Forbidden Highlander (21 page)

“Sleep, my king,” she whispered, and kissed his cheek. “Your body needs to heal properly, and it won’t do that if you wake to find yourself in my bed.”

Deirdre continued to stroke his cock until it hardened. She smiled. This was just the beginning, and even though she wanted to climb atop him and lower herself onto his arousal, she wanted him awake when they joined. Awake, and willing.

“Do you like my touch? I know what brings you pleasure, Quinn. In my bed, you will experience delights beyond your imagining.”

She kissed his chest and pumped her fist up and down his hard length. His hips rose to meet hers and his lips parted on a low groan full of need and desire.

The MacLeod brothers had kept themselves apart from other humans, and in doing so, they had denied themselves the physical release their bodies demanded and the insatiable appetites they experienced as Warriors.

His rod grew longer, thicker. She leaned over him and took him in her mouth. His hips rose off the bed, pushing himself farther into her mouth. She took all of him, moaning as he began to thrust faster. He tasted divine. She used her tongue to give him more pleasure and sucked him deep. All too soon his body jerked and his seed filled her mouth.

Deirdre ground her hips against his thigh and kissed up and down his cock. He was magnificent, and she couldn’t wait to feel him inside her. It was too bad he was asleep.

Her need spiked as she gazed at his rod resting on his stomach now, still semihard from her caresses. She could give herself pleasure, but she needed something more.

Deirdre rose from the bed. “Find William,” she ordered a wyrran. “Send him to the bathing chamber where I’ll be awaiting him.”

The wyrran scurried off to carry out her command. Deirdre undressed and moved to lie beside Quinn. Her body trembled to take his, to have his hard length on top of her. Yet she had to be strong. If she took him now, everything she had done, all the power she had accumulated, would have been for naught.

It infuriated her that she, the most powerful Druid ever, couldn’t make the one man she wanted need her. This was the lone instance where her magic was useless.

In order for her to have the child that had been foreseen, no magic could be used on Quinn or the child would never be conceived.

Deirdre had thought breaking Quinn would be easy. She should have known he would fight her. But that was one of the reasons she had chosen him as her king.

The rage inside Quinn couldn’t be denied for long. It was only a matter of time before he was hers. Lucan and Fallon could try all they wanted to turn Quinn away from her, but they would fail.

Then, all three MacLeods would be hers.

It was hours before dawn when Fallon woke to find Larena still in his arms. He watched her sleep for a moment before he allowed his hands to caress her supple body. Her body was lithe and her muscles toned, but she had the curves of a woman that could make a man hard just thinking about them.

He cupped a breast and ran his thumb over her nipple. The tiny bud hardened and strained toward him, as if seeking more of the pleasure he wanted to give her.

To his surprise, her lips moved against his neck, licking him. The feel of her mouth against him sent a bolt of desire straight to his cock. It thickened, straining to be inside her once more.

Larena moaned and reached between them to wrap her hands around his arousal. “Is this what you thought I came for?”

Fallon choked on a laugh. “Please tell me it is. Before you, it had been three hundred years since I had touched a woman. I canna think I can go another moment without taking you.”

“Oh, my.” She looked up at him. “Three hundred years? And I thought my eighty years was a long time.”

“If you didn’t come to take advantage of me, then why did you come? Naked, I might add?”

The spark in her smoky-blue eyes made his stomach clench. He enjoyed watching her, got pleasure from each mood that crossed her face. She was so expressive and alluring that he ached to claim her.

“Aye, I’m naked, my handsome laird. Should I coverup?”

“Don’t you dare,” he said, and held her when she began to pull out of his arms. “I’d love it if you never wore another stitch of clothing for the rest of your life.”

Larena’s laugh was beautiful as it filled the chamber. “My entire life? That could be a very, very long time, I might add. How about I don’t wear anything for the rest of this night?”

“Oh, you’ll wear something all right.”

“Really?” she asked, raising her brows. “And what might that be?”

