“You want a lot.”
“Aye, I am a most greedy man. I also want ye by my side forever and naked in my bed whenever I command it. And I want ye to forget any life ye had before I first set eyes on ye. That is when yer life truly began, in the moment ye first saw me.” He ran his thumb across her bottom lip. “As did mine.”
She turned toward him, nipping at the pad of his thumb. “And what do I get, then, out of all this? After all, I’ve given up my entire way of life to be with you. I’ve given up grocery stores and television and rock and roll. Not to mention toilet paper and hot showers.”
He reached for her, pulling her over on top of him as he rolled to his back, a devilish smile curling his lips. “I dinna ken what any of those things are, lass, but none of them are better than what ye have here: the use of my body, whenever ye like, for yer own pleasure, and mine by happenstance.”
“Hmmm… then hold still. I want to use you.” She took hold of his wrists, stretching his hands up above his head. “Stay just like that. Promise.”
He laughed. “I promise.”
She bent and feathered a kiss over his lips, then over his neck, nipping lightly at the pulse beating there, making it go even faster. She moved lower, lifting his shirt and flicking her tongue over his nipple until he hissed in a breath. She ran her hands back up over the hard contours of his chest and kissed his mouth again, pulling away just as he tried to deepen the kiss, and tracing his lips with just the tip of her tongue.
“How could it be that only a few weeks ago I wanted to run from you, and now I would give anything to spend every moment in your arms?”
“If I had kenned the truth of things, I would have forced ye to wed with me that first day Dirc brought ye to the castle, and then sorted out all the rest later. I wanted ye so much. Even as I made the vow to ye that I wouldna touch ye against yer will, I vowed to myself that I would have ye in my bed.” “You have me now.”
“Aye. But I think… I want to ken… I mean, Dirc told me how ye had been sent away as a babe, to a place across the sea,and five hundred years from now. What was it like there? What was yer life like Faith?”
“Lonely”, she answered honestly. “It was very lonely for the most part. It was just my mother and me. I never even knew… where she was really from. I had no idea that I hadn’t been born there like everyone else. She died when I was only eighteen. After that I was completely on my own.”
“Perhaps that is part of the reason ye are so brave.”
She shook her head a little. “No, I never felt brave. I just went on. I just survived.”
“Ye have the courage of ten men, lass, but ye dinna have to be brave, anymore. I will protect ye. I can be brave enough for the both of us.”
That was fine by her. Though it was a little frightening at times how quickly and completely he had utterly devoted himself to her, it was also a great gift. She was no longer alone. And she wanted to give him something in return. Something she had never actually done, but heard enough about, in great detail, from her college roommates, that she felt she could probably write a book on the subject.
She looked at him with pure wickedness flashing in her eyes, then straddled his chest, lowering her mouth slowly to kiss him hard and deep. He moved his hands to reach for her, but she pushed them away.
“Mmm mnn, you promised. Don’t force me to tie you up.”
She moved lower, tracing a path down his chest with her tongue. He let out a low groan, and she smiled against his warm skin. This was the wild and dangerous warrior she had been in awe of, and yet she had him at her complete mercy right now.
Bren held his breath. His hips raised of their own accord, silently begging her mouth to move lower. Would she? No woman had ever taken him in her mouth, and he had never asked it of them. But he had heard it was… she took him in herhand and he lost the thought. And then her tongue …oh god! He wanted to let her go on forever, he really did, but after only a couple of minutes he could take no more. He was gasping for air, his heart pounding out of his chest. In one swift motion he had her flat on her back with her skirts up around her waist, thrusting into her.
After, they lay together, wrapped in each other’s arms.
Faith ran her fingers gently over the hard contours of his chest. She found she could not keep her hands from touching him whenever he was near. His body was so very different from her own. So hard, all sharp contours to her soft curves.
“Now tell me aboutyourworld. Tell me about your magic. It’s still so strange to me. Where I grew up, magic was only in stories. No one actually believed it was real. Or if they did, they were considered to be crazy by most people.”
“Most old stories hold a grain of truth, dinna they? Especially verra old stories. It’s always been this way, in my family. We have always had such abilities, and the responsibility that comes with them. And a big responsibility it is, because power is always a verra dangerous thing in the wrong hands, and sometimes even in the right ones. The Mac Coinnach clan has long been dedicated to fighting against those who misuse the gifts of the earth, and who use those gifts to bring about evil and darkness, or to hurt others.” He paused, bringing her hand to his mouth and pressing her knuckles to his lips before continuing.
“Always there must be a balance between dark and light, exact, perfect, constant. Day turns to night, but always back to day again. Winter comes, cold and dark, but always spring prevails. Even the stars above burn out eventually, but give their elements to all other things, and light is reborn. The magic we use is in the natural energies of the earth, in the ability to concentrate and direct them. Nay more. The energy that flowsthrough the earth, that makes the wind blow and the plants grow and the verra tides move, it flows through each of us just the same. We can pull it to us just as ye can gather water in the palm of yer hand. We can wield it just as ye can throw a rock into a pool and make the water fly into the air, and the ripples reach the shore far on the other side. It is all one and the same.”
As she listened to his explanation, for the first time Faith understood. Not just about magic, but how important the balance of the earth was to all life. It was all so clear in her mind, as if Bren’s mind had touched hers, leaving his very thoughts behind for her to see. Perhaps it had.
“And the standing stones?”
“Ah, the stones. Every clan that has talents such as our also have their own sacred stones. They are set in a circle, and a circle by its verra nature encompasses, pulls into itself. The stones of the circle were formed long, long ago, when the earth was verra young, when the forces of creation were at their prime. Each stone selected for the circle still lies in the exact direction in which it was formed. Each was moved carefully along a straight line to take its place in the circle. And so the energy of the earth is gathered and centered here, for our use.”
Faith let out a breath. “It sounds so perfectly simple.”
“It is.Perfect.And simple.”
He paused, not wanting to ruin such a beautiful afternoon with less pleasant things. But this could not wait any longer. The worry of it was the greatest weight on his shoulder, above all else. He looked at her with deep concern in his eyes.
