Born in Sin (26 page)

Aster scoffed. “I suspected he was one of the rebels, but if you think he’s got the ability to lead, there you’d be mistaken.”

Sin didn’t think so. He’d seen the way the others responded and looked at the boy. “He’s the eldest son of the last laird. It would only make sense.”

“Aye, but when Neil died, ’twas Callie they wanted as leader.”

Sin arched a brow as he recalled Callie’s words on the matter. “Truly?”

Aster nodded. “She’s the king’s blood kin and has a good head on her shoulders. Everyone in the clan agreed that even though she was a woman and barely a score-and-four years, she would be a good leader for the clan.”

“Then why isn’t she?”

“She wouldn’t do it. She was afraid it would insult Dermot and me. She thanked everyone at the meeting and then graciously stepped down.”

“And they voted you in.”

“Aye.”

Now everything made sense to him. Dermot’s innate hatred of him and the envious stares the lad would cast at his sister and uncle when he thought no one was watching. “It must have set ill with Dermot
to see his sister and then his uncle voted in while he, the legitimate son of the laird, was not.”

“Aye, but he was only ten-and-three at the time. He couldn’t have really hoped for it.”

Sin knew better. A boy at that age held an arrogance that was surpassed only by youthful foolishness. “How did Dermot react to the news?”

“He was mad, of course. Said if he’d been born of noble blood, they wouldn’t have hesitated to vote him in. He stormed out, but once he calmed down, he agreed that it was fitting I should lead.”

Sin clenched his teeth. There was none so blind as a devoted parent or uncle with a child in pain. They couldn’t accept the fact that the boy they loved could be capable of perpetrating such mayhem. But at Dermot’s current age, Sin had been the very essence of brutal destruction.

“How long after that did the raiding start?”

“Maybe six weeks.”

“And it has continued since?”

Aster nodded.

“Have they ebbed and flowed any?”

“Just while Callie was in London and since she’s been back. But that doesn’t mean it was Dermot. No one in the clan would want to see the lass hurt.”

Sin listened and weighed the old man’s words carefully. But what Aster failed to realize was that Dermot would have attacked him just based on the fact that Callie had married the enemy. Dermot would want him out of the way as soon as possible. Especially given the way the MacNeely people had treated Sin today. If they accepted Sin, then they would accept the
English, and in Dermot’s mind such a thing would have to be stopped at all costs.

Even if it hurt Callie.

Nay, unlike Aster and Morna, Sin held no doubt of the boy’s guilt. Their words only solidified it.

“Have you any idea where Dermot might have gone to hide?”

Aster thought it over. “Aye.”

“Where?”

He tilted his chin stubbornly and eyed Sin in a way that let him know the old man would never willingly betray his nephew. “Let me go and see if I can speak to him. If you go, he’s liable to run even farther.”

That was true enough. “Then find him and bring him home.”

Aster hesitated. “What are you going to do to the lad if I do?”

Sin took a deep breath as he considered it. In the end, he told the old man the truth. “I don’t know yet. I want to speak to him before I decide.”

Fury smoldered in Aster’s blue eyes. “I can’t let you harm him, nor send him to live with those English of yours. You’ll only have him over my dead body.”

Sin took the edge out of his voice and tried to reason with him. “Aster, this isn’t a game we’re playing. Henry is ready to make war on your clan. And Dermot doesn’t seem willing to stop until that happens. Do you truly want to see your entire clan destroyed because of the actions of one hotheaded boy?”

“I know he’s not the leader,” Aster insisted with blind devotion. “I will go talk to him and find out
who put him up to this. Whoever it is, we will see him punished.”

“And if I’m right?”

The old man’s eyes turned dull. “You’re wrong, lad. You have to be.”

Callie sat with a bowl of cool water and a cloth, bathing Simon’s forehead. She found it strange that she cared so much for this Englishman, and yet she did. He and Sin’s brothers had come to be family to her in a very short time.

But what amazed her most was how much her husband meant to her. How much the thought of living without him hurt her inside. It was almost enough to cripple her.

The door opened.

