The Magnificent Rogue (35 page)

“Then you’ll be glad to know you succeeded.”

“I am glad, but I can’t—I’m not like Jean. It’s not easy for me to lie to you, even in a good cause.” She added fiercely, “And it is in a good cause.”

“
Your
cause?”

“Yes, but it will do no one harm to give me my way in this.”

He shrugged out of his shirt. “My dear Kate, I’m fully prepared to let you have your way with me, but I’ll not lie to myself. It may do great harm.”

“Then why do you do it?”

“As Gavin said, some things are meant to be.” He added simply, “I have to have you.”

The raw need in his voice stunned her. “For how long?”

“Until the madness passes.”

“But I don’t intend for it to pass.” She paused and then said baldly, “I mean to get with child.”

“I know.” He came toward her wearing only the kilt. “I knew the instant I saw you at the church. If that happens, there is a remedy, but I hope to God I don’t have to take it.”

“Remedy? What remedy?”

“For God’s sake, will you take off your clothes!” His every muscle was tensed, his eyes glittering, nostrils flaring. She could almost feel the waves of desire he was emitting.

Why was she standing here arguing with him? This was what she wanted. He was
hers
. She quickly slipped out of the velvet gown and gold chemise, but there were still the corset and panniers and— It was too much. She turned her back to him. “I’ll never get out of all this. Jean took hours fastening me into it. Help me.”

“Gladly,” he muttered.

She heard the snapping of the cords and looked over her shoulder at him. He stood there with a dirk in his hand, and as she watched he slashed through the last of the corset strings. Seconds later the rest of the undergarments fell in strips around her.

“I don’t remember you wearing all this in the cave. Why the hell bother now?”

“I told you, to seduce you.” She bit her lower lip as he threw away the dirk, and his hands slid around to cover her breasts. They instantly swelled, the nipples hardening in response. So long. It seemed a lifetime since he had touched her. “I thought only of what you said about textures, but …” His warm tongue plunged into her, and a hot shudder went through her. “Jean said I needed this too.”

“I don’t remember saying anything about textures. But that’s not surprising. I wonder I can think at all.”
His hands left her breasts, and he made a quick adjustment before he brought her back against him. A shock ran though her as she realized he had pushed up the kilt, and she could feel his arousal against her bare buttocks. His hands moved around to stroke her abdomen as he slowly rotated his hips, rubbing against her in that most sensual of caresses.

“You said you … liked … the feel—” She paused as his fingers brushed against the tight curls and then went exploring farther down. “Of leather … and silk … and—” Her neck arched back against his shoulder as he found the nub for which he had been searching.

“This is the only texture I have any interest in at the moment.” His thumb pressed and released, pressed and released, as he continued the circular rhythm against her buttocks. “This softness …” His breath came harsh and quick in her ear. “I thought of this all the time I was in Ireland. How you felt … those frantic little sounds you make when I come into you.”

She was already making those sounds deep in her throat as sensation after sensation tore through her.

“Yes, that’s it, give it to me.” He pulled her down to her knees on the floor. She tried to turn around, but he gently pushed her forward on her hands and knees. “No, this way.”

He came into her with one deep plunge. Substance, hardness, fullness. She cried out and sank forward, her breasts resting on the carpet.

He began moving in and out of her, deeply, frantically. His hands were on her buttocks, kneading, caressing. Her breasts lightly grazed the carpet with every stroke, and she found her nipples becoming harder and more sensitive with every touch. The stroking within her and the outer abrasion were both incredibly erotic, and the heat was growing until she could scarcely bear it. She bucked back against him, trying to take more of him. Yet it still was not enough. There was something missing. “Robert, I need …”

“Shh …” He drove to the quick. “Only a little more. I have to …”

“No … your face … I want to see your face.”

He muttered something beneath his breath, and then she was on her back looking up at him.

His face was contorted with terrible need, his cheeks hollowed. “Satisfied?” he asked hoarsely.

Her hand reached up and touched the plane of his cheek. She could never be satisfied, but it was enough for now. She could see how much he wanted her.

He didn’t wait for an answer but drove into her again and began to take … and give.

