His, she was his.
He licked the salt of her skin, breathed in the smell of her desire. As he sought more bare skin beneath her clothes, he kissed her breasts and pressed his cock against her thigh. There was far too much cloth between them, and he was desperate for her.
“Hurry, Duncan, hurry,” Moira pleaded in ragged breaths as she jerked at her skirts, trying to help free them. “I want ye now.”
The lass was going to kill him. With a final tug, he had her skirts up around her waist.
“I love ye so much,” he said. “And I do know you.”
Moira clamped her legs around him and lifted her hips to meet him. As he plunged into her, he squeezed his eyes shut against the rush of pleasure that surged through him. He paused, deep inside her, reveling in the sensation. This was where he was meant to be. She was his. And God knew, he was hers. He had been since the beginning of time.
“Aye, aye,” she gasped as he began moving inside her.
She was everything he wanted, and he was claiming her, body and soul. She tossed her head from side to side and held on to him, making frantic little noises as he thrust deeply, again and again.
“Don’t stop,” she pleaded as he reached the very edge of his control.
They cried each other’s name as they came together in an explosion of pleasure that was so intense it blinded him. He rested his forehead on the bed beside her, gasping for air. He was trying not to crush her, but he could hardly hold himself up. Finally, he gave up and collapsed beside her. They lay side by side, breathing hard, their skin damp with perspiration.
Duncan stared up at the fancy drapes that hung around her bed. That hadn’t resolved anything, but he felt a whole hell of a lot better.
“I’m leaving to take Trotternish Castle now,” he said. “And ye had best be waiting here for me.”
“And if I’m not?” Moira said, raising her eyebrows.
“I will come find you.” He cupped her cheek with his hand and held her gaze. “You and I are one, and we will always be.”
Chapter 33
As Duncan made his way down the hill to meet Alex’s boat, he was glad for the dense fog that had rolled in with the night, covering the sea and the shore. No one would see them slip out of the bay. Duncan was twenty paces from where Alex’s boat was pulled up on shore before its black outline emerged from the dark gray billowing fog.
As Duncan drew closer, he could make out the figures of the men in the boat—and one man leaning against it. He knew it was Connor even before he was close enough to recognize the long, lean frame.
“Duncan,” Alex called out in a soft voice from the boat, and Duncan raised his hand in greeting.
“We must talk,” Connor said. “In private.”
Duncan sighed inwardly. Connor was furious with him—and rightly so—for carrying Moira out of the hall like that, declaring to the world that he was bedding the chieftain’s sister. Though Duncan knew they must have this conversation, he had hoped to delay it until after they had taken Trotternish Castle.
“Ye shouldn’t leave the castle without guards,” Duncan said when they had walked through the fog far enough to be out of earshot of the others.
Connor chafed under the constraints for his personal protection that came with being chieftain, but he understood what his death would mean for the clan so he usually complied.
But not tonight.
“I have important business with ye.” Connor put a hand on Duncan’s shoulder, but there was no mistaking the steel in his voice. “We need to discuss my sister.”
Though he and Connor had been his best friends since the cradle, Connor would put the interests of the clan before their friendship. Duty to the clan was ingrained in Connor’s soul, and it weighed even more heavily on him now that he was chieftain.
“What is it ye wish to know?” Duncan asked, delaying the inevitable.
Connor squeezed his shoulder harder and leaned close. “Ye know damned well what I’m asking.”
Connor, Ian, and Alex had always treated Duncan as an equal, but others had not because his father was unknown. Duncan had worked hard—harder than anyone—until he became a warrior of such strength and skill that he commanded respect in his own right.
Still, asking to wed his chieftain’s sister was reaching above him.
“I know this is not what ye want for Moira or for the clan,” Duncan said. “But I can’t live without her.”