Looking up, she saw Sin hesitating in the threshold with one hand on the doorknob and the other on the wooden frame. Och, but he was the finest-looking man she’d ever beheld. Even when he had grief and worry lining his brow.

“How is he?” he asked quietly, stepping inside the room and shutting the door behind him.

“He’s sleeping. I think he’ll be all right, though. What of you?”

Sin drew near, his gaze on his friend. “I wish I had eaten the cake instead.”

She knew how much he meant that. She could see the sincerity on his face and it cut her deeply. “Did you send word to Draven?”

He nodded. “Dermot has run off and Aster has gone to find him.”

Callie’s chest tightened at the news. “I should have confirmed your suspicions that Dermot was one of the rebels.”

“My lady, never apologize to me because you sought to protect someone you love. I’d expect no less of you.”

“But my silence could have killed you and Simon.”

Sin reached out and touched her hair. He ran his fingers through the silken strands ever so gently. He ached with yearning. Her light green eyes were filled with the same fear and uncertainty that ate at him.

Hold me, Callie
. It was a silent plea that tore through his soul.

He’d known painful desires all his life. For food, for shelter, for love.

But what he felt for her made a mockery of every one of them. Morbidly, he wondered if she would ever protect him the way she had protected her brother.

Would she care if he were dead? She’d told him as much, but he couldn’t quite accept the reality of it.

In his heart was the fear that she would leave him soon. That the last few days were all some imagined dream and that he would awaken alone in his castle with no one but servants who feared his very presence. He couldn’t imagine a day without her gentle teasing. A day without her laughter.

He didn’t even want to try.

“Would you two go on and kiss already?”

Callie laughed and turned to face Simon. “What?”

Simon opened his eyes and pinned them both with a bored stare. “I’m not dead and I wasn’t really
asleep. I feel like the devil used me for tilting practice, but still I’m quite sure I shall live. That is, if someone will stop trying to tie my intestines into a knot.

“Being as I am in pain, the last thing I want is to watch the two of you all lovey-dovey over there. My stomach is quite queasy enough. Sin, tell the woman you love her, for Peter’s sake. Callie, do the same, and let me lie here in my sweet misery all alone.”

Sin stroked his jaw with his thumb as he eyed his friend irritably. “Little brother, at the moment I should like to tie your intestines into a knot myself.”

Simon was completely unperturbed. “Have at it, then, just make the pain stop.”

“Can I get you anything?” Callie asked Simon.

“Nay, just promise me the next time I see a cake, you’ll slap me before I take a bite of it.” He rolled over. “Now, may I preserve what little dignity I have left?”

Sin smiled. “Look to the bright side, Si. You didn’t empty your stomach on a guest.”

“So say you. Now leave.”

Callie led Sin toward the door, then paused and looked back at Simon. “If you need anything, call.”

Simon rolled over and gave her a peeved glare.

“We’re going,” she said, taking Sin’s hand and pulling him from the room.

Sin thought he had a reprieve from Simon’s tirade until Callie cornered him in the hallway outside Simon’s room. She pegged him with a penetrating stare that let him know he was in serious trouble. “What did he mean by that?”

“By what?”

“That you love me. Do you?”

Sin swallowed. He thought he did, but who was he to know the difference? So he answered her honestly. “I don’t even know the meaning of that word.”

She looked as though she couldn’t decide if she should kick him or strangle him. “Stubborn man. But at least you’re not like the others of your kind, quick to declare your heart and then ever quick to reclaim it. At least this way, should you ever say the words, I shall know you mean them.”

He stared at her in awe of her inner strength. “You’re not mad at me?”

“I am merely mad for you, Sin. One day, I hope you’ll feel the same for me.”

Stunned, he watched as she walked off.

“Oh, I am a fool,” he whispered under his breath. She had offered him so much of herself and he had offered her so little.

And for what?

Fear?

Stupidity?

You’ve been alone all your life. You know you can survive solitude. You know you can survive conditions that would make hell seem paradise
.

So why was he so afraid now?

And so what if he ended up like Ewan? He already lived that way—lost in his solitary company, with no friends save a tankard of ale.