It was fever, madness, and need.

She arched upward, her nails digging into his shoulders as the fever rose to an unbearable pitch, and then she cried out when the climax burst over them in a fiery torrent of sensation.

She lay there on the floor, her arms holding him tightly, feeling the shudder that racked him as he turned from strength to helplessness. “I’m too heavy for you,” he gasped.

He was heavy, but she didn’t want to let him go. “No.”

He moved off her anyway and drew her close. It was minutes before his breath steadied enough for him to speak again. His lips brushed her ear as his hand moved to possessively cup her breast. “I suppose we should move to the bed.”

“Soon,” she murmured. “I like lying here on the floor. It reminds me of the cave.…” She didn’t want to move ever again. She wanted to lie here with Robert in this firelit room forever. Nothing could be more perfect than this moment. Yet she vaguely came to realize she wanted something else.…

She made a motion to get up, and Robert’s hand instinctively tightened on her breast. “No.”

“I’ll be right back.” She stood up and brushed back her hair. She was still wearing the little velvet cap, she
realized with amazement. It seemed impossible after the storm she had just gone through. She quickly moved over to the deep embrasure of the window.

“Where the devil are you going?”

“I wonder if I can hear …” She threw open the window, and wild music drifted up to her from the glen below. “Yes, I can. Do you?”

“The bagpipes?” He nodded. “Have you suddenly developed a liking for them?”

She nodded dreamily as her gaze traveled over the men, women, and children still moving about in the torchlit glen. “When Gavin isn’t playing them. They’re part of Craighdhu.” She looked at him over her shoulder.

And Robert was all of Craighdhu. He was the silences and the mysteries, the passions that excited her and the cozy fires that warmed her. She felt a surge of love for him so strong, it almost took her breath away. “Can’t you see that this is how it should be?”

He didn’t answer, and she turned to face him, a touch of defiance in her stance. “I tell you, I was right to do this.”

He smiled slowly and held out his hand. “Then come and do it again.”

He would not admit this passion he had for her was not a mistake. Well, she mustn’t ask for too much. She had only begun and had already won a great deal tonight.

She smiled as she started toward him, unconsciously keeping pace to the faint martial strains of the bagpipes drifting from the glen. “I intended nothing else.”

At noon the next day Jock, Jean, and Gavin boarded the fishing boat that was to carry them to the coast of Ireland. Robert and Kate were at the dock to bid them good-bye.

“May fortune bless you,” Kate said as she gave Gavin a hug. “Be careful.”

“I will.” He turned to Robert. “I won’t tell you where we’re going. I want you to be able to tell Malcolm in all honesty that you’ve no knowledge of us.”

“I would have no problem lying to Alec,” Robert said, then thrust out his hand and added gruffly, “Be careful, damn you. Don’t trust anyone.”

“We won’t,” Jean said as she drew closer to Gavin. “Gavin has a trusting nature, but I’ve learned how men can become corrupted by fear. You’ll not hear from us for a long time, but I hope you won’t forget us. We do not wish this separation to last forever.”

“Jeanie, no!” Gavin said. “You know we cannot come back to Craighdhu.”

“We can,” Jean said as she met Robert’s gaze. “If he will let us.”

Robert gazed at her a moment, then smiled faintly. “Perhaps. We will see what time brings.” He turned and took Kate’s elbow. “Good journey.”

They stood watching on the dock as the ship sailed out of the harbor and put out to sea.

“They look so happy,” Kate said wistfully. “I’ve never seen anyone as full of joy. Surely, God will protect them.”

“Well, I’d bank more on Jock than any deity,” Robert said. “God sometimes forgets to keep an eye out for men like Alec Malcolm, but Jock never does.”

“But Ireland should be safe?”

“It would have been safer a year ago, before Alec had men in every town along the coast.” He saw the anxiety in her expression and said, “I won’t lie to you. Jock will find him the safest haven possible, but they will be in danger as long as Alec lives.” He frowned. “Stop looking like that. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“You didn’t frighten me. It just doesn’t seem fair that things are going so well for me and not for Gavin.
This morning when I woke up, I felt so full of—”
Love
. No, it was too soon to tell him that. She substituted the word he would accept. “Hope.”

