Highland Warlord - Amy Jarecki Page 0,43
your wife, or a servant, or a nun for that matter. Being Sister Ailish worked quite well for me when I traveled to the king’s coronation.”
“I do not think—”
She silenced him with a chop of her hand. “No! You have obviously not thought. As a woman, I can slip into places unnoticed far more easily than a man. And I’m smaller to boot.”
“What if you are hurt…or captured, or, or…?”
“Live for the now, remember?” Ailish shook her finger. “I am going with you. You ken I cannot stay here and if you leave me with Hew’s wife, I’ll find a horse and follow.”
“But—”
She stood her ground. “I’m going. That’s my final word on it.”
“Oh, aye?” he asked, his eyes growing dark. “And who made you general of the border army?”
“Do not be ridiculous.”
“Am I? In my opinion, my question is no more ridiculous than m’lady’s misplaced sense of her own invincibility.”
Fit to be tied, Ailish snapped her hand back and swung. Before her slap connected with his face, he caught her wrist. Fighting, she jerked her arm toward his thumb and wrenched away while his fingers brutally dug into her flesh. As she stepped out, he captured her left hand, pulled, and in the blink of an eye, she was on her back with the brute straddling her.
“Leave me be!” she shouted, trying to sit up and slap the living daylights out of him.
“Stop struggling,” He growled, pinning her wrists to the ground.
“Stop trying to make me out to be nothing more than a prized virgin, waiting for a gallant knight to sweep me away and take me to an ivory tower where he’ll lock me within and keep me sheltered from all the wickedness in Christendom!”
James opened his mouth. Then closed it, his eyes growing narrower and darker.
Ailish gasped as his gaze meandered to her lips. Suddenly, she had not an ounce of fight remaining in her bones. Her insides turned molten as her breathing sped.
He neared, lowering himself over her.
Unable to wait, she arched up and kissed him. In a heartbeat, his tongue plunged into her mouth, as if ravenous. He moved atop her, his body wild with raw passion, the intensity of his ambush ramping up the desire coursing through her blood. As he released her hands, she wrapped them around his neck, holding on for dear life, meeting the demands of his tongue, stroke for stroke, brutal suck for brutal suck. His hips rocked against her and she thrust in turn, while frissons of fire and ice swirled deep and low between her legs.
Panting, she clamped her hands on either side of his face. “I’ve never felt like this before. You-you have beguiled me.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up and his belly shook atop hers. “Quite the contrary, m’lady. It is you who has ensnared me in your spell.”
“Then I can go?” she asked, holding his gaze. Perhaps she had more power over James than she realized.
“I see no other way to keep you from harming yourself—though the going will not be easy.”
“I did not ask for easy.”
He kissed her again, slower this time, as if savoring a drop of fine wine. And when she rocked her hips against him, his deep, guttural moan vibrated through her. “We’d best return to the camp afore I do something we’ll both regret.”
Ailish scraped her teeth over her bottom lip. Aside from her time at the priory, she hadn’t grown up oblivious to the desires of men and women. And she wasn’t certain she’d regret it if he did that. At least she was not afraid for her virtue. What good was one’s maidenhead when one pledged to protect her brother for the rest of her days?
He stood and pulled her up. “By God, woman, whenever you meet an adversary, I’ll wager you’d best argue your way out of peril. No man can stand up against your wicked tongue.”
Ailish chuckled to herself. If any man other than James Douglas tried to kiss her in the midst of a disagreement, she’d sooner stab him before she allowed some cur to plunder her mouth.
But the rules changed entirely when it came to kissing her black-haired knight. And doing so wasn’t only dangerous, it was akin to toying with the devil himself. The man completely disarmed her when his lips met hers.
Chapter Fourteen
“Where is Lady Ailish?” James demanded as Torquil tossed the rope over the pelts piled on the wagon. Catching it, James looped the end through an iron ring and