Highlander's Captive (17 page)

Wintra stood by the hearth, staring into the flames and heard the door latch shut. Cree and Dawn were gone. She and Torr were finally alone. While she had enjoyed talking with Dawn, she had not been able to keep thoughts of Torr and her naked in bed doing unimaginable, though acceptable, things out of her head. After all she and Torr were wed and their vows consummated. Why then did she feel her thoughts so sinful?

Torr walked over to stand behind her, his arms going around her waist and easing her back against him. “As I promised, I will tell you everything Cree and I learned from your attacker.”

She shook her head. “I do not want to discuss that now.”

He went to turn her around, but she stopped him with a firm hand to his arm that sat snug at her waist. She needed to speak with him of intimate things, and she did not know if she could face him directly while doing so. Even though they had made love, she still felt vulnerable and unknowledgeable when it came to intimacy.

“What do you want to discuss?” he asked.

She shut her eyes tight and plunged ahead. “Intimacy.” Her eyes shot open when he spun her around to face him.

“You have not been shy to speak what is on your mind, another trait I favor in you. And I have told you time and again that you could speak to me about anything, so why does intimacy prove difficult for you to discuss with me?”

“The nuns warned me against talking to my husband about the subject. They insisted it was his domain, and I was to do my duty without question or protest.”

Torr could not help but smile. “That would be impossible for you to do. You are much too inquisitive, another part of your nature that I love.”

She rested a gentle hand to his cheek. “I am lucky to have you as my husband, for there is surely not another man around who would be so tolerable of my persistent curiosity.”

“I am glad that you finally realize my worth,” he said, his smile growing. “Now what questions fill your mind?”

She slipped out of his arms and walked nearer to the curtain that separated the two rooms before turning back to face him, his heartening words having given her that last bit of courage she needed. “I thought to wait naked in our bed for you. Is that a proper thing for a wife to do?”

Not only her words, but the image of what she suggested, and that she even thought of doing such a thing, turned him hard. He approached her slowly, though kept a small distance between them. “It is more than proper for a wife to show how much she desires her husband.”

Words rushed from her mouth as if she could not stop them or as if she must say them before she lost the mettle to do so. “I desire you so very much that at times I feel as if I will go mad with the want of you.”

Torr went to step forward, his hand reaching out for her.

Wintra quickly stepped back, her hand held out to stop his approach. “Please. I have thought of this all night. And I would like to greet you naked in our bed before I lose the courage to do so.”

Torr took a step back, more than willing to let her have her way. “Call to me when you are ready.”

She nodded and disappeared behind the curtain. Her hands shook as she slipped out of her garments. From what the nuns had told her, she had not been looking forward to performing her wifely duties when she wed, but Torr had changed all that from the very first time he had touched her. And after last night, she knew that she had much to learn or perhaps unlearn as to what was proper and what was not. The only way for her to do that was to embrace her passion for her husband and not be afraid to talk with him about intimacy and learn all she could.

She stood naked. All she had to do was get in bed and call out to him, but she hesitated. She stared at the bed. Could she do this?

Her worries faded and she smiled, for she realized what was most important—Torr loved her and she loved him. She climbed into bed and was about to slip her legs beneath the blanket and pull it up to her waist, but stopped. She wanted nothing separating them this night. Tonight she wanted anything that stood between them stripped away.

Wintra sat with her legs to the side and slightly bent. Her one hand rested on the bed while the other lay against her flat stomach. Her shoulders were drawn back, her chin raised just a notch, and her green eyes bright with anticipation and desire.

“Torr,” she called out.

Torr shut his eyes briefly, hearing husky passion in her voice and his groin tightened, not just with need, but with hunger to make love to his wife. He stepped into the other room and his breath caught in his throat.

Wintra was a beautiful woman, but seeing her completely naked in their bed, waiting for him, wanting him, made him see her true beauty and it was not on her face, but in her heart..

He shed his garments as he approached her, wanting nothing to stand between them this night or any nights to come.

Wintra drank in his handsome features from the top of his head to his toes. His body was all hard muscle and form, and she could not stop her eyes from drifting again and again to the spot that proved just how much he desired her. She tingled and quivered at the thought.

He placed one knee on the bed and reached out to stroke her cheek with the back of his hand.

“Your beauty goes far deeper than anyone can see,” he said and cupped her face in his hands and brought his lips to meet hers.

Wintra closed her eyes amazed at how gently he kissed her, as if he paid reverence to her. God, but she loved this man.

Torr felt a bolt of passion shoot through him when she placed her hand on his arm. It was such a simple touch and yet it made him feel as if she claimed him. That he belonged to her and no one else.

He ran his lips over hers and whispered, “I do love you, Princess.”

Wintra felt tears choke her and though they were happy tears now was not the time for her to cry, so she fought them back and smiled. “Not as much as I love you.”

“I don’t think so, and I will prove it,” he said teasingly, and then he kissed her with the passion he had held in check.

They slipped down along the bed together and while he continued kissing her senseless, his hands roamed along her body, reveling in the feel of her soft skin and gentle curves.

Eager to taste more of her, he moved to her one breast and, after raining kisses over it, took her nipple in his mouth, rolling his tongue across it.

Wintra moaned with pleasure. She had never thought making love would be so wonderful, or that it got better each time. Another quiver ran through her when Torr moved to her other breast, and she eagerly ran her hands over his back, indulging in the strength that rippled through his taut muscles.

She sighed with frustration when his mouth left her breast, though when he kissed down along her stomach and moved even lower, she thought she would die from the pleasure that shot threw her. The thought struck her then and she knew she had to do it. It would help erase a bad memory and besides, she truly wanted to taste him and see for herself how it felt.

