The Capture of Highland Desire (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) (7 page)

              Damn, the lass knew about rocks.  What were the odds?  Eian shook his head and gave her his best crooked smile.  “No, they arena.  Only look like it.”  He closed his fist around the rocks and put them in his sporran anyway, then stepped away as if he were still looking around, annoyed to have been caught in a mistruth when he wanted the lass to trust him, at least until he had tupped her once or twice.  She was too smart for her own good, but thankfully she didn’t argue further about the stones.  The torch was burning low, and they needed to leave.  He would have to come back here later to search more closely for the charm, because he couldn’t really do so with Allia here.  And he couldn’t even try to kiss her before they left because he had said he wouldn’t touch her while they were in the cave.  He hadn’t said anything about after they came back out. 

“Are you ready to go lass?”  Eian
pulled the torch from between the rocks, and as he did so, he caught a glimpse of something shining in the flickering light.  It was lying on the floor of the cave, half covered in a layer of dust.  He kicked it loose with his boot, and saw that it was some sort of amulet…
or charm
.  Glancing nonchalantly over his shoulder he saw that Allia had yet to turn away from the pool, so he leaned over and picked up the object.  It was warm and heavy in his hand.  And more than that, it felt almost alive with a soft hum of power.  Magic.  Someone, at some time, had cast magic into the small metal object.  He slipped it into his sporran with the useless stones, his heart beating faster.  Was it
the
charm he had just found?  Did it really exist, after all?  If so, he could go home now.  Home… the thought tore at him, and he turned to look at the lass, who was dipping her fingers into the water, looking for all the world like some otherworldly water nymph contemplating a swim.  Or a Siren, by the way his cock swelled even further at the sight of her like that.  Perhaps he could stay at Lochain just a little longer…

              Back at the entrance of the cave, Allia stood and looked down the hill to the castle in the near distance.  She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at it with a weary sigh.  She wished she could stay away longer, but she had probably already been missed and would be in enough trouble as it was.  She wasn’t looking forward to going back.  She looked to Eian, who had followed her out and was now watching her with that same hungry gaze.  She had another crazy urge to throw herself into his arms and kiss him senseless. 
Now where did that come from?
  The impulse felt almost… instinctual.  Maybe it was just her fertile time of the month.  Hormones and a super-hot guy could definitely do that to a girl.  And there was also the fact she was currently way out of her comfort zone.  She shook herself, glad she was informed enough about biology and psychology to know what must be going on. 

He reached up and wiped at her cheek with his thumb.  “Ye have a smudge of dirt, just there.”

She took a backwards step away from him.  “Thank you.”

No doubt that wasn’t the reaction he expected from her, because h
is lips pressed into a line as if he was trying to figure out her game, and the rules were unfamiliar.  Well, her rules would be, wouldn’t they?

“You’ll have to wait for me to get all the w
ay down before you follow”, she told him.  “I don’t know what will happen if we’re seen together.”

             
Eian shrugged and gave her another one of those knee-weakening smiles.  “Everyone will assume we were up here making love in the heather, of course.”

             
He was trying to fluster her, and damn if it wasn’t working.  “I know that.  What I don’t know is what my uncle will do about it, and I’m not sure you want to find out.  Now do as I say and wait here.  I mean it!”  God, her nerves were making her much bolder than she would otherwise be, but she kind of liked it.  Just as she liked the bewildered expression Eian couldn’t quite hide.

              “Feisty lass”, he muttered.  Just as he liked them.  “Can ye no’ stay here with me just a few moments longer?  I feel as if we’ve barely gotten to ken one another.  I’d like to remedy that.”  Eian took a careful half step closer, not wanting to spook her, but suddenly certain he would die if he didn’t taste her mouth.  She was doing everything but falling into his arms as she was supposed to, and the challenge both intrigued him and made him feel a little bit desperate.  This lass was different than any other he’d met.  He reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand, and she looked up at him, her lips parted sweetly in surprise.  Eian was surprised as well, at the feeling of tingling pleasure that travelled from where his hand touched her face, spreading all over his body and making him feel restless with a physical need to bring even more of their bare skin together.  He looked into her sea-green eyes, expecting to see maidenly shock and perhaps a little fear, which he was more than prepared to kiss away.  Instead, what he saw in her eyes made his heart stutter and his cock even more achingly hard, if that was possible.  Passion.  Desire.  Hunger.  It was all there in those green depths, and for a moment he was too stunned to do anything but look at her.  God, he had to have her, or he was going to die!  He leaned closer, his heart pounding harder than he could ever remember, the promise of heaven only inches away.  Her pupils dilated, her breath hitched, and his own body responded ten-fold again.  He was on fire, from just one touch.  He couldn’t understand it, but he really didn’t want to.  It felt so very good, so very
right
… And then, as if suddenly breaking free of a spell, she inhaled sharply and twisted away from him.  He reached for her reflexively, but she had already started walking away, leaving him standing there on the hill, alone.

             
“Wait till I get to the bottom!” she called without looking back.

              Grudgingly, Allia trudged back into the castle, her body on fire from nearly being kissed by a man who was far too sexy and dangerous for her own good.  Even his damned touch was magic!  She had read stories where a man’s touch set a woman on fire with passion, but she never thought it was literal, or that she’d actually experience it herself.  Oh, she wanted to… she was passionate by nature and more than ready to express her every desire with the right man… at the right time. Which was
not
when her entire life had just been upended. But Eian was not the right man, and this was definitely a most inconvenient time to find mind-blowing sexual chemistry with someone, when she couldn’t even enjoy it. 

