The Secret (Highlands' Lairds 1)

“We’re not company,” Graham told her. “We live here, remember?”

“Yes, of course, but—”

“Are you seeing more than one of anything, Judith?” Gelfrid asked. “Remember Lewis, Graham? He was seeing two of everything right before he keeled over.”

“For the love of—” Judith began.

“Come along, Gelfrid. The lass is about to burst with her blush. She won’t take her clothes off until we leave.”

Judith waited until the door had closed behind the two elders before turning back to lain. “I cannot believe you expected me to take my clothes off in front of Graham and Gelfrid. Now what are you doing?”

“I’m taking your clothes off for you,” he patiently explained.

Her bluster of anger vanished. It was his grin, of course. She had to take time to notice how his smile made him all the more handsome, and then it was too late to argue. He had her stripped down to her chemise and was leaning over her, prodding at the bruise in the center of her back before she had time to order him to stop.

“Your back’s fine,” he told her. “The skin wasn’t cut.”

His fingers trailed a line down her spine. He smiled over the shivers his touch caused. “You’re so soft and smooth all over,” he whispered.

He leaned down and kissed her shoulder. “Frances Catherine is probably waiting downstairs to see you. I’ll have Patrick bring her up.”

“Iain, I’m fully recovered now. I don’t need—”

“Don’t argue with me.”

The set of his jaw and the tone of his voice told her it would be useless to fight him. She changed into her sleeping gown because he insisted. She felt foolish wearing her nightclothes during the day, but lain was in need of being placated now. He still looked worried.

Frances Catherine arrived a few minutes later. She glared Patrick out of the chamber because he’d carried her up the stairs and groaned loudly over her added weight.

Gelfrid and Graham served her supper. Judith wasn’t used to being pampered. She didn’t have any trouble enjoying all the attention, however. Then Isabelle came up to see how she was doing, and by the time lain returned, Judith was exhausted from all her company.

He made everyone leave. Judith put up a halfhearted protest. She fell asleep minutes later.

She awakened a few minutes before dawn. lain was sleeping on his stomach. She tried to be as quiet as possible as she got out of bed. She swung one leg over the side.

“Does your head still hurt?”

She turned back to look at him. lain was propped up on one elbow, staring at her. His eyes were half closed, his hair was mussed, and he looked ruggedly handsome.

She got back into bed, nudged him down on his back so she could lean over him. She kissed the frown on his forehead, then nibbled on his ear.

He wasn’t in the mood for teasing. He growled low in his throat, wrapped his arms around her and captured her mouth for a proper kiss.

Her response made him wild. The kiss turned hot, wet, intoxicating. His tongue swept inside her sweet mouth to mate with hers, and when he finally ended the erotic love play, she collapsed against his chest.

“Sweetheart, answer me. Does your head still hurt?”

The worry was there, in his voice, and it did still ache just a little, but she didn’t want him to stop kissing her. “Kissing actually makes me feel better,” she whispered.

He smiled. Her remark was absurd, of course. It still pleased him. He stretched up and nuzzled the side of her neck. “It makes me hot,” he told her.

She let out a little sigh of pleasure.

“Do you want me, Judith?”

She didn’t know if she should act timid or bold. Did husbands like their wives to be shy or aggressive? She decided not to worry about it. She’d already started out bold, and lain hadn’t seemed to mind.

“I do want you . . . a little.”

It was all he needed to hear. He pulled away from her, stood up, and hauled her up beside him. He nudged her face up so she could look at him, then said, “I’m going to make you want me as much as I want you.”

“You will? lain, you already want me . . . now?”

She didn’t understand. Lord, she really was an innocent. All she had to do was take a good look at him and she wouldn’t have any doubt about his desire for her. She wouldn’t look, though. Her embarrassment wouldn’t let her. He decided to show her. He took hold of her hand and placed it on his hard arousal. She reacted as though she had just been burned by fire. She pulled away with lightning speed. Her face turned crimson. He let out a sigh. His gentle little wife wasn’t ready to let go of her shyness just yet. He wasn’t going to insist.

