“He had two blades,” Keenan said (31 page)

Oh, she really should ask what had happened. Keenan took her hand and rubbed the palm.

“But yer well now? No images of corpses.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been able to read you.” She blinked and looked down at his hands rubbing hers. “Except through our strange connection sometimes.”

His voice was low, not asking, but still asking. “Ye said there was blood on Elenor.”

Serena took a deep breath. “Yes, on her hands, but she looked whole to me.”

“And others did not?”

Was he asking about Lachlan?

“No, some did not. But Elenor did, just her hands were covered. Perhaps she will help the wounded?”

Keenan stared at her a moment and nodded. “Aye, perhaps.” He stood up and began to pace. She sat cross-legged in the center of the large, curtained bed and watched him. He stopped, turning eyes deep with emotion to her. Was it in his eyes, or did she feel the hesitation within him? And something else, guilt.

“Ye ken I doona ask lightly for ye to remember such terrible things, nor have I asked ye to use yer powers to my advantage. But the fate of my clan, Serena, the fate of my family,” he trailed off. “If there is anything ye could tell me, that ye saw or kent that could help them survive,” he paused. “Tell me.” From such a large, imposing man whose presence seemed to steal the air from the room, those last words should have sounded like an order. But spoken from his heart, spoken despite the guilt she could feel within him, Keenan did not demand. Although he would never plead for his own life, he would for the lives of his clan. And she would do no less for William or Mari or King Will, or any of the Faw tribe, because they were family.

Serena dropped her chin and closed her eyes while nodding slightly. “Of course, Keenan. I will help you.” In bodily detail, she began to describe what she saw, from the ashen faces to the spear through Rus, to Lachlan’s bleeding chest. Sometime during the recounting, Keenan moved to sit next to her, stroking her hand, adding his strength to her.

“And then I saw the blood on Elenor’s hands, and you caught me.” He nodded. Serena leaned closer to him. “I knew you would catch me.” He brushed his lips against hers and pulled back. The sadness weighed again on Serena’s heart, but she ignored it. She told herself that it was the guilt he suffered from having asked her to go through the bloody details.

“Serena, I need to talk with ye.”

Panic curdled up through her stomach like sour milk. Not yet, she didn’t want to know anything yet. Her brain was just too tired to take in any more. “Keenan, it is the middle of the night after a very long day. Come to bed, husband. Help me wash the blood from my mind.”

Keenan’s protest melted on his lips as Serena rose up on her knees to kiss him fully. She ran hands across the firm skin of his chest, brushing her fingertips back and forth against his nipples hidden in the soft hair. After a week loving him, she had discovered subtle ways of making Keenan lose his stringent control. Serena moved her kiss to the edge of his ear, letting her hot breath whisper against him. “Love me, Keenan. I need you tonight.” Her lips closed teasingly around his earlobe, her tongue tickling the skin.

For the briefest of moments, she thought he would deny her. Serena threaded fingers through his light brown hair that had fallen loose across his shoulder. Keenan closed his eyes and she ran the tips of her fingers along his temple, following his scar down across his rough jaw. He seemed to hold his breath as she continued to trail down his neck to his chest.

When she followed the planes of his body down his muscled stomach to tease along the top of his plaid, Keenan sucked in a full breath and buried his face in her hair. He held her tightly to him as her fingers worked to loosen the material. Serena squeezed her hand within the gap she’d made, into the warmth. She found him easily and wrapped her hand around his hard length. Keenan growled low against her neck and pulled her hair to the side so he could kiss the nape of her neck, sending streaks of heat racing downward.

“Ye play with fire, lass,” he said, his thick brogue muffled against her skin. Serena didn’t catch each word, but she caught the warning. In answer she slid her hand up and down along his shaft, running her thumb along the soft skin of the tip.

Keenan growled deeper and pressed her back into the mounds of furs and pillows on the bed. His lips descended on hers, full of purpose, full of desperate passion. Serena poured herself into the kiss, all her worry, her denial, her trust in him.

