The Capture of Highland Desire (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (6 page)

             
Allia heard a sound like the scuff of a boot from somewhere behind her, and she froze.  Oh, god, had the guards found her already?  Couldn’t she have even an hour alone?  With a resigned sigh, she looked back over her shoulder, expecting to see a couple of burly highland men sent to drag her back to the castle, or even Leon himself, looking regal in his dress tartan, frowning down on her in disapproval. 

She
froze again at what she saw, only this time her heart stopped completely before kicking to a sudden start again and pounding heavily and erratically in her chest.

             
It was
him
.  A giddy, tingling feeling of anticipation washed over her whole body before she could stop it, and she quickly checked her rising excitement. 
Oh no, no Allia, stop that right now!  You do not need trouble like
him
right now.  They don’t call them heartbreakers for nothing.  You have more than enough on your plate already without adding that kind of mayhem to the rest of it… 
Damn voice of reason!

             
He casually walked the rest of the distance to where she still knelt by the cave entrance, the weight of his gaze practically holding her captive.  He smiled at her, and she
almost
smiled back.  She just couldn’t help it.  He was
very
good at the whole charisma and charm thing, and he hadn’t even spoken yet.  No doubt if she were a whole lot more naïve, she’d be falling at his feet right about now like the rest of the women she had seen.  He moved toward her with a sensual, animal grace that held her rapt attention despite her best intentions otherwise.  As he drew closer, she slowly stood up and faced him, reaching down nonchalantly to brush the bits of grass and heather from her skirt.  He came to a stop just a little too close, and she would have automatically backed up if there weren’t a boulder directly behind her.  She raised an eyebrow at him in challenge to his invasion of her space.  He ignored it.

             
“Och lass”, he said in a voice that felt like warm honey over her skin.  “What are ye doing up here all alone?”

             
She bristled at that.  She did
not
need constant guarding, for god’s sake!  She’d been living completely on her own for more than two years now.  “What I do is certainly no business of yours”, she said, irritated by more than just his question.

             
He seemed briefly taken aback by her tone, but his seductive smile didn’t falter.  And as luck would have it, as she noticed his perfect smile, she also noticed his broad, masculine mouth, twin dimples, and very kissable looking lips.  This close, he was nearly irresistible.  Damn, she would have definitely kissed him, if only she could have whatever she wanted, with no undesirable consequences…  Life was just not fair.

             
He motioned behind her with his chin.  “Is that the entrance to a cave there?  I’m looking for one that’s supposed to be near the top of this hill.”

             
Allia shrugged, not bothering to look at the cave she of course knew was there.  “Looks like one to me.”  Oh God, was it possible for someone’s heart to beat right out of their chest?  The electricity that seemed to be jumping between them was… damned unnerving. 
You’ve just never been so close to a man who’s
that
good looking before
… she told herself. 

             
“I… I collect stones”, he went on, with a gesture towards the rocks scattered around them on the hillside.  “To study them, ye ken.  I was told there are some rare ones in that cave, that I doona have yet.  In my collection.”

             
Allia regarded him with doubt.  A rock collector?  That somehow just didn’t fit.  Not with those muscles.  A rock
lifter
, maybe.  More likely a swordsman.  Or perhaps a warrior.  One just didn’t get that kind of physique collecting rocks.  Of course, it would be only a hobby.  Or a pick up line, she thought.  Though certainly not a very good one unless perhaps one was at a geology convention.

             
“So you’re going into this cave?” she asked, gesturing towards the narrow black opening.  She hoped she had just called his bluff.

             
“Aye.”

             
Or maybe not
.  “Well, you’ll need a light.  It’s very dark in there.”  His closeness was making her so nervous.  It was a little hard to breathe when she could feel the heat of his body so close to hers.

             
Still holding her gaze, he swung a pack down from his shoulder, dropping it to the ground in front of him, and making her notice his chiseled, muscular legs between the hem of his kilt and the tops of his high leather boots. 
Damn again.

             
“I brought a light”, he told her, looking up to catch her gaze again.  When he looked at her like that, she felt like she was the only person on earth.  Of course, so did a lot of other women, no doubt.  “Essential for entering dark caves, of course.”  He knelt on the ground and pulled out a torch and a tinder box, which he opened to take out a flint and steel.  He didn’t light the torch though.  Instead he looked up at her with a provocative little smile.

             
“Come in with me, lass.  It will be an adventure, much more fun than going alone.”

             
She shook her head.  “No.  Uh uh.  I’m not going anywhere with you,
especially
not into a small, dark cave.  I… I don’t even know you.”  But in her mind she pictured the two of them together in the cramped space of the cave, their bodies pressed close because there wasn’t enough room, and then his mouth lowering to hers, because no one would see and neither of them could resist…
Stop!  That’s what you get for reading all those romance novels.  Real life isn’t like that… and this man is a womanizer, not some hero to sweep you off your feet. 
Though she could certainly use a hero right about now…

             
“Come with me”, he pressed.  “Dinna be afraid.  It will be fun, and I can show ye the umm… stones.”             

Allia
sighed and looked down at her feet, wavering with indecision.  She
had
always wanted to see what was inside that cave, and he was calling her out on being afraid.  She didn’t like being called out.  It tended to bring out the worst in her,
and
the most reckless.  What could it really hurt to spend just a little time with him? 

