Seducing the Highlander (5 page)

Angus had a kind heart, though he tried to hide it behind his blustery facade. “I see your point, lad, I do, but other than keeping her, I don’t see another solution.”

Keeping her
—that was an interesting notion. Ian elevated his brows, sweat dripping off his jaw.

Angus saw his expression and frowned ferociously. “She’s . . . English and noble. It’s out of the question, lad. Hell and blast, you’re thinking with your cock.”

“As long as that’s not the only thing I do with it.” Ian shrugged, grinning.

 

 

The room was warm, lit by only a single lamp against the subtle darkness outside, and Leanna straightened when she heard the lift of the latch. From her reclining pose on the seat by the window, she saw Laird McCray step into the room, filling it suddenly with his presence, his dark hair brushing his wide shoulders. “Were you waiting for me?” he asked softly.

“I hoped you would come,” Leanna said with more than a little truth to her response.

“You told me to avail myself of your very lovely body whenever I wished,” he said evenly, “and that offer was made so prettily that I cannot forget it.”

“I am at your disposal, my lord.” She meant it. Even though Rossie had brought her some clothing late that afternoon, she wore nothing under her dressing gown in anticipation of the laird’s visit, her long hair brushed to a fine sheen and hanging loosely down her back.

Revenge.
She planned to be as experienced as a whore by the time Frankton arrived to claim her.

“Come.” Ian held out his hand.

She rose and approached him, her brows arching in question.

He swept her up into his arms, giving her that dark, mesmerizing smile she remembered from the morning. “My bed is bigger,” he explained with a low, masculine laugh, his breath warm in her ear. “I anticipate we’ll need the space, lass.”

His room, she discovered, was just across the hallway. It was larger than the one she’d been given, and furnished plainly, but he was correct: The bed was massive, dominating the space. He laid her down there, untying her robe and swiftly stripping her bare, his gaze intent as he tossed the garment aside and stood staring at her with clear predatory lust. “You are incredibly beautiful, my lady.”

“Which has brought me nothing but trouble,” she responded bitterly, without thinking.

His brows shot together. “Did you not enjoy this morning?”

He knew she had. She blushed when she recalled how she had cried out loud during those peaks of intense pleasure. “I enjoyed it, my lord.”

“Your beauty pleases me. It makes me very . . . hungry.” His grin was wickedly charming, and he began to disrobe.

It unfortunately pleases Baron Frankton too.
She watched Ian as he quickly and efficiently removed his clothing, his long fingers gracefully male as they moved. But if it had been the baron there undressing, she would be filled with disgust and repulsion instead of feeling the curls of unmistakable excitement in her stomach. Reposed against the softness of the bedding, she realized that her breasts were changing too, feeling full suddenly, and heavy, and that a small ache had begun between her legs.

McCray was aroused as well. When he removed his breeches, she could see the stiffening of his erection, his large penis lengthening under her fascinated gaze, the tip distending and pulsing slightly, pushing against the flat plane of his stomach. Underneath, the sac of his testicles looked heavy and full in a nest of black curly hair.

He was a very handsome, very virile man—of that there was no doubt—and a skilled lover.

He was going to make love to her again.

Now.

She shivered.

The mattress dipped as he joined her on the bed, one of his hands immediately moving to cup her breast. His fingers glided over the weight of it, stroking lightly, toying with her nipple as he leaned forward to kiss her. One large male thigh slid possessively over her legs. She could feel the hard ridge of his erect shaft against her stomach, his mouth persuasive and seductive as he stroked her tongue with his in the same way his hand stroked her breast.

Allowing him whatever liberties he wished, she parted her lips to his intrusion, sliding her arms up around his neck, his skin hot under her fingers. She felt dwarfed by his size, his body so much larger, so different from her own. Corded muscle bunched under her clasping fingers, his heat palpable, as was the insistent throb of his desire next to the softness of her belly. His hair brushed her hands, dark and silky.

“You taste like heaven,” he whispered against her mouth. “So sweet. Tell me, are you sore?”

“No,” she denied, hoping Rossie was correct about the ointment. “You can take me if you wish it, my lord. I want you to do so.”

