Ravished by a Highlander (29 page)

“Will?”

“Aye?” his friend glanced up from tugging on the cork.

“How will I explain him to my faither?”

Will smiled and tossed the cork over his shoulder. “Right then, what’s a traitorous English soldier in yer castle compared
to the king’s daughter in yer son’s bed?”

Rob groaned and ran his hand over his jaw while Will poured their drinks. “I’ve made an enemy of the man my faither traveled
all the way to England to support.”

Taking pity on him, Will handed him his drink and patted his shoulder. “He’s yer faither. At least ye know he willna’ kill
ye. Now.” He held up his cup. “Let us drink to yer happiness—as short-lived as it may be.”

He grinned at Rob’s hard look before they both downed their whisky.

“Och, hell!” Rob’s entire body quaked at the liquid fire scorching his innards. “How do they drink this shyt?”

Will clutched the edge of the table and squeezed his eyes shut. “Damned if I know.” He lifted the bottle and poured the remaining
liquid onto the floor. “What?” he asked at Rob’s incredulous stare. “’Tis poison. ’Twill end up killin’ someone one o’ these
days.”

“Aye,” Rob laughed. “Most likely yer faither when Angus finds his brew gone.”

“Nae,” Will said, replacing the empty bottle. “M’ faither can handle that cantankerous auld bastard.” He blew out the candles
and followed Rob out of the room.

Rob pushed open his door and settled his gaze on Davina asleep in his bed. The king’s daughter. He risked much for her and
he doubted his father would understand. But Rob didn’t care. He crossed the room silently and set the tray at the bottom of
the mattress. How could he have taken her anywhere but here? In Camlochlin, England’s laws did not matter. Isn’t that what
he believed? He climbed into bed beside her and watched her while she slept. How could he have kept himself from falling in
love with her? ’Twas like asking a starving man to resist a banqueting table heavy with the most delectable dishes. He kissed
her temple and smiled when she stirred. Her hair, like silver and gold spun together, fell over her creamy cheek. Tenderly,
he swept it away. Her lips, like soft petals from the rarest rose, curled into a languorous smile. He would battle a king
for her, defy his father and lay aside his birthright if he had to. He bent his head and tasted the glorious bouquet of her
breath. She opened her eyes and Rob felt himself falling, helpless to stop, unwilling to save himself. He loved her. God,
he loved her.

“I was dreaming of you,” she whispered, reaching for his face above hers. “You were holding our babe.”

“Aye?” He could barely speak, barely breathe looking at her, seeing what she had seen. “Did she look like ye?”

Her eyes opened wider. “How did you know it was a girl?”

“’Tis what I want. A daughter as bonnie and as brave as her mother.”

She coiled her arms around his neck and kissed the smile from his mouth. When her belly rumbled in response, they both laughed.

Withdrawing from her, Rob sat up, pulling her with him. “I brought yer food. Come here, lass, and let me feed it to ye.”

He stretched his long legs out beneath her as she straddled him, looping her legs around his waist. She watched him while
he dipped a piece of oat bread into some honey and held it up to her mouth. She took a bite, closing her eyes and sighing
with delight.

“’Tis how ye taste to me.” His voice was deep with desire, rough with the restraint it took not to push her back down and
hear her sigh that way as he entered her. He fed her sliced apples next and clenched his jaw when she laved her tongue over
his fingers. He’d pilfered some berries as well, and offered each from his own lips, kissing her as she accepted. His heart
stalled, enraptured by her laughter when he spilled some honey down her chin. He licked it away, growing hard beneath her.
Soon, he no longer cared about the food, nor did she as they tugged and tore at their garments, hungry for something else.

He lifted her over his heavy arousal, groaning as he bent his knees and plunged deep. She was moist, tight, and willing. So
willing. She tossed her head back, covering his hands in the thick folds of her hair. He tunneled his fingers through her
tresses and pulled gently, arching her back and taking her firm nipple into his mouth. He sucked, pulling soft, sweet moans
from her parted lips as he guided her over his stiff erection.