She felt him pry her fingers away from him and pull back enough to strip the plaid, leaving him completely bare. The glow of the fire brushed him gold, the shadows outlining every dip and hill of muscle running across the warrior. His eyes locked with hers, intent eyes, hungry eyes, as he pulled the shift up her body, releasing her breasts, and then over her head. The silk floated to the floor somewhere next to the bed.

Her breasts felt heavy, the nipples chilled, waiting. Serena moved her hands slowly to cup them, lifting them upward so they looked even fuller. She saw his eyes drop to them and she rolled her nipples between thumb and forefinger. She moved her legs against his where he kneeled between them. Between his hungry stare, the bare arousal of his body and the rolling of her own nipples, Serena’s body ignited. The flame spread. She tried to keep her eyes open, but they flickered closed as she moaned softly, her fingers still playing with her breasts.

“Och lass, I love to watch ye touch yerself.”

And she loved to touch herself, knowing that he watched. He shifted, and she opened her eyes. He watched her as if she were his prey. A tremor of excitement mixed with the flame inside.

Keenan’s lips came back to bathe her flushed neck in more heat. His hand replaced her own on her breast, lifting, teasing. The rough contrast of his hand against her skin poured more sensation into her. His lips followed and the feel of his hot, wet mouth brought her off the bed.

“Keenan,” she breathed, her hands running along the broad muscles of his shoulders. “I want to feel you inside me,” she said and trailed her fingers down her body to the juncture of her legs. She touched herself, feeling the dampness and heat there.

Keenan groaned as he watched her. His large hand spanned the skin across her gently rounded belly, moving lower in long caresses. Keenan met her hand and pushed past it into her channel. Serena grabbed the handfuls of fur on either side of her body as he worked his fingers expertly within her. He rubbed his thumb against her most sensitive spot. “Do ye trust me, Serena?” Her eyes closed. Her breathing rushed out in a pant as she nodded, her head thrown back into the pillow.

“Look at me,” he said stopping. Serena opened her eyes. “Do ye trust me, Serena?” Serena stared into his face. Vulnerability played with the warrior before her. Did she trust him? Of all the people in the world, he was the one she could not fully read. They had a connection sometimes, forged by some mystery, but she couldn’t read his thoughts, couldn’t peer at his future, couldn’t read his past. Did she trust him? Mari had said that love was a leap of faith. To trust someone whom she could not and may never be able to read, that was love.

Serena focused on the stormy gray of his steely orbs. “Keenan, I love you. I could not love without trust.”

No single part of his visage changed, but somehow his entire expression did, subtly. The vulnerability turned back to strength, unease turned to conviction. He moved back up her body, his face centering on her own as he lowered his lips back to hers. His kiss held all the promise of love, of life together, of sincere happiness. Serena felt the tears of joy gathering at the back of her eyes.

He pulled back but still hovered over her face. She felt his breath warm against her lips. “Aye, I love ye too,” he said.

She smiled but still a tear slipped out the edge of her lashes. Keenan caught it with one finger and touched it between his lips.

“I would catch all yer tears, lass, and keep them.” She laughed lightly as more tears trickled out. Keenan ran his hands down her cheeks wiping them all. He kissed her. “No more tears now, lass,” he said with a deeply seductive grin. “Since I have yer trust,” he said sliding back down her body until he knelt between her thighs. “Trust me to teach ye something ye may like.” He grabbed one of her ankles and lifted it up to lay it against his shoulder.

Serena gasped as he grabbed her other ankle and slid it upward against his other shoulder. “What are you doing?”

Keenan moved his hand back to her curls and entered her slick folds. Serena moaned while he shifted to position himself before her. He lifted her backside up so that he slid inside her with her legs still up in the air on either side of his head. “Something ye may like, lass,” he groaned as he completely sheathed himself in her wetness.

Serena’s eyes widened and she huffed through the intense pleasure that rolled along her limbs. The comical look of her toes curling around his ears was forgotten as Keenan began to move within her, hitting parts of her core that sent streaks of sensations ricocheting toward her womb.