             
“All right, I’ll go with you, but only because I’m actually curious to see what’s in there, and I didn’t bring a torch of my own.  And you’re
not
allowed to touch me in any way”, she added.

             
He smiled again, and this time she could have sworn his smile was far more self-satisfied, if not downright predatory.  There was a dark, heady lust in that gaze, that spoke of wicked pleasures she had only ever read about, in said romance novels.  It was the look of a man who knew exactly what he wanted, and a part of her was outright flattered that such a gorgeous man would look at her that way at all.  But it did
not
mean she would give in, as much as she might be tempted. 
No
entanglements.  She had more than enough to deal with already, she just had to keep reminding herself of that. 

             
“Aye.  I swear, no touching.  Unless ye ask.  What’s yer name, lass?”  He struck the flint to light the torch.  It didn’t catch.

             
“Why?”

             
He shrugged easily.  “So I ken what to call ye.  I’m Eian.”

             
“Allia.”

             
“Allia”, he repeated, looking up at her from under his dark lashes and the wavy locks of hair that had fallen over his face.  His lips curled up at the corners as he went back to the flint and steel.

             
He struck another spark, and this time the torch flared to life.  He picked it up off the ground quickly before it could start the heather on fire, then held it up and rose to his feet with that same animal grace.  She bet he’d be a wonderful dancer…          

“Shall we?”

              “After you”, she said with a gesture towards the entrance.  There was no way she was going in first so he could block her way out.  Come to think of it, what was she doing going into a cave at all with a man she didn’t even know?  But she knew he wouldn’t hurt her, well, at least not physically.  She had always had an innate ability to read most people, and their intentions, whether good or bad.  It was part of her heritage on her mother’s side, along with a few other minor abilities.  Nothing compared to what her grandmother had been able to do, though.  She knew Eian wanted her, but she also sensed he wouldn’t force her if she told him no.  He might be a womanizer, but he was at least honorable in that regard.  All she had to do was control her own hormones, and she’d be fine.  But oh, God she was sorely tempted.  When he brushed past her to enter the cave, (on purpose, the bastard) her whole body tingled at the contact, and a warmth spread from deep in her belly, causing a throbbing sensation to start between her thighs.  Hoping he didn’t notice the hitch in her breath, Allia turned and followed, lifting her skirts out of the way and ducking into the narrow opening.

             
For the first twenty feet or so, they had to crouch down as they moved through the low ceilinged passage.  Eian held the torch in front of him and the shadows danced and flickered on the jagged walls of the cave.  Allia fervently hoped the light wouldn’t go out, because she had always been a bit claustrophobic, and she didn’t want to end up panicking in front of Eian if it went dark.  She looked furtively over her shoulder.  As long as she could still see daylight from the opening, she was OK.  The tunnel narrowed even further, and it started to feel as if the walls were closing in around her.  Maybe she should go back.  What if they got stuck?  No one would ever find them… she stopped in her tracks, suddenly afraid to go any further. But then she saw Eian stand up to his full height not far in front of her, his head and shoulders disappearing from view. 

             
“Bloody hell”, he mumbled under his breath, holding the torch higher to look around.  The words echoed dully in what must be a much larger space than what she could see.

             
A few more steps and she reached the cavern.  “Oh my God…”

             
It was beautiful!  If she had had the nerve to go just a little further when she was a child, she would have known…   The passage opened up to a large room with a ceiling that soared thirty or forty feet overhead.   A narrow fissure high above let in a dim glow of daylight.  The floor was smooth and hard with packed dirt and gravel, with a few smallish boulders strewn around.  And at the far end… she drew in a reverent breath… a clear, shimmering pool.  And above it was a cascade of water flowing out of the stone, hugging the wall and slipping almost silently into the pool below.  It was as if they were in another world.

             
They both stood there silently for a moment, looking around in wonderment.  Then Eian carefully wedged the torch between two rocks and began exploring in earnest.  Dipping his hand in the pool, he turned to Allia and grinned wickedly.

             
“What do ye say lass, we take off all of our clothes and go for a swim?”

             
She narrowed her eyes at him.  “I don’t think so.  At least not with
you
here.”

             
He laughed.  “I swear that one day, I’ll have ye in that pool naked with me, and I’ll…”

             
“In your dreams”, she interrupted.

             
“Oh Aye, there too.  But in my experience it’s usually much better when I’m awake.”  Though not recently, he thought… for the past two nights his dreams had been so much better than anything he’d ever known… how was he supposed to go back to ordinary tupping now?

             
Allia desperately needed to change the subject.  “Didn’t you come here to collect some rocks?  No wait, ‘rare stones’, you said.”  She watched him carefully and caught the brief look of confusion crossing his face.  He hid it so quickly that a less perceptive person would never have noticed.  Just as she thought, he had lied about the rocks.  But then why bring her into the cave?  And why did he happen have a torch with him, if he didn’t intend to go in?  It didn’t add up.

             
“Oh.  Aye.  The stones.”  He crossed the length of the cavern and studiously knelt to gather a few stones, his long hair falling over his face.  “I have them.” he said a bit too brightly as he stood up again.

             
“Let me see…” she reached him just as he was about to slip the stones into his sporran.  She caught his hand, and a jolt of awareness ran through her at the contact, almost taking her breath.  She knew he felt it too, because he flinched and stiffened ever so slightly.  Ignoring it as best she could, she pried open his fingers, then looked up at him accusingly.  “These are just ordinary limestone.”