Forbidden Highlander

Chapter Twenty

Larena’s legs crumpled as she watched Fallon walk away from her. She slid down the wall and rested her cheek against the stones to help cool her heated skin, skin that craved his hands, his lips.

Fallon brought out her passion so easily. Just a few words and the delicious timbre of his voice, and she ached to feel him. Her sex throbbed for the release she knew only Fallon could give her, but it was more than the physical pleasure he brought her. Being near him did something to her. She felt more like the woman she always thought she would be.

She had wanted to tell Fallon that he hadn’t been wrong, she had felt what was between them. How could she not?

Her body trembled with the need to have him against her, on top of her … inside her. She might have thought she could detach herself from him, but her body wouldn’t let her.

And her heart … her heart she would desperately try to keep safe, though she feared she might very well lose it to the laird of the MacLeods.

Larena rose on unsteady legs, the heat from her blood making her long to find Fallon. Instead, she took a deep, steadying breath and tried to slow her racing heart. The breeze stirred over her skin, reminding her of the warmth of Fallon’s breath. Just thinking about it sent chills of anticipation down her back.

Denying the need for him seemed ludicrous. They had found a passion together that she had only ever dreamed of. Why not take what happiness she could find in his arms? Especially since she didn’t know what the coming days would bring now that Deirdre knew of her existence and Fallon said an attack would come.

Larena spun around and hurried to her chamber. She had asked Cara to give her another one since she couldn’t stay in Fallon’s. Now she wished she hadn’t.

Once inside her chamber, she stripped out of the borrowed gown and reached for the bowl of water.

Fallon shouldn’t have been shocked to learn Larena had requested another chamber. But he was. It hurt more than he wanted to admit when he walked in and found no trace of her. It was true he rarely used his chamber, but he had looked forward to coming here all day knowing she would be sharing it with him.

Had he been wrong about the desire between them? It had been centuries since he had taken a woman, but he had thought he sensed in Larena something different, something that had always been unreachable, unattainable before.

He blamed it on Lucan and Cara. Lucan had given Fallon hope that he, too, could discover contentment in a life he had thought doomed.

Fallon gave up staring at the door waiting for Larena to come to him and fell back on the bed with a sigh. He needed to face the fact that she didn’t want him anymore. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he had an idea it had to do with her ring and the Scroll.

If it was, she would never tell him, but Fallon wasn’t about to give up. He wouldn’t take the Scroll from her or allow another to seize it. Unless she told him about it, however, he could never prove his intentions to her. It all came down to trust.

He had never had his worthiness questioned before. In his clan, it was a given he was honorable because of who he was. Yet, Larena had been alone most of her time as a Warrior. She learned early on not to trust anyone. So it was no wonder she didn’t tell him about the Scroll.

Fallon wasn’t sure how he would gain her faith, but he would do whatever was necessary. She was his to protect whether she knew it or not.

He shouldn’t want her as he did. He knew nothing good could come of it. As much as he wanted to be the man his father had intended for him to be, Fallon had failed in every way possible. Everything he was doing now was to atone for the past, but nothing could make up for what he had done to his brothers.

And Larena? Did he dare to bring her close enough to him so that he could fail her too? He shouldn’t want her to want him like he did. It would be much better for Larena if she found someone else. But the thought of another man touching her brought fury unlike any Fallon had ever experienced rushing through him.

He threw his arm over his eyes in an effort to find the sleep he knew wouldn’t come. His mind was filled with Larena, Quinn, the Scroll, and the next attack by Deirdre. He thought of the village and wondered if other Warriors and possibly Druids would come to the castle. He worried how he would feed them all, and most importantly, how he would protect them from Deirdre.

His head began to ache at the base of his skull. There were so many decisions to be made, so many lives to consider. It was one of the reasons he looked to Lucan as often as he did. Fallon might be the leader of their little group, but he wanted to hear what the others had to say and consider every angle.