“Callie.”

He hadn’t realized he’d spoken her name aloud until she turned to face him. “Aye?”

He stared at her in the hallway, her red hair curling
around her shoulders. She wore the dark blue, green and yellow plaid of her father, her black kirtle hugging her lush figure.

He’d never beheld anyone or anything more beguiling or precious.

“Can you teach me what love is?”

Callie couldn’t breathe as the quiet words reached out to her. There was so much pain and heartfelt yearning behind them that it brought tears to her eyes. He was so vulnerable standing there. He stood proud and tall before her and yet she sensed just how easily she could hurt him if she rejected him. Not that she ever would.

Laughing and crying, she ran to him and threw her arms around his shoulders. “Aye, my love. I would be delighted to.”

Sin hadn’t realized until that moment just how afraid he’d been of her rejection. Just how much of his heart he’d left exposed to her.

His wounded heart soaring, he scooped her up in his arms and kissed her. The taste of her lips drove him to madness. The feel of her body so pliant and warm against his…

He had to have her. Now. This instant. He couldn’t stand another moment of being without her.

With determined strides, he carried her to their room and laid her gently on the bed.

Her cheeks turned bright pink. “’Tis the middle of the day.”

“I know.”

“What if someone comes looking for us?”

He bolted the door.

Callie laughed, until he turned around and she saw the raw hunger in his eyes. The look singed her.

He moved slowly, languidly toward the bed, peeling off his clothes as he came, until he was naked before her. She trembled at the fierce sight of him. The sleek rippling of his muscles as he joined her on the bed.

“I want you, Caledonia,” he breathed, unlacing the neck of her kirtle. “I want to taste every inch of your body. Slowly, until I’ve devoured you.”

She shivered at his demanding tone and the feel of his hot hand cupping her breast.

“I want your heart, Sin,” she said, running her hand through his hair.

He pushed her dress down her body and removed her clothes until she was fully exposed to him. “It’s battered and useless, but what remains of it is all yours, milady.”

No one had ever spoken more beautiful words to her. His eyes hooded and dark, he stared at her bare body as if he relished every piece of it.

He ran his hand over her skin, gently testing the texture of her. Callie arched her back, her body on fire for more of him. He pulled her leg up to rest against his chest and kissed her knee, while his hands ran up and down her thigh, sending chills all over her. He locked gazes with her as he tilted her leg toward him, exposing her to his questing fingers.

She moaned as he touched her core.

“I love the way you look when I do that,” he whispered, nipping her bent knee.

His fingers continued to torment her while he shifted his body to lie between her legs.

Callie looked down at him as he nudged her legs farther apart so that he could stare at the most private place of her body. Heat scalded her cheeks. Surely this was indecent, and yet it made her entire body burn with erotic pleasure.

He brought his other hand up, and slid it down her wet cleft, then he gently separated her nether folds and placed his mouth upon her.

Callie threw her head back and moaned as pleasure ripped through her. Never had she felt such unbridled pleasure or heat.

Sin growled at the taste of her. He’d never tasted a woman before, and yet he doubted if any could compete to the rare treasure he’d found. Closing his eyes, he savored her. He felt her body quivering to every lick he delivered, felt her thigh muscles involuntarily contract as he took his time pleasuring her.

She buried her hands in his hair, pressing him closer to her as she lifted her hips in invitation.

She looked wild and beautiful in her abandon.

Callie shivered and burned from the sensation of his mouth tormenting her. She’d never experienced anything like this at all. It seemed she was all conflicted emotions. Weak and strong, hot and shivery.

And still he gave her pleasure. She’d never dreamed anything would feel like this. And when he slid two fingers inside her, she really feared she would die from the ecstasy of it.

The feeling of his hands and mouth on her was more than she could stand. Her head swirling, she felt her body rip apart into spasms of pure bliss.

Sin growled again as he watched her face while she
came for him. Aye, he loved the sight of her that way. The feel of her body clutching his.

And he wanted her in a way that bordered on desperate. Licking and nibbling his way up her body, he lay down behind her.