For a moment, he lifted his head, his hand still holding her breast, his dark eyes direct and questioning. “I am your abductor and I want only the same thing from you that Frankton wants. Yet you give yourself so easily to me, just to spite him. I confess, I am not sure how to feel. I have never had a woman lie with me who didn’t at least have some measure of wanting but instead only plotted retribution against another man.”

“He isn’t a man; he’s a monster.” Leanna looked up at the handsome Scot who covered her with his naked, powerful body. “And I feel the wanting,” she murmured truthfully, half lowering her lashes, “if that means I like it when you touch me. I am just not used to it yet. Please do not turn away from me.”

“That’s hardly likely.” His laugh was low and a little harsh. “I am glad you wish it too. It makes our mutual pleasure even more unholy since I planned on seducing you to make him squirm with the knowledge that I had you first.”

“We are of like mind, then,” she said faintly, very aware of how his fingers still touched her nipple, lightly stroking now, the sensation escalating beyond pleasant to arousing.

“Almost,” he agreed enigmatically.

She would have questioned that equivocation, except he moved his hand from her breast to her stomach, sliding it lower to slip between her thighs. His long fingers sought, found, and then penetrated her female entrance.

“You are damp,” he said, smiling, his mouth lifting, “but are you certain you are not too tender from our earlier encounter?”

The feel of him probing inside her was distracting, and she found his invasion wasn’t in the least uncomfortable. She also liked the fact that he actually cared whether he hurt her. “I will welcome you, my lord,” she declared in husky assurance.

“If you are sure . . .”

In a flash of time, he shifted, covering her and suddenly ready, his body poised to possess her. She closed her eyes as he began to enter her, opening her thighs wide in invitation, letting his intimate foray consume her senses. His erection felt large, incredibly hard and slick.

And wonderful—it was pure carnal sensation to lie there beneath the laird and spread her legs for him, allowing him the most intimate knowledge possible of her body.

It was easier this time, she realized with surprise when he sank deep, her vaginal passage expanding to accept the penetration, a sigh of pleasure leaving her lips despite her inner vow to not be so vocal in her enjoyment this time. She had been raised a lady, and it was a little embarrassing to recall the sounds she had made earlier.

But she found she couldn’t help it. A small whimper escaped her throat as he withdrew and pushed back in, his heavy-lidded gaze holding hers, a sensual smile on those well-shaped lips. Leaning forward, he whispered in her ear, “You feel every inch of me, don’t you, my sweet hostage? And I feel all of you, those soft walls milking my cock as you try to keep me inside you, your womb trembling as I push in deep. You learn quickly, beautiful Leanna.”

She liked hearing her name spoken in his soft brogue almost as much as the glorious feeling of his thrusts, the sensation of his lips touching her ear, his hard chest above her. She rubbed her hands over the powerful muscles of his back and closed her eyes. Like the first time, she could feel his escalating need in the change of his rhythm, his hips flexing faster, the increased speed bringing her a building sensation of tension mixed with pleasure. As from a distance, she could hear her own small gasps, her hips lifting to accept each surge until she was clutching at his shoulders, mindless with desperate desire.

When the sublime pinnacle came and she fell, her body rippling with tiny convulsions of pleasure, she gave a small scream, uncaring any longer about anything as mundane as her dignity. With a low curse, he joined her, impaling her as far as possible, going rigid as he ejaculated, coating her passage with the warm liquid spurt of his seed. The pulsing of his shaft matched the beating of her heart, primal and wild, and she marveled at it as he filled her, lying there in limp, blissful afterglow.

To her surprise, he didn’t pull out, but once his breathing slowed, he propped himself on his elbows and smiled lazily into her face. With his long, disheveled hair, he resembled a legendary pirate, all sleek, dark, and dangerous. No, more like a striking Scottish chieftain, she corrected with an inward smile, who had just thoroughly ravished some young maid.

Still half-rigid inside her, as if it weren’t an odd position for a conversation, he said with his usual tone of unconscious command, “Tell me, how did you come to be engaged to Frankton? Surely your father understands what kind of man he is and, with your stunning beauty, could do better for you than a grasping, deceitful villain you obviously despise.”