He didn’t know how long he lay there staring at the canopy of his bed. He knew before he smelled the lilies that Larena was in his chamber. His body recognized her in an instant, and the hunger that was never far filled him again.

Fallon sat up and found her standing at the side of his bed studying him. Her golden tresses fell around her naked body in wild disarray, hiding her lovely breasts from his gaze. He wanted to reach for her hand and pull her against him. But she had to come to him. She had to be the one to acknowledge the undeniable passion that pulsed between them.

“You didn’t imagine it,” she whispered. “There was something between us in Edinburgh. There is still something between us, Fallon.”

“Yet you doona want there to be something, do you? What do you fear?”

She shook her head and licked her lips. “I don’t want to want you, but I cannot stop the feelings inside me. I can’t think when you’re around me, but then when you’re not, I find that I cannot think of anything but you.”

Fallon was glad he had stripped out of his clothes. He didn’t want to waste another moment without feeling his skin against her bare flesh. He fisted his hands in the covers and fought to keep his desire under control.

“You came to me,” he murmured.

She smiled wryly. “My body, it seems, is yours to command.”

“As mine is yours.”

“Is it?” She leaned forward to run her finger along his leg.

He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry. As her hand neared his crotch, his cock swelled, eager to feel her hands on him. “You know it is. I’ve been yours since I first saw you.”

Her fingers cupped his balls and gently rolled them in her hand. “I’m not sure if I believe you.”

Fallon was on fire. He couldn’t form a coherent thought as her hands caressed him, building the flames that already threatened to burn him. He lay back on the bed, offering himself to her. “Tonight. I am yours.”

“Good.” Never releasing his balls, she climbed on the bed and straddled his legs. Her other hand claimed his cock as her fingers wrapped around his thickness. She stroked his length before gently rubbing her finger on the sensitive head. “Since the first time I saw you I’ve longed to touch you thus.”

Fallon never wanted her to stop. His rod jumped when she ran a finger along the underside of his arousal. He was close to spilling, but he didn’t care. Larena was with him and she was touching him. That was enough.

For now, at least.

Her hands knew just where to stroke, just how much pressure to apply to give him the most pleasure. Sweat beaded his skin and he clenched the covers in an effort to keep from grabbing her and throwing her down on the bed before he plunged inside her.

Fallon moaned and his eyes rolled back in his head when he felt her hair tickle his legs. Her warm breath washed over his cock, making it buck in her hands before it swelled even more.

And then he felt her mouth on him.

Fallon groaned and lifted his head so he could watch. Her soft lips fit around him as she took him deep in her mouth while her tongue stroked him. He had never felt anything so good, so wicked, in his very long life.

“Ah, sweet heaven, Larena, you’re killing me,” he murmured, his gaze fastened on her wet lips over his cock. His hands went to her head to grip her hair. He couldn’t decide if he had reached for her to halt the exquisite pleasure or to make sure she never stopped.

But it became too much. He could sense his seed rushing up, and though the thought of spilling in her mouth left him dizzy, he wanted to feel her wet heat surround him.

Fallon lifted her and rolled her onto her back in one move. He leaned over her, his hands braced on either side of her head. Their gazes locked and held.

“You have no idea what you do to me,” he said. He had to make her understand how important she was to him.

She smiled wickedly then. “I like the taste of you. I want more.”

He moaned and clenched his teeth together. She was going to kill him.

Fallon decided she needed some payback and leaned down to take a nipple in his mouth. He stopped just short of his lips touching the tiny bud and flicked his tongue over it. He chuckled when her nipple hardened.

“Fallon,” she said with a little cry.

He didn’t keep her waiting. He covered the nipple with his lips and let his tongue twirl around the bud before nipping it with his teeth.

Larena’s back arched and her nails scoured his back. He rubbed his cock against her sex and felt the moisture there, the readiness that told him she craved his touch.

“Shall I taste you as you’ve tasted me?” he asked against her breast as he kissed from one nipple to the other.