She was heaven, hot, wet, and scintillatingly snug as she rose up over his engorged head, then back down to his base. He closed
his hands around her full rump, gliding her up and down, gyrating her hips until his breath grew heavy and labored. He wanted
to saturate her, fill her with his passion, but not yet. Not yet.

Drawing her close, he sucked the pulse at her throat, blending his tight moans with hers as her breasts rubbed his chest,
her heart taking up the rhythm of his.

When she buried her face in his glistening neck, he clutched her to him, never wanting to let her go. Her sheath grew tighter,
wetter around him, driving him wild. He thrust harder, faster, lifting her off his thighs until she tossed back her head and
cried out his name. He watched the beauty of her rapture as she shuddered and convulsed in his arms, over his shaft, riding
him, milking him of his seed in wave after torrential wave of fevered ecstasy.

Ah, he was hers, and the satisfied smile on her face as he fell back on the bed proved that she knew it.

D
avina stood ankle-deep in the freezing water of Camas Fhionnairigh, her hands covering her mouth as she doubled over with
laughter.

“Which one of ye lads did that?” Finn did his best to appear menacing—which would have been a difficult task to achieve, even
without a mouthful of water—but the horde of children jumping up and down around him were too busy laughing to notice.

Finn mopped his dripping hair out of his eyes and narrowed them on little Hamish MacGregor.

“Run, Hamish!” Davina screamed as Finn bolted after him. “Come children, we must help our comrade!” Hiking up her skirts and
kicking water at her heels, Davina led her exuberant army toward their enemy.

She clapped her hands and cheered when young Marybeth MacDonnell plucked a small rock from the bank and flung it at Finn’s
back, giving him pause long enough for her older brother to catch up and swing his foot around Finn’s ankle.

With their enemy down, the mighty army wasted no time surrounding him and splashing him with water.

“Finn, what have I told ye aboot losin’ a fight?”

Davina looked up from Finn’s drenched face to find Will standing over him shaking his head with mock disappointment.

“Must ye leave all the victories to me?” He drew in a suffering sigh then skimmed his shimmering gaze over Davina and her
cohorts.

“Madam, children, prepare to be sorely defeated.”

Davina knew Will loved her as he tackled her into the next swell then took off after poor Hamish. Finn also loved her, evidenced
by the way he’d fastened himself to her side when she left Rob’s chambers a se’nnight ago and had barely left it since. She
loved them too. She loved Maggie, and Jamie, and even Brodie—who grumbled at her the same way he did everyone else. She loved
Camlochlin and the magic of its laughing children and swirling misty mountaintops.

Wringing out her braid, she waded through the shallow surf, laughing and shivering with the cold when Finn sped past her on
his way to either aiding Will, or sabotaging him. She set her eyes over the vast hills and smiled when she spotted the one
she loved the most bringing a herd of woolly sheep back to the pasture with Jamie and Brodie circling the herd’s flanks. Rob
worked hard every day, seeing to the good of his clan, his land, and his livestock. Jamie was often at his side, as was Will—that
is, when something more interesting didn’t distract him.

But Will was not the firstborn son of the clan chief of Camlochlin. The duty of seeing his clan continually fed, comfortably
sheltered, and kept warm on frigid Highland nights was Rob’s alone… or would be, and his dedication to it earned him Davina’s
full faith and trust. She wished he would spend a few hours enjoying the fruits of his labor, rather than always sweating
over them. It would take a bit of convincing, but Davina was patient. She didn’t even mind seeing so little of him during
the day, for his stamina lasted long after he returned to her each night, honed and hard from his labor and as hungry for
her as he had been on their first night together.

She almost waved, but Rob wouldn’t see her from where he was. Looking around, she felt a wave of contentment wash over her.
She belonged here, surrounded by nothing but beauty and freedom. Everything before Camlochlin felt like a distant dream, and
each day she forgot more of it.

“You look happy.”

