Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
I really need to stop spending time with this woman in forests, Noah thought as Keira stood before him.
Having agreed to teach her to fight, against his better judgment, they headed to the forest the following day.
She had opted to wear her ‘old’ dress because she said she didn’t wish to ruin the new ones he had bought for her. This meant that Noah was now gazing at a dress that left very little to the imagination. He also had to make contact with her body multiple times to teach her to fight—it was torture.
He could barely stand straight; he was so aroused. He was just glad he’d worn his trews, which made it a little less obvious.
“Yer stance needs to be firmer,” Noah said tightly, receiving the third glowering look from his opponent. “Are ye goin’ to glare at me every time I tell ye to do anything’?”
“I shall glare at ye when ye speak in that tone, yes,” Keira said, brushing down her skirts.
“And how is me tone?”
“Highhanded.”
“Sorry lass, I suppose it’s a habit. I give the orders around here. Everyone else follows them.”
She grumbled something under her breath, raising her arms in front of her like he had shown her.
“Balls of yer feet,” he repeated.
“I am.”
“Ye are nae. Yer weight needs to be evenly distributed. Ye’re favorin’ yer right foot again. Feet shoulder-width apart.”
She took a wide stance, much too wide, and he growled in exasperation, walking toward her and taking position behind her.
“Like this!” he said as he gently pushed his foot against hers, moving hers further together. He lifted her elbows so that her hands protected her face, and he straightened her posture so that she could balance herself properly.
Unfortunately, he only realized he had his hands around her waist after he had done so, and her body was inches from his own.
“Is this how ye taught Scott to fight?” she asked, her voice lower than it had been.
He chuckled. “Nae quite like this, lass.”
He sighed as his fingers lingered on her tight waist; he could feel her trembling beneath his touch and couldn’t get the taste of her out of his mind.
He wasn’t used to this pull he felt toward her. Even standing beside her now, his skin felt hot and uncomfortable. He wanted to rip his léine from his back and shove her into the forest floor where he could worship her to his heart's content.
He stepped away, going to stand before her again, receiving a quizzical gaze in response.
“Be sure to protect yerself when ye come at me.”
“I am nae afraid of ye, me laird,” she said simply.
He wanted to order her to call him Noah again but decided that it was probably best if they kept some boundaries between them.
“Are ye ready to try again?” he asked, running his eyes over her figure for a final time, purely to ensure her stance was correct and not to linger on her curves.
“How should I do it?” she asked, her body rigid as she contemplated her path.
“Try to knock me down.”
Her eyes widened. “Yer shoulder?”
“I have a good healer; it doesnae bother me anymore.”
She gave him a shy smile that just about froze the breath in his lungs, and he mirrored her stance, telling himself sternly to focus.
“I dinnae want to hurt ye,” she said quietly.
“Bigger men than ye have tried and failed to do that, lass, if ye dinnae run at me soon, I’ll do it to—oof!”
As he had been speaking, she charged, taking him by surprise. He was knocked backward, almost clean off his feet. The only reason he didn’t land on his back was because his legs were parted firmly on the ground.
Keira, on the other hand, did not fare so well. He scooped an arm around her waist, twisting her away from him, and she tripped over his shin, tumbling into the forest floor.
He approached her as she rolled onto her back, glaring at him furiously. He was too distracted by her beautiful body and her long hair scattered across the leaves below her, to pay much mind to her expression, however.
“That was mischievous,” Noah said as he offered her his hand. She did not take it, pulling herself to her feet.
“Bigger men than me?” she asked archly.
“Aye. I’ve fought a lot of people in me life, lass.”
She contemplated him for a short while. “When we first met ye said if ye needed to kill someone ye did it with yer bare hands. Have ye ever killed anyone?”
Noah hesitated.
He was not going to apologize for his position—as a laird, he had to settle scores and had been in many battles—but this was the first time the question made him feel uncertain. He didn’t want Keira to think of him as a killer.
“I have, lass,” he admitted, “I had to. But we are nae longer at war because of me sister’s alliance. We are aimin’ for peace. If I can prevent it there will be nae more fightin’,” he sighed, “but yes. I have killed before, and I shall probably have to do so again in me life.”
“We?” she asked curiously.
“The other lairds. There are four of us, excluding MacDunn—the man who set that village alight. We all want to stop him. Laird Dougal, who ye met, is one of them. He was me rival, and instead of choppin’ off his head, I married him off to me sister to ensure peace.”
He knew his words were flippant when compared to the agonies he had endured to make that choice. But seeing as Amelia and Jack were sickeningly happy, he found that he didn’t mind speaking of it so lightly now.
Keira brushed down her skirts again, scattering twigs and leaves everywhere, before glancing at him through her long, dark lashes. There was a small smudge of dirt on her cheek, and it took everything in him not to brush it away with his thumb.
“Do ye miss yer sister?” she asked, her eyes softening.
Noah was silent for a long time, unable to tear his gaze away.
“Aye,” he said slowly. “Aye, I miss her every day. But she dinnae live with me for much of me life. She was in danger, and I sent her to me grandparents so that she would be safe. Since she married Jack, I’ve seen more of her. She’s a much better person than me. Clever, funny, kind.” He shook his head. “I’m sure ye would miss Scott and Daisy if they werenae with ye?”
She smiled. “I would. They drive me mad some days, but they are wonderful children—” she frowned. “I must stop callin’ them that. Daisy keeps remindin’ me they are almost sixteen now.”
“Why are ye the one carin’ for them?” he asked gently, not wanting to pry, but it was a question he had long wanted to ask her.
Keira looked thoughtful for a few minutes, as though considering whether she would tell him or not. Finally, she sighed.
