to enter her life and reveal himself?
* * *
The rising sun found her awake still, considering the proposal she’d received and deciding whether or not to accept it. By the time she had seen Lady Arabella off on her journey and made her way to her parents’ cottage, she was nowhere closer to accepting that her future lay with Dougal, the miller’s son.
* * *
‘You should not tease her so, Brodie,’ Arabella warned him.
Right now, as he slid his hands into the twisted braids of her hair and loosened them, he cared not for much else going on in the world. Arabella was his world and he enjoyed the feel of her silken tresses cascading over the skin of his hands and arms. Knowing it would caress another part of him very soon made that part of his flesh rise and ready.
‘I did not do it to tease her, my love,’ he said, burying his face in it now and inhaling the scent of the heather and honey soap she used. ‘She is young and blushes at everything.’
‘Our Fia is a young woman, Brodie,’ his wife said, turning to face him now. ‘And she has been infatuated with you since the day I met her.’
‘Is that my fault? I assure you, I do nothing to encourage that.’
He slid his hands down to rest on her shoulders, drawing her closer to him. God, would the wanting never end? Six years together, two bairns and another on the way, and he needed to see her, to touch her, to hear her almost every hour of the day and night. Brodie leaned his head down and touched his mouth to hers. She opened to him as she always did and he tasted her deeply.
‘I do not think it is you,’ Arabella said as she leaned her face a scant bit away from his. Clearly she wished to speak more on this matter before seeing to his important matters.
‘Then what is it?’ Brodie dropped his hands and took a step back. Mayhap some distance would ease his need for her? He knew in an instant it would not make a difference.
‘She wears the hope of a young woman seeking her first love in her eyes,’ his wife said, letting out a sigh much as the girl did. ‘She thinks that our beginning and Rob’s with Eva are romantic.’
‘I kidnapped you and held you against your will. Rob chased Eva, caught her and married her against her will. That is romantic?’ Brodie asked, shaking his head. No matter how long he was married, no matter how much he thought he did, ’twas clear he did not and would not ever understand women. ‘I cannot fathom it.’
Arabella stepped closer to him now and his body waited for her touch. She lifted her hand and touched his arm with only a finger, tracing up on to his shoulder and down on to his chest. He wished with all his might that his garments would drop away on their own so that her finger touched his flesh.
‘You do not understand the appeal of being rescued by a handsome Highland warrior who becomes chieftain of his clan.’ He tried to meet her gaze but he was caught by the movement of her finger as it slid lower and lower. ‘Of being sought by a strong man who protects you against your enemies and reclaims a part of your soul you lost.’ He was going to argue that point, for it had not happened quite that way between Rob and Eva, but when her finger crossed his belt and pressed against the fabric, he forgot how to think.
Another finger joined the first and then another until her hand cupped him, forcing a gasp from him. She paused, holding his sensitive flesh in her palm, and she met his gaze. Arabella was waiting for him to say something and Brodie struggled to remember the topic of their conversation. The girl. Her romantic dreams or some such thing.
‘I...um...will try... Oh, hell, Arabella! I cannot put a thought together when you touch me like this!’ Her laugh echoed around them both and lightened his heart.
‘Be kind to her, Brodie. She is young and deserves to dream before she faces the reality of life.’
‘Should I find someone to kidnap her? To sweep her off her feet as I did you, my love?’ He did just that then, lifting his wife into his arms and carrying her to their bed. ‘Then she can see how romantic it was for us.’
He followed her down and climbed between her thighs. Now she could feel the hard length of him—the one that she had caused with nothing more than a kiss and a caress. When she pushed against his chest, he lifted his weight from her.
‘Brodie, she will find her own love, kidnapped or not. Just have a care for her tender feelings and sensitivities right now.’
‘Fine! But now, my gentle wife, you should have a care for my tender feelings,’ he teased. Sliding his hips, he watched her face as her body reacted on its own.
‘Aye, my handsome Highland warrior,’ she said, opening her legs so he could move closer to the place he knew would be ready for his touch. ‘Come now, let me see to your tender feelings.’
The morning came too soon for his preference, but he would hold her closely every night for the rest of their lives. He would discuss possible marriages for the girl when they returned from Achnacarry. He might not arrange a kidnapping but he could arrange a suitable marriage.
A few days later...
Niall Corbett watched, arms crossed over his chest, as the motley group spread out over the area and claimed their places. As it did each time they found a spot in which to lay a camp, the fighting over the choicest bits began almost immediately. Though Anndra was the biggest fighter amongst them, Micheil was smaller, quicker and meaner.
While the shouting and brawling continued, Niall walked to a place that was on the perimeter of the clearing, higher than the surrounding ground and covered by a tree. It would do for now.
He dropped his belongings, few as they were, and seated himself on a nearby log to see the outcome of the fighting. As he expected, Micheil claimed victory once more and kicked Anndra’s bags off the small patch of grass near the fire pit and placed his own there.
Lundie, Niall noticed, almost mirrored him. Arms crossed, watching the fight and resolution with thinly disguised contempt and resignation. No matter how many times Lundie had ordered the men not to fight amongst themselves, this small disruption happened at every new place where they camped. And over the six months that Niall had spent with these men that was a goodly number of fights. A few blackened eyes and cracked ribs were usually the result, so Lundie ignored it most of the time.
Niall walked through the area and realised it had been an organised camp some time ago. Caves into the mountainside held remnants of those who had lived here. With the mountain’s forests and height to hide it, this would be an excellent place to hide for a long time. Lundie approached, so Niall stood.
‘Someone used this place,’ Lundie said. ‘’Tis too organised for another explanation.’ Niall nodded.
‘Nothing like the shielings the Highland clans use to watch their herds,’ Niall added. ‘The caves there show signs of having been used, too.’
‘Do ye think ’tis safe for us to stay here?’ Lundie, the man running this gang, had grown trusting of his opinion over the last months. A part of Niall’s plan that was a success.
‘With that old man’s death on our last raid? I suspect no place will be safe for us for long.’
The Mackintosh was not known for his mercy but rather his strength and shrewdness. The death of one of his people would cause him to take notice and action against those responsible. Niall glanced once more across the clearing at just those men. He’d like to think it had just gotten out of control, but something niggled at him when he thought on how the whole raid had happened. If he had doubted it was planned, Lundie’s next words confirmed it for him.
‘’Twas bound to happen,’ the man said, shrugging his shoulders and looking away.
So, whoever was giving Lundie orders gave that one as well.
A