Highlander Unchained(40)

His heaving chest slowed as his anger dissipated and he shut the door behind him wanting no one to disturb them. Not that anyone would. They feared him too much to offer the silent one protection and they were wise in doing so.

She stood next to her sleeping pallet, which annoyed him even more to think that she had no decent bed to sleep on. Her eyes were wide and her body tense. She obviously was frightened and she need not be, though giving it second thought... perhaps she should be.

He took only two steps and stopped, casting a glance around the small room. It was neat and orderly, though threadbare. Her table size could serve only one and one chair sat near the hearth. A lone crock sat in the hearth and no doubt was the reason for the pleasant scent. A worn wool cloak hung on a peg near the door and the only other garments he spied were the bundle on the chair. Her pallet barely held room for her and her wool blanket had been patched in more places than he thought possible.

He approached her with quick, purposeful strides and she hastily hurried to stand behind the chair near the hearth. He almost laughed at her maneuver to shield herself. Did she truly think a pitiful chair would stop him?

“You were to attend the celebration,” he said stopping only a few inches away from her and seeing that the fire’s light silhouetted her naked body beneath her nightdress. He hardened so fast that he silently cursed himself.

Dawn caught the spark of lust in his eyes and to her surprise and fear her body responded with a tingle between her legs. She warned herself that no good would come of mating with the devil and yet the tingle grew stronger.

“You disobeyed me,” he said taking a step closer.

Dawn clung to the chair, though she knew it was a useless shield against him. But at least it separated them and once she let go, and she would need to let go to be able to communicate with him, that separation would be gone.

She should have attended the celebration and been done with it. At least at the keep she would have been surrounded by people, unlike now with him standing here in her cottage and she in her nightdress. But then she had never expected him to come after her. Why would he? She was of no importance to him?

“I do not take disobedience lightly.”

She bowed her head and placed her hand on her chest over her heart.

“You are wise to apologize, but tell me why you disobeyed.”

What explanation could she offer him that he would deem acceptable? He would dismiss her claim that she did not feel her presence at the keep had been mandatory. He obviously felt he had made himself clear. And he truly had; she had simply not wanted to partake in the festivities, though if she was being completely honest, she had stayed away because she thought it best to keep her distance from him. So how did she explain her actions?

Cree waited, wondering what excuse she would offer and the longer she remained silent the more he assumed she was attempting to think of one. He took note of what now appeared obvious. She stood in her nightdress and had been in bed when he had entered. Her garments lay on the chair, a small sewing basket on top. And a bucket of water and wet cloth sat not far from the hearth. It became clearer to him. She had washed up, slipped into her nightdress while she repaired her torn garments and she had grown sleepy, and rightfully so after the day she had, and thought to nap before attending the celebration. But the day had taken its toll and she slumbered longer than she had planned.

A reasonable explanation, but if he had learned one thing about Dawn in the brief time they had been forced together it was that she delayed responding if she believed her answer would annoy him. Since she had yet to answer him he viewed the scene differently.

“You had no intentions of returning to the keep even though I ordered you do so, did you?”

Lying would get her nowhere and so she shook her head.

“Why?” he asked taking another step closer.

Rather than an answer she asked her own question. She pointed to him, then to herself and shrugged as she tossed her hands up.

“You wonder what I want from you.”

She nodded and once again grasped hold of the chair.

He had asked himself that very question repeatedly since his escape. His plans had been changed because of her. He had moved up the attack on the village fearful that Colum would blame her for his escape, torture, and then kill her. Now that she was safe, there was nothing for him to worry about... nothing except the ache in his loins that surfaced fast and furiously whenever she was in his presence. And why could he not banish her from his thoughts? She lurked there haunting him, never leaving him alone.

And what was it that he would think on over and over again? Her naked beneath him, her hands touching him and her body speaking to him as she wrapped her long legs around him and took him deeper and deeper inside her, squeezing him tighter and tighter—