My Heart's in the Highlands (28 page)

Chapter Thirty-Three

They had her.

Even more than twenty-four hours later, Ian couldn’t help but smile at the thought.
  His only regret was that he hadn’t been able to spare Hero her brief abduction or to see to her rescue himself.  Yesterday had seen the delivery of Daphne and all her accomplices into the magistrate’s hands, and today the castle celebrated.  It seemed only fitting that the summer solstice festival was taking place in Ayr that day.  An actual party with food, wine, and music for his entire staff to enjoy, but for him and Hero a more private celebration was in order.

They were
free.  Free of the troubles.  Freed of the pall those worries had hung over them.

Free to truly begin their lives together.

Ian followed the sound of the piano playing to the music room once more, without fear that Hero would be gone.  This time the tune was a lively one and he could hear laughter as he approached.  At the door, Ian watched Hero play without disturbing her.  The setting sun slanted through the west-facing windows and caressed her skin, casting it in gold.  His heart warmed just as it always did when he looked at her or even simply thought of her.  Still, it never ceased to surprise him, this consuming love.

Beaumont sat by her side as she played, turning the pages of the sheet music for her.
  He was speaking quietly to her.  Ian couldn’t hear the words, but whatever the duke said brought a slight smile to her lips.  Hero’s lips moved in response, and Beaumont laughed buoyantly.

“Ah, good evening, Ian!” the duke boomed, spotting him in the do
orway, and Hero raised her bonny eyes to his.  They softened and a different kind of smile turned up the corners of her lips.

Hero looked up to find Ian leaning gracefully on the doorjamb, his arms crossed casually across his broad chest and his eyes darkened with love.  Her own heart quickened, and she smiled warmly at him, unaware that intense love shone as obviously in her eyes as in his.

“Good evening, my lord,”
she said softly.

It never failed to amuse Ian that no matter how intimate they became, when in public or even within the servants' hearing, she would always address him in a
formal way.  He teased her about it so mercilessly that Hero sometimes wondered if she continued to do so only to cause that humor to light his eyes.

“Good evening, Lady Ayr,” he said softly as he approached and bent to place a gent
le kiss on her upturned lips.  “Harry, Cooper awaits you below to attend the summer solstice festival.”

“
I think not,” Beaumont said.

Hero and Ian exchanged surprised looks.
  “I thought you were excited about the festival, Papa.”

“I am more tired than excited,” the duke said, waving a hand as she reached out to him.
  He then surprised her even more by using her name.  “No, Hero, don’t worry about me.  I shall go straight to bed and you shall have an evening alone with your new husband. It has been a long week, has it not?”

Hero nodded.
  “Are you certain?”

“I am.”
  He kissed her cheek and rose, making his farewells as he went.

“I hope he’s all right,” Hero said after he left.

“I’m sure he is,” Ian told her.  “Harry isn’t one to withhold how he feels.  Now the staff has gone and your father will soon be abed.  Would you care to walk with me on the ramparts, my bonny bride?” 

“
That would be lovely,” Hero replied. 

Tucking her hand firmly in the crook of his arm, Ian led his lady
through the castle and out between the ramparts.  Hero went in front of him, skimming her fingers across the top of the wall and skipping over the spaces just as she had the night they first met.  Just as she did each time they came out here to their favorite spot.  Four … five … six.  Hero stopped and Ian pressed in behind her, snuggling her slim body against his.  She leaned her head back against his chest with a sigh, tempting Ian to place an affectionate kiss on the top of her head.  He sighed in contentment.

As a boy, Ian had always been
reclusive, interested more in books and individual activities than in those pastimes typically undertaken by the rowdy lads at school.  Still, he’d had companions aplenty, whether he sought them out or not.  It seemed that his disinterest in garnering the approval of others only served to make his friendship that much more desirable.  Among his classmates, he would participate in random amusements.  In those moments, he enjoyed sports and pranks with the others and was quick to laugh, but there was a true camaraderie and absolute friendship lacking there that might have made him relish those times.  Never had Ian preferred the company of another over solitary privacy until Hero had come to him. 

Now Ian
wondered if he could ever live life that way again.  If something were to happen to her, he wondered if he would experience true loneliness for the first time. 

No,
there was no question; Ian knew he would.

At least he wouldn’t have to face such an event any time soon.
  They had been freed of their nemesis.  In just a few more days, Daphne would face the magistrate and head off to prison.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Hero sighed as the sun dipped below the horizon
, casting the sky in red and purple that reflected on the waters of the firth below.  Turning his attention to more pleasant thoughts, Ian joined her in watching the sunset.  Beautiful as it was, it didn’t hold a candle to Hero’s bonny face, and he told her so.

Though he couldn’t see her face, he felt her smile.
  “No regrets, then?”

Bending his head, Ian nuzzled her neck and whispered in her ear
, “My only regret is that I did not find you before Robert did.”

