Page 20 of The Thief (Castle Blackstone #3)

“ Sheep ! Did ye just say sheep? ”

Ian appeared totally aghast. Torment and then deny her would he? Ha!

His countenance ruddy, his ears scarlet, he sputtered wordlessly as he stared at her, and she—-keeping her face as placid as possible, given how funny he looked—-waited, hoping.

His eyes narrowed. “Why you witch. Ye’re having me on. I can see it in yer eyes.”

Hoping for a wide-eyed innocence, she murmured, “ Moi? ”

Before she could squeal in alarm, his arm wrapped about her waist like a vise and he spun and landed on top of her, settling between her willingly wide-open thighs. Lovely. Mission accomplished.

Kate wrapped her arms about his neck and tried to pull him down for a kiss, to continue their lovemaking. To her consternation Ian resisted.

Keeping his weight on his arms, he shook his head and fingered a strand of her hair. “Katie, love, I want ye so much I can barely think, but I can’t deflower ye. Someday ye may wish to wed and the man will not take kindly to knowing another has been here before him.”

Augh! Moral men would be the bane of her existence.

“Ian, it’s my virginity, my body. Do I have no say in the matter?”

“Aye, of course ye do, but passion can cause a body to want now and regret later.”

She ran a shaking hand along his jaw. “I’ll never marry. More importantly, I’ll never regret our being together because I love you.” He opened his mouth, no doubt to protest, and she silenced him with a finger. “Fear not. I understand that it would be suicidal for you to even consider taking me to wife. I’m the enemy, a Sassenach, as far as your regent and people are concerned, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love you...and want you.”

Ian groaned and rested his forehead on hers. “Oh, Katie, why hadn’t we met at another place and time?”

“Because fate is often cruel.” God knows they’d both gone through or seen enough heartache to know.

She began rocking her hips ever so slowly beneath him as her fingers ran through the soft golden hairs on his chest. Oh my, she so loved the look and feel of him. Even the way he humphed whenever he was exasperated with her. “We have only this moment in time, Ian.” Feeling him growing, hardening against her, she rocked and said no more.

After a moment he raised his head and looked in her eyes. She saw renewed heat and need, but also struggle.

I will not squander this opportunity to love you, Ian MacKay.

Before he could sense her intention, Kate threw her legs about his hips, grabbed his muscled bottom with both hands and pushed from above and below. “ Oh! ”

Oh...my. My, oh, my. How...wondrous.

Obviously shocked and mayhap even in pain, Ian turned to stone above her. “Good God, woman what have you done?”

Holding tight else he tried to escape her, Kate licked her suddenly dry lips. “I’ve done what I’ve truly wanted to do for the very first time in my life.”

His forehead again came to rest on hers. “Ack, lass.”

Oh, no. His knightly code was, apparently, still warring with his nature. Hoping to tip the scales in her favor, she licked where his lips now formed a hard, straight line and slid a hand over the fine contours of his round arse and then to where his bullocks lay. Feeling him shudder, relishing the taut, controlled power beneath her hands, fire bloomed where he filled her. Quite breathless, she whispered, “Will you deny me?”

He lifted his head. Smoldering gold now assessed her. Sounding hoarse, he whispered, “Oh nay, lass, ye’re all mine now. ”

Not liking but having to accept that the decision having been made for him, Ian grinned down at Kate in wolfish fashion.

She wanted him? Fine. She would have him until she couldn’t take any more. Toy with his emotions and good intentions, would she?

He captured her mouth and rode. In two thrusts he was as deep into a woman as he’d ever been in his life, his balls pressing and sliding in her womanly dew.

God, there wasn’t a question that she’d been made for him and him alone.

But made for him or nay, she’d upped the stakes, turned play into reality. For thwarting his honest resolve he would bring her to madness.

He pulled his mouth from hers and rose on his elbows. “This gown has got to go.” Thanks to their body heat and the lamp, the wee cabin was warm.

Without waiting for her agreement, he jerked the gown up and over her head and arms, then tossed it on the floor. He did the same with her under shirt, his shirt, sgian duhb and brass cuffs. Now both naked, wanting to feel the press of her breasts against his chest, he settled upon her again and threaded his fingers through hers. As she mewed in his mouth he raised her hands high above her head. Once caught in one hand, he snatched the excess rope that hung over the hook holding the hammock and looped it around her hands, effectively trapping them in place.