“Yes, Keenan, that,” she swallowed between quick breaths as he moved, “that spot.”

“Aye,” he rasped, “it is a good spot.” Keenan rubbed his length back and forth within Serena against the most sensitive ridge inside. Serena’s mind whirled into numbness as her entire being focused on the sensations below. The enormous energy ached inside her, building. Her moans became ragged as she drove toward him to meet each of his thrusts. Faster, he rubbed faster within her.

Serena forced her eyes to stay open so she could watch his powerful warrior’s body straining over her, against her. Flesh slapped against damp flesh. Heat enveloped her and Serena slid her hands up and pulled at her aching breasts. Keenan growled above her as he watched. He reached down to the vee between her legs to rub his callused thumb against her. The incredible friction built the ache within Serena, higher and higher.

“Keenan,” she screamed as the eruption shattered through her. The rolling waves of ecstasy pulsed through and around Serena, gripping her, splitting through her. Keenan’s roar echoed her own as he poured himself into her quivering body.

He continued to pound into her until the last shudders of sensation began to ebb. Keenan turned his shoulders so her feet could fall to either side of him. He stayed within her as he pulled Serena against him on the bed.

Serena’s heart still hammered inside her chest. She lay her hand against his heart and felt the same rhythm pulsing in him. She rubbed her cheek against the thudding. She was so close, so close to his heart. Keenan’s arms surrounded her, his heart beat against her cheek, his legs lay entwined with her own. She couldn’t be closer to him. She breathed in his scent, pine and man mixed with the scent of their love.

“Mmmm,” she said against his skin. “I definitely like.”

For a moment he was silent, but then a deep chuckle rumbled up from his chest. Keenan laughed out loud. He pulled back and kissed her soundly on the mouth. “And I definitely love ye, lass.”

Serena laughed too. Keenan pulled the covers over her cooling body and wrapped her in his arms again. She fell asleep totally ensconced in his love.

****

“Serena, lass, wake up.” Keenan’s voice rippled the dark warm pool of exhausted sleep. Serena rolled away and back toward the warmth of the blankets. “Come now, lass, I must go. I willna leave without kissing ye.”

Serena’s eyes flew open, and she rolled toward Keenan. One look showed that he was fully dressed, dressed in the rugged clothes of a warrior as he sat beside her on the large bed.

“Where?” she asked, pushing up and hugging the blankets over her naked breasts. “Where are you going?” She asked the question, but the rolling in her stomach told her the answer. “No, no, Keenan,” she said shaking her head. “You can’t go with them to Culloden.” Fear rushed tears behind her eyes.

“Serena,” he soothed, “I must. How could I stay behind when my entire clan goes to fight for their freedom?”

“But you don’t support Prince Charles.”

“Nay, but I support Lachlan and my clan. If he is foolish enough to go, I must go too.”

“To defend him,” the words spat from her mouth as she threw her legs over the side of the bed. Serena ignored the wobbling in her muscles as she wrapped the blanket around her body.

“If I must,” Keenan answered. “But I also go to lead my men.” He came around and took her hands. “Serena,” his words were gentle but firm. “I trained those men. I canna abandon them now to my brother’s strategies, he has none. They truly will be slaughtered if I doona guide them through this.”

“But,” she glanced around desperately. “But there are others who could lead, others you have trained.”

He shook his head, adjusting a strap that crisscrossed against his chest.

Serena grabbed at his hands, anger poured with her tears from her eyes. She shook her head, her eyes blurred.

“Keenan, I saw so much of that slaughter yesterday. Please,” she pulled on his hands, “do not go. We are supposed to be together, the house in the village, the vegetable garden, the years of living and loving. Keenan I trusted you to stay with me.”

Keenan’s face hardened. “Would ye have me stay here, hiding while my clan goes off to war? Could ye love a coward?”

“You would not be a coward.”

“To my clan I would. To myself, I would,” Keenan led her back over to the bed and pressed her gently to sit down on it. “Serena, every one of my men is leaving a wife or their family. I am just one of them, one husband who must do my job in keeping this clan safe.”