Taken by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader with android os TXT) 📕

and thrust hard as she arched her hips to meet his, tasting her gasp.  Her delight.  She was a bold one but her passion matched his.  Withdrawing slowly, he tried to savor the sensation of her encasing him but the urgency was building undeniably again.  He drove into her welcoming depths, again.  Deeper.  Her wild cries and helpless gasps spurred him on until Scarlett was clinging to him.  A sob sounded in the back of her throat, a cry that told him she was reaching heaven’s gates once more.

James lifted her bottom, tilting her hips upward and quickened his pace.  His lips found her neck, that enticing earlobe.  “Come for me, mo ghrá,” he urged and her heavenly body contracted and pulsed around him as a thready cry passed her lips.  He couldn’t stop his body from answering in kind.

“Ah, mo ghrá, mo chroí.  Adhrodh métú!”

His fingers eased, then massaged before James lifted himself away. The mattress dipped as he rolled over on his back next to her.

In the silence, their harsh breathing matched as they caught their breath.

His hand found hers and their fingers entwined.

“Ye are mine.”  The words were quietly spoken but brooked no denial.

“Then take me with you.”

He said nothing but she felt his nod.

Bloody hell but she was getting to him.  Had she managed to break through his defenses so easily?  He was beginning to care about more than what she might know.  What she might want from them.  Who she might be.

He cared about what she thought about him, the person.  Whether she liked him more than Rhys.

Aye, that was the problem, wasn’t it?

He might have her passion but it was Rhys she gave her friendship to.  Rhys who she talked with at length.  Rhys who provoked the sweet laughter that reached his ears even through the din of a thousand men.

It was his brother’s arms that she fell into upon reaching their encampment each night, his company she sought while the servants were erecting her tent among the village of soldiers and followers.  Rhys who she dined with outside her tent, whispering into his ear while James was absent.

All of it ignited a fierce, hereto unbeknownst envy within him.  He knew not who she was or from whence she came, but for now, in this moment of time she was his.  His father be damned.

James pulled Scarlett into his arms, wrapping his arms tightly around her.  He had missed her so dearly these past days even an edict from the King himself couldn’t have stopped him from having her at his side in the days to come.  His threat to leave her there had been spoken in anger.  Anger built by the sight of Scarlett laughing again and again with his brother over the past days.

Now that he had tasted joy on her cherry lips, leaving her behind was no option at all.  It had been extraordinary, how her desire had infused him as if drawn from her lips to permeate his soul.  The experience had been like no other.  He’d been so in tune with her body, captivated.  He hadn’t thought himself capable of such an all-consuming passion.  A passion not just of the body.

James shook of the mawkish thought but couldn’t refrain from admitting aloud, “I’ve missed ye these past days, mo chroí.”

Scarlett looked up at him, feeling a jolt of surprise and maybe a little annoyance, too.  “Missed me?  Really?  I thought you’d forgotten all about me.”

“How could I forget aboot ye, mo chroí?” Laird traced his knuckles along her jaw before gently rubbing her ear lobe between his fingers.  She savored his touch and the husky burr of his softly spoken words even though she had no clue what they meant. “There’s been little else on my mind all these past days.”

“Really?  I couldn’t tell with the way you were ignoring me,” she said, biting her lip.  Ugh, she berated herself.  No man, regardless of the century, appreciated a clingy, controlling woman.

“I wisnae ignoring ye, lass,” he sighed, tucking her head into the curve of his shoulder.  “I stayed away from ye because I cannae be near ye wi’out wanting ye, lass,” he whispered, bending his lips to her ear.  A little shudder raced through her and a blush blossomed on her cheeks.  “Yer utterly beguiling.  My father would ken how I felt the moment he saw me wi’ ye.  He would ken I’m bewitched.”

“Would that be so bad?”

“For yer sake and mine, my father cannae think that there is anything more between us than my returning ye to the Lindsay.  He has enough suspicions already.  I couldnae appear too close to ye whilst he was nearby.  Appearances are everything.”

“Appearances, huh?  Doesn’t he care that Rhys appears close to me?”

“Rhys disnae care.  ‘Tis his way of thumbing his nose at Father.”

“But you wouldn’t dare.”  It wasn’t a question.

“No’ whilst my future is in his hands.”

“How is it in his hands?”  Rhys had told her Laird didn’t answer to anyone.

“I will tell ye my secrets when ye reveal yers, lass.”

He must have known that would be enough to shut her up.

But he wasn’t just avoiding her because he regretted their passionate encounters.  If he did, he had shown none of it tonight.

At least there was that.

26

 

“How do ye fair this morn, Scarlett?” Rhys asked, drawing her horse up alongside Scarlett’s the next morning.

“I’m fine.”

“Are ye certain? I heard the oddest moaning last night.”

“Did you, now?”  Scarlett winced, wondering if Laird had given his brother an accounting of their night together.

“Aye,” he persisted. “I only mention it because ye seem a bit flushed this morning.  A fever perhaps?”

“Oh, dear, I do hope you aren’t falling ill,” Aleizia said from her other side.

True to her name, Scarlett blushed mightily all the way up to her hairline.  “No, I just…” Scarlett pressed her lips tightly together. She had ne intention of sharing the details with Rhys or Aleizia. “I’m fine.”

“Hmm, must hae been an auld tom maun