Taming the Wild Highlander 04 (6 page)

Angus said,
"I am a very light sleeper. If you move, I will know it. I dinna want to tell your da I had to tie you up."

"
He would be furious."

"
He would be satisfied if he knew it meant I returned you home safely."

Angus spoke the truth. Edana would still try to slip away. Then she saw the Norseman consider where he
had placed his blanket. He shook his head and moved the wool cloth right next to the door.

With his big body, or any of the men
's lying there, she had no chance to slip out unnoticed. The blue-eyed devil glanced at her as he reclined on his blanket and winked, then shut his eyes to sleep.

Likewise, Niall
moved his blanket so that it was at her feet. She was blocked in by walls on two sides and Angus beside her, allowing her no real escape, trapped. Angus watched her as she considered how she was surrounded.

"
Satisfied?" he asked with a smirk.

He knew just wh
at she'd been planning. She turned away from him to face the wall, closed her eyes, and tried to sleep. The room was cold, most likely because the men's plaids were blocking the heat from reaching this far into the room. Which was why
she
had spread her clothes out on the hearth!

S
he felt his warm body press up against her. She stifled a squeak, tried to move closer to the stone wall, but found the male figure shifted again, seeking warmth—
from her
.

"
Quit trying to get away from me, lass," Angus whispered, as he wrapped his muscled arm around her, holding her still, possessing her. "You are shivering, and I dinna want you to grow ill. I will share naught more than a little heat with you."

She tried to tell herself he was like a blanket warmed on
a summer's day and not a man she should stay well away from. But she couldn't. She'd never felt a man's intimate touch, even if Angus
wasn't
attempting to be intimate with her. She couldn't resist the urge to pretend he was holding her like a man would hold a woman—wanting her, yearning to kiss her—like she'd seen Seumas kiss Una—desiring to make love to her.

Realizing she
'd been holding her breath, she tried to let it out without moving at all, because she thought his staff was growing hard, bigger, and she didn't want to think about what that meant. Well, mayhap a little. She believed her body was making his react in an interested, masculine way. That pleased her because she didn't think she could cause anyone to respond to her in such a manner.

She should have reviled the way in which she
succumbed to enjoying the heat he shared with her, but she was glad for the extra warmth. She decided then she had to try and convince Angus and his friends how important her mission was, and maybe they'd accompany her while she searched for her brothers. And maybe he'd share a little more heat with her while they travelled—if only to ensure she didn't grow ill on the journey.

Somehow she had to convince them she wasn
't crazy.

Sometime during the night, Edana had turned and was half sprawled over Angus, his blanket and hers combined to give them extra warmth, although as much as her slight body was pressed against his, he was plenty hot.

When he
'd seen her as a young lass, contemplating the water in the loch from her stone perch, she'd been bonny, her hair a dark brown with a cast of red, her skin ivory—except when she'd fought with the others and then her cheeks had been positively rosy. Like she'd been when he'd perused the way she'd grown into a woman. And he saw her fully—the damp chemise clinging to her breasts, her taut nipples pressing against the cloth, the outline of her legs, the way the cloth had dipped provocatively between her legs at the juncture where his gaze had lingered on the shadow of dark red hair—fascinated.

Sh
e was beautiful—soft, warm, smelling of woman, freshly bathed after the drenching storm she'd been through. Why anyone
hadn't
already made her his wife, he didn't know. Then he reconsidered that notion. She had abilities that might chase off the most stalwart of suitors.

She
'd been shivering when he first had pulled her against his body, though he wasn't sure if it had all been due to being cold and damp, or some of it was feeling his body so close to hers. Which he couldn't make behave no matter how hard he had tried. Not that he'd tried very hard for very long. He'd finally given in to the feel of her pressed against his groin, thought of what it would be like to enjoy every bit of her as a man would a woman—if she were his wife.

Her
full breasts pressed against his chest now, his tunic and her chemise not in the least bit of a deterrent for feeling every bit of her. Her head was turned toward the closest wall, her light warm breath fanning his bare chest where the ties on his tunic had come undone.

He
heard movement by the door and turned his head to see Gunnolf stand, stretch, then grin at him. Niall was securing his plaid, shaking his head. Smiling. The two left the shieling to take care of personal matters, while Angus was stuck beneath the fae who was making his staff ache with need.

He should have set her aside and
put distance between them, but as much as he hated to admit it, he rather liked where she was right now.

He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her
, intending to rise and dress so he could get them on their way and return her home forthwith. In just a few minutes.

When Gunnolf and Niall returned later
and rummaged around as they built up a fire, they woke Angus. He couldn't believe he'd fallen asleep again. The lass hadn't moved an inch and must not have had much sleep since she'd left her castle.

Gunnolf and Niall
shook their heads at him, but were smiling as they worked on the fire.

Could he help that
the lass liked to use his body as a pillow and a source of heat? How had she managed to travel this long all on her own? He, for one, had the first good night sleep in a while.

He was certain Niall wished he had come alone and found the lass instead, a
nd been in Angus's place. Mayhap Gunnolf also.

The men were as qui
et as they could be, making porridge for them, until she stirred.

She looked down at him as he lay beneath her
, her expression surprised—lips parted—that had him thinking of kissing her—then her expression turned horrified. Blue eyes wide with disbelief.

