Onyx (9 page)

“Dagger, let me,” said Ian, but Onyx just shook his head. He leaned forward and stabbed his dagger into the ground just next
to her foot, making her flinch.

“Jumpy tonight, arena ye?” he asked. “Do tell me
ye’ve gutted a rabbit afore, me lady?”

“Of course,” she lied, reaching out for one of the rabbits, then bringing her hand back quickly
, noticing the horrid look on its face and wide, gaping mouth . . . and the blood.

He hunkered down next to her, his mouth close to her ear. “Like I said, ye are a bad liar. Now, mayhap ye jest need a little help.”

Onyx only meant to scare the girl so she wouldn’t give him trouble or try to escape during the night, but when he pressed up behind her and took her hands in his, and guided one to the rabbit and the other to his dagger
, he felt as if she were scaring him instead. What was it with this Sassenach that had him excited every time he got near her? Probably the fact that most lassies were repelled by him, but this one showed no fear.

“All y
e need te do is start by cuttin’ off the rabbit’s feet.” He guided the dagger toward the dead rabbit’s feet, and noticed her eyes closing, and that she was holding her breath. The scent of rosewater and soap filled his senses, and the softness of her long, unbound hair rubbed up against his face.

She was so fresh and
clean. So alluring. He knew he probably smelled like woodsmoke and the earth, and he felt as if he had no right to be holding her so close and touching her like this.

A wave of desire shot through him, and he wondered how it would feel to kiss her right now. Her lips were full and lush and her cheeks rosy. Her skin was so smooth and unblemished. And from his position hunkered down behind her, he could see the tops of her breasts and the way her chest moved in and out
, as she breathed heavily, probably from anticipation of having to skin a rabbit – something he was sure she’d never done in her life.

The desire
he felt for her was driving him out of his mind. He’d only meant to show her how to prepare their food for dinner, but instead of focusing on their meal, he was focused on another hunger instead. And though it would be so easy to push her down on the ground, spread her legs apart and drive into her soft, sweet, tight wetness right now, he knew he couldn’t. His mother’s life depended upon what happened, and he couldn’t risk the fact Lady Love would tell her men he’d defiled her when they returned. One wrong move and it could seal his mother’s fate forever.

He dropped the rabbit and t
he dagger and backed away quickly.

“Aidan, Ian, ye
do it,” he said, turning away so they didn’t notice the bulge beneath his plaid.

“
Aye, ye look like ye’re in need o’ a woman, no’ a meal,” said Aidan.

“Still feeling t
het pent up frustration from no’ beddin’ yer share of the trio, I see,” added Ian.

Too damned late. They knew what he was feeling, and why not, as they were probably having similar
feelings being around such a bonnie lassie, same as he was. Ian and Aidan laughed heartily, and picked up the rabbits to do as instructed.

“I
could show ye how te do this, me lady,” said Ian, flashing Lovelle his smile that always drove the lassies mad. “After all, Dagger may be . . . busy fer away,” he said with a smirk.

“Leave her alone,” called out Onyx, walking toward the stream to take a quick dip and cool the fires of desire threatening to consume him.

Lovell
e stood and brushed off her skirts, trying to get away from Onyx’s friends who were rowdy and wild, and following her wherever she went. She didn’t know where Onyx disappeared to, but she felt as if she needed to find him. She wasn’t sure if she was safe with these two fools, and though Onyx wasn’t much better, at least he had the sense to walk away instead of trying to bed her. She knew what he was feeling right now, because she had felt it too. It didn’t make sense that she’d have desire for a rugged Scot – her enemy, but when he’d put his arms around her, she had all she could do to keep from resting her head against his strong chest.

She felt sickened by the fact he’d wanted her to clean the rabbits, but w
hen he’d encircled his arms around her to instruct her, she forgot her ill feelings, and felt something else instead. His mouth had been so close to her that all she had to do was turn her head and he could have kissed her. She knew he was looking down her cleavage, and while her first instinct was to push him away, she instead let him have his look.

It felt go
od to be noticed by a man. Hugh had never even known she existed unless he wanted her in his bed. There was no foreplay, no sweet talk. No little words of endearment like ‘bonnie cailin’ or ‘Lady Love.’ Her late husband had only called her Baroness, and half the time she wondered if he had forgotten her real name.

He was old
, and the coupling had always ended before it had ever begun for her. Before she’d ever even had the chance to get excited, he was finished and fast asleep. And then when her baby, Charles, came along, they’d stopped coupling altogether. She knew it was because Hugh had found himself a mistress, and she’d just looked the other way and pretended not to care.

But that was all over n
ow. She didn’t need a husband, nor did she want one. She just wanted to find the book and use the charms written inside to cure her mother, and hopefully use them on herself to cure her color blindness as well.

