me, stealing every thought but one—Jamie. I clutched his shoulders and tugged him closer. His skin burned against my fingertips and I couldn’t get enough. Slanting my mouth on his, I kissed him with every ounce of love and yearning I’d buried these long, lonely weeks.
I felt the moment he came back to me, his body melting into mine. He cupped the back of my head and took control of the kiss, slowing down to gently worship my mouth with his. Delicious sparks sizzled up from the base of my spine and I pressed into him, needing to get closer to his heat. I ran my hands over the muscles of his arms and back up to the exposed skin of his neck.
Mine. Jamie MacCrae was mine and no shriveled hag of a witch was going to take him from me—body or soul. I pulled back and cradled both sides of his face, searching his gaze.
His eyes churned like a dark storm as he gasped for breath. “I dreamt I was kissin’ you . . . but . . . I . . .” He rose up on one arm and raked the hair off his forehead.
I lifted on my elbows, trying to hold his attention, but his gaze shifted beyond my head, the impassive mask dropping into place over his face.
I couldn’t let him slip away from me again. “What did she do to you, Jamie?”
Without looking at me, he cracked a sardonic smile. “Mind games, imprisonment, torture . . . you know, the usual witchery.”
“Don’t make light of it!” I gripped his arms, digging my fingers into muscle. “Before you kissed me, you called me witch! You were still trapped in a nightmare . . .”
Several moments passed and I remained silent. Holding my breath on the hope that he would tell me of the memories that lingered just behind his eyes.
His mouth opened and then closed. He searched my face, a muscle ticking in his cheek. “You’re bleedin’.”
He reached out and brushed a finger over my swollen lips and then stared at the red stain there. His brows lowered, then his eyes snapped back to mine in horror. “I made ye bleed.”
I licked the metallic taste from my top lip. “It’s nothing. Really. Probably just left over from the fight with Addie’s guards yesterday.”
He shrugged off my hands and rolled away. “Maybe it’s no’ a good idea for ye to be alone wi’ me.”
I sat up to find him tugging on his boots. “Jamie, I wanted you to kiss me, okay?”
“But I didna have to hurt ye, did I?”
A shadow loomed over my shoulder and I looked up to find Eòran, arms crossed over his chest, feet wide. He couldn’t speak, but he didn’t need to; his body language said it all. My guard hadn’t left me alone for more than five minutes since his return to Doon. But at that moment, I didn’t want him hovering like a nanny.
“Eòran, I’m fine. Give us a minute.”
Jamie sprang to his feet. “The sun will rise soon. We need to go.” Without looking at me, he strode away.
As we made our way down the mountain, I moved from group to group talking to individuals about their family members and asking what their duties had been at their own camp, so I could assign them a job at base camp. Housing would be an issue, but the weather had turned again, the sun shining strong and warm with a slight cool breeze. Sleeping under the stars would no longer be a danger.
Eòran had gone ahead with a scouting team, but Ewan shadowed me everywhere I walked, and I wondered if my guard had put him up to it. I hadn’t seen Jamie since we’d left the cavern. He’d organized the descent down the cliff face and then disappeared. At least Duncan and Kenna had found their rhythm. When she’d told me they made up, she still seemed angry, but now, they walked just ahead of me, hands linked and smiling.
My heart warmed and ached at the same time. What had happened with Jamie this morning had been another setback in a long line of obstacles with him.
“Yer Majesty.” Ewan jogged up beside me. “May I speak freely?”
I glanced at my friend, red hair flopping over direct green eyes, and something in the set of his mouth bothered me. I’d never really seen him angry and I wasn’t sure this was it, but I hesitated before replying, “Yes.”