Jane caressed his cheek. “You are a very, very handsome young man, Alistair,” she said.
Alistair grinned. “Is that so?” He sat up, and his gaze examined her body without the least bit of inhibition. Jane resisted the urge to hide herself. “Well, ye are a very, very beautiful young woman.”
“I was not looking for compliments.” Jane said.
“I didnae pay ye one, lass. I merely told ye the truth.” Something on Jane’s leg seemed to catch his attention, for his gaze lingered there. “Ye have an interesting birthmark,” he said to Jane, his eyebrow raised. “I have a similar one, in the exact area as yers.”
“I know,” Jane said. “Do you believe in magic, Alistair? In soulmates, fate, and things like that?”
“Aye,” Alistair said.
“I believe the birthmarks mean something. That we are kindred spirits, bound in some way. They cannot be a mere coincidence. What do you think?”
Alistair grinned. “That I should probably taste yours.” He bent to her leg and pressed kisses on the birthmark.
“You are a wild, indecent man,” Jane said with a laugh.
“Aye,” Alistair agreed. “And from the looks of things, you like wild indecent men.”
* * *
The birthmark on Jane’s thigh had surprised him, although he’d tried not to show it. How was it that two people, borne of different parents, in two different countries, had the same mark in the exact same place?
When Jane asked if he believed in magic, he’d said yes. His answer might have been different if the question had come a few days before. He was not oblivious to the workings of the spiritual arts, light or dark. In his father’s time, people who were accused of practicing black magic had been brought to judgment. His father had always declined to judge such matters and had in some way or another worked his way around it.
And he had heard of healers whose powers transcended the roots and herbs that they fed their patients. They were one with benign spirits, it was said, spirits that granted them the capacity to cure even the direst of sicknesses.
And he had witnessed the events that the witch of the Highlands had set in motion, which had led to the death of two able-bodied men within days of each other.
When it came to the matter of fate, warriors were taught to make their own. The thought of stars laboring in the heavens to determine one’s destiny was a lazy one. Scottish warriors pushed themselves to the limits and beyond it. There were fearless in life and looked death boldly in the face.
And concerning soulmates, he had not believed it until he had met Jane. He immediately knew that the connection he felt to her was not ordinary. From the first moment he had seen her, he had felt a stirring that was too deep to be plain desire. It was as though he had known her all his life. And while he had teased and tested her, it had given a certain thrill to his soul. Eliciting reactions from her gave him an inexplicable joy. And sharing her body had been rhapsodic. Bringing her pleasure had given him a kind of pleasure that he had never felt before. Something in her called to him, pulled him. If he was not careful, he would fall. Helplessly. Hopelessly.
“What are you thinking about?”
Alistair snapped back to attention. Jane’s green eyes were fixed on his face. She looked a little worried. “Have I done something wrong?”
“Nay,” Alistair said quickly. “I was just lost in thought.”
Jane bit her lip, a simple gesture carried out without thought but which rekindled the fire within him. “What were you thinking about?” Jane asked.
“Ye,” Alistair replied.
“And what about me? I am right here in your arms. You need not think about a person who is right in your arms.”
“Oh, but ye can,” Alistair. “I was thinking of how lovely you look, and how very much I love your eyes.”
“Is that right?” Jane asked with a sultry chuckle.
“Yes,” Alistair returned. “And how much I cherish these.” He nipped at first her right breast, and then her left.
The sultry chuckle again. “Are you in earnest?”
“Yes, Jane Marsh of England.”
“Well, is that all?”
“Hardly,” Alistair replied, and his index finger and middle finger charted a course from her breasts to her belly to the V of her thighs. “And how much I-”