Taken by surprise, Kate jerked at her bonds. “What? Why have you--?”

He placed a gentle finger to her lips. “Shh. Ye want, ye’ll get, my love, but henceforth on my terms.” Humph! She had no idea who she was dealing with.

He took a firm hold of her waist--ensuring that they would stayed fully engaged--and carefully dropped one of his legs and then the other over either side of the hammock so that he sat with her lovely long thighs falling open and over his thighs. Perfect.

With his hands on her hips, he studied her every curve and swell by the light of the lone oil lamp swinging above them. Good Lord, she was so very beautiful. He began to slide--slow and easy--within her. “Comfy?”

She mewed, her back slightly arched. Her breasts shimmered ever so slightly, their peaks tightening in the most delightful fashion. Oh aye. Ye didna lie when ye said ye wanted this. Feeling her legs wrap about him, he grinned and moved his hands in wee circles over the gentle swell of her belly.

“Katie, look at me.”

When her eyes fluttered open--their sky blue depths now cobalt--he slid the fingers of his right hand into her damp curls. He started massaging. She gasped as her eyes rolled back and her back arched higher. “Feels good, does it not?”

“Ahh, ah, oh.”

He just loved the way her breasts, now slick with sweat, trembled with every breath. Just the sight drove him to increase the pace. “Open those lovely eyes, Katie.” He wanted to see them as she shattered.

Her eyes opened but just barely. Then her legs fell away from him and straightened; every muscle in her body growing tauter with each heartbeat, straining for something just beyond her reach. Oh, aye. I’ve got you now.

His heart pounding as fast as her breathing, he increased the speed of his thumb and rocked his hips, driving deeper into her with every thrust. “That’s the sweet lass,” he whispered, “Ye’re almost there.”

Her gaze locked on his as her panting increased tenfold. He slowly licked his lips as he stared at her breasts so she would not only feel but see how much he enjoyed watching her tremble, naked and exposed beneath his hands.

“Come to me, lass.”

She shattered then, keening high and sweet, her every muscle violently quaking within and without.

Oh aye, ‘tis definitely the way one does it.

He grinned, watching her relax, satiated. Next, to punish completely, drive her totally wode, but first she needed to recoup and they both needed meat.

Kate mewed as he slipped his hand beneath her lovely hurdies and lifted her higher in the hammock, allowing her arms to bend. He almost mewed himself when he slid out of her, still fully engorged while Kate looked all soft, floppy and content. Finally out of the hammock, he stood and looked about for the food and wine Iona had provided them.

As he bent for his blade, Kate whispered, “The storm has passed.”

He straightened and found her looking out the window. “Aye, and the galleon held together just fine without ye fashing after it.”

She nibbled on her lip, her gaze still on the portal. “Silly, I know, but my mind just gets to worrying about all that lurks beneath those waves.”

“I noticed.” Food and drink in hand, he straddled the hammock again and she drew her legs up to make room for him. “Hungry?”

She nodded. “And thirsty.” She wiggled her wrists, trying to slip free. “Um...Can you please untie me?”

Grinning, he opened the pouch and found cheese, a loaf of fresh dark bread and a clay crock. “I will in a wee bit.”

“But...?” She huffed in obvious exasperation.

He drank her in, his gaze sliding slowly over her. She immediately squirmed and blushed scarlet from crotch to forehead.

“My, my, I hadn’t known where a blush started before. Interesting.” He flashed his dimples at her.

“Ian, this is not funny. Untie me so I might eat.”

“Not to worry. I’ll feed you.” He broke the bread into bite-sized pieces. After placing a piece in her mouth he lined the rest down the middle on her body, starting at her throat and ending just above her curly thatch. He reversed the process as he laid out the cheese. “I need tell you I don’t understand your father allowing you to come so far alone.”

Kate looked out the portal, tempted to lie, but then thought better of it. Ian had an uncanny way of sniffing out the truth. “He doesn’t know.”

“Pardon?”

