“Glad I am to hear it,” he said, kneelingdown on the grass and bringing her with him.He lay on his side,facing her, and trailed his hand over her shoulder, the dip of herwaist, the swell of her hip, the soft firmness of her buttocks.Hemoved his hand over her belly and between her legs.She was as wetand ready for him as he was hard for her.“Glad I am you chose me,my lady owl.”
“Glad I am you chose me, sir stag,” shebreathed, her eyes dark with passion.“Though I’m not sure how muchof a choice either of us really had in the choosing.”
“I wouldn’t have had it any other way,” Roarksaid, moving his hand over her soft, tender flesh.“No matter whathappens.”
He woke with his nose buried in her nape, hisarm hugging her close and his cock nestled against the soft warmthof her backside.Glancing around to get his bearings, he shot up.“Damnation.”
Alina stirred and blinked her sleep-filledeyes and yawned.“What’s the matter?”
“We’ve gone and slept our way into theafternoon,” he said, standing and running his hands through hisstill grimy hair.“Which means we’ve cut any advantage we’d gainedover Ned and the lads by a good bit.”
Alina sat up and pushed her mane of tangledhair back from her face, her cheeks still rosy from sleep and theirlovemaking.“Do you think they’ll come after us again?Or considerthemselves lucky we didn’t slit their throats when we had thechance and call it even?”
“I don’t know.”Roark grabbed his breechesand pulled them on.“They may consider letting them live rewardenough, but the ten pounds of silver they’d planned on getting forme alone was likely more than they’d earn in a year of hard labor,even split three ways.”He donned his tunic.“Let’s hope theirhorses wandered away.”
Alina eyed the stream and stood.“So much fora wash and a rinse.”
She pulled on her breeches and her boots andwalked over to the stream, her top half still unclad, and kneltdown and splashed water over her face and under her arms.When shestood up, her hair in wild disarray, the gold pearl danglingbetween her full breasts, her nipples pebbled and pointing straightat him, Roark was sorely tempted to take his chances with the menwho may have been coming after them for another romp with thebeautiful, wild creature standing before him, staring at his nakedchest and smiling like a cat about to lap up a bowl of cream.
Roark stepped toward her, a low growl of maleapproval rumbling in his chest, when the horses startled, snortingand dancing on their line.Roark and Alina went still, both of themeyeing their waist belts and blades where they lay on the groundseveral feet away.They let out big sighs of relief when a doedarted across the stream.
“We’d better get riding,” Roark said.“Withany luck, we should make Silver Water Keep sometime tomorrowafternoon.”
***
Roark counted four riders approaching fromhalf a league west, all of them armed.He capped the spyglass andgave Alina a reassuring nod.“They’ve spotted us,” he told her.
“What do we do now?”
“We stay on the road and continue to ridetoward them.”
It was late afternoon and the sun was intheir faces, not a favorable position for a fight, which Roark washoping to avoid.As the four riders neared, he held out his arms tohis sides, palms up and empty, as did Alina.One of the ridersstopped twenty paces from them, notched an arrow to his bow, andaimed it at Roark’s chest while the other three rode right up tothem, two of them pulling their long swords and flanking Roark andAlina.
“What are you doing on MacLeod lands?”thefourth man asked.He was a tall, lanky greybeard with a beaked noseand eyes, a lacquered vest and arm bands.
“We come to speak with your laird,” Roarkanswered.“My name is—”
“Roark MacInnes,” the man said.“We know whoyou be.”He jutted his chin toward Alina.“And who she be aswell.”
“If you know of us by the laird RogerMacKinnon’s men,” Roark said, “then you’re mistaken as to who sheis.”
“How so?”
“That’s for us to tell your laird.”
The greybeard chuffed and the two menflanking Roark and Alina edged their mounts closer, their swordsstill pointed at them.“What makes you think we won’t kill youright here and save the laird the trouble?”
“If you were going to kill us, we’d alreadybe dead,” Roark reasoned.“Besides, the reward offered is for usreturned to Roger alive.”He eyed the greybeard and played hishand.“I don’t think you’d want to be killing the laird’s ownkin.”
“Kin?”The greybeard took a closer look atAlina, his perusal stopping and holding at her big, emerald greeneyes.“Follow me,” he told them, swinging his mount back north.
The road was bordered on the west by a wide,fast-moving river, and on the east by woods of oak and pinecovering the hillsides.Roark and Alina rode side by side as theyfollowed the river northwest for another league where it flowedinto a loch surrounded by verdant fields of farmland newly plantedwith spring crops, and low-lying hillsides dotted with sheep,cattle, and horses.
Several small thatch houses lined the roadwhere the river met the loch, and four fishing boats were docked ata wooden pier.They turned northeast for another quarter league androde up to a two-story manor house of stone and wood the size ofNorth Shore Keep and Thorn Bush Keep combined, with a hugewell-kept lawn, a fenced rose garden, and numerousoutbuildings.
They followed the greybeard through a stonearchway onto the keep’s grounds, drawing a crowd as they neared themanor house.The greybeard pulled his horse up near the mainentrance to the house and dismounted, indicating they should do thesame.Stable hands came running, and Alina held her hands up asthey approached Etain.
“Please, move slowly with her,” she said tothe eager young man reaching for the mare’s reins.“She’s gentleenough, but skittish with strangers.”
