In Bed with a Highlander (McCabe Trilogy 1)

Mairin’s eyes widened. “Are you mad? The water is frigid!”

Rionna smiled. “ ’Tis good training for the mind.”

Mairin shook her head. “I have no understanding for someone who would forego the joys of a tub full of hot water for a hellish swim in an icy loch.”

“Since swimming in the loch isn’t a possibility, I’ll gladly take you up on your kind offer of a hot bath,” Rionna said with a grin. Then she cocked her head to the side and looked at Mairin with an odd expression on her face. “I like you, Lady McCabe. I don’t appall you as I do others. And the way you waded through the men to rescue me was very well done.”

Mairin flushed. “Oh, do call me Mairin. If we’re to be friends, ’tis only appropriate that you should address me thusly.”

Maddie cleared her throat behind Mairin, and Mairin turned, horrified that she’d forgotten her manners.

“Rionna, I want you to meet the women of my clan.”

Each woman stepped forward in turn and Mairin went down the line, introducing those whose names she remembered. Maddie supplied the names that Mairin hadn’t learned as of yet.

When they were done, Maddie directed the women back to the keep so they could heat water for Rionna’s bath.

After showing Rionna to the chamber she would occupy, Mairin went below stairs to check on the plans for the evening meal.

She was nearly to the kitchens when Ewan entered the hall. Laird McDonald accompanied him and Mairin quickened her step.

“Where is my daughter?” Laird McDonald demanded.

Mairin paused and turned to face the surly laird. “She’s above stairs seeing to her bath and dressing for the evening meal.”

Apparently mollified by the idea that his daughter wasn’t out battling more warriors, the laird nodded before turning back to Ewan. Mairin waited a moment, fully expecting Ewan to reprimand her for her interference, but he looked past Laird McDonald and winked.

It was done so fast that she was sure she’d seen wrong. The idea of the laird doing something like winking was too much to contemplate. Sure she’d imagined it, she headed for the kitchens once more.

Chapter 26

Mairin was long asleep when Ewan came to their chamber that night. He stood by the bed and watched as she slept, so burrowed under the furs that only her nose peeked out.

Talks with McDonald had rapidly deteriorated as more ale had been consumed. Instead of talking marriage and alliances, the men had sat around the table in the hall drinking and engaging in bawdy tellings of tavern wenches and old battle scars.

Ewan had excused himself, more interested in slipping into a warm bed with his wife than engaging in ribald boasting. It should bother him that even asleep the lass had such a hold over him that all he had to do was imagine her above stairs in his bed and he grew restless and ready to depart the men. But he found that it didn’t bother him at all.

While the rest were in the hall fondly recounting nights spent in the arms of a woman, he’d be above stairs holding his in his arms.

He undressed and carefully pulled back the bed covers. She immediately stirred, frowned, and then yanked the furs to bring them back up. He chuckled and slid into bed beside her.

The shock of her warm body against his brought him instantly and fully to awareness. She stirred again, murmured something in her sleep, and proceeded to burrow underneath him.

Her nightdress fell down one arm, baring the curve of her neck and the smooth skin of her shoulder. Unable to resist, he pressed his mouth to her flesh and nibbled a path to the column of her neck.

He loved her taste, loved the way her scent filled his nose as his tongue laved over her softness. She emitted a sigh that tickled over his ear.

“Ewan?” she asked sleepily.

“Who else were you expecting, lass?”

“Oh, I don’t know. It seems every time I wake, there are people in our chamber.”

He chuckled and nipped at her earlobe.

“You aren’t angry with me?”

He drew back and stared down at her. “What have you done now?”

She huffed, and her lips twisted into a disgruntled line. “I’ve done nothing. I was referring to earlier today. When I took Rionna off me. I know I shouldn’t have interfered but—”

He put a finger over her lips. “Nay, you shouldn’t have. But I’m fast discovering that you do many things you shouldn’t. It was a good thing that you removed Rionna when you did. Her father was angry, and you diffused the situation. My only complaint is that you placed yourself in a potentially explosive situation, not to mention you waded through a bunch of men who were caught up in the excitement of a battle.”

She slid her hands down his middle, lower, until she found his hardness. Her fingers circled his shaft and he groaned as he swelled within her grip.

“But you aren’t angry,” she said in a whisper-soft voice.

His eyes narrowed even as he pushed farther into her hand. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re about, lass.”

Her eyes widened innocently as she stroked him from his cods to the very tip of his cock. He leaned down to kiss her, breathing in her very essence. He inhaled, holding and savoring the air that had been hers and then he returned it and it danced around their lips and tongues.

“This won’t get you out of trouble every time,” he warned.

She smiled. “I’ll settle for most of the time.”

He was about to lose himself in her hand. Her soft exploration was driving him to the brink of insanity. He had to have her. Now.

He reached down and clutched the hem of her night dress.