The Highlander's Enchantment Read online

  Besides beat some sense into the clan. He’d thought he was going to have a hard time fitting in, being laird, filling the vast shoes his brother had left behind. He’d never even thought that his wife would have to do the same. Had Lady Mary, his brother’s wife, dealt with the same? She’d left in such a hurry, he wasn’t certain they’d spoken more than a few words, and certainly not enough for him to get an idea from it.

  Edan knew war and he knew protecting, but he was not so educated in politics and the inner workings of a clan, or women for that matter. He supposed he could try and rule them as he did his men in the Bruce’s army.

  Some of the things he’d established at Stirling had been initiated here thus far, such as breakfast before dawn, followed by correspondence and then training until the nooning.

  They started back to the keep, hand in hand. A loud gurgling sound came from the direction of her midsection, and Blair glanced at him, her cheeks turning bright red.

  “Was that your stomach?” he asked.

  “Aye,” she said miserably. “I was abed when they served breakfast.”

  “Ye still could have eaten.”

  She shrugged. “’Tis almost the nooning. I can wait.” She stroked his arm. “Honestly, ’tis nothing.”

  Edan studied her a moment, but she gave off no appearance of distress. He leaned a little closer. “How are ye feeling this morn?”

  Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of red, but a soft smile covered her lips as she kept her gaze on the ground while they walked. “Perfectly well. Not a moment of sickness at all. I think it was but a touch of nerves and the food disagreeing with me.”

  “I am glad to hear it.” He tipped her chin toward him. “And from making love?”

  She tripped over her skirt then, and he caught her up in his arms. She was so flushed he wondered if it was a fever. Ballocks, but he was a monster! The lass should be in bed resting.

  “Perhaps ye are nay well after all, sweetling. I should not have taken ye to bed… Mo chreach, but I hope ye can forgive me.”

  She laughed and patted his shoulders. “I am perfectly well. I merely tripped in shock.”

  “Hmm.” He wasn’t certain her believed her, but he didn’t want to argue the fact. All the same, he wasn’t about to overexert her. Edan lifted her up into his arms.

  “What are ye doing? I can walk.”

  “But I’d much rather carry ye. I canna have my wife falling at my feet. I’ll get a big head.”

  She laughed at that, kissed his cheek and pressed her forehead to his shoulder. Edan carried her all the way to their rooms, scaring one of the servants from inside who carried a basket full of fabric, probably for laundering. He took her into his chamber, ducking beneath the doorway.

  “That reminds me, Edan, I’d like to mend your shirts and hose.”

  “The lass has probably just taken them.” He narrowed his gaze. Why would she want to repair his clothing?

  “I shall request then that they allow me to do it.” Her tone was matter-of-fact.

  “If it pleases ye, but ye need not bother, as we have servants to complete the tasks.”

  “It would please me overmuch.”

  He settled her on his bed, loving the sight of her dark hair spread out on his clean white sheets. Images of her naked, writhing beneath him had him instantly hard. God, she was stunning, and she didn’t even realize it. He would go slow, so as not to overexert her. “Speaking of clothes… I need to get ye out of yours.”

  She wrinkled her nose in confusion, and so Edan kissed her, dipping his tongue into her mouth to toy with hers so she understood exactly what he meant. She sighed into his kiss and pressed herself hard against him. He needed no further answer from her and swiftly covered her body with his.

  “Wait,” she said, her hands on his chest, her eyes filled with worry. “Does a lady do such things in the middle of the day?”

  “I’m certain she does.” He kissed her neck, sliding his hand beneath her skirts, her silken thighs meeting his calloused palms.

  “I wouldna want any of the clan to think me…wanton.” Her legs spread as she said it, and he dipped a knee between them, pressing his thigh against her warmth.

  “No one would dare,” he murmured, tugging on her lower lip with his teeth.

  She quivered beneath him, but then suddenly, she was stiff as a board.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “They will,” she said firmly.

