“Wasn’t that the song Oona the Swan sang toAsad the Lion, the first night they met?”Rose asked.She spoke toAlina, but her gaze was on Roark.“The night they first met andfell madly in love?”
“It was,” Alina answered.She smiled atRoark.“She was a true MacLeod woman, destined to fall in love withher mate at first sight, as he was destined to fall in love withher.”Her smile turned bittersweet.“A love that neither time nordistance could ever lessen.”
The hall was silent again.Alina tore hergaze from Roark’s only to realize that all eyes and ears were onthem, none more intently than Rose’s.Clearing her throat, Alinaraised her cup to the laird and lady.
“To the MacLeods,” she said, her voicesteadier than her hand.“May they always find their trueloves.”
“To the MacLeods,” a chorus of voicestoasted.“To true love.”
***
Alina pushed off the bedcovers, cracked openthe door, and peeked into the dark, quiet hallway.It wasn’t quitemidnight, which was when Roark had come to her room the past twonights, but she couldn’t wait any longer.She’d been in an almostconstant state of arousal since singing “Somebody” to Roark infront of an entire hall of people, and if she didn’t get somerelease soon, she feared she’d be crawling up the walls like a catin heat.What was she going to do when they parted?
She padded barefoot to Roark’s door andknocked lightly.The bolt slid open almost immediately, and thenshe was standing eye to eye through the crack in the door withhim.
“Ali?”He opened the door, pulled her in,shut and bolted the door, and crushed her to him.“Ach, Ali girl,I’ve been pacing round and round this room, trying to wait until Iwas sure everyone else was abed before I went to you.”He held herby the shoulders and peered intently into her eyes.“Are youunwell?Is anything amiss?”
Alina shook her head.“Everything’s fine.Icouldn’t wait to be with you.Besides,” she said with anunapologetic shrug, “I’m fairly sure the entire household knowswe’ve shared a bed together by now.”
“Aye,” Roark said, grinning slow and easy,stirring her insides from a simmer to a slow boil.“I’d wageryou’re right.”He leaned in close and whispered in her ear.“Afteryour singing ‘Somebody’ tonight, I’d wager every couple in thishouse are doing the verra same thing we’re about to do.”
Alina placed her palm on his cheek, met andheld his gaze.“I sang it to you, Roark, for you, only you.”
He took her hand in his and kissed her palm,his lips warm and full of promise.“I know, love,” he whisperedroughly.“I’ve been near to bursting with pride and need eversince.”
She snaked both hands behind his neck.“Thentake me to your bed, sir stag,” she breathed into his lips.“Showme what a proud, lusty man you are.”
He scooped her up in his arms, grinning ather little shriek.“Your wish is my command, my lady owl.”Hetossed her onto the bed and shucked his tunic and breeches as Alinahastily doffed her borrowed night shift, and then he stood at theside of the bed, gazing down at her.“Damnation, you’re a beautifulwoman, Alina.”
The warmth of his regard and his praisesuffused her limbs with liquid heat and filled her heart tobursting.She reached out and touched the soft tip of his erection,grinning as it jumped.
“And you are a handsome figure of a man,Roark MacInnes.”She held out her arms to him.“Come to bed andmake love to me.Take me away to our own special world.”
“It will be my honor and my pleasure,” hesaid, his voice husky with desire.He laid himself over the lengthof her and propped himself up on his elbows, nestling his thickerection in her thatch.He lowered his mouth to hers, claiming herwith his kiss, and Alina surrendered herself with a soughing sigh.He lifted his head and stared into her eyes, his own shining likerain in moonlight.
“How am I supposed to live without those eyespouring down on me?”Alina asked him, the gods, the fates.“I’llbecome like the earth in a drought, all dried up and dying for lackof rain.”
“Don't say that, Ali love,” he rasped.“Knowthat wherever I am, I’ll be thinking of you, remembering you,remembering this, and dreaming of when we can be togetheragain.”
“If we can ever be together again,” shewhispered, her throat constricting and hot tears blurring hervision.She squeezed her eyes shut.She’d promised herself shewouldn’t cry, not in front of him.That she would hold her tearsthrough sheer will if she had to, at least until she was on a shipand sailing away from him.Crying wouldn’t change anything.Itwould only make them feel worse.She met his somber gaze and filledher own with determination.“Promise me,” she said.“Swear to meyou won’t let Roger kill you to satisfy some noble notion of whatyou owe your family.That you’ll fight the lying, vindictive snakewith every fiber of your being.”
“I promise,” he said, his voice rough.“Iswear to you I’ll not go without a fight.”He held her face in hishands, his expression serious.“What I can’t promise, love, is thatI won’t end up dead anyway.”
Alina closed her eyes to keep back hertears.
“Or worse,” he said.“Married toGwyneth.”
Alina burst out laughing.“A fate worse thandeath,” she agreed.She bumped her pelvis against his.“See thatyou remember who your first wife is.”
“My first.”He kissed her forehead.“Mylast.”He kissed her cheek.“My only, as far as my heart isconcerned.”
Alina drew his head down and kissed him.Kissed him long and hard and searing, branding him with her lips,claiming him, his love.He was hers as she was his.“I love you,Roark, now and always,” she told him.“Nothing will ever changethat.”
He burrowed his face into her neck and kissedand nipped his way to her breast, taking her nipple into his mouthand suckling until she was arching her back to give him more, togive him all.He kissed his way to her other breast, repeating hisattentions as he moved his hand down her belly and through hercurls, running a fingertip along her folds, wet and eager for histouch.She sighed as his mouth left her breast, and then purred ashe kissed his way down her belly, parting her curls and flickingthe tip of his tongue over her bud.
“You taste as sweet as honey,” he said, hislow growl vibrating from her flesh to her bones.He ran blissful,tortuous circles around her nubbin with his tongue until she waswrithing in rhythm with him, and then he took her nubbin in hismouth and sucked.She bucked her pelvis straight up and went rigid,all sensation centered in that one tiny piece of flesh as he lickedand suckled, pulling her up and up until she soared over theprecipice, her body a mass of raw nerves and pulsing pleasure.
She drifted back to reality, to Roark, andmoaned as he lifted himself over her and between her legs.Henudged her still-sensitive flesh with the soft, blunt tip of hiserection, and Alina opened herself to him, welcoming him, all ofhim, deep inside her, filling her with his hard, pulsing heat.