“You wouldn’t have liked me then.
  I was woefully prim,” she said.

“And you aren’t now?” he chuckled softly when she slapped his hands playfully.
  “No?  How about proving me wrong?”

Her hands
reached back, sliding down his hips and grasping his buttocks as she wiggled her backside against his groin.  “Haven’t I already?”

Ian groaned
, feeling the rush of lust that always gripped him at her slightest touch.  Always it was the same. Even if they had just found heaven moments before, Hero could arouse him as easily as a man deprived for years.  He didn’t need to hope that it would be that way for the rest of their lives.  He simply knew it would be.  “Little minx,” he growled in her ear.  “Are you trying to provoke me into taking you right here?”

“It was one of your promises, wasn’t it?” Hero asked, turning in his embrace and looping her arms around his neck.
  “I believe you said something about me and that wall?  How would that work, exactly?”

A shudder ripped through him at the thought.
  Images of just how it would be done.  His body tensed with need, urging him to do it, but Ian pushed the idea away.  For all the carnality, their interludes were not purely sexual.  When he made love to Hero, Ian took immense pleasure in watching her, in seeing the rapture of her expression when she found her release.  “I was jesting, my love.”

“So we would never make love here?” she asked, smoothing her palm over his chest as she leaned into him.
  Her vibrant eyes were dancing, and Ian was hard put to scratch his recent thoughts then and there.

“Aye, we could, my love,” he murmured with an equally wicked grin.
  By God but she was intoxicating.  “But I might just set you on top like this,” Ian said, clasping his hands around Hero’s waist and lifting her onto the low wall.  “Then I could simply push your skirts up like so.”  Gathering her skirts up, he pressed between her thighs until he was pressed snugly against her welcoming heat.  “See?  A perfect fit.”

Ian bent his head and met her expectant lips in a searing kiss.
  Her lips parted immediately, urging him to continue, but he retrained himself, keeping the moment light.  Savoring the tension between them, building the anticipation.  Hero knew him well by now and kicked her heels against his calves impatiently, drawing a low chuckle from him.  “You are ever impatient, my love.”

“And you are ever tormenting,” she whispered into his neck, nipping at him playfully.
  “Will you make love to me right here, Ian?  The staff has all gone to the summer solstice festival in Ayr.  We are very alone.”

“But for Boyle, your father, Simms
, and the security staff who remain,” he said.

“Yes, see?” Hero laughed softly, the puffs of her breath tickling the side of his neck
, arousing Ian even further.  “Very alone.”

“Ah, my love,” he responded with a low moan, running his hands up her thighs.
  “I never would have imagined that you would be one to find a thrill in the danger of discovery.”  His thumbs found the slit in her pantalets and brushed against her damp curls.  She tensed with anticipation and held her breath.  Parting her, Ian circled his thumb around her sensitive nub, and her breath released with a shaky sigh that that nearly drove him over the edge.

“It is rather exciting,” she said breathlessly
, adding with a laugh,  “That breeze is quite unexpected, though.”

“Good
, though?”

Hero nodded
, rocking her hips forward, and Ian grinned.  “Mmm, my fair Hero likes it outside, does she?”

“Oh, yes.”

Kissing her again, Ian savored the delicious gasps as his thumbs teased and swirled until she was panting desperately, clinging to his shoulders to keep from falling over the edge.  A keening moan built in Hero until her head fell back, leaving Ian’s damp lips to cool in the evening breeze.  He bent his head, sucking lightly on a sensitive spot just below her ear.  Her skin was hot beneath his open mouth despite the breeze.  “Come for me, my love,” he urged and she did, the dam breaking on her passions as she cried out her release.  “Aye, my love, my God but I love watching you.  So bonny, so lovely.”

“Ian, please,” she begged, a blush overriding the passionate flush of her cheeks at his words.
  “Come with me.”

“Always,” he murmured
, throwing caution to the wind, and reached down to unbutton the flap on his trousers, freeing himself into Hero’s welcoming hand.  She stroked down his length with a hum before guiding him to her, and with one thrust Ian plunged into her molten heat with a growl of satisfaction.  Wrapping an arm around her waist, he drove into her again, taking her mouth with his as she lifted her legs around his waist. 

Capturing her mouth with his once more, Ian pounded into her again and again.
  She tightened around him, pulsating, until Ian felt as though the earth was literally moving beneath them. She climaxed with a cry of ecstasy, and with a final violent thrust, Ian came apart with a hoarse shout.

And then the ground did shift.
 

Or at least the wall did.
  Under the force of their movement, the foot-wide wall began to break apart with the grind of rock against rock.  One stone fell away before Ian was able to regain his senses and realize what was happening. 

Catching Hero
about the waist, he lifted even while she yelped with surprise as the stone directly beneath her gave way.