Highland Song (38 page)

And for the moment, she was safe from herself and Slade.

"I'll wash your hair if you like." His voice was a silken purr.

She shook her head. Lainie caught her long wet hair and twisted it into a knot on top of her head. A few tendrils escaped the knot. She ignored them. The gleam in Slade's eyes as she lifted her arms and dealt with her hair told her that he liked watching. And she reminded herself he was determined to have what he wanted. She was naked and vulnerable and very easy to touch.

Touching meant seducing, and she meant to keep Slade in his place. She didn't want him to take her again. She didn't want him to get close enough to touch her.

"Ready?" Slade asked.

She shook her head, sending a few more tendrils flying from their perch on top her head. "I don't need help washing myself. Hand over the soap."

Slade shook his head. "Not this time, little darling. Some things are much better shared." Slade's voice was husky and hot and the words licked over her, heating her to the core.

"I don't want to share anything, especially not a bath."

"Of course you do," he told her. "You just don't know it yet. Besides, you don't have a choice. I want to touch you and that's part of our bargain."

"So now you know what I'm thinking." She tapped his chest with her fingertip.

"Absolutely," he said.

Her breath left her.

She shivered as he cupped water in his two hands and
drizzled
it over neck and shoulders. He watched the silver drops slide between her breasts. Her hands instinctively rose to cover them. He held her back.

"No," he said. "I want to watch," he said, his voice soft and smooth and so very seducing with its strange power.

"I guess it doesn't matter. I have nothing to hide from any longer. Mistress or whore--" she shrugged her shoulders. "It doesn't matter."

His expression turned furious. Lainie was suddenly very afraid of what she just said.

"I will tell you only once. Do not call
yourself
a whore or my mistress," he said distinctly. "You will never be either. I won't listen to you degrade yourself."

"
It's
how I feel. Nothing can change that. I’ve been used and abused and I don’t care anymore."

He turned away from her for a moment. "Running me ragged inside and out won't make you feel better."

"What will then?" She regretted the question the moment it was asked. She made an unintentional noise and looked away. When she turned back, the harsh shadows and intense rage she saw in his eyes reminded her too much of her own confusion and frustration. In any case, Slade was right. Sparring with him would not make her feel better, but letting him make love to her once again wouldn't change who she had become. The depth of her fears and frustrations were terrifying.

He scooped up more water and let it wash over her flesh in a mesmerizing dance.

Lainie closed her eyes and pretended she was alone and Slade wasn't happening to her.

The slippery glide of cool water over her made her shiver, but not with cold. The day was too hot for that, and the sun's heat was solace to her soul. She shivered because she knew he would have his way and he would seduce her again, despite all her protests and efforts to keep him at bay. The passion she felt for Slade would betray her.

She would fail because somewhere deep inside, she did not want to keep him away.

Lainie was so absorbed in her own thoughts she jerked at the first touch of Slade's hands.

"Lainie," he whispered softly, his breath a soothing caress in her tumultuous world. "Easy, Lainie. Relax. You'll feel only pleasure. I promise. Trust me."

She heard his pain, and saw it in the grim line of his mouth. If she could erase it, she would, but she didn't have the strength to take on his problems while dealing with her own.

"I will bring you only pleasure, little darling. If I could have done better the first time, I would have. But I wanted you too much."

Lainie's breath caught in her throat. She nodded, knowing he was speaking true. He had never meant to do anything but give her pleasure. How was he to know how impossible a feat that would
be.

"I know. You tried and I understand that you're sorry, but that's why I don't want there to be a second time. I don't want to see the pain in your eyes when you fail. That kind of pleasure doesn’t exist for a woman."

Slade let out a ragged breath. He brushed his lips down Lainie's' neck, tracing his way across her collarbone.

"Let me wash you," he said.

She hesitated, looking into sincere hungry eyes raw with desire. Then she nodded. What did it matter? He would do what he wanted. He would ask but in the end, even if she said no the first time, he would have her saying yes. Hands sleek with rose scented lather closed over her shoulders, touching her tenderly, seducing her with the sweet promise of a non-existent pleasure.

"Let me," Slade said again, his voice velvet smooth.

She hesitated once more.

"I won't make love to you," he said. "Not unless you ask me to. I just want to help ease the pain. Will you let me wash you?"

Unable to bear the intensity of Slade's eyes, Lainie lowered her lashes, "Aye."

For the longest time she waited in an agony of suspense, but when Slade touched her, it was only to wash her face.

Slade's gentle touch felt more like a lover's caress and caused an almost painful pleasure to course through her. She hadn't realized her face was as sensitive to his caress as other parts of her body were.

He turned his ministrations into a ritual of sun-drenched pleasure. He washed and soaped and ripples of pleasure coursed through her.

"'I will keep all my promises to you, little darling."

Lainie shook her head. "It's not necessary." A long strand of hair floated free. Slade tucked it behind her ear.

He leaned forward and began tracing the outline of her ear with his tongue. "May I?" he asked.

She shuddered but also nodded her consent. Heat whipped through her. He continued to tantalize and tease, challenging every part of her, retreating and withdrawing, urging her to feel and to respond. She made an odd sound in the back of her throat and her nails bit into his forearms.

"That's good, feel, feel everything," he murmured. "This is pleasure, pure and simple. I mean to give you so much pleasure your head will spin."

Slade lifted his head and gazed into Lainie's wide surprised eyes and smiled tenderly.

"I never know what to expect from you," she said. "You surprise me and I have no defenses to resist."

"Did you have no beaus?"

She shook her head. "Bertram was hardly a beau and aye, one man wanted me. But I didn't love him. My brothers promised me I could find love so they never insisted I wed."

"No stolen kisses on the battlements?"

Lainie shook her head again. "I never wanted a kiss until I saw you. Even after Bertram raped--" she couldn't speak the words. Despite what had happened to her, she'd wanted Slade the moment she saw him. She just hadn't known she was willing to give up her heart and soul to have him.

"Sweet Jesu."

"What?"

"So innocent. So passionate," he murmured.

Slade's glittering green eyes swept over Lainie. She looked down and realized that the transparent water hid nothing from Slade's eyes. Every curve and valley of her body was there for him to see.

"Save for violence, no man has touched you at all. There has been no pleasure even in a stolen kiss."

"That's not true," she whispered.

"But it is," he whispered gently touching her.

"I’ve felt your touch. There was no violence,” she paused, thinking. "I've never known that kind of touch."

In a silence that only sun and wind intruded upon, Slade washed Lainie to the waist. Warmed by his caress, her wounds slowly began to heal. His hands lingered in sensual spots. Her nipples hardened beneath his tender ministrations. With soapy hands, he returned to them again and again, caressing lightly, exploring,
teasing
.

Saying nothing, Slade pulled Lainie under the gentle waterfall, rinsing her. When he finished, he looked at her with hungry eyes.

"Will you ask me to kiss you?"

She nodded her head in consent but he watched her and waited.

Curiously, she looked at him. "Aye," she spoke softly, "a kiss would be nice I suppose."

He bent and kissed her skin until she made small noises and clung to him.

"I should tell
ye
to stop," Lainie said huskily, letting her head fall back against his chest.