The Highlander's Touch

He was silent for a long moment. “You aren’t ready yet. Very well. I can wait.” He rose in a fluid motion. As he stood, the knot on his tartan slipped and the fabric dropped lower on his hips, giving her a sinful glimpse of what she was denying herself. Her gaze fixed on the black trail of hair that fanned below his belly button, then dropped lower to the thicker hair that peeked above the tartan. The sight of it gave her a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach, an awful empty pressure. Whether he moved or the plaid slid, she didn’t know, but suddenly it dipped lower, revealing the thick base of his shaft amid silky dark hair. She couldn’t see the length of it, but that wasn’t what made her heart pound. It was the thickness of him. She would never be able to wrap her hand around it. What would it feel like to have him push that inside her? Her mouth went dry.

His eyes lit appreciatively as her gaze snagged there. “I could pick you up and wrap those lovely long legs of yours around my waist. Slip deep inside you, rock you against me and love you till you lay in my arms and slept like a babe. I will spend each night stretched beside you, teaching you what you want me to teach you. I can feel that you want it from me. Yet it will be at your pace, when you choose. I will wait as long as I must.

“But know this, Lisa—when you are across the dinner table from me on the morrow, in my mind I am pushing you back on a bed. In my fantasy”—he laughed, as if at his own brashness—“you are discovering yourself with my willing body. Who knows, perhaps even laying siege to the heart that beats within this chest.” He thumped his chest with a fist and silently admitted she’d already begun to do that, otherwise he wouldn’t have offered himself. But she didn’t need to know that. He knotted the tartan slowly, never taking his eyes from hers.

“Good night, Lisa. Sleep with the angels.”

Her eyes stung from quick tears. It had been her mother’s nightly benediction: Sleep with the angels. But then he added words her mother never had:

“Then come back to earth and sleep with your devil, who would burn in hell for one night in your arms.”

Wow! was all her reeling mind could come up with as he slipped from the room.

THREE DAYS HAD PASSED SINCE THEIR FIRST DINNER IN the formal dining room. That was seventy-two hours. Four thousand three hundred and twenty minutes, and Lisa had felt each one of them whiz past her—gone forever.

Nine shifts of nurses had changed at home. Nine meals had been taken by her mother—bland food, she was certain. No ripe plums and apricots carefully selected from the market on her lunch hour. Illness had changed Catherine’s appetite, and she’d developed a craving for fruits.

Lisa had spent the days snooping as furtively as possible, but she had begun to suspect it was futile. She didn’t have the first idea where to look for the flask. She’d tried his chambers several times during the day, but the door was always locked. She’d even gone to the turret to the left of his chambers to see if there was a way she could manage to scale the outside wall to get there, but it was hopeless. His chambers were on the second floor of the east wing, and there were guards on the battlements above it at all times.

She’d passed the evenings indulging herself in offensively sumptuous meals. Last night, the first course had been a mixture of plums, quince, apples, and pears with rosemary, basil, and rue in a pastry tart. The second course had been a chopped meat pastry, the third an omelet with almonds, currants, honey, and saffron, the fourth roasted salmon in onion and wine sauce, the fifth artichokes stuffed with rice. By the honey-glazed chicken rolled in mustard, rosemary, and pine nuts, she’d been wallowing in guilt. By the berry pastries with whipped cream, she’d despised herself.

And each night, he’d savored his dessert with the same lazy sensuality that made her long to be a berry or a fluff of topping. She couldn’t fault his demeanor, he’d been an impeccable dinner companion and host. They’d made cautious small talk; he’d told her of the Templars and their plight, spoke of their training and extolled the strengths of his Highland fortress. She’d asked about his villagers, whom he seemed to know surprisingly little about. He’d asked about her century and she’d made him talk about his instead. When she’d asked about his family, he’d turned the tables and asked about hers. After a few moments of strained evasions, they’d mutually conceded to leave each other alone on that topic.

He seemed to be going out of his way to be gracious, patient, and accommodating. In turn, she’d been carefully reserved, finding an excuse each night to dash from the table after the final course and hole up in her room.