  Edan pulled back to look down at her, seeing the worry etched into her features. “I will cast out anyone who dare names my wife anything other than a saint.”

  She bit her lip and looked on the verge of tears.

  Edan rolled to the side, now even more confused than he had been before. He tugged her to her side too, so that they were facing each other.

  She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and drew in a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry. ’Tis my duty to provide ye with heirs, and here I am worried over a bunch of nonsense.”

  “Lass, I wasna making love to ye because I want heirs. Aye, heirs will come, but I brought ye to bed because I want to touch ye. Because I want to hear those little sounds ye make in the back of your throat when I pleasure ye.” He stroked the side of her face, hooked his fingers in one of hers and drew her hand away. “If ye truly dinna want to…”

  “I do. That is the problem,” she said, tears slipping down her cheeks.

  “There is no shame in desiring your husband.”

  That seemed to calm her, and she cast her watery blue eyes at him. “Ye’re right.”

  “I will nay force ye, and if ye’re still feeling tired from yesterday…”

  She relaxed, and he consigned himself to the idea of walking away from her lush body and beating the hell out of himself in the cold river to calm the heat in his own.

  Suddenly, she sat up and looked down at him with a face full of determination. “This is ridiculous.”

  “What?”

  She leapt from the bed, pacing back and forth in front of him, tangling her hand in her hair, and then tugging it free. Edan watched her, feeling even more at a loss to the workings of the female mind than ever before.

  Her bright blue eyes were vibrant. “All my life, I’ve tried to be someone else, tried to live up to the standards everyone else had set for themselves. I’m good at most things, but I’m not great at any one thing.”

  “I doubt that, lass. I’m certain ye’re great at anything ye set your mind to.”

  “See, but that’s the thing, Edan. I havena set my mind to anything.” She tugged on the ribbon that held her hair in a ruined plait. “Perhaps that is the problem. I’ve been too worried about what people think rather than doing what pleases me, what pleases ye. Mayhap, I’ll just do what makes me happy.”

  “What makes ye happy, lass?” He was genuinely curious.

  “I like helping people. Not because I think ’tis the right thing, though I do, but because I really enjoy it. And…” She came back toward the bed and knelt down beside him on the mattress with her knees tucked under her. “I like kissing ye.”

  “Then I say ye kiss me now, Wife, and help put me out of my misery.”

  She laughed at that, and then leaned down over him, her dark hair unraveling around their faces, blocking the view of the room. “With pleasure.”

  Chapter 18

  They spent the rest of the day in each other’s arms, discovering what made each of them gasp and sigh, until Blair was delirious with happiness and completely sated. Her limbs felt like they were made of pudding, and her cheeks were starting to hurt from grinning so much.

  Her stomach growled loudly, reminding her she had yet to eat that day, and by now it was well into the middle of the night. Somehow, the day had slipped by in a wave of bliss where hunger did not exist.

  “Ye’re hungry. I need to feed ye after sapping all your energy.” Edan drew a circle on her belly and then kissed the center.

  “Will ye let me make ye something?” She b
it her lip, hoping he’d say aye.

  “Make me something?”

  “Aye. In the kitchen.”

  “I didna know ye had skill with cooking.” He sounded surprised, and she was pleased to show him something she was good at.

  “Aye. I used to cook with my mother when she would take over the kitchens at Dunrobin.”

  “It would be my honor to taste whatever ye make me, lass.”

  “Let us not waste another minute, else I lack the energy.”

  Edan pulled on trews that accentuated the muscles in his rear and also outlined his manhood, which she’d finally been able to see and found herself quite enamored with. Goodness, but she loved the shape of him. The man was exquisite perfection. He didn’t wear a shirt as he waited for her to dress, and she wondered if he’d put one on at all. She tossed on her gown, not bothering with a chemise. Why be formal when they would be quite alone?

  “Hop on my back,” he said, turning around and crouching. “I shall carry ye down the stairs in the dark so ye dinna trip on the hem of your gown.”

