"Nay," Greer growled. "What would make me feel better would be if ye'd sit still and let me think."
"What are ye thinking about?" she asked curiously.
"Fish," he said succinctly.
Saidh raised her eyebrows. "Why?"
"Because I detest fish."
"Really?" Saidh smiled. "So do I. Lady MacDonnell does too."
Greer merely cursed under his breath.
Saidh fell silent for another minute, but then cleared her throat and asked, "Why are ye thinking o' fish?"
"Saidh!" he snapped, then sighed and began to rub his temples and explained more gently, "Sweetling, I was counting on yer braies being on so that I could pleasure ye without taking yer innocence. But yer no' wearing yer braies, and I am struggling to keep from taking me pleasure, yer innocence be damned, so I am trying to control me passion by thinking o' dead smelly fish because they are the least passionate thing I can think o' and the one thing most likely to help me control meself."
"Oh," Saidh said quietly, but then asked, "Would it be so terrible if ye took yer pleasure? Ye've given me pleasure twice now and while I think ye enjoyed yerself the first time, I'm no' sure ye did in the stables. Surely ye deserve pleasure too."
"Dear God, ye swear like a warrior, fight like one too, but ha'e no survival instinct to speak o', lass," Greer said with despair, then caught her at the waist and lifted her off his lap and into the air even as he stood up. When Saidh's gown promptly slid over her hips and fell to pool on the floorboards beneath her, Greer looked as if he might weep. He also froze again and simply held her there in the air before him as his eyes roved hungrily over her bare body.
"Greer?" Saidh said softly.
He tore his gaze from his inspection of her body and raised his gaze to her face. "Aye?"
" 'Tis in me nature," she said solemnly and when he stared blankly, explained, "That is what the scorpion said to the dying frog, 'Tis in me nature." She smiled crookedly. "I win."
Greer released a breathless laugh and shook his head. "Nay, lass. I'm pretty sure I win."
"Nay. That is the end o' the story. I win," she insisted as he carried her across the room.
"It may be the end o' me aunt's story, but 'tis just the beginning o' ours," he assured her as he set her to sit on the end of the bed.
"But--"
"How long is the journey to Buchanan from here?" Greer interrupted, straightening.
Saidh frowned. "I do no' ken. Half a day, mayhap less."
Nodding, Greer turned and headed for the door, ordering, "Do no' move. I'll return directly."
Saidh stared after him with bewilderment as he slid from the room, then shook her head and dropped back on the bed with a little sigh. The man had obviously lost his mind. That was the only explanation that made sense to her. First he was touching and caressing her, then he was upset she wasn't wearing braies, then he started spouting things that made absolutely no sense and marched out ordering her not to move.
What the hell did he mean that she hadn't won? She'd finished the tale before he'd made her scream in pleasure. In fact, she was beginning to think he would never cause that now. And what was that nonsense about their story just beginning? What story was that?
More irksome to her, though, was his claim that she had no survival instinct to speak of. Saidh knew he meant because she'd as good as offered herself to him, but he was wrong. She was not an idiot. She knew ladies were supposed to save themselves for their husbands and that by giving herself to him she would be making herself unmarriageable. But it seemed to her that she wasn't likely to marry anyway. Her betrothed had died, and no laird was likely to want a woman as rough as her to wife. She'd spent too many years with her brothers, learned too many curse words and how to fight. She wore those precious braies under her skirts, rode astride like a man, and could fight like one too. She'd been given a taste of freedom growing up with her brothers as playmates, and doubted she could give up that freedom just to be some man's chattel.
So why not find her pleasure with Greer while she was young enough to enjoy it? Her brothers wouldn't think less of her for it, she was sure, and before she'd left for Sinclair for Joan's birthing, Aulay had told her that she would always have a home with him at Buchanan.
Sighing, she turned her head to peer at the door, wondering where the devil Greer had got to . . . and what he'd gone for in the first place? Perhaps he was fetching them food, she thought hopefully when her stomach made a deep growling sound. She'd been too busy fretting over Fenella to eat at sup and was now hungry. She was also a tad chilly, she noted, and sat up to glance toward the fire. A frown claimed her lips when she saw that the fire was half the size it had been when they'd entered her room earlier. It needed feeding too.