He smiled. “Spring is the time for hope.”

She shivered beneath the weight of her cloak. Last night on the green it had seemed much warmer, but it was always cold here at the dock. “It doesn’t feel like spring.”

“Perhaps not to a puny Sassenach like yourself, but the sun is shining and the ground is warming. We may even have an early blooming of the heather.”

She looked at him skeptically.

“You don’t believe me?” He lifted her onto Rachel’s back. “Come, I’ll prove it to you.”

Her spirits lifted higher when she saw the mischievous smile he gave her over his shoulder as he mounted his horse. “Where are we going?”

“The barrens.”

“But I have to go to the weavers and tell them—”

“You’ve told them quite enough. I found out yesterday that I have a minor insurrection on my hands.”

She glanced at him warily, but he was still smiling. “Well, you deserved it. Within four years our own people will be making the finest woolens in all of Scotland
and
Ireland.”

“If you have your way.”

“Why should I not have my way when the way is right … and profitable?”

“A good question.”

“And you won’t have to worry about a thing,” she said quickly. “Leave it all to me. I’ll take care of everything.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. You obviously have a taste for running things. Who’s to say you won’t decide I’m dispensable to Craighdhu?”

She gazed at him uncertainly. “You’re joking?”

He chuckled. “Aye, I’m not afraid of being ousted
by the clan. I believe I still have some small value in their eyes.”

“They love you. I could never replace you.” She suddenly grinned. “But in a year you will not be able to replace me either. You’re right, I
like
running things.”

“Well, you can forgo it for one day.” He turned his horse and nudged him into a gallop. “I want to show you something.”

A short time later they had left the town behind them, but it was over an hour’s ride before they reached the northern tip of the island.

He dismounted, helped her down, and then led her up the steep, sloping hill leading to the edge of the cliff. He pointed downward. “Spring.”

Seals. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of seals moving on the black rocks below. Sparkling blue water washed against the dark rocks burnishing them to an onyx shimmer. Scarcely an inch of rock remained unoccupied by sleek brown-black bodies. Males and females, babies with big gentle eyes and sleek, soft coats, plunging into the water or basking lazily in the sunlight.

Kate laughed in delight. “I wouldn’t think they would come back this early.”

“They usually come a little later, but they’re good, hearty Scottish seals. Not at all like—”

“Puny Sassenachs,” she finished. “They come here to give birth?”

Robert nodded. “And to breed. The females birth and then mate only a few days later.”

“And don’t give birth until the following year? That must mean they’re with child almost all the time.”

“They don’t seem to mind.”

“The babies are so sweet.” She watched two baby seals flopping after their mother, their grunts of protest sounding almost human when they couldn’t keep up with her. “Can we go down to them?”

“Not unless you want considerable damage done to your enchanting person. The mothers are very protective.”
His smile faded. “You know, when I come back from Spain, I wasn’t sure there was a God.”

She looked at him, shocked. Even at the worst of times, she had never doubted the existence of a Supreme Being.

“In this world where Protestants and Catholics are tearing each other apart, vying to find who can be crueler, it seemed unreasonable, if there was a God, that he would let that happen in His name.” He gestured to the scene of sea and earth and life below. “But that’s God, Kate. That’s the God that makes sense.”

“Yes, that’s God.” She felt as if she were bursting with love for Robert at this moment. She loved the man of thought, the bold warrior, Gavin’s friend, her lover, every facet, every movement, every breath he took.

He kept his eyes on the seals as he asked, “Do you ever dream anymore?”

“Not since I came to Craighdhu.” She breathed in the salty air. “There’s magic here.”

He turned to look at her.

“Home,” she said simply. “I knew it the first moment I saw it.”

“My God.” He was silent a moment. “Then I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at your determination to stay here.”

“I
will
stay here.”

He shook his head. “It cannot be. I’m warning you, Kate, what ever happens between us, you cannot have Craighdhu.”

“I’ll persuade you otherwise. You’re not usually so blockheaded. There’s no reason why we can’t live in harmony here.”