Chapter 15 #2
She’d never felt so satisfied, and yet even as she started to say it, the hunger came back, ignoring the tingling of the remaining pleasure as it sought out more.
Elin reached for him and drew him down into a deeper kiss, her hands wordlessly scrabbling at the bottom of his shirt.
Keir did not need direction this time. In one swift move, he pulled the garment off over his head, then stood to undo his breeches.
While he did, Elin shrugged off her underskirt, wanting to be fully bare with him.
He stood before her, naked and beautiful, and she reached for him.
“Are ye—” he started.
“Come here,” she commanded.
A smile played on his lips as he obeyed.
Keir positioned himself on top of her and kissed her, then, slowly, with her guidance, found her entrance.
He pressed into her, slowly filling her, and Elin had to fight her instincts to stop herself from pulling him deeper.
Her hands found his hips, gripping as he entered her fully.
Then he began to move.
It was as though they had made love a thousand times before.
Every touch, every movement, was a well-rehearsed dance, every sigh of pleasure and grunt of need the harmony of a well-known song.
Their bodies slid against each other, slick with sweat and want and need, and they tasted each other greedily, hands exploring, whispers and cries tangling into the night.
Keir kissed Elin’s mouth, her breasts, anywhere he could reach, and she matched him in kind, her mouth and fingers finding any part of him that she could.
His thrusts were slow and steady, but soon they began to speed up and grow harder, more insistent.
Elin was ready this time when the pleasure began to build, and she made no attempt to resist it.
She bucked more furiously against him, taking everything she needed because she knew he wanted nothing more than to give it.
She spoke without hearing herself as her body burned, repeating his name or a sound or some prayer over and over, building and tensing and then releasing once more.
The sweetness of the climax heightened as she heard him groan out her name and felt his warmth as he spent inside of her.
They lay there like that for some time, holding each other, neither needing to speak. Then, at last, he rolled off her, collapsing, exhausted, onto his back. She shuffled in the bed, moving her head to his chest, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“Is this what it is like, then?” she mumbled.
“What?” he asked.
“Tae feel pleasure from one who cares for ye?” She tilted her head to look up at him. “Surely it cannae always feel so wonderful.”
Keir kissed her forehead. “I dinnae ken. But I intend tae spend the rest of our lives findin’ out, if ye’ll let me.”
Elin smiled, and Keir smiled back, and that was all they needed to say. When sleep found them, it found them together, comfortable in each other’s arms.
The attack came in the depths of the night.
Keir awoke with a start to find his bed empty and Elin nowhere in sight. He heard the horses screaming and quickly pulled on his clothes, grabbing for his sword, and burst out of the door to an all-too-familiar sight.
The camp was ablaze, and chaos reigned. At least thirty Grant men swarmed the grounds, looting and destroying wherever they went.
Noah was fighting five men at once, red blood blossoming from a thousand cuts as he refused to yield.
Graeme burst from his own cabin a second after Keir and threw himself into the fray with a roar.
In the distance, Keir saw Theon running to the stables and knew his brother had gone to free the horses and let them run rather than be killed or burned by the attackers.
Where was Elin? Keir didn’t know, but he had no time to think as two Grant men rushed for him. He fought back with fury.
How many times would his home burn around him?
How many times would these monsters try to destroy everything he held dear?
His sword pierced an attacker’s heart, then he ducked to avoid a punishing blow from another, swiveling to parry a second attack and slicing out to end it.
Where was she?
Noah’s knees gave out and he fell to the ground.
Graeme pounced, stopping his attackers before they could finish him, and the two men were lost in a sea of death and blood.
Keir could not take a moment to fear for them.
He fought through the throng, his eyes roving as he searched for her, fighting off every attack that came his way.
He heard a whinny and saw Theon on the back of one of the horses, pulling Briana up behind him.
Confusion made him stand still as he realized what he was seeing—Theon, riding on Nightwind, taking his wife and abandoning the camp.
Abandoning them. Surely that couldn’t be—
He swore as, in his distraction, one of the Grant men pierced his shoulder with the tip of a dagger.
Growling in irritation, he twisted before it could do any serious damage and dispatched the man before he had a chance to finish him.
He turned to see what he could do for Noah and Graeme, unable to understand the betrayal he had just witnessed, then froze.
Eamon Grant strolled across the ground, unconcerned by the carnage, toward a lone woman who stood with a raised sword in her shaking hand. Elin stabbed out, but Eamon laughed and swept aside her attempt as though it was nothing.
“Nay!” Keir roared. He bolted toward them and smashed into Eamon with his whole body, sending Grant tumbling to the ground. Without any time to think, he grabbed Elin and ran toward the woods.
His brothers were probably dead. Theon and Briana had abandoned them. All he could do now was keep her safe.
“Keir!” she exclaimed, tears streaming down her face as he pulled her along into the woods toward their freedom. “Keir, wait!”
But Keir didn’t answer. There was nothing left to do now but run.