He groaned. The sound tore the last meager fibers of courage from her attackers. Their death was swift. Both heads fell to the ground with one mighty blow.
Callum sank to his knees beside Kate, biting back another forceful groan. Reaching his hand out, he closed his eyes and touched her throat to discover if she lived. He sighed with such relief his shoulders sagged to his chest. He scooped her up into his arms and held her close before he kissed her cherished brow. She shivered, unconscious in his embrace, and he cursed the rain for soaking her so. Ahern was nowhere to be found, but had the old horse been standing beside him, it would have made no difference. Kate was freezing, and Camlochlin was leagues away.
The cave was easy to find. There were many carved into the jagged cliff walls of Elgol. Callum built a roaring fire out of dry driftwood found deeper within the rocky crevice and some dried seaweed, which he used to cushion the cold ground before he laid Kate upon it. He undressed her, getting her out of her dripping clothes, and then he, too, stripped naked and lay down beside her. Her teeth chattered, but still she did not awaken, making Callum pray the bastards had not struck her with anything more serious than their fists.
“Nae, ye just find it pleasin’ to sleep aroond me, dinna ye, Katie, my love,” he whispered while he soaked his vision with her. Now that she was back safely in his arms, he knew he had to have been daft to ever let her go. He wrapped one long leg over her hips and dragged her closer against his warmth. Facing her, he used his large hands to rub the cold from each limb. He did not stop until her flesh grew warm. She moaned and nuzzled closer to him. He closed his eyes to stop the wave of emotion aching to be released, and the rush of silken heat that having her naked body against his made him feel. “Och, lass, what have ye done to this poor fool of a man? I shouldna keep ye with me, and ’tis makin’ me so daft I canna think straight.” He smoothed wet curls over her forehead, watching her—watching her until he knew that not being able to do so would be worse than being shackled to any dungeon wall. “God have mercy on ye, Katie, but I love ye.”
Kate’s eyes drifted open an hour later. Thick cobwebs settled over her like a warm woolen blanket. A very warm blanket. She snuggled deeper beneath it and faded back to sleep. She dreamed of Callum’s handsome face so close to hers, sleeping beside her, his strong arms clinging to her as if his survival depended on her. Somewhere deep within her, her heart told her it did.
Chapter Thirty
KATE OPENED HER EYES. For a moment she thought she was still dreaming. But, and God help her, that face was real. The warm, spicy breath falling on her cheek was real. He had come for her, saved her from . . . She lifted her hand off Callum’s chest and brought it to her swollen lip. An instant later, her gaze slipped back to him.
His bare chest.
She looked down and squeaked. She was naked! He was naked! Instinct made her jerk away from him, but his arm curled around her more firmly and then hauled her into an embrace that snatched the breath from her body. She gasped. He snored. Her bones went pliant against him. What was this? How had he found her? Why had he found her?
She would ask him why later; right now she was too occupied with the task of trying to still her beating heart, for it rejoiced with such a loud thumping she was sure it was what had awakened him. For when she looked at his face again, his gentle gaze made her tingle all the way down to her toenails. She smiled and then blushed.
Callum was sure his poor heart would never recover.
“Where are our clothes?” she whispered, lowering her gaze modestly.
“Dryin’. Ye were freezin’ and I had to keep ye warm.”
He still had not released her, and she did not want him to. Not ever again. “Why did you come for me?”
He pulled her closer into the steel of his arms. “I didna want to send ye away, Katie.”
“They were going to sell me.” She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek to his chest. “And all I could think of was you.”
Callum’s jaw danced beneath his flesh. God help him, how could he ever live without her? “Dinna fear, lass. They’ll no’ be comin’ back.”
Kate did not hear the terrible beast in his voice, only the hollowed guilt of a man who knew killing was the sole way to survive and wished it wasn’t.
She stared up into the flames of his eyes, blue-gold kilns where his passion for life, for hope, for revenge, and for redemption burned. He had killed many. He had become something detestable, and his cause had ceased to be an honorable one in his own eyes. But nowhere in that powerful gaze was there hatred. She smiled, suddenly understanding why he had sent her away. He became a monster to save what he loved.
“You rescued me again.”
God’s mercy, would she always look at him as if he were a hero? Callum wondered. Even when he tried to enlighten her about his black heart, she refused to see it. “Kate.” he almost didn’t want to utter it. Damn it, he had to admit to himself that he quite honestly loved being a hero to her. But he was not a knight. He was not a hero. “I’m naught but a coldhearted bastard. I—”
She shook her head. “You are more than I ever dreamed of. What you do, you have been forced to do to protect those you love, to save your clan from extinction. Sometimes I can do naught more than ask the Lord what I have done to deserve meeting a man such as you, my laird MacGregor.”
His gaze ravaged her with a need so profound she felt her heart stall. He brought his fingertips to her lips and angled his head toward hers. “Yer bruised.” The husky warmth of his voice singed her nerve endings. “Does it pain ye?”
“Aye,” she barely whispered.
He kissed her mouth softly. “Still?” When she nodded, he kissed her again, gentle, meaningful kisses that made her head spin. “How aboot now?”
“I fear it is bruised mightily, my laird.” Her long lashes fluttered against his cheek. She parted her lips, waiting.
He did not make her wait, but rose up over her and watched her surrender beneath him. His breath was heavy, ragged. He looked like he wanted to say something—something that might rip his heart from his chest. He grazed his lips over hers and kissed each one with worshipful appreciation. The length and breadth of him descended full upon her. He parted her lips with his fingertips and then licked the seam of her mouth. ’Twas not the powerful control he possessed that made him so exquisitely thorough in the claiming of her mouth, but the need to savor every moment of touching her.
She opened easily to his plunging tongue and moaned into his mouth as he tasted her. She felt his rigid flesh against her untried body, but it did not frighten her. He was her knight. A savage in his own right, but his hands moved over her like silken flames, so utterly tender she thought she might go mad. When those hands found her breasts, a low sob of need escaped her. She arched her back to meet his hungry mouth sooner, and the wondrous agony of his warm lips caressing hers sent a titillating explosion of fire down her belly and between her legs.
When he broke their kiss to stare into her eyes, she smiled at him, loving him and wanting to be with him this way. “Kate,” he whispered, and the desire in his eyes changed into something more pleading. “If we do this, ye’ll be a MacGregor and nothin’ will be able to change it.”
She heard the fear for her well-being in his voice and stroked her fingers along his tight jaw. “I am already one, and nothing can change it. Nothing.” She pulled him down, without having to use much force, and kissed him until he felt her whole heart in it.