She tossed her head back and forth. “Please, nay. I need you. Now.”

Just as he guided the head of his arousal to her entrance, she pushed at his shoulders until he rolled onto his back. He stared up at her with a smile as she once more straddled his hips and held herself over his cock.

He trembled with the aching need to have her, to bury himself in her heat and thrust inside her. But he waited. She tortured him by holding his rod in her hand, her sex hovering over him, giving him just the barest touch of her wet heat.

Fallon growled and tried to think of anything but the woman above him so he wouldn’t peak. But she demanded all of his attention, and he couldn’t deny her anything.

Inch by agonizing inch she lowered herself onto his straining cock. Fallon lifted his hips to bury himself deeper, but Larena kept in control. She was driving him daft with need.

And he loved every moment of it.

When she took all of him, he reached for her breasts and thumbed her nipples as she began to rock against him. With her mouth parted and her head thrown back as she rode him, she was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

Fallon never wanted to forget this moment, never wanted to forget the feelings that Larena brought out in him.

He pinched her nipples and rolled them between his fingers. She cried out, her hips moving faster as her tempo increased. He was so close to climaxing, but he wasn’t ready for it to end. He was never ready for it to end when she was in his arms.

Larena’s nails dug into his chest. She leaned forward and kissed him, rubbing her nipples against him. Fallon gripped her hips and ground against her, eager to bury himself deeper, always deeper, harder. She whispered his name and straightened as her hips once more rocked against him.

He moved his hand between their bodies and found her clitoris with his thumb. He stroked the swollen nub faster with each cry from her beautiful mouth until she was shaking with need.

She screamed his name and jerked. The first pull of her climax around his cock brought his own orgasm. Fallon held on to Larena as he surrendered himself to her.

His arms cradled her as she slumped against him, their bodies slick with sweat from their lovemaking. He could feel the thudding of her heart and realized it matched his beat for beat.

When he was at last able to open his eyes he looked into a face he wanted to see beside him every day for the rest of his life. The realization should have shocked him, but it didn’t. His body had known Larena from the first. It just took his brain longer to catch up.

“Oh my,” she murmured drowsily.

“Sleep. I’ve got you.” He tucked her against him and kissed her forehead.

For once, everything was as it should be.

Deirdre wanted to kill the three Warriors who had dared to repeatedly torture Quinn, but she needed them. Yet, she could — and would — make an example out of them.

She had called the wyrran and other Warriors into the cavern that served as her great hall. The mountain had done a magnificent job of opening such a space for her, but then again, the stones couldn’t ignore a command from her. They were connected, she and the stones, in ways that others couldn’t understand.

Deirdre looked at the three Warriors behind her. They were held by magical chains from the floor and ceiling with their arms and legs braced apart. They had been stripped of their clothes as well.

One of the Warriors turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. She saw fear in his eyes, just as she wanted. They didn’t know what she would do to them, and it was time they learned.

“These three have decided to take matters into their own hands with a prisoner.” Her voice carried to all corners of the cavern.

She turned to the crowd. “I won’t tolerate such impudence. You will obey me at all times in everything. Or you will feel my wrath.”

Deirdre drew in a long breath and heard the crowd gasp as the strands of her white hair that dragged the floor rose around her and extended to a greater length. She glanced at the locks that had once been a striking golden color; as her power had grown, the color had disappeared.

Her hair, and her eyes, had a way of making people cower in fear. She smiled and faced the three Warriors.

“Never again will you disobey me. If you do, I will kill you. Do you understand?”

“Aye, mistress,” the three replied.

Deirdre let her hair fly. Her hair was a weapon that could be used in many different ways. This time, she would use it as a whip, though she had killed with the strands before, as she would again.

Over and over her hair slashed the backs of the Warriors until their skin was shredded and blood dripped down their legs to the floor. Only then was her anger appeased.

