CHAPTER 11 #5
Gwendolyn lay utterly still, feeling the pounding of MacDunn’s heart against her breast and the warm caress of his breath upon her neck.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held him, feeling briefly, impossibly safe, as if the muscular shield of his beautiful body and the inexorable power of his will could protect her from anything.
Outside, the storm was still howling with awesome fury, making another attack on the castle impossible tonight.
This was a fragile, stolen moment, she realized, tightening her hold on MacDunn, that would never come again.
It will be mine, Robert had vowed. Robert would not rest until he had forced Gwendolyn to give the stone to him.
Which she would never do. It mattered little that he would certainly kill her once he held that powerful talisman in the crush of his palm.
What was of consequence was the fact that he would use the stone to obtain the power he so lusted for, enabling him to vanquish all those who would rise against him.
As long as she remained in this castle, Alex and his people were in grave danger.
Robert had made it clear he thought nothing of destroying their homes and brutally slaying them.
Although the MacDunns had demonstrated enormous courage in their stand against the MacSweens, she had felt their anguish as they watched their beloved homes being torched as surely as if it had been her own.
She did not doubt Alex would fight to the absolute limits of his ability to protect her.
In his desperate bid to save the life of his son, Alex had unwittingly brought death and suffering to his people.
And she was the cause of it.
She swallowed the despair welling in her throat, and vainly tried to summon the cold detachment that had always served her so well in the past. But somehow in this shadowed moment it eluded her, and she was left feeling deeply shaken and afraid.
There was no question that she must leave immediately.
The moment this violent storm stopped, Robert would bring his savage forces back.
Until then, the MacDunns were prisoners in their own castle.
Only by luring Robert away could she restore the peace the MacDunns had known before she came here, and thereby protect the people who had come to mean so much to her.
Once Robert discovered she was gone, he would waste no time dallying here.
His desire for the stone would force him to set out after her immediately.
And when he found her, she would kill him.
She blinked back the tears blurring her eyes, vaguely wondering why the thought didn’t bring her the dark comfort it once had.
But all she could think of was young David staring at her in wonder as he listened to her tell one of her stories, and Clarinda smiling sweetly as she pressed Gwendolyn’s hand against her swollen, pulsing belly, and dour old Lachlan vehemently promising her that he would make a potion that would have the MacSweens spewing their bowels out their eye sockets.
All this she must leave behind. Hardest of all, she must leave MacDunn, who had awakened emotions within her that she had never imagined existed.
He was lying heavily against her, his body still joined to hers, the roughness of his cheek grazing the soft curve of her neck.
She inhaled a shallow, ragged breath, unable to suppress the anguish tearing through her heart.
Alex raised himself up on his elbows and frowned.
Gwendolyn turned her face away from him, trying to avoid his gaze.
He laid his fingers against the elegantly sculpted line of her jaw and tilted her head back, forcing her to look at him.
Her gray eyes were filled with a terrible hopelessness, and a tear trickled across the paleness of her cheek and dropped into the wet black river of her hair.
He considered himself a hardened warrior, who had seen far more than his share of despondency during his life, both in Flora’s eyes, and in his own.
Nevertheless, the sight of Gwendolyn’s torment slashed deep into him, carving fresh wounds over those that would never heal.
“Do not be afraid, Gwendolyn,” he murmured, caressing her shimmering cheek with the back of his fingers. “I will keep you safe.”
She swallowed miserably and shook her head. “No,” she whispered, her voice a thread of sound against the wind and the rain, “you cannot.”
“I can,” he insisted harshly, “and I will. You are mine.” He captured her lips with bruising force, silencing any further argument.
She felt him harden inside her as he ravaged the deepest recesses of her mouth.
He began to thrust in and out of her, filling her and emptying her, his powerful form flexing with slow deliberation as he tried to make her his.
Gwendolyn wrapped her arms and legs around him and desperately kissed him back, nearly choking on the hot tears that were now streaming down her face.
I love you, she said silently, her heart breaking from the agonizing confession. I love you I love you I love you.
She moaned as she moved with him, knowing that she would never hold him deep within the blazing heat of her body again.
I love you, she wept, threading her hands into the golden length of his hair.
He pushed himself into her with gentle roughness, kissing her tenderly now, trying to possess her body and spirit, his hands roaming across her in a constant, sweeping caress.
And then his fingers were stroking the slick soft heat of her as he thrust in and out, and she felt herself begin to tighten and stretch and reach, and her tears stopped as she became aware of nothing but the sheer wonder of him touching her and filling her and kissing her.
I love you, she told him silently, not daring to speak the words aloud for fear he would reject them.
A low growl curled up from deep within his chest, the masculine sound answering her own soft gasps. I love you more than life itself.
She cried out suddenly, feeling herself shatter into a thousand silvery fragments, and Alex buried himself deeply inside her and let out a harsh groan.
Ripples of ecstasy cascaded over her as his muscled weight pressed her deeper into the softness of the mattress, and she knew an instant of pure, glorious joy.
As swiftly as it came it was gone, replaced with a trembling sense of loss. Alex rolled off her and gathered her in his arms, holding her against him as he gently swept back a damp lock of her hair.
“You will stay with me,” he commanded, his voice low. “And I will keep you safe, Gwendolyn.” He trailed his fingers along the slender length of her arm, then grasped her hand and laid it firmly over his heart. “I swear it.”
Gwendolyn stared a long, solemn moment into the piercing blue of his gaze.
And then she laid her cheek against the warm marble of his chest and closed her eyes, fighting the tears that were threatening to spill from her again as she felt the steady rhythm of his heartbeat against her palm.
She said nothing. There was nothing she could say.
She loved him.
And tomorrow she would leave him forever.