She found him looking incredulous, his hands stilled mid-task. “He thinks I’m in Salisbury with Nana.” Kate looked away again. “He wouldn’t understand.” And if he did he would likely whip her.

“Does anyone know you’re here?”

She nodded. “Sir Gregory does.” But what Sir Gregory did not know was that he was not long for this world.

Ian resumed his task. “And how will your father react when he learns what you’ve been up to?”

Her attention jerked back to him. “He must never know!”

Shaking his head, Ian continued to lay out the cheese and then popped the final piece into her mouth. “Lass, he’ll learn of it, if he doesn’t know already.”

“You wouldn’t tell him! You can’t. Please.”

“I will not, but what if your grandmother writes and asks after you? Or Sir Gregory or James let slip something?”

Kate relaxed and shook her head. “Nana can’t write and Sir Gregory’s most tight lipped. Only James could prove worrisome.” Under her breath she grumbled, “ Too often, he speaks first and thinks later.”

“But ye like him.”

“I liked who he once was.”

Frowning, Ian placed a piece of bread in her mouth and murmured, “Explain.”

How did one explain what she had sensed and seen? Or what she was? And what if Ian thought as her father did? Their relationship was tentative at best as it was. She would not risk spoiling the last few hours she had with him by telling him she occasionally knew of events before they occurred. And why had she not foreseen this? Her lying naked, her hands tied and knees locked together, with the handsomest man ever created, who also sat naked but with his legs spread wide? Augh.

“Kate, you haven’t answered me.” He waggled the wine before her. “If you want a drink, you need to respond.”

She huffed. “James was once a sweet child and now he’s...angry and very full of himself.”

“Hmm.” Ian pulled the stopper from the wine and took a drink.

“Hey, I answered. You’re not playing fair.”

Grinning, he leaned over her and pressed his lips to hers. Instinctively her lips yielded to the pressure and wine, warm and rich, flowed slowly into her mouth. Ooooh. Her middle quivered. Oh, my. His feeding her was one thing but this...oh, my.

He straightened, a dark look in his eyes, his gaze on her lips. “So why do you care whether or not he’s embittered, or for that matter whether or not he’s ever ransomed?”

Hoping to change the direction of his thoughts, Kate muttered, “Why is it that women sit with their knees together while men sit with them apart?”

“If ye carried this” he pointed to his groin, “betwixt those lovely thighs of yours you’d be sitting with your knees spread, too.”

Feeling heat bloom in her cheeks, Kate pulled her gaze from his hand. “I see.”

He winked as he raised the wine to his lips. “Thought ye might.” He swallowed, then asked, “So why do you care about James?”

So much for diversion. Merciful mother in heaven.

“You were speaking of James.”

Augh! The man had a steel trap for a mind. “A bit of cheese if you please.”

He grinned, flashing his dimples at her. “As my lady wishes.” He leaned forward, stroked his tongue over her right nipple, making her shiver and then using his teeth, plucked up a bit of cheese lying on her breastbone and brought it to her mouth. Mesmerized, she opened her mouth and his lips brushed hers. After depositing the cheese, he gave her a quick peck and straightened. And all the while she had been very aware of his skin brushing ever so slightly against her.

She closed her eyes and chewed, sure she would not survive an entire meal served in this manner. That thought had but formed when she felt his lips and tip again. She opened her eyes and to find him nibbling more bread and cheese from her flesh. He swallowed, then looked up at her. Watching her watching him, he slowly and laboriously licked up the crumbs.

Her nipples ached and her womb turned molten. There were still six more tiny piles of food on her belly.

Ooooh, lauds, I will not survive this.

He straightened and reached for the wine he had placed on the hammock behind him. “More wine?”

She was parched but shook her head out of self-defense.

He raised the wineskin to his mouth. She watched as he drank, marveling at the way his throat moved. Done, he wiped the back of his hand across his beautifully shaped lips and smiled at her. Oh, those dimples would melt the heart of a crone.

“So what shall you do when you return to London?”

“London?”

“Aye, where you’re going.”

“Oh, aye, London.” She gave herself a hard mental shake. “First, I must check on Father.” To be sure that he was safe, that her dream had simply been a nightmare and not a foreshadowing of what was to come. “Then I shall go to the Tower and tell James and Sir Gregory all that I’ve learned.”

