they galloped toward the keep.
Eirik felt Ciara relax against him and his dragon rumbled in approval while his raven urged him to rub his head against hers. He gritted his teeth in frustration but settled her more securely in his embrace.
He did not need these urges, but damned if he was going to sit by while she rode a horse with her body pressed up against another man.
Mated Chrechte or not.
Lais woke with a warm bundle snuggled in close against him. He’d been careful not to put his arms around Mairi before sleep and had not moved from the spot in the furs he’d first lain down on. However, she’d cuddled right up to him and seemed content to be there, despite the fact that his hand rested against her back. She was using his other arm for a pillow.
He found himself smiling and excited as hell, his sex hard between them.
The urge to claim her was strong, but remembering her still-healing injuries quelled it—even better than telling himself his honor hung on his ability to control that need.
Her breathing changed then and he knew she’d woken, too.
She tipped her head back and met his eyes, but made no move to leave his arms. “Have we slept very long?”
He looked out the window high in his wall, trying to determine the angle of the sun and then gave a one-armed shrug. He did not want to jostle her. “Not overlong, though we’ve missed the midday meal.”
Then he blinked, thought again and realized he’d had the sun’s shadows backward in his mind. ’Twas dawn he saw out that window, not dusk.
Talorc had let them sleep the whole day and night. For it would have to be some incredible piece of luck for no one to have checked on them in all this time. Lais was not a great believer in the commodity. So, the Sinclair had to know Mairi had spent her night in Lais’s bedchamber and yet, no angry laird had beaten the door down with his fist.
“Lais?” she asked softly, her face still soft from sleep.
“Aye?”
“Is it after?”
“It is, though it is morning and not evening as I first thought upon waking.”
“I think I knew that…I feel too refreshed and healed to have slept only a couple of hours.”
“Do you now?”
“Oh, yes, quite well enough, I think.”
“Are you the healer now?”
“Perhaps I am meant to heal your heart.”
If only that were true. Still, his lips were curved in a smile when he kissed her for the first time. She tasted familiar and yet altogether different from any woman he had ever kissed.
Mairi did not know to part her lips for him, but he did not mind. Their closed-mouth kisses were hotter than any kiss he’d shared before with a woman and went straight to his groin.
He cupped her breast, squeezing lightly and she made a sweet little sound of need. But then a tentative fingertip glided along his sex and he made his own desperate sound of want.
He teased along the seam of her lips, encouraging her to open for him. It took her a few seconds and a couple of moans, but finally, she did.
He let his tongue explore her mouth, while his hand explored her perfect body…very gently. She loved having her nipples touched, but gave a surprisingly strong groan of delight when he caressed the nape of her neck.
He very carefully pressed her back so he could reach her breasts with his mouth and she let him. Making no sound of complaint, though she still had to be tender.
He would not allow her to be hurt further though, so he held her still when she tried to squirm. “Do not move.”
“But it feels too big to stay still.”
“I will not hurt you.”
“I know.”
“If you move, I will stop touching you.”
She stilled immediately and that excited him in a way he had not expected. She had a confused look of pleasure on her lovely face as well. “Lais?”
“Yes, little one?”
“Why does it make me feel needy inside to be motionless like this for you?”
“I do not know; perhaps you like to trust me.”
“Perhaps I do.”
And mayhap he liked her trust, more than he would have ever known and far more than ’twas safe for either of them.
He reached down and cupped both her breasts, rubbing his thumbs over her sensitive nipples. “These are just the right size for me.”
He could see her desire to move in the way her body tensed, but she remained still. “Maybe I