  With a laugh of delight, Blair leapt onto his back and wrapped her legs around his waist. They certainly were behaving like children, but she didn’t care. She was having fun, perhaps for the first time in her life, eschewing all the mantles she’d donned and accepting herself for who she was—which she still had to discover quite a bit.

  Down in the kitchen, Edan lit a candle and shooed the spit-boys from where they slept in front of the hearth out to the great hall with a promise of an extra ration in the morning. Though they had to be concerned over the laird and his wife taking over the kitchens, the lads said not one word.

  Blair made quick work of finding the flour, butter, eggs, cheese and some leftover pork from the day before. She made a simple dough, rolled it out on the work table and then spread butter over it. She then cracked open the eggs into a bowl and whipped them, sprinkling them with some of the cheese she’d sliced and diced. She stole a few hunks to quell the rumbling in her stomach and pressed another to her husband’s lips, grinning saucily as he took not only the cheese into his mouth but her finger.

  She spread the egg mixture onto the dough, and the pork onto one side.

  “Why not both sides?”

  She shrugged. “This is how my mother always made it. The side without the meat was for her and my sisters and I, and the side with the meat for the men.”

  “Do ye nay like pork either?”

  She tilted her head. “I dinna dislike it, not like mutton. But my mother doesna eat any meat, and neither does my sister, Bella. I suppose I’m somewhere in between.”

  “I’d be happy to share my side.”

  She started to roll the dough and ingredients into a long cylindrical shape. “And I’m happy to share mine.”

  After rolling the dough, she sliced it into sections and placed them in a pan before setting it into the hearth to cook. Edan sat on a stool watching her, eyes dipped and lazy. His gray gaze had the power to make her knees go weak, and most times she forgot all about his scarred eye. She sauntered closer to him, pushed between his spread thighs and brushed her lips on his. She stroked her thumb over the scar and pressed her lips to his brow.

  “Does it ever pain ye?”

  “Sometimes.” His hands slid over her hips, down to her buttocks. “How long do we wait?”

  “Not too long, if we’re lucky.”

  “I know what we can do in the meantime.” The gray of one eye disappeared behind a slow wink as his lips curled devilishly.

  “I dinna want to leave in case it burns.”

  “Who said anything about leaving?”

  “Oh,” she breathed out, understanding dawning. He meant to make love to her right here in the kitchen. Saints…

  Edan gave her no time to think, leaning in to kiss her fully on the mouth.

  He lifted her up and placed her buttocks on the hard surface of the work table, skimming his hands up over her thighs. Oh, how very wicked this was. And how much her body yearned for him to touch her. To spread her wider and sink inside the way he had the night before. Tingles of anticipation alit her flesh. Her nipples were hard little stones, and she whimpered as she tilted her head to the side, silently begging for him to kiss her neck.

  “What if someone should come in?” she panted, as he skimmed his mouth over her flesh.

  “No one would dare.”

  And she knew this to be true. He’d dismissed them all and firmly shut the door. Anyone who entered would be doing so at their own peril.

  As vast as the keep was, for as many people that had access to this particular place in the structure, right now, they appeared to be all alone.

  “I’ve never made love in a kitchen,” he murmured, his breath fanning seductively over her skin as his lips, featherlight, teased up the column of her neck to her ear. He tugged at the laces of her gown until both of her breasts were exposed to him.

  “Ye willna be able to say that in just a few short minutes.” Boldly, she reached between them to grip the hardness of his arousal that pressed thick with wanting against his trews.

  Edan let out a low growl, his hands slipping beneath her rear as he slid her forward, closer. He spread her legs wide, hooking them over his arms. Blair’s head fell back with pleasure at the carnal need and his primal prowess. With his mouth capturing hers, he made quick work of untying his trews, allowing her to grip the hot, silky length of him. The heavy weight of his velvet member in her palm was a sensation she was sure to never get enough of.

