“Do ye need help with anything else lass, or will that be all?”
Oh no, that’s not all, Warrior… She sighed. “That’s all, thank you.”
Willa turned back to the food on the table, but it was oh so hard to concentrate now on what she was doing. She had known this man for such a short time… no, she didn’t even really know him at all. And yet she felt absolutely desperate to be close to him. God! Who was she fooling? She wanted to tear off all of his clothes and touch him everywhere, until he begged for more, until he belonged to her, body and soul.Do it! Take what you want for once… No regrets Willa, life can turn in a heartbeat…dare to take what you want.
The rolls were in the oven, and now Drust followed Willa down the little path to the river, carrying a cake of soap and a drying cloth. He felt a little stronger today. For the first time since he’d been injured, he didn’t start to black out every single time he stood. It still hurt to walk… hell, it hurt to breathe, but now he could feel his body mending, the knitting flesh tightening and itching. His strength was slowly returning, and he relished it. It could not come fast enough.
His attention was quickly drawn by the gently swaying hips of the lass walking in front of him. Damn if he hadn’t nearly kissed her.
He hadn’t meant to.
She was about to beat the hell out of a spice jar, and he had automatically turned to help her. But then when he leaned over and his body touched hers… it was as if the very fabric of time stopped moving all around them, and he only wanted to pull her closer and taste her mouth… and feel her tender but fierce spirit that was so alive.Aye, he knew all was not what it seemed. There was a reason Willa was hiding here, and a reason this place was warded. She was in trouble of some sort, perhaps even mortal danger. He felt a fierce protectiveness rise in his chest. No one would harm her while he was here… and when he left… well, he couldn’t think about that now. She was not his, and he would not bring whatever trouble she was in back to his home. No woman was worth risking the safety of his clan. The river came into view, and he tossed the cake of soap idly in one hand. It was true that he could use a good scrubbing.
Willa stopped at the shore and put her things down on a large, flat rock. The river was wide but shallow, the clear water flowing past like liquid silk at this spot, and gurgling over stones just a little farther downstream. “Now, take off your clothes and kneel in the water there where the bottom is sandy, and I’ll wash your hair for you.”
Drust looked at her like she’d suddenly gone mad. He shook his head. “I think no’, lass. I can wash myself.”
She raised an eyebrow, clearly ready for him to argue. “You can’t wash your hair with one hand and do a good job of it”, she told him.
This was true. He still couldn’t lift his arm above his head on his injured side, it pulled too much on the healing wound. He glared at her, but kicked off his boots. He was feeling rather grimy and he supposed he was willing to sacrifice a little bit of pride to be completely clean. Willa had washed him while he was unconscious, but he hadn’t let her near him with her cloth and soap since. Not only would it have been torture, but he was certain he would have had an erection the size of a battle ax the entire time, which she would definitely have noticed. Not that she probably hadn’t noticed all of the others by now.
Willa gave him a victorious smile and reached for the hem of his tunic, whipping it up and over his head in one smooth motion, then tugging the sleeves down off his arms. She paused a moment to take in the site of his bare chest, still rippling with hard muscle even after he must have lost quite a bit of his former strength since he’d been injured. He had a body made for a woman’s every fantasy, and hers, admittedly, had always run a little wild. Would he ever willingly let her touch him?
He turned away and went toward the river, wading into the cool water. He slowly sunk to his knees at the deepest part, the water still reaching only half way up his chest. Willa quickly took off her dress, leaving only her shift on, and grabbed her bucket and soap.
The water was a cold shock to his skin, but God, it felt good.Clean and crisp.At home, he bathed in the loch nearly every day.He liked to feel clean.
He heard Willa wading towards him, but did not turn around. He knew she wore only her shift and he was trying to be honorable and not look, damn it. It would only make things worse for him, anyway. He felt her hand sweep his hair back from his shoulders. As always, his breath caught at her touch as pleasure swept over his skin.
“Tilt your head back”, she told him.
She filled her bucket and poured the water over his head, causing a new shock of cold to rip through his body. She poured again, and this time the shock was less. Then she soaped his hair and began to scrub, her fingers working gently against his scalp. Damn, but it felt good, her hands tugging gently at his hair. A small sound of pleasure escaped his throat. When she finished and began to rinse, he mourned the loss of her touch. Then she reached around to hand him a cake of soap. Leaning over, she spoke near his ear.
“Do you want to wash the rest, or shall I?”
She’s trying to kill me.
He glared at her, but took the soap and slipped it beneath the water to lather the rest of his body. It was all he could do to wash his private parts without leaving his hand fisted around his cock. He needed so badly to come, had needed to fordays… his whole body ached with it. He heard a splash, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Willa duck her head under and burst through the surface, water sluicing over her back and shoulders. She rose and took a few steps toward him.
“Are you finished with the soap?”
“Aye.”
She reached out and he handed it to her, realizing too late that the water had rendered the thin fabric of her shift nearly transparent. He saw the round swells of her breasts, and the rosy nipples puckered with cold. The wet fabric clung to the slim lines of her waist, and lower, he could see the darker triangle at the juncture of her thighs. She took the soap from his hand and sank slowly back into the water with a wicked grin, but not before the sight of her like that was burned forever into his memory. Her body was lean and muscular, yet soft and feminine and curved in all the right places. The delicate span of her waist flared to lush hips and long legs. He could not imagine anything more perfect. Her hair hung in damp ropes around her shoulders. The complete effect had been far more tantalizing than if she had been completely nude. Was the lasstryingto drive him mad, flaunting before him what he could not have? His hand slipped beneath the water to adjust the erection which still pressed uncomfortably against the wet breeches he had retied under the water. If he stood, she would no doubt notice the state he was in if she so much as glanced down, but there was no help for it. He got to his feet and made his way as quickly as he could to the shore, grabbing a drying cloth and toweling first his hair, then his body. Holding it strategically in front of his groin, he turned to see if Willa was still bathing. She was walking out of the water towards where he stood on the shore, her shift plastered to her wet body, and looking for all the world like Aphrodite rising from the sea. Except perhaps more beautiful. Aye, definitely more beautiful.
Still, there was only so much a man could take… and he was nearly at his limit.
“Lass”, Drust ground out, “have ye no modesty?”
“No”, she said simply. “Why? Do you think I should be ashamed of what Nature gave to me?” She narrowed her eyes in challenge.
“No. No’ ashamed. It’s just that I… I can see every damned inch of ye!”
“And you don’t like what you see?”
“Aye… I mean no… Och, lass, will ye just put some clothes on?”
She looked at him as ifhewere tryingherpatience!