She tugged on him and when he looked up, she said, “I wish to taste you this time.”

“Are you sure?” he asked never having expected to hear that from her.

She nodded and eagerly pushed him back on the bed.

He watched as she took him, without hesitation, into her mouth and dropped his head back when after a few moments her sweet, innocent licks turned hungry. As much as he would have loved her to go on and on, he knew he would never last and he wanted to be inside her when he came.

He quickly reached down, grabbed her and turned her flat on her back, and then he moved over her, spreading her legs with his knee and bracing his hands on either side of her head.

She grabbed hold of his arms, the muscles tense, and she whispered, “I need you so badly.”

That was all Torr needed to hear, he entered her fast and hard, and he didn’t hold back.

She cried out in sheer pleasure and matched his thrusts. They were soon lost in the passion that consumed their souls.

“Torr,” she said on a long sigh.

“Surrender to me,” he urged.

And she did, crying out his name the intense sensation penetrated and consumed every inch of her. After the initial burst, the sensation rippled through her, fading as it went, and she squeezed every part of her body trying to hold on the very last vestige of it.

Torr’s climax hit new heights when he felt Wintra squeeze him tight. It was almost as if she had locked him inside her, and damn if it didn’t feel great.

Wintra felt a sense of loss when he slipped out of her, though she was grateful that as he rolled off her, he hooked his hand on her shoulder and took her with him to rest against his side.

“I do not like being apart from you,” he said, his breath still a bit labored. “I like you close—very close.” He hugged her tighter against his side as if proving he could not get her close enough.

“I like the feel of you inside me,” she said.

He grinned. “Then I will be inside you often.”

The flames in the hearth crackled and flickered high for a moment highlighting Torr’s scar making it appear so much worse than it actually was. Wintra could not help but wonder how he had gotten it. He must have suffered terrible pain and her heart ached for what he must have gone through. Without thinking, she raised her hand to gently run her finger along the scar he would carry for the remainder of his days.

He stiffened, but it did not stop her. She wanted him to know that it did not bother her and never would, though she was curious as to how he got it, and of course the question fell from her lips as soon as she thought of it. “How did this happen?”

Torr hesitated. Many were curious about the scar, but few dared to ask. It was as if the offending mark warned of his status as a fierce fighter. If he could survive such an ordeal, then he was a man to avoid. Dawn, though, had been different. She hadn’t avoided him and she had suggested that he speak with Elsa the healer that perhaps she could help him. He had done that already, at Dawn’s request, and Elsa had given him a salve to apply to the scar, not that it would erase the scar, but it would ease the appearance over time.

“Your scar does not offend me. It is part of who you are,” she said when he did not answer. “Please tell me, I want to know.”

“We have just made love. Now is not the time to discuss such a matter.”

“You told me that there isn’t anything I cannot discuss with you,” she said and waited, hoping he would tell her.

He rarely spoke of it. The nightmare of what had happened was bad enough, but it was who had been the cause that he feared would upset her, though she would come to find out eventually. And since he had told her to ask anything of him, then he had to be willing to give her an answer. “I was hunting in the woods near my home when I heard a woman’s screams.” He stopped a moment. “This is not a pretty tale. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

“Yes, I want to hear all of it.”

“I hurried to the screams as fast as I could and came upon a horrific scene. A man was brutally stabbing a woman. I did not hesitate, I attacked him. He was a large man and much quicker on his feet then I would have expected. He was also much more skilled with a dagger than I was. I took a few minor wounds to my arms, and when I think about how he sliced my face, I now wonder if it was a small price to pay, for it saved my life. It had gotten him close enough to me, so that I could catch him in the gut. And I did just that. As he sliced my face, I sliced his gut.”

Wintra grew sick at the thought of it, and her heart ached even more for him.

“The woman was beyond help. The only thing I could do was hold her while she died. She looked upon my face and told me she was sorry I had suffered so.” He shook his head. “She was dying and she was sorry for me. She also managed to tell me of the man responsible for her own suffering and death.”

“It sounds as if she took a while to die,” Wintra said feeling her stomach roil, thinking of how the woman had to have suffered as well as Torr, since his wound hadn’t received immediate tending.

“An hour or more, I believe. She passed moments before my father’s warriors came across me. He had been worried that I had been gone too long and with dusk not far off, he had sent warriors to look for me. Good thing he did, for I had not wanted to leave her body for the animals to ravage. She had been ravaged enough in her young life, barely having reached ten and six years.”

“Who was the man responsible for her death?”

Torr stared at her a moment before saying, “Owen McBride, her husband.”

Wintra’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“It seemed that Owen had convinced her that he loved her and sought her hand in marriage. Her father was chieftain of a small clan and too old and feeble to tend to his duties, so he granted his only child’s request. I suspect he thought he had done the right thing and that Owen would see to improving the land and village. Not so. Shortly after they wed, her father died in a fall. Owen began to beat her, among other unspeakable things, and she ran away fearing for her life. The man with the dagger found her and informed her as he stabbed her repeatedly that Owen told him to make sure she suffered for being such an ungrateful wife.”

Wintra shuddered, thinking that the poor woman’s fate could have been her own. “He is a monster.”

“He is a depraved man who appears to stop at nothing to get what he wants and that makes him a very dangerous man.”

A thought suddenly hit her and she grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly. “What if Owen plans on killing you, making me a widow so that he gets another chance of taking me as his wife?”

“If I died, Cree would look after you and he would never allow Owen near you,” Torr assured her.

“What if the King did?”

“He would have no reason to.”

“We do not know that,” Wintra said. “A madman is capable of anything and Owen is definitely insane.”

“Listen to me,” he said bringing their joined hands to his mouth and kissing hers. “Nothing is going to happen to me—”

“You do not know that.”