She pretended to be petting the cat that was rubbing up against her leg, until Ian and Aidan’s attention was distracted by something they heard in the trees.

“I bet it’s a wildcat stalkin’ us,” said Aidan. “Mayhap one of Tawpie’s relatives.”

“Nay, more like a crow or an owl
,” Ian protested.

“Ye
’re wrong, and I’ll prove it.” Aidan picked up a rock and threw it into the trees at whatever animal they heard. Something fell with a thump, and when they went to investigate, she decided to sneak away.

She
pulled a candle from the pouch she carried at her side and lit it in the fire. Then she pulled her hood up to cover her head and quickly took off into the thicket toward the brook she’d heard earlier.

She stopped when she reached the water, putting her candle between some rocks a
nd sitting down, pulling a parchment out of her pouch next. Her fingers fumbled with the cord that tied it, and she felt her hand shaking as she pulled away the binding and unrolled it, holding it up near the fire to read.

She had taken this from h
er mother’s private storage chest when she knew she wasn’t looking. She’d seen her mother looking at it one night and chanting some odd words she couldn’t decipher. Her mother had been spouting off that she was a witch lately, but Lovelle didn’t know if it was true or just her addled mind making her say it. But she did concoct herbal potions a lot lately, drinking them down saying it helped her. Lovelle didn’t believe it, as it seemed to her the potions only made her mother worse.

She was just about to look at the parchment
when she heard a loud splash in the water. It startled her, and she jammed the parchment back into her pouch and picked up the candle, deciding she didn’t want to be alone in the wilderness of the Highlands, even if she was among fools.

Then she heard something else. A man
’s voice coming from the brook.

“Och,
this is colder than a witch’s teat,” shouted the man, who she now knew was none other than Onyx. She headed to the water’s edge, meaning to talk to him, but stopped when she saw him step out from the lake stark naked.

“Oh!” she cried, her eyes fastened to his body, not able to look away. He strode forward toward her, not caring he wore nothing but what God gave him, and stood before her in the firelight of the candle she held in her hand.

The flames danced in shadows on his chest, and her eyes drank in his manly beauty of corded sinew and muscles beneath his skin. Her eyes dropped downward curiously, past the dark arrow of crisp hair and to his nether regions that were very well endowed. His legs were strong and sturdy, and he stood barefoot in the thin layer of snow, with water dripping down his body as if he didn’t care.

“Like what ye see, lassie?”

Her attention shot upward to his eyes. Though her sense of color was almost gone at night, she did not miss the intensity of his stare.

“Well?” he asked, the crisp air making his breath visible in the night as he sp
oke. She was wrapped in her velvet gown and then a hooded, wool, fur-lined cloak as well, and still she shivered beneath it. Yet this madman stood stark naked in the cold of the night, with droplets of water nearly turning to ice as they ran down his chest, and still he seemed as if he didn’t notice it at all.

“I didn’t know you were here,” she said, looking away quickly.

“Didna ye?” he asked with a chuckle, and she heard the rustling of his clothes as he donned them. “Then why were ye out here in the thicket in the dark by yerself?” he asked.

“No reason,” she said, then add, “I just needed to use a bush, that’s all.”

“Way down here by the water?” he asked. “I’d think ye’d o’ stayed closer te the fire. And tell me, why do ye have a candle?” He walked up to her, tying his tartan around him in the final knots as he spoke.

“I . . . I . . . just happened to have one and thought I’d use it.” She knew how stupid that sounded, but she was having trouble thinking after just seeing Onyx naked. It had been a long time since s
he’d seen a naked man who was in such wonderful proportions. Actually, this was the first time. This man was young and fit, and a feast for any woman’s eyes. She’d been married so young that she’d never even seen a naked man besides her husband. And that had been no feast for anyone’s eyes.

“Y
e were tryin’ te escape, werena ye?” he asked, surprising her by his question. While the thought had crossed her mind once or twice, she knew she’d never survive out in the rugged Highlands by herself, nor would she ever find her mother’s book without his help.

“Nay, I wasn’t,” she said, but she could see in his eyes that he didn’t believe her.

“Come on,” he said, taking her by the elbow and guiding her through the woods. “I suddenly have a powerful hunger fer some food.”

“Me too,” she said blindly, stumbling through the dark with the candle in her hand. He stopped and turned around and leaned forward and blew it out.

“Save thet for times when it’s needed,” he told her.

“But I can’t see anything in the dark,” she protested.

“Just stay close te me and ye’ll be fine.” He put his hand on the small of her back and guided her through the thicket. But she wasn’t used to moving so quickly in the dark and stubbed her toe and bent over in pain.

“Stop going so fast,” she complained. “I hurt my foot, I’ll need to walk slowly.”