“Me.” He slanted his mouth over hers and slipped his tongue between her lips. He loved the way she kissed and how she clung to him.

She ended the kiss and placed her finger on his lips. “I enjoyed pleasuring you earlier. May I do it again? I want to explore your body, Fallon. I want to learn what pleases you and gives you pleasure.”

“The answer is you. You give me pleasure.” None of the women he had ever taken to his bed had said those words to him. They liked how he pleased them, but not a one had ever asked how to satisfy him.

Her hands ran over his shoulders to his neck before her fingers intertwined in his hair. She tugged on his hair and ran her nails lightly over his scalp. It sent chills racing over his skin, but it also reminded him that he wore his hair longer than fashionable.

“I suppose I need to have my hair trimmed.”

“Don’t you dare,” she whispered. “I love it just as it is. And I love this.”

Fallon placed his hand over hers, which held the boar’s head of his torc. “Do you?”

“It is from an era of a time long ago, but one you belong in. You are the essence of the Highlands, Fallon. Everything about you lets people know you’re a true Highlander.”

His fingers tightened on hers. He didn’t know if she understood the significance of what she had said, but he did. She had helped give him back a piece of himself that had gone missing when Deirdre unbound their god. She helped him remember who he really was.

A Highlander.

Fallon rolled her onto her back as he kissed her deeply, showing her without words how much he wanted her with him. His lips left hers and traveled down her neck to her breasts. He ran his tongue around a nipple before softly nipping it.

She cried out, but Fallon wasn’t nearly done. He moved to her other breast and flicked his tongue over the already hard bud before he closed his mouth over it and suckled deep.

He ached to be inside her, but he wasn’t done pleasuring her. Fallon moved down her stomach, stopping along the way to kiss her navel and nip at her hips. He moved his arms beneath her hips to hold her steady before he bent and licked her sex.

Larena had never felt something so wonderous before. The moan was locked in her throat, her body unable to move as Fallon continued to move his tongue over her sensitive flesh. With his hands holding firmly on to her hips, she could do nothing but pray he continued the unbelievable pleasure.

She cried out when his tongue began to tease her clitoris. She could feel herself swell as her need grew. Her hands gripped his forearms and her hips rocked against him.

As if he knew she was close to peaking, Fallon took her clitoris between his lips and sucked. Her body bucked and she cried out his name as she convulsed with her orgasm, leaving her panting and her body still throbbing.

He continued to stroke her with his tongue until the last of the tremors left her. Then he rose up and flipped her onto her stomach. He lifted her hips into the air, and in one thrust, he seated himself inside her.

“Fallon,” she whispered as her fingers clawed the linens.

Fallon knew just how she felt. He wanted to prolong their lovemaking, but he couldn’t wait any longer. Fallon began to pump his hips slowly at first, then faster as her moans grew louder.

He loved to watch Larena as she peaked. And to know he had given her such pleasure made him swell with pride. He pulled out of her until just the tip of him was inside. Then he plunged inside her once more.

His need built fast as it always did when he was with Larena. He was able to keep it at bay while pleasuring her. It wasn’t until he felt her body tighten around him in another orgasm that he lost control.

“Larena!” he yelled as his seed burst from him with a climax that left him dizzy.

The orgasm left him weak and sated. As he rolled them to the side, still deep inside her, he knew he would never grow tired of Larena’s body and the satisfaction she brought him.

Larena woke in the warm embrace of Fallon’s arms, their legs entwined and his face turned toward hers. Dawn was just breaking, giving off a faint light in the chamber through the open window so she could see his face. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept so soundly or had been so content. It was all because of Fallon, she knew.

Fallon, who had shown her just how much he desired her. She had felt it in his kiss, seen it in his eyes. He had held nothing back.

And last night, neither had she.

For once, she wanted to be the girl who had found a man who pleased her and made her feel like the woman she was. Fallon had given her all that and more.

A tear leaked from the corner of her eye and trailed over her cheek to land on Fallon’s arm, which was cradling her head. She wished she could stay with him, just as they were, forever. But she knew better than anyone that nothing lasted forever.

