Page 24 of Highlander’s Vengeful Seduction

Vanora’s words were interrupted by the booming sounds of distant thunder, and just as she glanced up at the sky, a drop of rain fell onto her forehead, making her flinch. The storm had been lurking in the distance the entire day, but she had hoped that it wouldn’t reach them, at least not that night.

“We should hurry,” she said. “All this will turn into mud soon, and we’ll be drenched tae the bone.”

The last thing that she wanted was to catch her death out there, all because of some rain. She had successfully escaped from the castle, taking Donal with her, and she was not about to fall ill because of a storm, nor was she going to let Donal fall ill and lose him to something so trivial.

The two of them mounted their horses and began to ride through the woods, jumping over roots that peeked through the ground and fallen branches that blocked their way. The rain began to fall harder in the woods, its pattering sounds so loud that they drowned out the galloping of the horses. Vanora and Donal were forced to lower their heads and protect their faces from the falling drops and the sudden wind that had picked up within minutes, the storm seemingly eager to ruin all their plans.

“We cannae keep going for long!” Donal shouted so that Vanora could hear him over the cacophony of sounds around them. “We should find shelter!”

They were in the middle of the woods, though, and shelter was not the easiest thing to find out in the middle of nowhere. Vanora had traveled the woods often, sometimes accompanying her father, much to the dismay of her mother, and if there was anyone who knew the area, it was her.

“There is a hunting lodge, not tae far from here,” she shouted back, turning her head to look over her shoulder at Donal. “My father and his men used tae go there, but it’s abandoned now. There isnae aught else aroond here. We’ll have to go there.”

“Lead tha way!”

Vanora did as she was told, taking a sharp left turn. She didn’t look behind her, knowing that Donal would follow; instead, she rode towards the hunting lodge as fast as her horse could go, ignoring the freezing stabs of pain that came with every raindrop that landed on her face.

It didn’t take long for her to see the hunting lodge. It was hidden among trees, tall and imposing, which protected it from the elements. Although it was a while since anyone had visited the lodge, the walls still held up, as did the windows.

It would make a good shelter for the night.

The two of them left the horses in the small barn next to the lodge, making quick work of the reins and the saddles. By the time they made it inside the lodge, though, they were both dripping wet, rainwater drenching their clothes all the way to their skin, the fabric sticking to their bodies as they moved.

The lodge was cold, just as cold as it was outside, and Vanora couldn’t help but shiver as she tried to blow some warm air on her freezing fingers. Thankfully, there was wood there, plenty of it left by the fireplace the last time that the clansmen had gone hunting. Donal had lit a fire before Vanora could even consider it, fatigued as she was from the events of the day and the assault from the weather.

“Ye’ll need tae take yer clothes off,” Donal said before he realized what his words sounded like. “Ye’ll become ill if ye dinnae doff yer kit. I’ll find ye something else to wear.”

Vanora watched as Donal removed his own shirt, which was dripping with water, and laid it over the fireplace to dry. She did the same to her arisaid and then waited by the fire, rubbing her arms with her hands as she tried to bring some life back to them.

If Donal planned on staying shirtless for the remainder of their stay at the lodge, Vanora was quite certain that she would lose her mind. She had always known that Donal was a handsome man and that he had a strong body, built for battle. She had never seen him like that before—every muscle and every groove of his body on display just for her. Her fingers itched to touch his chiseled chest, and she wanted nothing more than to scrape her nails over the hills and valleys of his back.

It would be no trouble at all for him to lift her up in those arms of his, she thought, press her against the wall of the lodge, their bodies burning hotter than the fire as he—

“Here,” Donal said, handing Vanora a ratty blanket. “I couldnae find anything else, but at least this will keep ye warm until yer clothes dry.”

Vanora took the blanket in her hands, holding it close to her chest. “Could ye…could ye help me take these off?”

Dressing and undressing were not a one-woman job, after all. Vanora stood with her back to Donal, pulling her hair over her shoulder and away from her back so that he could have access to the laces that kept her corset in place.

For a few moments, nothing happened. No woman had asked Donal before to help her undress. Now that he had Vanora in front of him, who would soon be naked, seemed to make his brain stop, rendering it unable to function.

“Ye only have to unlace it,” Vanora said, hoping that it would help Donal relax a little. “I widnae ask, but I cannae reach.”

Vanora could hear the dry clicking sound of Donal’s throat as he swallowed, and then she felt a brush of fingers against her as he began to undress her. Even as his fingers tangled in the laces, he was gentle, patiently undoing the corset.

Even through the layers that still separated them, Vanora could feel the heat of his fingers on her skin. It sent a tingle down her spine, a tingle that settled between her legs, making her breath come out in soft puffs of air.

When Donal finally had undone the laces, Vanora was left in only her shift. It was almost transparent, the rainwater making the fabric cling to the curves of her breasts and hips.

She could see the way that Donal watched her like he was a predator, hungry for flesh like he couldn’t take her eyes off her. She hungered, too, for Donal and for everything that he could give her.

It was now or never, Vanora thought before she let her shift drop to the floor. She stood there, unmoving, her skin glistening in the faint light of the fire. Her clothes and the blanket were long forgotten, discarded on the floor, and all that remained was the two of them at the moment that stretched until the end of time.

“Vanora…”

It was all that Donal could say, but Vanora stopped him, walking up to him and pressing a finger against his lips to shush him. She took his hand in hers, slowly guiding it to the swell of her breasts, throwing her head back when Donal finally touched her the way that she wanted him to, the pads of his fingers grazing against her nipples, already sensitive from the cold.

That seemed to be all the encouragement that Donal needed. He attacked her lips with his own in a bruising kiss. His other hand ran down Vanora’s back, leaving goosebumps as it trailed down her spine, and eventually settled on her buttocks, drawing a drowned, desperate moan out of her.