Chapter 9 #4
She reached out and he handed it to her, realizing too late that the water had rendered the thin fabric of her shift nearly transparent.
He saw the round swells of her breasts, and the rosy nipples puckered with cold.
The wet fabric clung to the slim lines of her waist, and lower, he could see the darker triangle at the juncture of her thighs.
She took the soap from his hand and sank slowly back into the water with a wicked grin, but not before the sight of her like that was burned forever into his memory.
Her body was lean and muscular, yet soft and feminine and curved in all the right places.
The delicate span of her waist flared to lush hips and long legs.
He could not imagine anything more perfect.
Her hair hung in damp ropes around her shoulders.
The complete effect had been far more tantalizing than if she had been completely nude.
Was the lass trying to drive him mad, flaunting before him what he could not have?
His hand slipped beneath the water to adjust the erection which still pressed uncomfortably against the wet breeches he had retied under the water.
If he stood, she would no doubt notice the state he was in if she so much as glanced down, but there was no help for it.
He got to his feet and made his way as quickly as he could to the shore, grabbing a drying cloth and toweling first his hair, then his body.
Holding it strategically in front of his groin, he turned to see if Willa was still bathing.
She was walking out of the water towards where he stood on the shore, her shift plastered to her wet body, and looking for all the world like Aphrodite rising from the sea.
Except perhaps more beautiful. Aye, definitely more beautiful.
Still, there was only so much a man could take… and he was nearly at his limit.
“Lass”, Drust ground out, “have ye no modesty?”
“No”, she said simply. “Why? Do you think I should be ashamed of what Nature gave to me?” She narrowed her eyes in challenge.
“No. No’ ashamed. It’s just that I… I can see every damned inch of ye!”
“And you don’t like what you see?”
“Aye… I mean no… Och, lass, will ye just put some clothes on?”
She looked at him as if he were trying her patience!
“Of course. I need to get a dry shift from my trunk, and a clean dress. This one needs washing.” She frowned at him. “Why are you so on edge?”
With that she turned and headed back down the path to the cottage, in front of him, with a tantalizing outline of her behind showing with every step she took. He wanted to roar in agony.
Thankfully, Willa put on dry clothes. And if she was trying to break his resolve and his sanity, she was doing a good job of it.
Only the tantalizing smell of baking sweet buns saved his thoughts from complete debauchery.
His stomach rescued him. She pulled the pan from the oven and set it on the table before him.
“Wait till they cool a bit.”
He waited a minute at most before grabbing one, not caring that it was still too hot. He bit into it and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head. Och, but the lass could cook! Finishing off the first, he reached for another.
Willa laughed at him, and he almost smiled back at her.
“Looks like your appetite is finally returning full force, Warrior.”
He polished off two more before she had finished even one. Then she stood to start cleaning up, and Drust helped her clear the dishes. Though she wasn’t hungry for supper, Willa left Drust eating some apples and cheese while she went to feed her horse.
The pretty mare was wandering in the paddock behind the stable, her silhouette a dark shape in the twilight, the gentle breeze blowing her mane and tail to the side.
When she saw Willa, her ears pricked up and she trotted over for the hay and oats she had brought, nickering softly.
She stayed with the horse for a while, scratching her between the ears while she crunched her dinner.
Darkness was falling, and Willa looked up at the night sky as one by one the stars began to appear.
The sky was completely cloudless tonight, a rare enough thing in Scotland, and there was no moon.
She wondered if she had ever seen so many stars at one time.
Looking up at them in awe, she wandered over to a grassy spot and lay down on her back with her hands behind her head, breathing in the sweet night air.
She didn’t know how long she lay like that, lost in her thoughts, when a shadow fell across her face she gasped in surprise, lifting herself up onto her elbows. But she would know that figure anywhere.
“Drust! God, you scared me.”
“What are ye doing out here? I didna ken where ye…”
She smiled. “Come here, sit down!”
Her voice was so mesmerizing to him that he did so, without even thinking about it. He settled himself next to her on the soft ground, and immediately felt her hand on his shoulder.
“Now lie back.”
She pulled him gently down to lie beside her.
“Isn’t it beautiful?”
Aye, it was. The night was so dark and the stars so bright, not even the usual fog or mist to obscure the view.
It had been a long time since he’d laid down just to look at the stars, years in fact.
It was something he used to do often, when he was younger.
Then, the vastness of the night sky made him feel as if he could do anything at all.
As if time would stand still for him while he conquered the world.
Now looking at the heavens made him feel…
alone. He stared up at the sky, trying not to think about how close Willa was, or how isolated they were from anyone else.
She could take away some of the loneliness.
All he needed to do was roll over, and he’d be on top of her.
His cock filled and throbbed. He fought to keep his breathing even.
Wait, had she just moved a little closer?
He should really get up and go back inside, but he couldn’t seem to muster the will.
Despite the unsated lust burning like fire in his body, he felt strangely at peace lying here with her.
More so than he had in a very long time.
“On nights like this”, Willa said softly, “it almost feels like anything in the world is possible. As if time stands still for just a little while and we’re outside of it, looking in.”
It was an echo of his own thoughts.
She turned her head towards him, though in the dim starlight, he more felt than saw her movement. “I wish you could tell me more… I mean, I wish we could know each other better.”
“That’s no’ going to happen, lass, so ye’d best forget about it. I’ve told ye, as soon as I can, I’ll be leaving. We’ll likely never see each other again.”
His words were bold, but Drust felt his chest constrict and his throat tighten, the peace he had felt shattered into a thousand broken pieces. Why did the thought of never seeing her again bother him so? It shouldn’t, but it did. In fact it tore at his very heart…
Willa sighed softly. “If that’s what you want, I certainly can’t force you to talk.”
No… no, I don’t think that’s what I want at all. Oh, hell…
Drust knew what his body wanted, anyway. His blood was racing through his veins, his skin tingling with the need to be touched. She was so close…
“But I can talk to you”, she said. Not that she would say anything that could compromise her family, but there were other things…
“When I was a child, I hated the city so much. A few times a year we would go to the country to visit a friend, and I wished I could stay there forever, with all the trees and flowers and wide open spaces. I never want to live in a city again.”
When Drust remained silent, she went on. “I like to draw. I would sit outside and sketch everything around me, never stopping until I had it just right. And… I’ve always felt that my life must have a purpose, as if there is something I was born to do, or a place that I’m supposed to be.”
She turned her face to his. “Have you ever felt that way?”
Drust raised his hand, cupping her face in his palm.
His thumb slipped down to trace the fullness of her lower lip, and the heat leaping between them grew even more insistent.
He had never known attraction could be this strong, or that he would come so close to giving in to his most primal instincts.
Mate. Take. Claim. Relieve the brutal ache…
God, but he wanted to! And if he stayed here another moment, he just might. Dropping his hand, he sat up.
“I’m going to bed.”
Willa watched him walk back to the cottage. So close… He had touched her…and she had felt him tremble.