He was a patient man. He could wait. He kissed her on the top of her head, then helped her take off her nightgown. She kept her head bowed until he pulled her back into his arms.

Then he began the appealing duty of helping her get rid of her shyness. She didn’t respond the way he wanted her to when he stroked her shoulders, her arms, her back, but when he began to gently caress her sweet backside, she let out a little moan of pleasure, letting him know without words she was sensitive to his touch there.

She finally began to explore his body with her fingertips. It took her a long, long while to get around to the front of him. lain was gritting his teeth in anticipation.

It was well worth the agony. Her hand reached his lower stomach. She hesitated, then moved lower, until she was touching the very heat of him.

His reaction made her bolder. He groaned low in his throat and tightened his grip on her shoulders. She kissed his chest and tried to move lower so she could kiss the flat of his stomach. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on the man. He was all hard muscle. He flexed when she kissed his navel. She had to kiss him there again, just to drive him daft.

lain let her have her way until she reached his groin. He pulled her back up and kissed her sweet mouth. It was a long, hard, passionate kiss. She still wasn’t waylaid however. “Iain, I want to—”

“Not.”

His voice was harsh. He couldn’t help that. Just thinking about what she wanted to do to him made him ache to be inside her. He wasn’t about to find his own fulfillment first, however, and he knew he sure as hell would if she took him into her mouth.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Judith, you don’t understand,” he began, his voice ragged.

Her eyes were cloudy with passion. That notice shook him. Was she becoming aroused just by touching him? He wasn’t given time to wonder about it. “I understand it’s my turn,” she whispered. She leaned up and kissed him just to gain his silence. Her tongue thrust inside his mouth before he could take command. “Let me,” she pleaded.

She got her way. Iain’s hands were in fists at his sides. He took a deep, shuddering breath and forgot to let it out. Judith was innocently awkward, wonderfully unskilled, and so lovingly giving he felt he’d died and gone to Heaven.

He couldn’t put up with the sweet torment long. He didn’t have any idea how they got into bed. He might have thrown her there. He was so completely out of control he couldn’t think about anything but pleasuring her until she was ready for him.

His fingers thrust into her tightness, and when he felt the liquid heat of her, his composure almost vanished. He moved between her thighs and let out a low growl of pure male demand.

And yet, before he moved to make her completely his, he hesitated.

“Sweetheart?”

He was asking her permission. That thought penetrated her haze of passion and tears came into her eyes. Dear God, how she loved this man. “Oh, yes,” she cried out, knowing she would surely die if he didn’t come to her now.

He still tried to be gentle, but she wasn’t in the mood to allow it. He eased slowly at first, until she lifted her hips up to meet him. She gripped his thighs to pull him closer, scoring his skin with her fingernails.

His mouth never left hers as the mating ritual took control. The bed squeaked fro

m his hard thrusts. His groans blended with her whimpers of pleasure. Neither could form a coherent thought now, and when lain knew he was about to spill his seed into her, his hand moved between their joined bodies to help her find her fulfillment first.

The fire of passion consumed him. His own release made him feel weak and invincible at the same time. He collapsed against her with a low grunt of raw satisfaction.

God, he loved her scent. He inhaled the light womanly fragrance and thought that he had surely just visited Heaven. His heart still felt like it was about to burst, and he didn’t think he’d mind if that happened. He was too content to be bothered about anything now.

Judith hadn’t quite recovered yet, either. That realization arrogantly pleased him. He liked being able to make her lose her inhibitions and her control so thoroughly. He kissed the base of her neck where her heartbeat pulsed so wildly, and smiled over the way that caress made her breath catch in the back of her throat.

