The Capture of Highland Desire (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (3 page)

             
Eian was about to throw up his hands in surrender and let the stubborn beast stand there in the door yard all night if it suited him, when he heard the clamor of horses approaching from the east.  He looked up to see who it was.  There were five horses and riders in the distance, coming in fast and heading towards the castle, the flying hooves kicking up road dust which billowed behind them.  As they drew nearer, he could see there were four men and one woman; her gown and her long blonde hair were flying back in the wind as she rode.  When they came to the narrower, heavily rutted and pot-holed road into the town, the riders were forced to slow to a brisk walk, passing not fifteen feet from where Eian stood in the yard of the inn with his recalcitrant mount.  He watched then with interest.  Three of the men were ordinary enough, but the fourth was obviously of noble birth. Eian was fairly certain it was the laird of the castle, by his clothing and noble bearing, though he’d only seen the man once before and that was many years ago. 

Then
, fatefully, his gaze moved on to the woman. 

             
Eian Mac Coinnach was thunderstruck
.  Later, that would be the only way he could describe the jolt of awareness that hit him smack in the gut as he looked at her for the first time. 

             
The moment he saw her face, something inside him simply…
shattered
. 

She
was beautiful
.  Aye, breathtaking… truly a creature of another world.  She had glorious golden hair that tumbled down her back like a wavy river of silk, and her face… god, her face!  He didn’t think he had ever seen such perfect features, from the creamy ivory skin touched by the sun, to the high cheekbones and lush pink lips… everything about her was just exquisite, more so than he could have ever imagined.  He was staring at her, rather rudely, he knew, but he couldn’t seem to look away.  And then, as if sensing his stare, she turned her head and her gaze met his.  Time seemed to stand still for a long moment as they looked at each other and he noticed that her eyes appeared to be blue-green (though he would need to be closer to really see them), and that his heart was suddenly racing as if he’d just run for hours.  She regarded him coolly, her eyes dropping down the length of his body and back up again, and god, he swore he could feel every inch of that fleeting glance.  Then her lips quirked as if she knew she had just set him bloody on fire with only a look, and she shook her head slightly as she faced forward again and rode past.  Eian watched, still frozen where he stood, as she slowly disappeared from view, riding towards Lochain Castle. 

             
He wasn’t aware of anything but her until Dair snorted again and began pulling him toward the stables.  Eian shook himself from the strange spell he had fallen under and looked at his horse as if he was surprised to see him there.  “Oh,
now
ye want yer dinner, eh?”

             
It wasn’t until he began to lead the horse away that Eian realized that at some point in the last several minutes his cock had become hard as a bloody rock, making even walking the short distance damned uncomfortable. 

             
“Och, I think that I’m going to have to find a way to see that lass again”, he muttered, and Dair whinnied as if in full agreement.  Eian smiled.  “Aye, we men all think alike, eh lad?”  He led the stallion into the stable and tossed a coin to the young lad who would see to him.  Then he went to the inn to have some well-deserved dinner. 

              The beef stew and the tankard of ale the innkeeper’s wife served him was quite good, but in truth Eian barely tasted it.  His mind kept returning to
her
as if she had already become a permanent fixture there.  And every time he thought of her, his still erect cock pulsed hard against his stomach, and he could have sworn his heart beat faster too. 
Amazing
.  He thought he had pretty much experienced the entire realm of possibilities when it came to women and desires of the flesh, but never had he had a reaction this strong, and certainly not to a woman who had only glanced his way.  Needless to say, he was quite intrigued by this turn of events.  Maybe this journey wasn’t for nothing, after all, because now he had something far more interesting than caves to investigate.  What would it be like to take a woman, when just looking at her heated his blood as much as if he already had her under him and was about to push himself in deep?  Or was it only a fluke, and next time he saw her there would be nothing…  One way or another, he was going to find out, and the sooner the better.

***

             
Allia took a deep breath and concentrated on the castle just ahead.  Her heart was still thudding in her chest, and she was trying desperately to slow it down.
How
ridiculous she was being
!  He was just a man, like any other, only nicer to look at than most. 
Much nicer
.  She had only gotten a glance of what had to be the hottest guy she had ever laid eyes on when she rode by, but what she had seen had made her look twice, and his somewhat stunned expression as he had stared at her had made her smile.  Until his gaze had quickly turned calculating and possessive. 
Don’t even think about it
, she had thought with an amused quirk of her lips, turning to face forward again.  She had known instantly what type of man he was, which made her wonder why she had had such a visceral reaction to his intense dark-eyed gaze. Where she had grown up, he would be called a playboy, or a womanizer.  She could see it in the way he had looked at her, and the subtle shift in his posture when he liked what he saw.  The man becoming the predator.  What she didn’t understand was the pounding of her heart and the butterflies in her stomach.  She liked to look at eye-candy as much as the next girl, but looking had never had this kind of a physical effect on her before, especially with only a passing glance.  Then again, she was probably just nervous because they were about to reach the castle, and had nothing at all to do with the eye-candy.  She wasn’t sure how she could have even had the mental wherewithal to notice him in the first place, with all that lay ahead of her.

She
might
have wondered if she would ever see him again, perhaps at the castle or around the village, but they were coming up to the gates now, and she had other, more pressing things to occupy her mind.  Things like, oh… starting a whole new life among what amounted to a group of complete strangers.  Her every nerve was on edge, despite how surreal all of it still felt.  Good thing she had always been highly adaptable.

