CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Ihave questions,” Kenna fairly shouted.
Tearloch sighed and rested his weight on one side of her, pinning her in place but no longer hovering, trying to decide his point of attack. “Ask them and be done.”
“Just how will you deceive your men if they are not here?”
He bit his lips together as if biting back a smile. “Go on. Ask them all.”
“So be it. I wish to know how it is to be accomplished and…”
“And?”
“And how long to accomplish it.”
He sucked a quick breath through his nose, then leaned close and stared at her lips. “Firstly, it is obvious when a mouth has been well and truly ravaged.”
She licked her lips without thinking. “Is that so?”
“It must needs be that I damage yer clothing, but not much.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “This was a gift.Please.”
“Any other questions?”
“You haven’t said how long I must suffer your attention.”
A slow smile, then he inched closer. “Ye’ll not suffer, lass. But I reckon ye already ken it.” He took control of her lips with his own and made any further discussion impossible. And it wasn’t long before she gave up all resistance and willingly answered his sallies in kind, no longer caring what this ravaging might look like in the end.
It might have been the sunshine on her eyelids, it might have been her heart’s blood beating through them, but a red haze enveloped her, surrounded her, submerged her until there was no lifeline but his lips, no breath but his to sustain her.
She was betrayed. By herself. Yet again.
A fat tear slipped from the corner of her eye and she turned her head to hide it. Tearloch pulled back, gently nudged her chin with a crooked finger until she faced him again. He saw the tear, scowled at it, and wiped it away with the back of his fingers. Instead of resuming his delicious assault, he closed his eyes and held perfectly still. A dozen slow heartbeats later, he shook his head and retreated further.
“That will do well enough. Come. I will help ye dress.”
He stood and retrieved her gown, but before he brought it to her, he studied it, then gripped the shoulder and pulled it apart. Not stopping there, he turned it in his hands and did the same to the hem on one side. Only this time, the rent was two feet long! It would go all the way to her knee!
“Well ravaged, I would say.” He chuckled, ignored the shock on her face, and dropped the gown over her head. Once the battered hem was in place, he leaned forward of a sudden and placed a small, quick kiss on the tip of her nose. Then he reached behind and swatted her backside! “Oh, forgive me. I would not wish to make the ride more uncomfortable.”
She didn’t believe him.
To her dismay, he swatted at her again, ostensibly brushing dirt from her derriere but completely forgetting his ownstrength. By the time she sidled out of reach, she felt as if she’d been put over his knee like a rebellious child!
“Unhand me, you brute!” It sounded dramatic, even to her, considering the very non-brutish kiss on the nose.
By the time they were mounted and stepping back into the road, she was thoroughly befuddled. When he wasn’t looking, she put her hand to her mouth to see if she could feel what it might look like. A wee bit tender. Perhaps swollen, as if she’d been struck.
Fortunately for her, he hadn’t considered doing just that in order to reach the same result. But then again, he seemed to have enjoyed the plunder of her mouth even more than she.
The daze and the haze wore off instantly when, mere moments later, they came upon five familiar mounted forms waiting for them in the middle of the road.
Duncan, Kincaid, Leland, Monroe, and Jamie. The five she wanted least to see.
Tearloch rode silently beside her. She glanced his way, but he seemed to have forgotten her. And as they neared his men, his expression turned smug. Then a curtain dropped and the scowl was back.
“I ordered ye to ride for home, did I not?”