“Me parents died,” she stated simply.
Noah felt sadness burn through his chest at the devastation in her eyes. “Do ye mind me askin’ how?”
Their eyes met, and he felt a dark connection looming between them in that moment—a shared pain from their pasts linking them together in a way that he would never have expected.
“Fire.”
One word, and yet it conjured a thousand images, all more terrible than the last.
“It was the middle of the night. I only woke up because I coughed meself awake. There was smoke everywhere. I called for me faither but there was nae answer. It was only a small cottage, and I shared me room with Scott and Daisy. They were both so small I managed to lower them out of the window by me bed. I stayed as long as I could, but the fire was everywhere by then. Me parents never woke up.”
She shivered, rubbing her hands over her arms. “When Lucas tied me to that pyre, I thought I would end up the same way.”
For a little while, there was only the sound of the breeze in the trees and the birds cheeping in the branches. Noah did not know what to say. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for her, standing outside the house praying that her parents would emerge—and then the slow realization that they never would.
“I am sorry, Keira,” he said finally. “Ye ken that will never be yer fate?”
She sniffed, visibly pulling herself together as she threw her hair over her shoulder and returned to her previous stance.
“That is why we are here is it nae?” she asked, forcing lightness into her tone despite the heavy nature of their conversation. Noah nodded, as Keira stepped back.
“Can ye teach me to hit someone?” she asked, her eyes flicking around at the trees, no doubt remembering her mad flight when they had met.
“Aye, but ye have to learn the basics first.”
“I have learned the basics.”
“Ye have run at me once and ended up on yer back!”
“Well, then, I’ll make it two,” she said with rugged determination.
Keira settled into her stance, but Noah was ready for her this time. She tried the same tactic of surprise that she had before and ran at him before he was fully prepared, but this time, as her hands went around his waist, he kicked her legs from under her, and she gave a loud shriek and sprawled across the floor again.
Noah hid a smile as she rose to her feet.
“Ye cannae try the same thing twice; a good fighter learns from his mistakes. Or hers.” He’d never thought to teach a woman before.
Keira turned on him with quite a different expression: an angry snarl curling her berry lips and fire in her eyes.
“Ye kicked me!”
“Aye,” Noah replied, feeling heat erupt through his whole body as she advanced on him as he backed away, unable to keep his laughter at bay. “I am teachin’ ye to listen to me.”
She scoffed. “Och, aye, everyone must do yer biddin’. Ye are here to command me, I forgot.”
“Did ye nae wish for me to teach ye?”
“That wasnae teachin’ me anythin’.”
“It taught ye nae to try and choose a coward’s attack for a second time.”
He saw the anger spark in her eyes, and without any preparation at all, she ran at him.
With great satisfaction and an element of relief, he waited until she was within inches of him and then scooped his hands around her waist and lifted her bodily over his uninjured shoulder.
She cried out in outrage. “Put me down!”
“Nay.”
“Noah! Put me down this instant.”
“If ye willnae listen to me, then I’ll show ye how easy it would be for someone like me to overpower ye.”
He was walking now. He wasn’t sure where he was taking her, but he put a proprietary hand on her lower back, enjoying feeling the curve of her buttocks as he did so.
“Ye put me down, Noah Black, or I shall curse ye.”
He chuckled. “I always kenned ye were a witch,” he said, walking through a small clearing to find them at the edge of a tiny pool surrounded by pine trees and mossy rocks.
He laughed again as he felt her little fists pounding on his back and slowly lowered her down to the ground.
He couldn’t resist feeling her body as he did so, and he let her slide down the entire length of him, hearing her breath catch as she slid against the evidence of what her proximity did to him.
They ended up standing pressed together at the edge of the pool, his hands around her waist, their hips connected, and her eyes bright and alive.
Sunlight was streaming through the canopy above them, highlighting everything on the forest floor in golden sparks. It lit up the fine dust in the air, making everything seem magical and full of mystery.
Noah pulled her closer to him, his fingers digging into her back as she gasped.
“Ye are a stubborn filly,” he said, just to see the spark in her eyes.
“And ye are a brutish laird who thinks I will obey him.”
He groaned. “Ye enjoyed me instructions the other day at the loch, lass.” She shuddered, her fingers flexing on his shoulder. “Deny it,” he whispered. “Ye just about came apart for me.”
She shook her head, even as her hips began to meet his with more intensity. She was panting in his arms, and he couldn’t repress his need to hold her any longer.
His hand smoothed over her stomach and cupped her breast even as she moaned. His fingers rolled the nipple beneath the thin fabric of her dress. It was almost bursting at the seams as she stood before him, and he was hard and desperate in moments.
“Lay down,” he said, adding authority into his voice and watching her pupils blow wide in her eyes. “Ye’ll do as I say.”
To his delight and ultimate pleasure, she nodded, all the fight leaving her as she lowered herself to the mossy floor. She sat at an angle, her arms resting on a low rock behind her, leaning back away from him as he knelt, placing a knee between her legs.
“Ye are quite a sight, Keira Young,” he muttered, his fingers caressing her legs as her breath stuttered from her lungs. “And right now ye are mine to do with as I please.”
He leaned forward, taking her lips with his own, his hand cradling the back of her head. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, both of them groaning at the pleasure of it as her own tongue met his, and he tasted her sweetness again, the intensity and need of it almost overwhelming.
Her head fell back as his hand moved up her inner thigh.
“Lie back,” he demanded, and she went without protest. It was a heady feeling, having her obey him without question, and he could barely control himself. “Will ye do as I say, lass? Will ye follow me instructions?”