She quickly pushed at him as she hurried to get away from his body
—making him groan out loud as his friends chuckled under their breaths. She acted as if
he
had pulled her on top of him because
he
had been cold. Just as well that she moved off him in a hurry, though she'd been none too gentle. He needed a walk outside—to cool off. Though he wasn't certain he could move just that moment.

She shifted
her gaze from him to his friends and closed her eyes as if she was even more alarmed to see that both had known how Angus and she had slept the night.

Angus
got to his feet, crossed the floor to the fireplace, and grabbed his plaid off the chair. Neither Gunnolf nor Niall said a word, their small smiles cast in his direction saying it all. They knew he was in no mood to talk. He hurried outside to cool his heated blood.

He was certain, though the sleeping arrangements had worked well enough last night, the questioning as to why she had run off f
rom her father's keep, would not go as well.

***

Edana didn't think she'd ever been more embarrassed in her life. She couldn't believe that she had slept not only in Angus's arms, but on top of him for who knew how long. And both his cousin and friend had witnessed it, too!

Though to avoid Angus being shackled to her
in matrimony, she assumed none of the men would breathe a word of this to anyone. Or at least she hoped they wouldn't. She
certainly
wouldn't.

Once Niall and Edana were settled at the table, Angus and Gunnolf standing near
by as they ate their porridge, she felt an uncomfortable awkwardness. Not only because of having slept with Angus in the way in which she had. Worse, though they would never learn the truth, she loved having slept with him in that manner. She'd never slept so soundly in all her life. Well, after she finally quit thinking about the way his hot, hard body had been pressed to hers.

A
ll three men's eyes were on her, and she knew they were trying to figure her out. How could she tell them she had the most urgent business, and that she knew barely anyone from her clan would listen to her entreaties? But she couldn't tell them why she didn't speak to her father about it. How he hadn't wished to hear a word from her after what she'd done—walked into his chamber and caught him naked with Zeneva.

Most likely Angus and his companions
would take her straight back to her people to let them deal with her.

She couldn
't go back. Not with her brothers' lives at stake.

Angus watched Edana eat her bannock
, fidgeting the whole while, glancing at the door, like a deer among hunters. He suspected he and his companions would look that way to her—big, menacing, outnumbering her three to one. He couldn't believe how much he'd enjoyed her warmth and soft body this morning, when he should have wished to push her away and keep his distance from the fae creature.

She darted another glance at him
, and he finally broke the silence. "So tell us why you ran away from your clan, Edana."

He had been
concerned that someone might have wronged her, but that no one, her father included, had believed her, and so she had run away before she suffered any further abuse at the hands of the knave.

But she ha
dn't appeared unduly afraid of Angus or his friends. He thought she would be if she'd faced a fiend and feared he and his friends might treat her in the same ruthless manner. Except that she had known each of them once. Still, they were all grown men now, no longer green lads.

Yet,
he didn't believe he had the scenario right.

She was
slowly eating the oatmeal porridge now, and he thought it was to avoid answering his question, or maybe the bannock had helped to satisfy her hunger. Her stomach had been rumbling well before she awoke this morning so he knew the petite lass had been hungry. But when he'd investigated her leather bag, he'd found cheese, smoked fish, and bannock aplenty, so he suspected she was eating very little to last as long as she had planned to wander.

What was she thinking?
Traveling out here all by herself?

Aye, some thought she was touched in the head and would avoid her at all costs. But those who didn
't know who she was, or know something of her fae oddity, might very well take advantage of the bonny lass. He had still envisioned her being only four and ten, the last time he'd seen her. Smaller, less filled out, her hair lighter, but her blue eyes had still caught his attention. He had a time tearing his gaze away from the vision she had become—all woman, and all soft curves.

Sh
e finished the last of her porridge and swallowed hard. Then she turned her gaze on him, and he felt lost in her blue eyes again, so vibrant they forced him to stop before he took the last bite of his bread.

"
If I tell you why I left the safety of my home, you willna believe me any more than anyone else would," she said.

Angus was afraid of that. If someone had harmed her, and no one would protect her, he couldn
't return her to her clan. He had to at least learn the truth of the matter before he put their clans' friendship at risk over the lass though, or James would be furious with him. If she had been maltreated, he would speak to her father, attempt to prove she was sincere, and ensure her safety prior to leaving her there.

He hadn
't had time to respond to her declaration that they would not believe her plight as he was chewing the last of his bread when she shook her head, her reddish-brown silky curls slipping around her shoulders, the same lovely strands that had curled about
his
shoulders this morning. "You willna believe me, but I canna go back."

Angus had to know the facts
. If she felt freer to speak of some personal matter with him alone, he'd ask Niall and Gunnolf to see to the horses. He couldn't take her to Craigly Castle without having a damn good reason. Last time one of his brothers took a lass from another clan to their ancestral home to have his brother decide what to do with her, James had made Dougald marry her!

In a flash, he thought about being tied down to a wife, who had curious abilitie
s. He attempted to tell himself he was not interested in such an arrangement in the least. Until he'd found her sleeping on top of him this morn, and he couldn't help but wish for something more. Which was daft. He swore she cast a spell over him every time he saw her.