Her hair fell lifeless to her ankles, no longer a weapon. She turned to a group of wyrran. “Leave them until they are healed. Then throw them into the Pit for a week.”

The Pit was where she put people she wanted to break quickly, or die gruesomely. Only the strong survived in the Pit, but even then they didn’t last long. Most realized it was futile to fight her and aligned with her or she had them killed.

Without another word, she strode from the great hall to the stairs that wound through the mountain. She had sent Quinn to her chamber to be bathed, and with merely a touch, she had ensured he slept through it all.

The door to her chamber opened as she neared it. As always, the wyrran sensed her presence. She glanced at James, who was still held by the rocks as his punishment as she walked into her bedchamber. She moved to the bed and looked down at Quinn. The dirt and grime from the dungeons no longer coated his skin and hair.

The material that had once been his breeches had been removed and a blanket now covered his lower body. Deirdre threw back the blanket and looked at the man who would share her bed, the Warrior who would give her the child she longed to have and who would fulfill the prophecy told to her long ago.

She had never wanted anything as desperately as she wanted Quinn, not even the power she killed for. There was something about Quinn that drew her. Nothing had ever been denied her, and Quinn wouldn’t be an exception. He might not comprehend it now, but she could offer him the world and beyond.

Deirdre caressed his freshly shaven jaw then down his chest, which rippled with muscles, to his taut stomach and lean hips. Then she wrapped her fingers around his flaccid rod.

She could use her magic to make him want her, but she wouldn’t have need of that. Once she showed Quinn the pleasures that awaited him in her bed, he would eagerly come to her on his own. Besides, if she used her magic, he could not impregnate her with their child, and she couldn’t chance that, not after finally having him in her grasp once more.

“Sleep, my king,” she whispered, and kissed his cheek. “Your body needs to heal properly, and it won’t do that if you wake to find yourself in my bed.”

Deirdre continued to stroke his cock until it hardened. She smiled. This was just the beginning, and even though she wanted to climb atop him and lower herself onto his arousal, she wanted him awake when they joined. Awake, and willing.

“Do you like my touch? I know what brings you pleasure, Quinn. In my bed, you will experience delights beyond your imagining.”

She kissed his chest and pumped her fist up and down his hard length. His hips rose to meet hers and his lips parted on a low groan full of need and desire.

The MacLeod brothers had kept themselves apart from other humans, and in doing so, they had denied themselves the physical release their bodies demanded and the insatiable appetites they experienced as Warriors.

His rod grew longer, thicker. She leaned over him and took him in her mouth. His hips rose off the bed, pushing himself farther into her mouth. She took all of him, moaning as he began to thrust faster. He tasted divine. She used her tongue to give him more pleasure and sucked him deep. All too soon his body jerked and his seed filled her mouth.

Deirdre ground her hips against his thigh and kissed up and down his cock. He was magnificent, and she couldn’t wait to feel him inside her. It was too bad he was asleep.

Her need spiked as she gazed at his rod resting on his stomach now, still semihard from her caresses. She could give herself pleasure, but she needed something more.

Deirdre rose from the bed. “Find William,” she ordered a wyrran. “Send him to the bathing chamber where I’ll be awaiting him.”

The wyrran scurried off to carry out her command. Deirdre undressed and moved to lie beside Quinn. Her body trembled to take his, to have his hard length on top of her. Yet she had to be strong. If she took him now, everything she had done, all the power she had accumulated, would have been for naught.

It infuriated her that she, the most powerful Druid ever, couldn’t make the one man she wanted need her. This was the lone instance where her magic was useless.

In order for her to have the child that had been foreseen, no magic could be used on Quinn or the child would never be conceived.

Deirdre had thought breaking Quinn would be easy. She should have known he would fight her. But that was one of the reasons she had chosen him as her king.

The rage inside Quinn couldn’t be denied for long. It was only a matter of time before he was hers. Lucan and Fallon could try all they wanted to turn Quinn away from her, but they would fail.

Then, all three MacLeods would be hers.