             
They rode into the bailey and came to a stop not far from the keep.  Immediately, as if someone had flipped a switch, the bustle of the castle yard came to a grinding halt, and everyone turned to look at her as if they’d never seen the like.  With so many eyes focused on her, Allia could feel the blood start to warm her face, and a large bead of sweat trickled slowly down her back.  Determined, she sat as tall and straight as she could in the saddle, and plastered a serene look on her face that she was certain anyone that was close enough could see right through.  Her uncle dismounted and waited while one of the gangly young stable hands nervously came forward to help her down, even though she was perfectly capable of dismounting on her own.  Leon nodded to her stiffly, and together they walked to the keep.  As the door closed behind them, Allia could imagine the bailey coming to boisterous life again behind her back as everyone hurried to gossip about her arrival.  She wondered what, if anything, they knew about where she had been.  If the purpose of her exile had been safety, then Leon probably hadn’t told the general public where she was.  Just what
had
he told them?

             
“Bridget!  Edith!” her uncle hollered loudly as he stalked across the huge hall.  Allia stepped into the room and looked around, relieved that it was no different than she remembered, with the huge fireplace against one wall, and the head table on a dais opposite the door.  Numerous other tables and benches were scattered about, some pushed to the side to be pulled out when needed at meal times.  A large chandelier with half-melted tallow candles hung by an iron chain from the beam in the center of the room, flanked by smaller ones on either side.  Yes, it was all just the same. 

Within moments
, two young girls who couldn’t have been more than sixteen or seventeen came rushing down the stairs.  Leon reached back and gripped her arm, pulling her forward with so much strength that she stumbled a little and caught her breath.  The man was no gentle giant. “This is my niece, Allia.  I trust ye have her chamber ready?”

             
The girls both nodded, eyes respectfully lowered.  “Aye, m’ laird.”  With relief, Allia noted that they didn’t cower or show signs of fear.

             
“Good.  Take her upstairs and make her at home.”  He turned away, but then paused and turned back, again regarding Allia’s simple dress with a frown.  “And find a seamstress who can start work immediately on a new wardrobe suitable for a lady of this castle.”  He looked up and caught her eyes, though she could read nothing in them.  “I’m afraid my niece has left most of her clothing behind.”  The girls nodded again, and Leon turned to go, calling over his shoulder, “Allia, I expect ye to join me for dinner.  It will be just us and a few of my immediate council tonight.”

             
He was already walking away before she could answer, so she turned on her heel and followed the two young maids up the narrow stairs and into the same small chamber that had been hers when she was a little girl.  She paused for a moment in the doorway, looking around.  The room was so very familiar to her, yet it also felt so very strange, since she had been away for so long.  As she walked in, she knew one thing for certain: she didn’t belong here any longer.  Not in this little room, and perhaps not even at Lochain, which hadn’t said
home
to her when she arrived as she had hoped it would.  She had changed, and it hadn’t.  She had grown up, and she could no longer imagine that this was all there was.  Sadly, nowhere else was really home, either.  She felt completely adrift, more so than even before she had arrived.

             
As she washed the worst of the road dust off in a small copper tub, one of the maids procured a more suitable gown for her to wear to dinner; one that her uncle might even approve of.  She wondered if it had belonged to her mother, but she didn’t really want to ask.  Thank god she wasn’t going to be presented to the whole castle on her first night here.  She liked to think it was a kindness on her uncle’s part, but it could just as easily be some sort of political move.  Who knew? 

Washed and dressed as well as she could be for now, she followed the maid whose name was Edith down to the private dining area where her uncle was waiting
, while Bridget went off to find and procure a seamstress on short notice. 

             
She sat down at the small table, and… nothing much happened.  Leon only nodded at her, and she ate in silence while the six men at the table talked about castle business as if she wasn’t even there.  And it wasn’t even interesting business.  After a while she got the distinct impression that the men weren’t used to having any women of rank around, and weren’t quite sure of the protocol.  She assumed Leon wasn’t married, or was at least widowed, because she would otherwise have been greeted by the lady of the castle.  There had in fact been no one to greet her at all. 

After she had finished her meal of roast venison, fresh bread, and turnips with a cream sauce,
which she had to grudgingly admit was delicious, she sat politely until her uncle seemed to finally remember she was there and at last excused her to go to her chamber.  She was miserable.

              That night, Allia stretched out in the comfortable feather bed, with its soft, clean linen sheets and rich green velvet bed curtains, and told herself that things could be worse.  Couldn’t they?  So far, nothing was as she expected it to be, but then, to be fair, she hadn’t ever really thought about what it would be like to come back here as an adult.  It was going to take some getting used to, and right now she felt completely overwhelmed by it all.  Especially since she had no idea what her ultimate fate would be.  Surely this uneasy feeling would pass in time.  She would adjust, just as she had before. 

With a sigh, s
he closed her eyes to try to sleep, and an image of the gorgeous man outside the inn floated into her mind.  She grabbed onto it eagerly, as a much needed distraction from her more serious thoughts.  There had definitely been something about the mystery man that… intrigued her.  He was tall, dark and handsome, that was for sure, and she had also caught a distinct aura of danger and perhaps a little good natured mayhem.  She gradually drifted off to sleep and dreamed that he had pulled her from her horse as she rode by and kissed her with a hunger that made her feel completely and utterly consumed by him. He had tasted of midnight and rainstorms.