Leanna swallowed, averting her gaze. “My father is an earl, but inherited no fortune with the title. He has five daughters, my lord, and wished for good marriages for us all, despite the fact he could not afford to properly present us to society. On a trip to London, I had the misfortune to be at a small function given by one of my father’s friends. The baron was there as well, and I caught his eye. At heart, my father is a decent man, but he has his weaknesses, and gambling is one. Frankton lost no time in completely destroying whatever small assets my father had. In order to save the family estate, the bargain was made. I could hardly force my family to starve by a refusal. This way my sisters will at least have a chance to marry well.”

Despite her refusal to shed one more tear over her plight, a small sob caught in her throat, and to her dismay, her eyes filled with tears.

Ian’s mouth tightened slightly. “I guessed something like that had transpired. Another black deed Frankton will answer for in hell.”

Leanna shivered. “He is evil. I—”

“Yes, he is, and evil men do evil things,” the laird interrupted with a grim smile. “I suppose that was why he locked you in the tower room and posted guards: to keep you from running off during his absence while he accuses my uncle of a crime he never committed.”

She might be naive, but she understood McCray’s need for a bargaining tool.

“And,” she said with a small, triumphant smile, since his cock, formidably large even half-erect, was so potently inside her, stretching her, “to make sure I stayed pure until the wedding.”

“That’s certainly no longer an issue,” he murmured teasingly, and shifted, leaning forward to nibble gently on the curve of her neck.

“No,” she agreed, giving a muffled laugh mixed with a sigh of enjoyment as his tongue traced the line of her jaw and licked her lower lip. He kissed her as if he tasted her, savoring her mouth, and she responded, pulling him closer, parting her lips. To her amazement, though they had just had intercourse, she found that longing welling inside her as he began to touch and caress her body, saying outrageously erotic things in her ear, taking her mouth time and again until she could feel he was also growing once more, hardening, and stretching her vaginal walls with his swelling erection.

When he began to move, she felt the blissful abandon of pure sexual license, her body open for his use and pleasure, her own senses tantalized and heightened by the skill of her Scottish captor. She climaxed twice before he came again with a hot rush inside her, the dizzying, sensual joy unbelievable. Afterward, nestled against him, her body pleasantly exhausted, she saw the moon had come up, high and full. Ian’s breathing evened into the cadence of slumber, but he still kept her close in his embrace.

She felt safe, Leanna realized, with those strong arms around her.

But also knew it couldn’t last long.

T
he horse clattered into the courtyard and Ian waved a hand in greeting. His cousin Robbie, he saw, eyeing the mud-spattered cloak and tousled hair of the young man reining in his heaving mount, had ridden hard and fast.

“Ian.” Robbie swung out of the saddle and grinned. A graze of black whiskers graced his lean jaw and he looked weary, but his handclasp was strong. “I rode almost all night. I need a drink, maybe even a good bucketful, for my throat is dry as dust.”

“It’s bloody good to see you,” Ian responded with a smile, “and we’ve whiskey and ale aplenty. Rossie knew you were coming, because I have sentries posted everywhere and one of them reported it. She’s got food at the ready, anticipating your hunger.”

“Bless her,” Robbie McCray said with a low laugh. “I might marry her yet, you know. I cannot figure out another way to steal her away from this old castle.”

“She can’t be more than two score years older than you,” Ian observed dryly. “And as she has always had a weakness for handsome, worthless rogues, she might just oblige you.”

“Is that why she has an uncommon fondness for you?”

“It might be.”

“If she agrees to run my household with the efficiency she runs yours, I’ll propose.”

“Come inside.” Ian led the way to the table, where Angus was already seated with a tankard before him. Robbie wasn’t lying about his thirst, for he drained his first glass in barely more than a gulp, and immediately poured a second. And when a serving girl brought a steaming platter of meat, he devoured his food in record time. Ian and Angus ate a little more leisurely, and he waited for them to finish. When the plates were cleared away, Robbie sighed, rubbing his jaw. “That was damned good. Hell, I’m tired.”