Chapter 4
After a restless but admittedly inspiring night full of some of the most erotic dreams he’d ever had, Eian saddled his horse and headed for Lochain Castle.
Because he was the brother to the laird of an allied clan, he would be welcomed by Laird Leon as an honored guest, as was written in the age-old rules of highland hospitality.
Though he knew that he was in fact taking advantage of that hospitality only because he wanted to see a particularly stunning lass again, he really couldn’t help himself.
All night he had tossed and turned on the course straw mattress in his room at the inn.
But it wasn’t the uncomfortable bed that made him so restless; after all he was a hardened warrior, used to sleeping on the ground and worse.
No, at first it was his thoughts that had kept him awake long into the night.
Every damn time he had closed his eyes, he saw her, clear as day.
Then he had of course started to imagine her naked, which naturally led to himself being naked with her, skin to skin, breath to breath, kissing her as deeply as if he were actually starving for her.
It was odd, because he didn’t usually fantasize about women so…
vividly. And he didn’t actually kiss many of the women he bedded, though he hadn’t been able to get enough of it when he was a lad, when he could go for hours with one session of lips on lips.
Of course, he didn’t know yet about the even more pleasurable things one could do with a woman.
Now, somehow a kiss seemed more intimate, far too personal for a casual tupping.
It seemed to him that a kiss really had nothing to do with fulfilling the needs of his body, and so was to be generally avoided, lest the lass he was with get the idea that there could ever be more between them.
When finally he slept, he dreamt of the girl on the bay mare.
Aye, he had kissed her in his dream, over and over again, and it had felt like the most natural, perfect thing on earth.
As essential as the next beat of his heart.
And those kisses had fired a hunger in his blood the likes of which could surely only happen in the fantasy of his sleeping mind.
She had tasted of sunshine and honey, and he couldn’t get enough.
He had eagerly licked and sucked at every part of her, all the while grinding his hips hungrily against her soft flesh.
He would have thought that in his own dream, he could have gone as slowly as he wanted, savoring every moment, but he had been desperate for the lass, practically crawling out of his own skin to be inside her.
Then, damn it all to bloody hell, just as he was about to thrust his cock into the soft warmth between her thighs, he woke up, shaking and sweating and hard as a spike.
Needless to say, he had had to finish himself with his own hand like a lad of fifteen years.
Twice.
One night was more than enough of that. Now he wanted to have the real thing, because even if it didn’t come close to what he had felt in that dream, he knew the sex was still going to be damn good.
And obviously he needed to tup her to get whatever obsession this was out of his system.
Once he had had her, he was certain he’d be back to normal again.
He knew from experience that feelings this intense just didn’t last very long.
And so what if he was going a little over board with making a formal visit to Lochain just to see a certain lass again?
Certainly he deserved as much for slogging through all of those caves.
It was all in the name of the pursuit of carnal pleasure, a very worthy goal in Eian’s book.
He even thought he would like to kiss her, at least once.
After all, once he went back to Creagmor in a few days’ time, he would likely never see her again.
A short time later Eian rode into the bailey of the castle, a man on a much different mission than the one that had brought him here.
After leaving Dair and a list of instructions for his care with a stable hand and tossing him a large coin that made the lad look up in surprise and smile, Eian strode towards the keep to be announced to the laird.
He knew that he attracted a slew of feminine gazes as he crossed the bailey, he always did, but he couldn’t be bothered to so much as look right now.
He had another agenda. Already he had concocted a plausible reason for his being here on the coast, one where he would not be lying, only stretching the truth a bit, which he figured wasn’t anything that hadn’t been done before.
Then, after the usual formalities were out of the way, he would mingle with the other castle residents and guests until he saw the lass again, or at least found out more about her.
A lass that lovely was bound to be talked about.
A half-lidded smile spread across his face.
He was confident that he would have her in his bed within a day or two of meeting her, and for that he couldn’t wait.
He hadn’t looked so forward to bedding a lass in a long, long time, and the novelty of it was refreshing to say the least. Och, and damned if he wasn’t hard as a post again just thinking of it!
***
After spending far too much of the day in her chamber being fitted for new clothes, having her hair styled, and just plain pacing the room or staring out the window, Allia was almost eager to go down to the hall for dinner, even if she had to sit with Uncle Leon again and be all but ignored.
She wasn’t at all used to sitting around idle and waiting, and all of the nervous energy she had at the moment wasn’t helping matters.
Her uncle had seemed a bit edgy yesterday, and certainly more blunt with his words than she remembered or was used to, but surely he couldn’t be as bad as he had seemed.
She had probably just been tired, overwhelmed and far too sensitive.
She was so used to the men of the 21st century, generally polite, and comparatively inhibited.
She had forgotten that the men of this time were much different.
Harder, and yes, edgier… because they had to be.
She couldn’t seem to get a good read on Leon though, and that bothered her.
She brushed down her skirt a final time and looked around again at her chamber, still trying to feel something…
anything that said home. It was still a very nice room, decorated in subtle shades of cream and beige, with tapestries adorning the walls, most depicting romantic scenes of ladies and flowers.
Definitely a girl’s room, as the bed was equally feminine, covered with fluffy pillows and frilly blankets.
The two maids who had apparently been assigned the job of making her presentable had just left, but earlier she had been bathed, her hair washed and combed out until it shone, and dressed in a new gown which, she had to admit, was much more flattering than the one her former guardian had given her.
That dress must have been at least ten years out of style, though she would certainly keep it, to remember Mairi by.
The woman had always been kind to her, if a little less than motherly.
She had surely done her best, faced with caring for Allia and preparing her for what was to come, all the while knowing she herself would likely never return home.
Allia had grieved a long time for her, and had made sure her grave was well cared for and always had flowers.
She had always felt a little guilty though, because she was happy to be free from watchful eyes, if only for a little while.
With effort, Allia shook herself out of that train of thought.
There was no use feeling sad over what she had never had the power to change.
She took a deep breath and let it go, refocusing on the moment, and, yes, despite everything, feeling a bit like a princess in all her finery.
She had never really been one to dress up much, before.