Quest of the Highlander (Crowns & Kilts #5) - Cynthia Wright Page 0,44

grim nod. “There was a lock of his hair as well that could have been cut from my head. The only difference, as ye can plainly see, is that this fellow is clearly no Highlander.”

Nora’s heart beat faster as she stared at the miniature. The striking green eyes looking back at her were identical to Lennox’s. In fact, everything about him was identical to Lennox except his jeweled doublet, plumed cap, and the neat grooming of his hair and beard.

“What does this mean?” she asked.

In a hard, angry voice, Lennox said, “It means this fancy fellow is my da, not Magnus MacLeod. Since the day I found this, I’ve been tracking the pieces of this great secret. My mother ran away from Skye after a quarrel, nay—a betrayal by Da. Or, I should say, the man I believed to be my da for nine-and-twenty years. When I traveled to Falkland Palace, I learned from my Aunt Tess that Ma spent most of the time she was away at Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull. When she returned to Skye, I was already growing in her belly, but Da didn’t know the truth until four years later, when he found a letter from her lover.”

“Did he reveal the man’s name to you?”

“Nay,” Lennox replied harshly. “He swears he does not know it himself, that the letter was signed with only an initial: R.”

Nora took it all in, more with her heart than her mind. “It must feel so confusing, to learn that the story of your family, of your life…”

“Is all a bloody lie,” he finished. “I have never truly been part of Clan MacLeod, and my da and grandfather have known it all along, holding me at arm’s length but never telling me the truth! It makes me sick when I remember the pride I once felt when I stood on the battlements of Dunvegan Castle, breathing in the air of the Minch, believing myself a Highlander through and through.”

Nora wanted to say that his siblings were still blood relations, since they shared a mother, but this was not the time for such reassurances. Lennox was grieving a loss, and she could understand that well enough. It came to her that they were both adrift on the sea of life, unmoored from everything they had once depended upon. She burned with emotion, holding him tighter. His body was twice the size of hers, yet slowly she felt him yield. He turned toward her, returning her embrace, his heartbeat strong against the soft curves of her breasts.

It all happened so naturally. She reached up to touch the curve of Lennox’s cheekbone then sank her fingers into his wild, golden hair. In the next instant, his mouth was on hers, hungry, insistent. Delicious. Gratefully, she opened to him, her tongue meeting his, her slim form straining against his hard-muscled body.

Nora lay back on the blanket and drew him to her, dimly aware that something painful was freeing itself inside her, banished by Lennox’s mouth, hands, body. If she had been able to think, she would have remembered Sir Raymond Slater and the terrible night he had taken her innocence, and she would have been afraid. But this was Lennox, and fear was impossible. Everything about him blended strength with caring, power with kindness, and Nora knew in the deepest recesses of her soul that she was safe in his arms.

He framed her face with both hands and kissed her until a flame burned in her core, hotter by the moment. In the rising storm of their passion, clothing came away, and Nora burned to feel him touch her. Her nipples were taut, aching, and when his warm mouth closed over one of them, she gave an involuntary little cry.

Lennox touched her everywhere, and it felt so natural and right that soon she was returning his caresses. Nora loved the feeling of his fully aroused manhood against her belly, then pressing between her thighs in a way that made her open and arch upward, moaning. Lennox’s fingers moved between their bodies, stroking her sensitized little bud, but Nora could not bear for him to linger. She was wet, aching, impatient. A primitive part of her wanted only him, inside her.

She reached down to touch the warm, thick length of him, and felt a new surge of arousal. For an instant, their gazes locked in the moonlight, then she raised her head to find his mouth as she brought him to her entrance.