Tyler, Lynn - For Her Honor [For Her] (Siren Publishing Classic) (8 page)

He hardened his heart against those feelings and reminded himself he had been about to leave.

Suddenly, he heard one of his brothers shouting. “You think we care if you go to your laird? For crying out loud, man! Robbie is a laird himself, and he will not marry some lying wench who is no better than a common street whore.”

Anger roared through Robbie at the insult. It was one thing for him to think such thoughts of the lass. It was an entirely different thing for his brother to utter those insults. He dismounted and squared off with Jamie. “You will have more respect than that,” he said lowly, aware his voice was gravelly and dangerous.

Then he turned on the girl’s father, refusing to look at the petite woman beside him. “She does not want to marry,” he said. “And I will not be the one to force her. Let her go to the nunnery.”

“You will marry her, if for nothing else than her honor. If you break this contract, I will go to my laird and tell him you defiled her and then cast her aside. My daughters are valuable commodities, and you have stripped the MacKennas of her value. He will have no problem initiating a feud over the insult to our clan.”

Robbie paused as the man’s words penetrated his dangerously black temper. A blood feud could be disastrous. They were a large, strong clan, but feuds could go on for generations. Did he really want to be the cause of his grandchildren’s hardships?

He shook his head and smiled without humor. Why was he thinking about his grandchildren? He was ready to give up his only chance at children. But really, his brothers would have children eventually, as would the rest of his clan. And, contrary to his reputation, he did not want to be responsible for all that bloodshed.

“Have you been touched in the head, man?” Will shouted. “Your daughter is clearly a whore and a liar. Why in all that is holy would you start a blood feud over her?”

Robbie’s blood boiled at the insult and instinct took over. He swung around and gripped his brother at the collar of his tunic with both hands. “If I ever hear you speak that way of
any
lass again, I will put you on the ground.”

He shoved William away, watching dispassionately as he stumbled into a tree and then hit the ground. He turned back to Alasdair and glowered at him. “Your daughter’s honor means so much to you that you would start a feud over her?” he asked.

Alasdair took a step back as if just realizing he was the smaller of the two. Robbie knew he was a big man, and in his current mood, he probably looked like the devil’s own servant, but that really didn’t matter now. All that mattered now was the man’s response. Given the right one, he would marry the lass. The wrong one, he would turn his back and damn them all to hell.

“Aye,” he said nervously. “She is my daughter, my laird. She has no brothers to count on for her safety once I pass on.

“If I thought she would be happy as a nun, I would let her go unto the nunnery with my blessing, but she is rash and did not think her decision through. She would be miserable for the rest of her life. At least if she married, she would have a chance at being happy.”

All the fight drained out of Robbie’s body, leaving him with nothing but a sense of resignation. How could he argue with that rationale? The man wanted his child safe and happy. “Has she no other suitors then?”

The man sighed and glanced over at his hoyden of a daughter. “Just one, my laird, and I informed him several days ago that I was turning down his offer in favor of yours. He is not someone I would have married my worst enemy’s daughter to anyway.”

Robbie sighed and dropped his head so that he could stare at the woman next to him. She was small, and his great size made her seem even smaller. Jocelyn looked delicate and sweet, her brown hair curing around her chin and her green eyes flashing at him. It wouldn’t be too awful to be married to her he reasoned. The good Lord knew he desired her body, and she certainly was passionate enough. As for her behavior in the past day or so…well, perhaps all it would take was a firm hand to keep her in check.

“Fine,” he growled. “I will marry her. Follow us home and we will marry at my keep.”

“Nay,” Alasdair said. “Our priest followed us out in case we needed last rights. You will marry her now, and then we will follow you to your keep to ensure her safe arrival.”

Robbie’s temper flared again. “You doubt my intentions or your daughter’s safety?” he whispered.

“Nay,” the older man said again. “In truth, I do not doubt your intentions. I fear my daughter will attempt to escape in another one of her reckless decisions. It will not matter to her that she is married. She will run again, even if it is just out of spite for being forced to marry.”

The tiny lass finally spoke up, her hands on her hips and her eyes spitting fire. “I do believe you need my consent during the ceremony. And I do
not
intend to give it.”

Both men stared at her, having totally forgotten her presence, and she continued, heedless of their surprise. “I am not a cow or a sheep to be traded on a whim. I am a person, with feelings and opinions of my own. And
you
,” she said, pointing at Robbie. “What happened to ‘I will not force her’?”

Robbie’s body hardened at her show of will. He’d never wanted a lass to lie passive in his bed, and this little bundle of female would be anything but passive. He couldn’t wait to channel that anger into passion. But for the time being, he needed to convince her to marry him, if only to avoid a war.

“Think carefully over your decision, lass,” he warned quietly. “Do not let your pride dictate the future of your clan, for your father would start a feud over you.”

Jocelyn’s hands balled into fists, and he could tell she was fighting off some kind of impulse, whether to run from him or slap him he wasn’t sure. He waited with a calm he didn’t feel. Sweat was gathering at the small of his back, where it itched uncomfortably. His eyes were beginning to burn from the effort of trying to keep up with the conversation, and the wind blew a strand of his long, black hair across his mouth. But he held his stance, determined to wait her out. If nothing else, he would leave this encounter with his pride intact.

Her shoulders finally sagged in defeat. “Fine,” she mumbled. She turned away from them all and seemed to fold into herself, her small form becoming even smaller. He hated seeing such a spirited lass so crushed, but he hardened his heart against the feelings. She was only marrying him to avoid a blood feud after all, not because she wanted him for a husband.