Slipping off the bed, she tugged the linen off to wrap around herself and walked to the fire to feed it some logs. She was kneeling on the fur in front of the fireplace, just using the iron to push the logs about and urge the fire to a happier glow when her door opened. Saidh glanced around to see Greer closing the door. He didn't have food, she noted unhappily.
Spying her by the fire and noting her expression, he asked, "What's the matter?" as he crossed the room toward her.
"I was hoping ye'd gone to fetch food," she admitted, setting the iron back as she straightened.
"I will later," he assured her coming to a halt. Smiling faintly, he reached up to remove the pin that held his plaid in place. "Ye look lovely even wrapped in a sheet."
"Do I?" Saidh asked vaguely, her attention caught by what he was doing as he set the pin on the table by the chairs and then gave his plaid a tug that sent it rushing toward the floor. Saidh stared wide-eyed at his now revealed calves and knees below the hem of his shirt, which ended at his thighs, and breathed, "Oh my, yer lovely too."
Greer chuckled at her words and then lifted his shirt, to tug it off over his head and Saidh simply stared at the appendage between his legs. It wasn't nearly as majestic as it had felt the few times it had pressed against her. It had felt as large and uncomfortable as a log when she'd been sitting on it earlier, but now it was kind of just hanging there all wrinkly and-- Saidh's thoughts stopped abruptly as it began to grow, stretching and lifting toward her like a flower seeking the sun. Curious, she reached out without thinking to touch it, but Greer caught her hand before she could make contact.
Glancing up, she saw that he was staring at her with a sort of bemusement.
"Ye ha'e no a bone o' shyness in ye, do ye, Saidh?" he asked huskily.
" 'Tis hard to be shy with seven brothers barging into yer room at all hours," she said wryly. She tilted her head. "I suppose a proper lady would be shy?"
"Aye," Greer agreed. Reaching out he tugged her sheet loose and sent it tumbling to the floor on top of his plaid as he added, "But I like ye this way."
"Oh," Saidh sighed as he drew her into his arms. Her breasts touched his chest first, his coarse hairs there tickling them briefly before his warm skin pressed against them. Saidh slid her arms around his neck and raised her head expecting a kiss, and he gave her what she wanted and more. His mouth slanted over hers, his tongue thrusting as he slid his hands down her back, cupped her behind and scooped her up against him until he could kiss her without bending his head.
Greer kissed her again and again, moving his head first one way and then the other until she moaned and wrapped her legs around his waist. He broke the kiss then and lifted her higher to claim one nipple and Saidh's eyes fluttered open with surprise, and then widened as she saw that the room was moving around them. It took her a moment to understand that it wasn't the room moving. He was carrying her to the bed again, she realized and then he knelt to set her on the end of the bed without having to disengage her legs.
Saidh did that for him, allowing them to drop away on either side of him as he ducked his head to lave her breasts. Saidh moaned with pleasure and dug her hands into his hair, urging him on. She then groaned with disappointment when he stopped that, only to gasp in
surprise when he began to trail kisses down her belly. The muscles of her stomach jumped excitedly and Saidh began to tug at his hair, unsure what he was doing and even less sure she liked it. But Greer caught her wrists and urged her to lie back on the bed, continuing to hold them to keep her from interfering as his mouth moved along one hip.
The man was strong, she thought vaguely as she struggled in vain to free her hands. And then suddenly he released her. Before she could reach for him though, his head dipped between her legs and Saidh froze in shock as his tongue rasped across that most sensitive skin.
"Greer?" she gasped uncertainly, grabbing at the sheet under her.
He didn't respond, at least not verbally, and Saidh bit her lip and struggled not to scream out with shocked pleasure as he urged her legs further apart and suckled at the nub at her core as if it were a nipple. Something pressed into her then, spreading and filling her before withdrawing to thrust back in again as he continued to lick and suckle her and Saidh groaned and gasped and panted by turn.
She wanted to move her hips, to thrust into his caresses, to fight toward the release she knew waited just out of sight, but he had her pinned and helpless to do anything except wait for him to give her that release. And then it rocked over her, like a storm rushing down from the hills and Saidh opened her mouth to scream. Before she could, his free hand was covering her mouth and muffling the sound.