I
t had taken far too much of her will power to keep walking and not turn around and let him kiss her after all.  Never, never, had any man ever made her feel like that, and she had a sinking feeling that she would never find another one who could.  She had wanted nothing more than to give in to her body’s desires and melt into his arms and give him anything he wanted, however he wanted it.  Only the fact that she knew how much she was bound to regret it later made her turn away before it was too late. 

Too soon, she had reached the big oaken doors to the keep, which stood open to catch the late morning breeze
and air out the rooms beyond.  As soon as Allia entered the hall, her uncle turned from where he had been talking to a group of men, all garbed in the finest of clothes and each trying to look more self-important than the last.  Posers, she thought uncharitably.  They all turned to stare at her too, and a few she thought she recognized as the members of the laird’s Close Council she had been introduced to the night before.  She had been right; she couldn’t remember even one of their names.  They were all looking at her with varying degrees of disapproval and doubt, and several with what she suspected was either speculative interest or just plain lust.  Ick.

             
“Allia!”  Her uncle’s angry voice rang out through the hall, echoing off the thick stone walls.  “Where on God’s earth have ye been?  I was about to send out the whole of the guard to find ye.  Ye canna just wander off whenever ye have an urge to do so, lass!  If I must, I will confine ye to yer chambers for yer own safe keeping.  And I am no’ above a good sound beating if it comes to that, so be fairly warned!”

             
She felt her shoulders try to slump and made a concerted effort to push them back.  She still had her pride, after all.  And here lay the biggest problem in coming back to here, to
now
, she thought.  She had gone from having complete control of her own will to apparently having almost no independence at all.  She had just tested the boundaries, and they lay far too close for comfort.  She was no longer the same girl who had left Lochain all of those years ago, nor did she want to be that girl anymore.  An increasingly familiar feeling of panic rose in her chest as the reality of her situation pushed again at the corners of her mind.  She was here now, and there was no going back.  Maybe she had made an awful mistake when she had responded to that letter and returned to her uncle.  She had done so because she had been raised to believe it was her duty… that she would be coming
home
.  Maybe she should have run instead, hid herself away in some small town, and lived out her life as peacefully and normally as possible.  But in reality, she was far from normal, and it didn’t seem that she was destined to have a normal life, either.  She had always felt, even as a child, that there was something she was waiting for, someplace else she needed to be.  She had never been able to settle down and just
live
.  She sighed, completely confused and desperately needing some time alone to think.   

             
“I only went for a walk Uncle Leon”, she said as evenly as she could, then watched as his lips pressed together in a tight white line. 

“Ye ken yer no’ to
leave the castle alone.  Ye’re too important to this clan.”

             
And that was the scariest part, because that’s all anyone would tell her about why she was here.  Or why she had been sent away in the first place.  She was important.  That could mean anything at all!  They could be planning to marry her off to some old laird for a political alliance, or they could even be preparing to use her in some arcane ritual sacrifice to provide protection of the clan, not that she’d ever heard of such a thing, but she wasn’t exactly high up in the ranks of magic, either.  She just didn’t know.  More and more, escape was looking like a passably good option. But when?  How? It was something she needed to seriously think about.  But first she could use some more basic information.

             
“Why, Uncle?” she asked boldly.  “
Please
tell me why I was brought back… why now?  What am I supposed to do that’s so important?”

             
He frowned at her in mild disapproval, but his tone gentled significantly.  At least he had stopped shouting.  “Hush lass, we were always going to bring ye back.  It was a verra bad time, when we sent ye away.  Things are better now, and ye are safe here.  Home.”

             
His eyes shifted away from her as he spoke.  He wasn’t telling the truth, or at least not the whole truth.  That much was obvious.  “But I need to know…”

             
“Ye dinna need to ken anything beyond what ye are told.  Now go and dress for dinner.  We have important guests this evening.”

             
She frowned at that.  “Dinner isn’t for at least five more hours.”

             
He waved her away with his hand as he turned to go.  “Aye, well entertain yerself in yer chamber.  I have work to do.”  After a few steps, he paused to look back at her.  “And lass, dinna leave the castle.  No’ without my permission.  It’s no’ safe.”

             
Pressing her lips together, Allia forced a small and impudent curtsy and turned to go to her room, a new strategy already forming in her mind. 
Play along.  Wait for your chance
. 
Pretend nothing is wrong, and that you don’t mind being oppressed and kept in the dark about your own life. 
She rolled her eyes at that.
 
But
any show of rebellion might just make him hold tighter
.

             
By the time she reached the door to her chamber, Edith and Bridget had appeared from somewhere and the two maids had fallen into step behind her.  She sighed.  Could she
never
be alone here?  She had an escape to plan.  After she had calmed down, though, she began to enjoy their company, even though she suspected Leon had sent them to keep an eye on her.  The girls sat with her and patiently showed her how to embroider, a skill she had never learned, but which she didn’t mind because it was kind of like art.  A picture made in thread.  She began work on a rose for practice, the tiny stitches and idle chatter absorbing her attention and occupying her mind until the sunlight at the window began to dim.  Then Edith and Bridget set about dressing her for dinner, insisting she change her gown and style her hair.  She let them do what they would.

S
he emerged from the chamber in a beautiful new gold colored gown, cut so low across her breasts that she had the urge to keep tugging it up, and her hair had been fixed so that some of it was piled on her head while a few wavy strands tumbled down to frame her face.  The girls had even added a little rouge and some kohl for her eyes.  Despite everything, she
did
feel pretty.  She found her mind wandering to Eian, wondering if he would think she looked nice…  Would he be at dinner tonight, one of the ‘important guests’?  Last night he had been sitting at a lower table halfway to the door, so perhaps not.  She had managed to find out more about him from the maids, who were only too eager to gush about Eian Mac Coinnach, one of the most eligible yet unobtainable bachelors in all of Scotia, apparently.  Yes, he certainly had that aire about him.