To Tempt Highland Fate (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (54 page)

             
“Och, lass, I’m afraid slicing bread and apples is the extent of my skills with food.  Except that I can usually roast a hare over a fire on a spit without burning it.”  He gave her a sweet smile. “Usually… not always.”

             
“Well then, you’re ahead of me.  I’ve never cooked a hare on a spit.”

             
“Never?  Then ye must no’ have travelled much.  I canna imagine sleeping under the sky without roast hare.”

             
Willa shook her head.  “No, I suppose I haven’t travelled much.”

             
“Ye must have at least travelled from England”, Drust ventured.  He told himself he needed to know more about her in order to be certain she was not an enemy of his clan.  Not for any selfish reasons.  Oh aye, he was undeniably in lust with her, but that was all.  As far as it went.  What man in his right mind wouldn’t lust for such a beautiful, sensual creature? 

             
“Yes, from England.  But it sounds as if you’ve travelled much more than I.”

             
Drust frowned at her neat evasion of his question.  “Aye.  I’ve been on quite a few journeys.  Including this last one, which I have no memory of.”

             
She smiled.  This was the most he had ever said to her.  Amazing.  “I’m glad you’re alive to not remember it.”

             
“You said you found me at the mouth of a cave?  Alone?”

             
“Yes.”  She looked at his face, his eyes so full of a life nearly lost, and her heart flooded with tenderness.  “You had nearly bled out.  I remember the blood soaking into the ground all around you.  There seemed so little chance you would live, I…”  She shook her head as if to clear it.  “Will you tell me what happened?”

             
He shook his head.  “I can no’.”

             
“Well”, she said softly, after she had chewed the last of her bread, “it seems we are destined to remain strangers.  And since we’re at an impasse of sorts, we might as well retire for the night.”

             
A strange look of regret flickered over his face, but Drust quickly schooled his features.  “Aye, we might as well.  Go in first and get yerself ready.”

              “Come in with me, I don’t mind…”

             
“No”, he said firmly.  “That’s no’ a good idea.  You go first.”

             
Sighing, Willa went into the room, rolled her pallet out and took off her dress, pulling a night gown over her head.  She could hardly believe that after what just happened they were not going to be sharing the bed. 

             
Patience, Willa
.

             
“Finished!” she called. 

             
A moment later the door opened and Drust came in, frowning at her pile of blankets near the hearth.

             
“Lass, I want ye to take the bed.  I’m nearly healed now, and ye’ve been sleeping on the floor long enough.”

             
“No, I don’t mind.  And you’re still not nearly healed, Drust.  It will be weeks longer before you have complete use of that side.”

             
“I insist.  I’ll not have ye sleeping on the floor while I sleep in a soft bed.”

             
She gave him a mischievous smile.  “Then we’ll share the bed.”

             
“No!  We’ll do no such thing.  Ye will keep yer honor as long as I’m here with ye.  I promised yer brother.”

             
Willa narrowed her eyes.  She should have realized James would have spoken to him before he left.  “My brother has no say in such matters.  If I decide to sleep in your bed while you’re in it, I will!” 

             
She wanted to ask why it was so wrong to share a bed after what had already happened between them, but she kept her mouth firmly shut.  If she pointed out the truth, he would likely balk and go back to keeping her at arm’s length.  And she supposed sharing a bed was in some ways more intimate.  Stubborn man.  Oh what she wouldn’t give to curl up against all that smooth skin and hard muscle…    

             
“Fine, lass, sleep on the floor if it suits ye.”

             
Drust climbed into the bed and stretched out, turning onto his good side so he could surreptitiously watch her.  It occurred to him that there was a perfectly serviceable bed in the next room.  He could sleep there and Willa could have this bed to herself.  But no, he
wanted
to sleep close to her.  Someone needed to be close to protect her should someone break into the cottage, he told himself.  Deep down, or maybe not so deep down, he knew that was a lie.  After all, the place was warded.  And God what he wouldn’t give to hold her in his arms as she slept…

***

                Willa looked up as Drust continued to pace the small length of the room, moody and restless.  The day had dawned cloudy and dark, and now the rain was pouring down, keeping them together in the little cottage that seemed smaller every day.  She wished the storm would let up enough to go for a walk in the woods, anything to dissipate the pent-up energy that filled the room.  She watched as Drust moved to the window and frowned at the rain, as if he could make it stop with his will alone. 

             
“Why are you always so sullen, Warrior?”

             
He didn’t turn from the window.  “I’m no’.”

             
“You are.  You don’t smile nearly often enough.” 

             
“Perhaps I’ve nothing to smile
about
, lass.”

             
“That
is
a pity.  Why?  Do you not have a home, a family?”  She paused.  “A woman of your own?”  She hoped he hadn’t heard the slight hitch in her voice.