  “Put me inside ye, love,” he murmured against her lips.

  Blair slid the plush tip of him over her slick folds, shivering at the sensual feel. As soon as she placed him at her entrance, he thrust forward, instinctively knowing that was the right spot. His shaft slid through her fingers, against her palm and deep inside of her, and when he retreated, the slickness from her body, covered his hardness.

  With her legs wrapped around his hips, her mouth sliding over his again and again, she used the muscles of her belly to balance upright. When the pleasure was too intense and she could no longer concentrate on that, she held tightly to his shoulders and let him take her to heaven.

  Blair cried out, her moan of pleasure stifled by his kiss, as he swallowed her passion and answered with a guttural groan of his own. Their bodies shuddered, radiating pleasure, stealing their breath.

  Blair collapsed back, the flour on the table top soaking up the sweat slickened over her exposed flesh. But she didn’t care. She’d just experienced earth-shattering pleasure with the man she loved.

  Loved?

  When had that happened?

  She couldn’t put her finger on it. And right then, she wasn’t certain she wanted to. Because her husband was kissing his way down to her breasts, his tongue dipping out to circle each hardened nipple. He roamed lower, pressing his heated tongue between her thighs, and she was crying out with pleasure once more…

  Blair slept late the following morning, stretching languidly in bed, her body sated, and her mind full of hope and possibility. In the oasis of Edan’s arms, the world felt right. There was no murderer trying to frame her brother for the deed, or the fear that whoever it was might go after Edan next. In his embrace, there was only delight, passion and the delicious prospect of all the future held.

  This was what she’d wanted when she thought of a husband, of starting a family. Blair flattened her palm to her belly, pressing on the flesh beneath her navel to see if she could feel the little knot that Bella had showed shown her when she was first with child. She didn’t feel anything yet. When did one start to feel a bairn?

  She supposed it wasn’t this quickly, but she couldn’t wait to feel that tiny bump, to give Edan a child, to hold her own bairn in her arms and gaze into its eyes, knowing she’d given it life.

  With a sigh, Blair tossed aside her covers, a grin still on her face. Edan had slept in her chamber, only slipping out before dawn with a kiss on her lips and a promise to see her later tha
t day.

  Blair checked the solar that connected their two rooms but did not see Willa. No matter, she could dress on her own. She washed up and donned a fresh chemise, then opened her wardrobe to eye the few gowns hanging inside. Today felt like a blue day. She plucked the gown that reminded her of a summer sky and stepped into it, only to find she could not pull it up over her hips. What the devil? She gave it another tug and heard a tear as the seams fought against her. With a frown she tugged again, but the blasted fabric wouldn’t budge.

  Stepping out again, she tried pulling it over her head, but couldn’t even get the sleeves to fit over her arms, and she ended up stuck for several moments as she struggled to remove it.

  Blair stared in horror at what had been her favorite gown. It did not seem to fit her at all, as though it were never even hers. She glanced at the other gowns in her closet, and after trying each one, she found that they too had all shrunk overnight.

  She’d not eaten too much the day before—in fact, she’d barely eaten at all save for the savory dish she’d made Edan. That was not enough to make everything in her wardrobe too small—even if she’d stuffed her face. Impossible!

  It was then she noticed the light-yellow gown had a brown thread at the seams. She never used brown thread.

  On close examination, it looked as if every gown had a coarse brown thread at the seams. She had only ever used a finer, lighter color. Someone had taken in all of her gowns.

  Blair sank to the floor in a dejected heap, the discarded gowns all around her. Tears blurred her vision, but she tried to force them away. A horrible trick had been played on her. But why? Who would do such a thing? Who had the time to spend taking in all her gowns? Her thoughts roved to Agnes and the other ladies who’d treated her so cruelly since she’d arrived. Did they really hate her so much?

  Blair’s belly knotted, bile rising up her throat. She swallowed hard around the burn. The very idea they would try to hurt her made her want to retch, but to do so was only allowing them to win.