Then I shall smite Sir Gregory for all he neglected to tell me.

Looking at the ceiling, her mind imagining Sir Gregory as she last saw him, all smiles and not to worry, lass, she asked Ian, “When using a blade, where would you stab a man to get maximum painful effect?”

He cleared his throat. “From the look in your eye, I doubt ‘twould be wise of me to tell you.”

She grinned. “Nay, I wouldn’t hurt you for a pot of gold. ‘Tis just that I often walk about, usually alone, and wondered what I should do should I be set upon.”

He brought the wine skin to his mouth and leaned over her again. Unable to resist, she opened to him and drank thirstily. As he straightened she sighed.

Grinning, apparently aware of his effect on her, he asked, “Best not use a blade. Even as strong and tall as you are a working man could still wrench it from your hand. Best use your knee.”

“My knee?”

“Aye, jam it up betwixt his thighs. When he folds--and trust me, he will--grab him by the ears and ram your knee into his jaw or nose. Either will set him down. Mayhap for good.”

“Hmm.” Sir Gregory, here I come. “Thank you.”

“You’re most welcome.” He leaned forward again and licked up a piece of cheese, then bread as he had before and gave it to her. He licked the rest off her belly leaving not so much as a crumb, sending fire everywhere within her.

Oh! Thank God that was done. She would have expired from want had any more remained.

Opening her eyes and finding him smiling down at her, she asked, “What has you grinning now? ”

“Naught.” And everything.

God love a goose, the woman before him was a feast for the eyes. And he needed to get more wine into her. She wasn’t anywhere near tipsy enough for his purposes and was no doubt still parched.

He brought the wine bag to her lips. “Drink, lass, before you shrivel like a fall leaf.”

Looking grateful, she did as he bid, drinking lustfully. He then reached into the satchel and pulled out a crock. “Now, what have we here?” He opened the lid and grinned. “Iona’s strawberry jam.” He scooped out a bit with his finger and brought it to her lips.

Her gaze never left his as she lapped, causing his poke of sweeties to ache and his staff to throb. The saints preserve him. He could not let her get the upper hand. He still had yet to know the true motivation behind Katherine Margarita Templeton’s journey. And he definitely needed to know what she was referring to when she said Lady Beth might die and her bairns with her.

He pulled his finger from her mouth. As she licked her lips, he dipped his finger in the jar again. “Love, from whence comes your name, Margarita?”

“My grandmother.” She sighed, the wine apparently starting to take effect. “She’s the daughter of a Romany princess, a fortuneteller. As a younger woman, she was very beautiful, as was my mother.”

Ah, that’s where her golden skin comes from. He offered her more wine. When she had her fill he asked, “Can you tell fortunes as well?”

Her eyes widened with apparent alarm and darted to the portal. “Nay.”

Ah-ha! She lied. Was she fey? ‘Twould certainly go a long way in explaining how she repeatedly escaped him so readily. Humph!

He spread the jam about her right nipple.

Her eyes locked on his hands. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Preparing dessert.” He scooped up another dollop of jam and applied it lavishly to her left nipple, which he was pleased to see had puckered into a very peak.

She squirmed, trying to rise high and away from him. “This is not...I’ll get all sticky...And there’s no water to wash with.”

Ian grinned and used three fingers to scoop a large mound of jam out of the crock. He started between her heaving breasts and drew a line of jam down her belly and into the apex of her curls. Finished, he sucked his finger, tasting her essence for the first time and throbbed with need.

He then took her legs, and scooting forward, wrapped them around his back. “Not to worry, love, I’ll lick you as clean as a puss would a bowl of cream.”

“Aaah!”

He leaned over her and circled her left nipple with his tongue. Sliding just a bit so she could feel his desire for her, he whispered, “Mmm...just as I imagined. ”

“Ian, please .” Her back arched and she again strained at the rope holding her hands.

He lifted the breast and drew the nipple into his mouth, lavishing attention on the taut tip. God, she felt so good.

The jam gone, he licked his way to the second jam- crested wee mountain. Licking his way up the full slope he whispered, “Love, why is it so important that James have those names?”

