Iain pushed the door open and found Ailis sitting on the bed. He stepped inside. With a glance at the guard that now dogged his steps, he closed the door. She jumped up as though embarrassed to be found sitting there.
“That took longer than I expected,” she said, walking towards him. “What did he say?”
“His men returned from speaking with the brothers. He wanted me to ken what they told him.” He could see the interest in her lovely eyes as he spoke. She wanted to know and knew her father wouldn’t speak to her of it.
“And?” she blurted out as she wrung her hands together. He had offered to speak candidly with her and he would.
“It mattered not, for yer father has no intention of allowing me to marry ye, lady.”
From her reaction, or lack of one, it had surprised her as little as it had him. She nodded and it made her hair ripple over her shoulders and down her back. He’d only just noticed that it was loose … as in his dreams.
“So it surprises ye not?”
She shook her head, a slight sadness in her green gaze. “I ken his ways,” she admitted. “I had hoped. …”
Iain watched her as she smiled, but it was not like the smiles he’d seen these last days. Instead, it was one filled with the wistfulness and wanting of a woman who would never be permitted to marry as she chose. Surely not a man without a memory, without kith or kin.
“He has ordered me gone by midday on the morrow.”
Her gasp echoed across the chamber. He stood by the door, believing the distance between them would keep him from doing anything foolish before he departed Dun Ara. Like taking her in his arms and kissing her breathless until she melted in his embrace. And peeling off her garments and finding out if he did, indeed, know every inch of her body as he thought. He would finally know if her place in his dreams was just the machinations of a disturbed mind or something else.
He would discover if she had a birthmark on the inside of her right thigh or if he’d only dreamt it. And if she had a weakness to being tickled in the curve of her buttocks that made her sigh and laugh. He would kiss her there and lick a path between her. … He shook at the intensity of the wanting that flooded him.
So lost in his lustful thoughts was he that he never heard her approach. She stood inches away from him. He fought the urge to grab her, take her and mark her in some way as his.
“I have felt both a comfort and a desire in yer embrace that I never thought to feel again, Iain,” she whispered.
The tip of her tongue darted out to moisten her pink lips. His control frayed with every second that passed and with every movement she made toward him.
“Ye shouldna speak of such things, lady,” he warned. Iain tried to step back and found the wood of the door in his way. “I leave in the morn and. …”
“Aye, ye leave on the morrow and I face marrying a man I dinna wish to marry.”
“Lady –”
“Ailis.” She took the final step between them and he felt her soft curves against his body. “I pray ye, say my name.”
Iain understood the dangers of letting her name free on his tongue. Desire filled her eyes and flushed her cheeks. Her breathing grew shallow and quick. His body reacted to the signs of her arousal.
“Ailis.”
He reached out, slid his gloved hands into her hair and pulled her face to his. For once, he hated the mask and hood that usually gave him comfort and security. He wanted to touch her skin to skin, but he couldn’t bear to see the disgust in her gaze if she saw the disfigurement her father had just witnessed.
“Iain,” she said on a sigh.
He ached for her touch, her kiss and her love. Since he could never lay claim to that, he would take her desire and passion instead and give her pleasure in return. He searched her eyes for any sign of hesitation before taking her mouth. Now he would kiss her breathless.
And he did, plunging his tongue in to taste and feel hers. She opened to him, even leaned into his embrace, and he delved deeply into the heat he found there. He heard the moan she made as he suckled on her tongue. He stilled when he felt her hands, her bare hands, cover his gloved ones.
Ailis slid her hands down, over his wrists and into the sleeves of his tunic until she reached the edges of the leather. He released his hold and allowed her to remove the gloves, knowing what she would behold there. Would it stop her? Iain held his breath for her reaction.
His right hand and arm bore some damage, but the left was worse by far. The brothers had surmised that he’d landed on his right side, protecting that part of his body from the fire that had burned him so badly. His left hand and arm had few places on them where the skin was intact and not melted in ridges, either while it burned or when it healed.
Her soft caresses on his skin caused a series of bursts to move along his arms. Not painful, exactly. But not the pleasure such a touch should elicit.Thathe’d felt there … before. If she was repulsed by the feeling of it, neither her gaze nor her continued caress revealed it.
Iain leaned in and kissed her again, as she gently slid her hands over his arms. He caught her sighs and tugged her closer so their bodies pressed against each other. Against her quiet protest, he moved his arm free of her grasp and reached up to loosen her hair. He wanted to see the curtain of silky tresses hanging around her. Only the silky tresses, if he had his way.
As though she’d heard is thoughts, Ailis began to loosen the ties of her gown and the shift that lay beneath it. ‘Twas what he wanted, but he wouldn’t take her standing up fully dressed like a whore. She was a lady who deserved better treatment. She deserved pleasure and love.