             
He turned slowly to look at her, leaning back against the sill.  “Aye.  I have a home and a family.  I told ye that, before.”

             
“But they don’t make you happy?”

             
He looked away.  “I…“ 

             
Happy?
  In truth he had never been
happy,
exactly.  Content perhaps.  No… he was always too restless to be content.  He loved his brothers, defended his home and his own with his very life.  But there had always been something missing, an emptiness that could never be filled, no matter how hard he tried.  And women?  There had been plenty when he was younger, fewer and fewer since.  None at all for more than a year.  And in truth he hadn’t really missed them.  For a long time, he had taken his release in willing arms, but it had never been anything more than that; or perhaps he was expecting too much.  A connection, a pleasure not just of his body, but of his soul.  To be inside a woman and feel… as if he were home at last.  When his brother Bren had found all of that with Faith, Drust had been happy for him… but a part of him had also been jealous.

             
I felt that way, when I kissed Willa… 
No.
Kissing her had been wonderful, but he must have since embellished
it in his mind.  It couldn’t have been all that he thought… and he had been angry at the time, his emotions running high. 

             
Angry because another man had touched her. 
Jealous
?  Had he ever been jealous of a woman before?  Not that he could remember.  Suddenly he had to know… would die if he did not…

             
He turned his gaze to her to find her still looking at him, studying him.

             
“Willa, come here to me…”  He took a deep breath as she did as he asked, slowly crossing the room until she stood before him.  And there it was, the inexplicable pull.  He raised his hand to cup her cheek in his palm.  She didn’t move, just watched him, her eyes questioning. Hopeful. He tightened his grip and pulled her closer, lowering his mouth to capture her lips.  She opened to him, and on a groan, he claimed her with his tongue, thrusting deep.

             
Aye, there it was, the same overwhelming sensation.  Warmth, peace… passion that he knew would build to an intensity he’d never even dreamt of, the longer he kissed her. 

             
She’s yours
. 
Take her… Claim her…

             
Though his cock had been half-hard nearly all day, now it surged at once to almost painful fullness, and he groaned again at the sudden overwhelming ache.  His kiss grew harder, more aggressive, and he knew he must be bruising her tender lips.  But she was kissing him back as if she couldn’t get enough.  Her tongue swept his in a maddening rhythm, and she pressed up onto her tiptoes as if to come closer.  His hand slid to her breast and squeezed.  She made a small sound of pleasure and instantly he needed to hear more.  He wanted nothing more than to make her come for him, to be the man that could make her fall apart in his arms.  Not breaking the kiss, he began backing her towards the small bedroom.

              Willa kissed Drust with all that she had, all that she was.  This is what she wanted, what she had been craving since the first time she saw him.  Somehow, her body had known him even then.  When the backs of her knees hit the edge of the bed, he pushed her down onto it, pressing her back against the pillows.  Oh God, would he take her?  Her heart raced with hope.  She wanted him to claim her, had never been more certain of anything in her life.  Somehow she knew that if Drust was hers, everything else in her life would eventually fall into place… he was her key, her anchor.

             
He knelt before her on the bed, looking at her with such hunger that she almost shuddered.  He was so big, so strong.  He could crush her in an instant, and yet she had never felt safer than when he was here… even when he had been still too weak to leave his bed.  She lowered her eyes to the front of his breeches, and her hand reached out to touch him there.  He groaned as if in pain and threw his head back, and she wanted to kiss the contour of his jaw where the harsh masculine lines met the more vulnerable length of his throat.

             
Though his breathing grew labored, he pulled her hand away and reached for the edge of her skirts, pushing the fabric up round her hips until she was bared to him.  He leaned forward to kiss her again, turning slightly onto his side as his hand slipped between her thighs.  Already she was wet and aching for him, and her hips rose instinctively to meet his touch.  Her whole body seemed to rise up off the bed, straining to be closer to him.  He slipped one finger just inside of her while his thumb expertly stroked her.  She could not stop the whimper of pleasure that rose in her throat.  Her hands twined in his long, silky hair as she poured all of her passion into kissing him, her hips moving of their own accord, faster and faster against his hand.

             
Never had he been so close to losing control of himself.  He was thrusting desperately against Willa’s hip, as his cock hungered to slide into the moist heat that gripped only his fingers.  He knew somewhere in the recesses of his mind that only the breeches he still wore kept him from doing so.  She was tugging at his hair, kissing him so hard, driving him wild with her sweet passion, closer and closer to the edge.  He stroked her faster, his fingers sliding easily into the wetness, setting off all of his most primitive instincts.  He felt her body tighten, arching up from the bed.  She broke the kiss and cried out as shudders wracked her body.  When at last she went limp beside him, he released her and in desperate need, fumbled at the ties of his braies.  She opened her eyes, watching as he managed to free himself from the constraining fabric.  He closed his eyes, grimacing as if in pain.