just last night as it was verra late and Simon’s was the first house we came to,” said Harcourt, as he began to fill his plate with food. “We all decided we didnae want to ride another yard.”

“Out hunting then?” Tormand heartily wished he could be riding with them on that hunt, instead of hiding away, but he bit back the complaint.

“That and keeping a close watch for anyone trying to creep back to a house with a body.”

“Why are ye here?” asked Simon. “Has something happened?”

“Morainn had another dream,” Tormand replied between bites of food. “She says they grow more vivid.”

“Ah, so she has seen something that might help us.”

Tormand told them all Morainn had told him. Repeating it all aloud instead of just in his head made him feel even more certain of what he had come to believe while sitting in the hall on his own. When he felt anger stir inside of him he firmly told himself that she had not lied to him. She had simply not told him everything and probably because she did not want to worry him. That did not ease his anger by much.

Harcourt groaned. “So it will be back on the horses so that we can ride about looking at shielings and cottages.”

“One with sheep and a roof that is part slate and part thatch,” said Tormand.

“Och, aye, that certainly limits the number,” drawled Bennett.

“I could—” began Tormand.

“Nay,” said Simon. “Ye run enough risk in just coming here. There is also the chance that the killers watch us now, trying to find out where ye have gone. Ye could lead them to Morainn. They badly want her dead.”

“I ken it. The woman tells her so in her dreams. Morainn feels as if the bitch has somehow gotten inside her head.”

“Mayhap she has. We ken little about such gifts. Ye far more than I, but I wager ye dinnae ken everything about them simply because ye dinnae have one. Weel, nay one that gives ye prophetic dreams and visions.”

“Ye really think I have a gift?”

“Oh, aye, ye do. Ye can sense the emotions in a room. Nay always, but it has certainly helped now and
Page 106

ABC Amber Text Merger Trial v
ersion, http://www.processtext.com/abcmerge.html

again. ’Tis as if ye can smell them in the air.”

Tormand thought about that for a moment, felt a strange urge to deny it despite having displayed the skill before Simon on occasion, and then slowly nodded. “I suspicion I do. I just ne’er thought of it as a true gift. Mostly I thought that my cousin telling me how to strengthen my sense, shall we say, just made a natural skill sharper than most men’s.”

“Nay, ’tis a gift. ’Tis a small one like my father has,” said Harcourt. “He kens when danger approaches.

Says it has kept him alive. I can sometimes feel it drawing near as weel. A useful wee gift. Nay as strong a one as the lasses have, but useful.”

“And here I thought ye dragged me along with ye because I was a clever lad,” drawled Tormand, as he grinned at Simon.

Simon grinned back. “Ye are, although I hate to stroke your already considerable vanity by saying so. Ye have a way of looking at things that can also be verra helpful.”

“Nay as helpful as Morainn’s dreams and visions though. She was wondering why ye havenae given her another hairpin.”

“I had thought on it, but then we discovered Edward MacLean and that gave me a trail. It is slowly leading me toward the killers and so I didnae wish to inflict another vision on the lass. Now that I have the name—Ada or Anna—I have an e’en clearer trail. I believe it is Ada, although I cannae quite grasp what memory makes me believe that. I find it difficult to understand how she could have been wed to Edward and yet so few people e’er saw her and I have yet to find one who can recall her name or appearance.” He frowned. “E’en me, and I have always taken great pride in my ability to see clearly, to see everything nay matter how small or apparently insignificant.”

“No one can see everything. Mayhap the fact that no one saw her only fed her madness.”

“Possible. At least we can be fair sure that her huge companion is named Small Ian. The one who told me has always been an accurate source of information. I just wish that Morainn had gotten more information on who will be killed. It is hard to stop a killing when ye dinnae ken who the victim might be.”

Tormand took a deep drink of ale and then said, “I think the victim she saw this time is herself.” He nodded at the shocked looks on the faces of his companions, a shock he fully shared. “She didnae say so, but as I sat here waiting for ye, Simon, I gave a lot of thought to what she did say and how she answered my questions about who the victim was.”

“Evasive was she?”

“Verra much so. After a long explanation about how few people she knew and how she wouldnae recognize the victims e’en if she saw them clearly, what she finally said was that the woman wasnae verra big and she had dark hair.”

Bennett cursed. “It sounds verra much as if she was hiding something. I am surprised ye didnae ken it as ye have always been good at sniffing out a lie.”

“I got distracted.” He ignored the derisive snorts of the men. “She may e’en have done that apurpose, although I cannae really believe that.”

“Nay, nor can I,” said Uilliam. “She isnae a woman who kens how to be so, weel, so—”

“Sneaky?” Tormand said.

Page 107

ABC Amber Text Merger Trial v
ersion, http://www.processtext.com/abcmerge.html

“Aye, ’tis as good a word as any. She probably just felt she had given ye the answer ye needed to stop pressing her on the matter and got, er, distracted herself.”

“Being distracted sounds a lot more enjoyable than being stuck on the back of a horse all day,” muttered Rory, and replied to his kinsmen’s derisive remarks with a tart skill that equaled theirs.

It was almost the middle of the afternoon before Tormand was able to leave. Morainn’s dream had been gone over so many times he began to feel he was the one who had had it. Each time he repeated what she had seen and heard details of the other dreams and visions she had suffered through, he realized that Morainn was a very strong woman. She had to be to endure such things. What he wanted, however, was to make sure that these killers were removed from her dreams as soon as possible. Simon’s increasing collection of information had begun to make him feel a hint of hope, but he was still discouraged at the slow pace of their progress. Now that he felt Morainn had dreamed of her own death, he was even more so.

“We
will
capture them,” Simon said, as he watched Tormand get ready to ride back to the ruined tower house. “We now ken who they are.”

“A big dark mon named Small Ian and a woman no one recalls?”

“A woman and a mon who nay longer have a house to hide in. And, aye, we dinnae have their precise names and dinnae ken exactly what they look like, but we ken enough to recognize them when we see them.”

“Mayhap it would be safer for Morainn if she came back here. More armed men to surround her.”

“She has become your partner in this, Tormand. In the people’s eyes she is the one that has helped ye kill without being seen and keeps ye from the justice ye deserve. It would be as hard to keep her completely safe here as it would be if ye came back.”

“Why do I think someone is using the people’s fury and fear about these murders to get rid of Morainn?”

“Because that is what is happening.” He nodded at Tormand’s look of surprise. “Fair or nay, we can see why the people look at ye with suspicion. Ye kenned every one of the women killed. Even the news of Edward MacLean’s death didnae ease that. The fact that the wife no one recalls is also gone is attributed to ye killing her. Each time the murmurs quiet a little, someone stirs it back up again and Morainn’s name is mentioned more and more. There have e’en been a few whispers about how this is all connected to her being a witch, to some dark magic she is brewing.”

Tormand cursed. “’Tis all idiocy.”

“Aye, but people can become witless when they are afraid and a lot of people are verra afraid right now.” He frowned. “I would like to tell ye that ye are wrong to think she dreamed of her own death, but the more I think on all ye told me, the more I think ye might be right. E’en so, she is safer where she is.”