“Aaah!”

“Hmm.” Kneading both breasts he sucked on the second peak, drawing it slowly into his mouth, and lathed off the jam. After a moment he raised his head and found her watching him. “I love the feel of you in my mouth.”

“Ah.”

“Aye, and I cannot wait to taste the rest.” He immediately started down her breastbone, then on to her stomach, which quivered in the most delightful way. At her apex he blew a puff of air against her jet curls. Her hurdies—-and voice--rose in alarm.

Ah, lass, I’ve been yearning to love you in the most intimate of ways possible, but we must do it right.

His hands quickly slipped beneath her, bringing her hips up. Her legs, seeking purchase, immediately fell over his shoulders. He raised her hips and licked lightly through the curls. She nearly flew out of his hands.

“What...what?”

Taking a firmer hold, he blew against her. “Tell me a secret, Katie. Something ye haven’t uttered to another living soul, then I’ll share a secret.” What they were about to do was so intimate that it had to be a melding of body and mind. “Do you know what I’m about, Katie?”

“Nay!”

“Nay to sharing a secret or nay to you knowing what we’re about?” He allowed himself another wee taste and she rose higher still.

“I...I...don’t...”

Oh, the poor lass, she’s panting so hard her eyes are crossed. Enough.

He reached for the rope. “We can’t do Kits in a Basket properly in this miserable hammock. Come.”

When her hands came free, he wrapped her arms about his neck, wrapped her legs about his waist and stood. Keening sweetly, she buried her face against his neck.

“Oh, God, you feel so good, lass.”

Holding her with one hand, he grabbed the furs off Bret’s bed and tossed them onto the floor, then gently settled onto his back, she sitting upon him.

“’Tis time you take control.” He folded his hands behind his head and eased his legs apart. “Lean forward and stretch out your legs betwixt mine.”

Kate, her heart pounding so hard she was sure he could hear it, did as Ian requested. Stretched out so they were hip to hip, nose to nose. Oh. She rose up on her arms. Oh my. She rocked just a bit. She liked this.

Hands behind his head, he watched her through barely opened eyes, dimples taking shape. Never had she imagined...oh, and how wonderful he felt, they felt, together. That wonderful, throbbing need was building again. She began to rock faster.

“Tup me, lass. Take what you need.”

Tup him.

She rocked. She could. Oh, my! She slid forward and back on him, loving the way the hairs on his chest brushed and tickled her breasts, the way the muscles along his square jaw began flexing and how moist beads broke out across his brow in response to what she was doing as she rode. Oh, yes. Such power.

His hands were suddenly at her hips. “Aaah, lass.”

She picked up the pace, straining to find release. “Tell me your secret.”

His neck arched back. “Aaah!”

Oh, no you don’t. He‘d tormented her for hours. “Tell me a secret.”

Panting, teeth clenched, he growled, “You first.”

Her? Well, why not tell him? She’d given her body and her heart. Why not her soul? It might prove a relief to have someone other than Nana know the truth. Besides, how she could lose something she didn’t hold? His love.

Angry that she had the secret in the first place, that he would now certainly reject her, she rocked harder. “I’m fey, Ian. Fey. I see what has yet to be. ”

He looked at her, his eyes sparking gold flames. Oh, what was he thinking? She rocked harder, so close, so close.

He pulled her down to him. Looking into her eyes, he whispered, “Ah, thought so. My secret, Katie, something I haven’t ever uttered...I love you. I shouldn’t, I cannot, but I do.”

“You love me?” Truly?

Grinning, he slipped his hands down to her buttocks and took control of their joining. “Oh, aye. I most certainly do.”

How is this possible? He loved her...still? Whilst knowing her secret? Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

As the world shattered into a million brilliant pieces, she keened, “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah, Iannnnnn!”

Katie tumbled, as loose as a rag doll, onto his chest.

Ian laughed as he wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back. Aye. Never let it be said that he couldn’t drive a woman to madness should he set his heart and mind to it. And he had finally uttered those three special words he never thought he might. And it felt good. Very good. Something warm and strong now occupied his heart.

Hmm, yet he still throbbed and was still most anxious to love her far more intimately. But to each there is a season...And Scotland came before his heart.