“Dinna bother,” he said, scooping her up into his arms. She dropped the candle and grabbed for him so she wouldn’t fall. Then, with her arms around his neck, she held on while he whisked her to safety by the fire.

Onyx put the lassie down by the fire, glad to see the boys had the rabbits cleaned and were roasting them over the fire. But when he looked closer, he realized there were three animals on the fire instead of two.

“What the clootie is this?” he as
ked, noticing Ian and Aidan hunkered down and looking at something on the ground on the other side. “Did ye string up Tawpie or what?”

His
cat growled lowly in its little voice at that comment, and Onyx bent over and scooped it up, running a hand through its fur.

“The
t’s squirrel,” Ian said without turning around. “Aidan threw a rock and killed the poor thing.”

“Oh, good,”
said Onyx. “More te eat.” Tawpie licked his hand seeming to like the idea as well.

“No’ good,” he hea
rd Aidan’s muffled voice. “I didna mean te do this.”

“Do what?” He didn’t have time for games and these two were dr
iving him crazy. “What is it ye have there?”

“Ye’d better see this fer yerself,” said Ian, getting to his feet and running a hand through his hair.

“Hold her,” he told Lovelle and shoved the cat into her arms. “I dinna want te find her on the spit next, if Aidan decides te throw another rock.”

“I . . . no . . .”
she protested, but Onyx just walked away and she followed to see what his friends were looking at. “It’s a baby squirrel,” she blurted out, and Onyx realized she was right. The little red fuzz ball looked up with wide, scared eyes.”

“Kill it and we’ll have more food,
” said Onyx, walking away as it meant nothing to him.

“Thet’s what I told
him, but he refuses,” said Ian under his breath.

“Then give me the
damned thing and I’ll do it.” Onyx pulled his dagger from his belt, but Lovelle stepped in between them, dropping the cat in the process.

“Don’
t,” she said. “Please. It looks like a baby.”

He stopped and looked at her an
d just shook his head. “It willna make it through the night without its mathair. And thet is no’ goin’ te happen, as in another minute what’s left of her will be in our stomachs.”

Tawpie lowered its head and took a step forward, looking at the squirrel. Then it took anot
her step and crouched down, getting ready to pounce.

“Nay,” said Aidan, pushing the cat away. “Dagger tell yer damned cat te leave it alone.”

“Tawpie wouldn’t kill it,” Lovelle said, no sooner getting the words from her mouth when the cat pounced forward toward the squirrel showing very long, sharp teeth.

She screamed, and Onyx lurched forward and
scooped up the kitten. Its fangs were showing, but Onyx just grabbed the kitten’s mouth and held it closed. “Dinna make me angry me little pet,” he warned it.

“What was that?” she asked. “A moment
ago the cute little kitten was curled up on my lap and now it turns into a killer.”

“Tawpie’s a wildcat o’
the Highlands, I told ye,” Onyx explained. “’Tis in her nature te kill, as she only eats meat.”

“I had no idea,” she said, wrapping her arms a
round her and looking at his pet in a whole different light. She was obviously back to hating cats again.

“Now come on
and let’s eat, and save some o’ thet roasted squirrel fer me cat. Mayhap then she’ll get it out o’ her system te eat the baby.”

Lovell
e sat down by the fire and Onyx took the spit and handed it to her. “Care for some?” he asked, almost laughing when she realized it was the dead squirrel he held in front of her. She just shook her head and looked back to the cat and the baby squirrel.

“I’ll just
have some rabbit,” she said, “as I’ll never be able to eat squirrel again.”

Chapter 5

Lovelle awoke, feeling quite warm to her surprise. She figured she must have slept closer to the fire than she realized, and thankfully it had stopped snowing. She’d never slept on the ground before, and rolled over on the blanket she’d been using – the only one in the travel bag, and reached out to hug her pillow. She put her leg over it. It was so warm and comforting. It was . . . she didn’t have a pillow. Her eyes popped open to see Onyx staring at her. He was so close that she could feel his breath on her face.

The sun was shining already
, and in the daylight her sense of color was close to normal. This was the first time she was seeing him in the daylight, and suddenly she realized how eerie his eyes were after all. “Bid the devil!” She gasped and pulled away from him, crying out in surprise. Disappointment showed in his eyes by her reaction.

“Somehow I thought ye were different than the rest.” He pulled away from her and stood
and straightened his tartan. “I guess thet was me first mistake.”

“I . . . I don’t know what you mean
,” she said, scurrying to a standing position.

He reached down and picked up the blanket and shook it out before he folded it into a neat square. When he did, Tawpie shriek
ed and ran out from underneath it.

“Dinna ferget I can tell when ye
’re lyin’.”