His face hardened with immediate disapproval. “Ye must never travel alone outside these walls. Never. Do ye understand?”
“Calm down. It’s not like I’ve never walked in the woods before. I’ll be careful.” Kenna resettled the baby in her arms, then rose and started back across the garden to the bench beside the oak.
A strong grip around her arm stopped her in her tracks. Colum turned her back to him. “Whenever ye wish to yer exploring, I will accompany ye—see to it that ye are properly protected. Swear it. Swear ye will never stray from these walls without me.” His hand tightened the barest bit as he continued. “The only safe place for ye to walk alone is inthisprivate garden.”
Kenna didn’t know if it was the urgency in his voice or the look in his eyes that touched her most.Protected, he had said.No one but Granny and the girls had ever fretted about whether or not she was safe. A warm feeling blossomed through her. “I swear I will never go exploring without you.”
She rested her free hand on his chest, smiling as the pound of his heartbeat thudded into her palm. He was dead serious. She felt it with every beat of his heart.
It was time to change the subject and ease the man out of overprotective mode. “You’ll find I never break my word—ever. But I do have a favor to ask of you.”
His eyes narrowed the barest bit, wariness reflecting in their depths. “A favor?”
“If I’m going to stay in this time, I must learn to ride a horse, and who better to teach me than you? Would you have time tomorrow to show me a bit of the land?” She bumped him with a playful nudge. “You said you’d accompany me anytime I breached the safety zone.”
She didn’t know if it was the sun flooding his face or that he heartily approved of her suggestion, but the man fairly glowed. He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a warm kiss into her palm. She shivered clear down to her toes, then shifted in place against the sensual ache that was currently making her more than ready to divest herself of her virginity.
He treated her hand to another kiss, a slower kiss spiced with a knowing look as he held her palm to his mouth. “Aye. Yer riding lesson will be on the morrow.”
Riding lesson. Tomorrow. Horse totally optional.She nodded. “Tomorrow, then.”
“Aye. Tomorrow.” He held her hand to his heart, then leaned forward and nibbled the softest of kisses across her mouth.
“Oh my,” she whispered as a tingling shiver fluttered through her.
“Aye,” he said, then gently deepened the kiss.
The babe rustled in her arms, reminding her that she should be tending to her niece and not her libido. With a bit of guilt pinging her conscience, she regretfully eased a step back. “I need to get the little miss back to her cradle.” She cleared her throat, struggling to steady her voice. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
“Aye,” he said with a knowing smile. “As am I, my love. As am I.”
CHAPTER13
“Ye must do yer best to be one with the horse. Geal can feel yer every move. Relax, lass. Use the pressure of yer knees to tell her where ye wish her to go.” Colum urged Rua a few steps closer, grinning his encouragement from the huge mount’s back.
Be one with the horse? Was he serious? Kenna plucked the reins free of the rippling strands of Geal’s white mane. The mare calmly glanced back and flicked a disinterested ear. Kenna lifted the reins higher, then looked up and down the length of the horse. “Well, then what are these for? Don’t you steer with the reins?”
She had asked for a riding lesson, but she was also hoping for some greatly needed sexual relief if they happened to find a nice, secluded spot along the way. Merciful heavens, she had been one big knot of pre-orgasmic misery ever since the infamoustingle. She wouldn’t let him complete the act reserved for her wedding night, but they could get…close. The mere thought of it made her squirm in the saddle.
Her thumbs rubbed the coarseness of the heavy reins. She frowned down at them then smoothed them across her lap. She’d had no idea riding was going to be this complicated. Thank goodness sitting on gentle Geal’s back reminded her of waiting for Granny to put a quarter in the mechanical horse in front of Thatcher’s Grocery. The mare resettled her stance, then patiently waited for Kenna’s orders.
Colum and Rua circled them. The reddish stallion pranced forward, then danced back, anxious to get on with the outing. An overstuffed leather pouch and a skin of wine hung from a strap tied to the saddle.
Kenna’s stomach growled. She loved Cook’s delectable barley and oat bread and could clearly see the bulging outline of several loaves in the bag. Colum had promised a fine picnic if she did well with the lesson.
She didn’t miss the fact that more than one blanket was rolled and tied across Rua’s rump. From the look of that bundle, he had brought along enough plaids to make quite the comfortable pallet. A shiver of anticipation triggered another aching surge of heat. A lovely picnic in the Highlands, and Colum for dessert.
Her heart fluttered again as she remembered overhearing several serving lads grumbling about betting away prized possessions because one of MacKenna keep’s infamous playboys no longer played. They had tested him by allowing the fairest of the serving maids in on the wager—even going so far as to hide the women in his private rooms. But Colum had held strong. He sent the maids out of his chambers and bolted the door behind them. Bless his little sexually starved heart.
“Ye are not listening.” He brought Rua closer and tapped her on the knee.
“Sorry.” She tugged on the folds of her skirts until they were bunched up across the tops of her thighs. Scooting forward, she tried to reach Geal’s creamy sides with her bare knees. This had to be why she hadn’t seen any women from the keep riding—it was not comfortable at all. “I don’t think this is going to work. My legs are too short.”
Colum arched a brow at her legs, bared to mid-thigh, then turned away for a long moment before turning back to face her with his mouth clamped shut. After another glance at her awkward position in the saddle, he shook his head, then quickly looked away again.
Kenna glared at his trembling shoulders. “You said you wouldn’t laugh at me.”
He coughed out a choking snort and turned Rua farther away.
