“I love you, Alec Mackay…and I’ll hold you tae it.”
He looked surprised for an instant, and then threw his head back and laughed, which made her bob against him with her legs still wound around his hips as she felt him grow hard again inside her.
“Och, now, you’re a greedy Highlander.”
He didn’t answer, but spun her around, still laughing, and carried her to the bed…though not the side that Sheena had occupied. With one hand, he drew the bedspread up to the pillows and then sank with Rowen onto the mattress with their bodies still joined, Alec bracing himself on his elbows and looking into her eyes.
“I will have the sheets changed straightaway. I dinna want you lying upon them after she defiled our marriage bed?—”
“Dinna speak about it anymore…it’s done, forgotten,” Rowen murmured, touched more than she could say that he would show such protectiveness toward her. “Kiss me, husband, and let’s bless the bed together, aye?”
“Aye, wife…aye,” Alec uttered with a husky groan before obliging her with an impassioned kiss—only to stop suddenly and lift his head to stare at her as if stricken. “Och, no, the healer gave me some soothing balm for you and told me tae wait a day or two before we?—”
“I’m fine, you’ve nothing tae fear.” Reaching up to cradle his handsome face, she gave a small giggle and shifted her hips beneath him. “You’re a lusty, impetuous man, did you know that?”
Alec’s low laugh gave her shivers, and she gasped when he pressed his hips against hers…that part of him buried inside her growing harder and thicker still, to her amazement.
“And you’re a lusty woman…aye, Rowen?”
She couldn’t speak for the delicious sensations coursing through her with his every slow thrust, but only nodded her head as he sank down to kiss her again, most soundly.
* * *
“You deceive only yourself, Sheena!”Kael hissed to her emphatically, his face mottled with anger as they stood together outside the kitchen door. “The laird doesna love you?—”
“But he will one day, I know it!” she blurted, wincing when her brother grabbed her arm.
“Shh, someone will hear us, keep your voice low.”
Kael pulled her further away from the door and kept his face close to hers. “You were a fool tae slip into the laird’s bed, dinna you see? He will banish you and mayhap me as well, and then where will we be?”
“That is why I need your help! I heard some of the men talking last night that they will be riding out this morning with Alec tae search for those raiders?—”
“Och, woman, Laird Mackay tae you.”
“No, I will call him what I will. We both know where those Orkneymen hide their ships while harrying the coast, and it isna far from here. You helped the old laird trade with them for years, though it was forbidden by the Mackay chief.”
“Och, he loved their honey mead more than the silver it cost him, but that secret will get us both banished for certain,” Kael hissed again, glancing around them to ensure no one was close by. “Not tae a distant village, but out of Strathnaver forever.”
“Aye, I overheard as well that Tira Cheyne was spied last night aboard their leader’s ship—what was his name?”
“Thorgren Sigurdson,” whispered Kael as he seemed to shudder. “A foul-tempered brute of a man. I was almost glad when the old laird choked tae death on a chicken bone so I didna have tae trade with that raider anymore on his behalf—but what does all of this have tae do with us?”
“You will take Alec’s enemy bride tae them as soon as Alec and his men leave the castle.”
Sheena knew her brother was shocked given his sharp intake of breath, and now it was she that dug her fingers into his arm when he shook his head.
“You’ve gone mad, lass?—”
“No, butIwill be the lady here and then neither of us will have tae toil as servants ever again. Either you will help me or Alec will know the part you played with those raiders, aye, dinna doubt I will do it. His wife hates him, we’ve all seen it, and now she despises him even more after finding me naked in his bed. Alec will think she left him tae return tae Sutherland country—aye, either way, good riddance tae her!”
Sheena spoke with such a harsh edge in her voice that Kael actually looked frightened of her, but mayhap it was her threat to expose his complicity with the Orkney raiders.
“It’s providence, brother, dinna you see? Not only will I become Lady Mackay, but we’ll have revenge at last for the Sutherlands slaughtering our parents! Isna that enough reason for you tae help me?”
Kael gave a slow nod, though he still appeared unconvinced no matter her threat, which filled her with angry frustration as an outcry went up from the guards manning the high ramparts.
“Riders approaching! Alert Laird Mackay!”
