6
Kate frowned as she stood in the doorway. She knew Ailis was to have slept there, yet the room looked as if it had not been used at all. But that was impossible. She knew the girl was not with the children, for Barra had tended to their dressing and brought them into the great hall. Neither was she with Jaime, who was still closely attended by Angus. Nevertheless, she had checked the children’s rooms and turned up nothing. Her heart pounding with growing concern as she tried to understand how the girl could possibly go missing, Kate hurried back toward the great hall only to meet Barra walking to Alexander’s room.
“How fares the lass?” Barra asked in honest concern, for he saw that Kate was clearly upset. “She hasna been hurt, has she? Or become too despondent?”
Although unable to believe Ailis had escaped, especially without the children or Jaime, Kate mumbled, “I dinna ken.”
“What do ye mean, you dinna ken?” Barra demanded, giving the agitated girl a slight shake. “Come, Kate, explain yourself.”
“I dinna ken how she fares because I canna find her.” Kate wrung her hands as she became more and more agitated.
“Ye canna find her?”
“Nay. The bed that was readied for her looks unused, and she isna in the bairns’ rooms.”
“God’s teeth, do ye think she has managed to escape?”
“Without even Jaime?” Kate asked, her doubt clear to hear in her voice.
“Nay.” Barra frowned, but then his eyes widened. “Alexander.” He wondered if they had been foolish not to suspect just how far the spirit they had admired in Ailis might take her in a fight for her honor, a fight against Alexander.
Kate hurried after Barra as he strode to Alexander’s chamber. She, too, suddenly realized that if the girl had fled, she might well have done something to the laird. Barra’s gasp and broad back prevented her from entering the laird’s chamber. She saw that Barra seemed rooted to the spot he had stopped on inside the doorway, so she peered around him only to echo his astonishment.
Barra had to fight a brief, sharp twinge of jealousy as he studied his brother. Alexander’s golden crowned head was easy to see against the black and gold which pillowed it. His face was tucked up against Ailis’s long slender neck while one of his hands gently cupped the breast not covered by his body. One of Ailis’s slim arms was curled around his broad shoulders and, though covered, it was easy to see that their legs were entwined beneath the sheet. The look upon Alexander’s face was one Barra had not seen for years, the tension completely washed away. That was as surprising as the clear proof that he had kept Ailis in his bed the whole night through. Barra started to smile as he saw his brother begin to wake up.
Even as he first opened his eyes, Alexander knew who was tucked up in his arms. He eased himself partly off of Ailis, keeping his gaze fixed upon her full breasts, which had provided him with such a delectable resting place. Despite having enjoyed the passion they shared several times during the night, Alexander felt his loins tighten. He could not deny that what he had experienced with Ailis was the richest, fullest he had ever enjoyed, and he wanted more. Neither could he deny that it simply felt good to wake up next to her.
He traced the dusky tip of her full breast with one long finger. He watched as her nipple hardened in response and Ailis’s slim body begin to stir. Alexander did the same to her other breast, and it brought the same reaction as well as a swat from one slim arm. Ailis then turned onto her side and cuddled up to her pillow.
As Ailis turned away from Alexander, she muttered, “Leave me be, ye rapacious rogue. By all the Saints, do ye never give it a rest?”
The sound of smothered laughter from the doorway caused Alexander to turn. He changed his grin to a frown but could not hide the laughter in his eyes. One jerk of his thumb was enough to send Barra and Kate silently retreating. Alexander wanted no audience for what he was planning.
Barra’s amusement fled as he walked toward the great hall, Kate shadowing his steps. “It isna good.”
“Nay,” spoke up Kate with a familiarity born of having grown up within the keep, her parents old and trusted retainers. “ ‘Tis very good that the MacFarlane lass wasna hurt nor afrightened, but ‘tisna good that his lairdship finds such pleasure with her. Nay, not when she is the first to bring it to him. She is a MacFarlane. She must be ransomed and sent away.”
As he watched her sleep, Alexander briefly wondered how long Ailis’s stay at Rathmor would be. He reached out and gently but firmly turned her onto her back. He met her heavy-lidded glare with a smile. His smile widened when she muttered something about being left alone to sleep, and she closed her eyes again. The hard tips of her breasts told her she was not as disinterested as she was acting.
“Ye sleep, then,” he said as he moved to lie between her shapely legs and propped himself up on his elbows. “I will just carry on.”
Ailis was still drowsy, but that did not stop her from being stirred by the feel of his body against hers. She had no intention of admitting that, however. All through the night she had kept her resistance only vocal, and that very little, for she had realized that after Alexander came Donald MacCordy. The very thought of Donald doing to her as Alexander had turned her stomach. She decided she would be a fool not to enjoy what she could while she could. And, she mused, not enjoying it would only have made her suffer anyways, for it might not have stopped Alexander and it certainly would not help her elude Donald’s fury later.
“Carry on whilst I sleep?” she murmured in a voice still husky with sleep and enhanced by her growing desire as Alexander stroked her breast. “That is disgusting.”
“If ye go to sleep, ye willna care,” he said in a cheerful tone before he drew the tip of her breast deep into his mouth.
There was no way for Ailis to hide how that stirred her desire. A soft cry escaped her as she buried her hands in his long thick hair. Her mind slipped from the hazy realms of partial sleep into the ones of passion. He was her enemy, the thief of her virtue and her honor, yet his touch enflamed her. It did not matter that she had been taught since she was a small child to loathe MacDubhs—she craved his touch. When Alexander slowly entered her, she sighed with a delight she could not disguise despite how her body ached as a consequence of such a new experience.
“Ye seem to have come awake quite nicely, lass,” he said as he brushed soft kisses over her face.
“ ‘Tis hard to sleep when some rogue is mauling me about.” She clutched at his lean hips to pull him much closer even as she wrapped her legs around him to urge him on.
A husky laugh escaped Alexander as he met her gaze, and he slid his hand over her body in a sweeping caress. He found it intensely exciting to watch her as she gained her release. It was satisfying to know that he was the one who had brought that look of blind ecstasy to her face, that he was the first man to do so. He barely got a glimpse of that look this time for he found himself swept along with her as they simultaneously reached the pinnacle the bodies strove for. They clung together as their bodies trembled from the force of release and from the echoes of it. It was a long time before Alexander had the strength and inclination to free himself of the intimate tangle of their bodies.
He gently extracted himself from Ailis’s languid embrace, rolled over onto his back, and pulled the cover over them. Now that the pleasure was past, Alexander found that he was deeply troubled. This time there had been no chance for him to ignore or deny the rich sense of unity he felt with her. So full was the sex act with her that he was hard-pressed to conjure up the barest memory of any one that had gone before. He realized that it was going to be very hard to give that up, but she was a MacFarlane and there was no place for her at Rathmor. There was MacDubh blood on her family’s hands and deep treachery, which needed to be avenged.
Those were facts he knew he would have to constantly remind himself of. He would try to console himself with the theory that if there was one woman who could thrill and sate him so completely, then somewhere there had to be another. When Ailis was gone, he would start his search for that other one.