Larena slowly pulled out of his arms and rose from the bed. More tears threatened, and she didn’t want him to wake and find her crying for a future that could never be.

What made it worse was that she feared she had already fallen in love with Fallon. If he were to wake in that instant and ask her for the Scroll, she would give it to him and pray he didn’t hate her for keeping it from him.

She reached out to stroke his face, but stopped before she did. He might wake and pull her back into his arms. She wouldn’t be able to resist him then. She had never been able to resist him.

Take him. Take the future he offers
.

And if he ever discovered what the ring on her finger was? He would hate her, and he would have a right to, despite the oaths she had taken. Fallon valued family and honesty. She could give him neither.

All they could share was the passion that neither could deny. She hoped it was enough because that was all she could allow herself to give him.

Larena took a step away from him toward the window she had come through the night before. She called forth her goddess then made herself invisible. For long moments she stared at him, half hoping he would wake.

When she could stand it no more, Larena climbed out the window. She returned to her chamber and transformed before she curled up on her bed and let flow the tears she had been holding back.

With the unbinding of her goddess, she had been surprised, scared, and more than a little excited. She hadn’t comprehended the danger that lay ahead of her. Or the loneliness that would be her constant companion.

It was only after Robena’s death and her father’s murder soon afterward that Larena came to understand what her future held for her. She could trust no one.

Robena hadn’t cared that Larena was a female Warrior. For all the Druid had known, there could have been other females. Nay, what Robena worried about was the Scroll. She had drilled that concern into Larena until it was all she thought about.

Larena wanted to take off the ring and toss it into a corner to forget it ever existed. She would throw it in the sea if she knew Deirdre would never find it. But Deirdre had a way of learning things that she should never know. Larena couldn’t take that chance no matter how her heart ached.

Fallon pretended to be asleep until he could no longer smell Larena’s scent. Only then did he open his eyes. He had hoped she would stay until morning so they could make love again.

Something was wrong. Larena had said nothing, but he had felt her eyes on him as she stood by the bed, could sense her longing. What had she been thinking?

She was used to being on her own and doing what she wanted. He didn’t begrudge her that, but he wished he could wake up and find her still in his arms.

Fallon sat up and scrubbed his hands over his face. He wanted to think he had made some headway with Larena last night, but he wasn’t so sure. She liked his touch, that much he knew. But was it enough to keep her by his side? Did he dare try?

As much as he wanted an answer, there wasn’t one. He blew out a long breath before he rose from the bed and readied himself for the day. After dressing, he opened his door to find Lucan standing there with his fist raised to knock.

“Everything all right?” Fallon asked his brother.

Lucan sighed and glanced down the hallway. “Can I have a moment?”

Fallon stepped aside to allow him in. He shut the door behind Lucan and leaned against it to wait for his brother to speak.

Lucan stopped in the middle of the chamber and faced him. “Cara is worried about Larena.”

“What about?”

“I wish I knew,” Lucan said, frustration making his jaw clench. “It’s all Cara could talk about last night. She kept saying Larena seemed agitated.”

“I’m sure she is. She was attacked and almost died. She woke to find herself in a strange place with people she didn’t know. She worried about how the Warriors would accept her. Larena has spent much of her hundred years by herself. And she doesn’t trust anyone.”

Lucan rolled his eyes. “That’s what I told Cara, but you know my wife. She likes to fix things.”

Fallon grinned. “She fixed you.”

“Aye, she did.”

“Tell Cara that Larena is going to need some time. I know how difficult it was for us to live with a god, but I cannot imagine what Larena has gone through as a female.”

Lucan nodded and glanced at the bed. “Have you told her you know what the ring is, what she guards?”

“Nay, and I doona intend to. Leave it at that, Lucan.” Fallon straightened from the door. “If she doesna want to tell me, then so be it. She must have her reasons.”

“What if she’s keeping something else from you?”

Fallon briefly closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “She might be. She doesn’t trust me.”