She stopped and looked up at Edward, less concerned with Finn or Will’s proximity than he was.

“Please let me speak.” When she nodded, he continued. “I wanted a chance to tell you that I’ve hated myself for four years.
I hated what I did to you and more for never having the courage to tell you.”

The truth of his words was in his eyes. Davina believed him. She understood now why he had spent almost every day with her
afraid of the day after that. He did not deliver her when the enemy he knew was coming finally did, but fought an army and
begged a stranger to save her. “I forgive you, Edward.”

His guilt-ridden expression faltered and he allowed himself to smile at her. “He’s right. I don’t deserve your forgiveness.
I hated him for the way you both looked at each other. But seeing you truly happy these last several days has helped me see
things less selfishly.”

“She gained mercy fer ye once, Asher,” Will said, coming to stand at Davina’s side. “Dinna’ expect her husband to grant it
again.”

“Ye’re not supposed to speak to her, Captain,” Finn reminded him, appearing at her left.

“He may speak to me if he wishes,” Davina corrected, then followed Finn’s skittish glance over Edward’s shoulder. She gave
them all a reassuring smile through her chattering teeth. Rob was still too far away to see them clearly. She would speak
to him later about Edward and tell him she had forgiven him. “If we don’t show others mercy, none will be shown to us. We
all do things we regret. None of us are perfect.” She turned her playful smile on Will. “Despite what you tell yourself each
night when you lay your head on your pillow.”

Finn laughed, as did Caitlin MacKinnon swaying toward them, her dark hair bouncing around her flushed cheeks.

“There ye are, Captain Asher. I was lookin’ fer ye.”

Edward cracked a tiny smile, then looked away from Davina’s widening grin.

“Ye were such a help yesterday carrying all those heavy bags of oats fer me,” Caitlin practically cooed and looped her arm
effortlessly through his. “I was hopin’ ye might lend me yer strong arms yet again.”

“Of course,” Edward promised with a bit of a flush in his own cheeks.

Poor man, Davina thought watching him and Caitlin leave. He hadn’t had a woman smile at him with such brazen intentions in
four years.

“I think she fancies him,” she said, completely missing the smirks that passed between Will and Finn. “Will Tristan be angry?”

This time, she didn’t miss their laughter.

*   *   *

Rob tapped the lagging sheep’s rump with his stick and went back to squinting. Was that Will chasing his wife at the water’s
edge? Were those her bare knees she exposed while she ran from him? Hell, he was going to do some serious damage to Will’s
pretty face later. And Finn… what the hell was he doing splashing around in the waves like a lad of five summers when there
were sheep to be sheared?

“She has settled in verra quickly.”

“Hmm?” Rob turned to Jamie. “What?”

“Yer wife.” His uncle pointed toward the banks with his staff. “She seems quite happy here.”

Rob nodded and peered down into the vale. Aye, she was. She told him so every night. What right had he to complain when his
wife loved his land and his kin as much as he did? It was what he had wanted, what he had hoped for. He just wished she didn’t
enjoy herself so much without him.

“It took Claire almost half a year to get used to livin’ at Camlochlin after Graham brought her here. She only truly settled
in after Connor was born.”

“Claire led a verra different life than Davina,” Rob pointed out and tapped another sheep. “The only adventure Davina found
while growin’ up was in her books.” He narrowed his eyes while two fat ewes wandered off back up the hill. “Who is that she’s
talkin’ to?” He almost didn’t recognize Asher out of uniform and draped in a Highland plaid. The traitorous bastard’s back
was to him as well, but Rob knew every body in Camlochlin… and that one did not belong. His jaw tightened on a muffled oath
and he took a step forward.

“Will and Finn are with her, lad,” Jamie pointed out when Rob reached for his claymore. “She’s in nae danger from the captain
here.”

“I told ye, ye shoulda’ killed him when ye had the chance.” Brodie drawled, a bare heather stem clamped between his teeth.
“’Tis no’ too late.”