Robbie took her elbow and led her to where the MacKennas’s priest was waiting. There, in the cool shadow of the forest, Robbie said the vows that would tie him to a lifetime with Jocelyn MacKenna.

Chapter
5

Tears welled up in Jocelyn’s eyes as she said her vows around a tight throat. She was effectively ending her life with these words. She would be living, of course, but it would be just a shadow of the life she wanted. She would be relegated to a life of breeding child after child.

But she could not,
could not
, be the reason her clan started a blood feud. She cleared her throat when the priest indicated it was time to accept Robbie as a husband. She refused to cry in front of anyone, much less his two brothers who had insulted her so boldly. A whore. The idea was laughable. Why, she was old for a virgin, bordering on spinsterhood, really. And a liar? Well, they had her there, but they would lie, too, in her situation, she was sure.

Jocelyn peeked up through her lashes at the man standing next to her. He was pale, and his lips were still set in a hard, grim line. She remembered the vulnerable, naked expression in his eyes when she’d fussed over his arm back in the stream. His flinch when she had kissed his scar.

Then she hardened her heart against him, reminding herself he was in this situation because he had contracted for her hand. He was as bad as her father for treating her as nothing more than chattel, for assuming her life was good for nothing more than breeding children and servicing him in bed.

Jocelyn vaguely heard her intended mumble his own vows, sounding remarkably unenthusiastic. If she were honest with herself, she could admit he had every reason to sound so halfhearted. She had run away from marriage to him and then repeated the rumors she had heard about his wife right in front of him.

Given the way the rumor she had started about herself had spread like wildfire, she should know not to listen to everything she heard in the village. But then again, she had never tried to correct the misconceptions about her since they always seemed to work out in her favor. Surely if Robbie was innocent of murdering his first wife for not being pure on their wedding night, he would have tried to put a stop to the rumors.

Her ears perked up as the priest declared them man and wife. It didn’t matter now if she believed the rumors or not. She was bound to him for life. She lifted her head to stare at the priest and felt herself blanch at the priest’s next words. “It is now time for the bedding ceremony.”

Her head spun and swore all the blood in her body pooled into her feet and she began to sway. She was on the verge of fainting for the second time in the course of twenty-four hours. She was disgusted with herself for acting this way but they really expected her to seal her vows out here in the woods?

Robbie put an end to her fear with a quick snarl. “There is no way in Heaven or Hell I will take my new wife out here on the hard ground in full view of my men and anyone else who may be around. The ceremony will have to wait until we are back at the keep.”

Jocelyn sighed and felt the relief coursing through her like waves crashing on the shore. She met her new husband’s eyes, intending to express her thanks but shrank back at the look on his face. Robbie looked like a man possessed. His skin was still pale, and he had broken into a sweat, despite the coolness of the day. He looked positively sick at the thought of bedding her, and she didn’t know whether to be thankful or insulted.

“We will make for the keep now,” he said tightly.

Robbie gripped her waist and hoisted her onto his huge stallion. She gasped when his solid body landed in the saddle behind hers, his strong thighs bracketing hers. He grabbed the reins, effectively cushioning her back against his chest and cradle of his hips and, not saying another word, wheeled his horse around and headed north.

The hours crawled by and Jocelyn sighed as she stared at the passing scenery. Another tree, another rock, another tree, another rock…as beautiful as it was, one could only look at so many trees before realizing how boring sitting idle could be. She wasn’t used to not having control over her mount.

She slumped a little, only to come into contact with a hard, warm chest, and a displeased grunt sounded in her ear. That was the only noise he had made all day. Well, that and a few terse words with his men when they asked to stop for the night. He seemed to want to ride right through the night. They had even eaten oatcakes and the leftover meat still in the saddle. When she’d finally broken down and asked to relieve her overfilled bladder, he had simply helped her off the horse and stood silently while she struggled to do her business with someone so obviously listening. She had half expected him to toss her off the horse and keep going and was surprised at how gently he set her on the ground, supporting her when her legs wobbled beneath her at first.

Jocelyn tried to straighten up so their only point of contact was the inside of his thighs pressing along the outside of hers, but her weary body refused to cooperate. The feel of his body heat and the sound of his heart pounding away next to her ear dragged her under, and she fell asleep with her head tucked neatly under Robbie’s chin.

* * * *

Robbie felt Jocelyn relax against him completely and adjusted his grip on the reins to avoid dropping her. It wouldn’t do to let her fall from the horse with her father riding right next to him. He pulled her farther into his arms, telling himself he was only thinking of her safety instead of how her body felt against his.

He knew forcing the party to ride through the night wasn’t the smartest thing to do. A horse could come up lame for any number of unseen reasons, and sharp eyes were better than drowsy ones. But he didn’t know what else to do.

He had half a mind to drop off his new wife at the nunnery and ask for an annulment on the basis they had failed to seal their wedding vows, but he couldn’t make himself give up the lass currently sleeping in his arms.

Something about the way she had responded to him at the river earlier had convinced him they could be good together, even though she seemed to loathe the thought of him. Her innocent body had reacted enthusiastically to his ministrations, quaking in the throes of what must have been an intense orgasm.

The wild, half-panicked expression in her eyes and the thin barrier his questing fingers had met assured him, not only was she pure, but he had given her her first and only climax.

Robbie was amazed at the reaction her innocent pleasure had wrought on his own body. While he had certainly had the same urges as any man, he had not felt the desire to act upon them with a lass since the death of his first wife. But this wee one had come to him wearing a beautiful smile and responded to him so sweetly, and he had never,
never
, been so frantic to get inside a lass before.

He would have been in her if her father hadn’t come barreling into the clearing. Now he was stuck with a cock harder than a stone and the object of his desire fast asleep in his arms.