He tried to find the strength to move away from her. He knew he was probably crushing her, but damn, he never wanted this bliss to end. He had never experienced this kind of satisfaction with any other woman. Aye, he’d always been able to hold a part of himself back. He hadn’t been able to protect himself from Judith. The realization shook him, and he was suddenly feeling damn vulnerable.

“I love you, Iain.”

Such a simple declaration and yet so freeing. She’d snatched his worry away before he had time to let it gain control.

lain yawned against her ear and then leaned up on his elbows to kiss her. His intention was forgotten when he saw the jagged cut and the swelling around her eye.

Judith was smiling until he started frowning. “What’s the matter, lain? Didn’t I please you?”

“Of course you pleased me,” he replied.

“Then why—”

“You could have lost your eye.”

“Oh, Lord, you’re sounding like Gelfrid,” she remarked.

She was trying to tease him out of his frown. It didn’t work. “You’re damned fortunate, Judith. You could have—”

She placed her hand over his mouth. “You pleased me, too,” she whispered.

He didn’t catch on. He turned her attention by asking, “When you fell, did you happen to see a man . . . or a woman standing nearby?”

Judith thought about his question a long minute before making the decision not to tell him about the little boy she had seen. The child was too young to be dragged before his laird. It would be terrifying for him, to say nothing of the embarrassment and humiliation it would cause his family. No, she couldn’t let that happen. Besides, she was certain she could take care of the matter. She would have to find the little hellion first, of course, and when she did, she would have a good, long, blistering talk with him. If he wasn’t properly contrite, she might have to ask Iain’s assistance. Or at least threaten to ask him. But that would be a last resort. And if the boy was old enough—though in truth she didn’t believe he could be seven years yet—she would haul him off to Father Laggan and make him confess his sin.

“Judith?” lain asked, prodding her for an answer.

“No, lain. I didn’t see a man or a woman standing nearby.”

He nodded. He really hadn’t believed she’d seen anyone, for in truth he doubted she even realized she had been attacked. The first stone probably knocked her into a faint, and her mind was simply too innocent to think about the possibility of treachery.

He leaned down and kissed her before getting out of bed. “It’s already past dawn. I’ve duties to see to,” he remarked.

“Do I have duties?” she asked as she pulled the covers over her.

“Of course you do,” he answered. “Judith, why do you hide your body from me?”

She started blushing. He laughed. She kicked the covers away. Then she stood up to face him. He took his time looking at her. She stared at the mantel.

“It’s all right for you to look at me,” he drawled out.

The amusement in his voice made her smile. “You’re enjoying my embarrassment, aren’t you, husband?”

He didn’t answer her. She finally looked at his face. lain looked . . . stunned. Was her body displeasing to him? She reached for the covers to hide herself from him.

His next remark stopped her. “You just called me husband. I like that.”

She let the blanket drop back on the bed. “Do you like me?”

He grinned. “Sometimes.”

She laughed as she ran to him and threw herself into his arms. He lifted her off the floor and kissed her.

“You make me forget my duties.”

She didn’t care. She was pleased her kisses could rob him of his concentration. She went back to the bed and sat down so she could watch him get dressed.

It seemed to her that with each article of clothing he put on, he changed a bit, becoming more and more like the clan’s leader, and less and less like the gentle lover she’d known a few moments before. By the time he’d attached his scaffold to his belt, he was every bit the laird, and treating her like his chattel.

Her duty, he explained, was to direct the servants in their tasks. They didn’t have a full-time cook at the keep. The women in the clan took turns supplying the fare. If she wished to take over that task, she could.

She was responsible for the maintenance of the interior of the keep. Since Graham and Gelfrid were going to continue to live with them, she was also supposed to take care of their needs.

Judith wasn’t worried. From an early age she’d directed the servants at her uncle Tekel’s holding. She didn’t anticipate any problems she couldn’t handle.

lain seemed worried. She was very young to have so many duties thrust upon her shoulders. He made that comment to her and ordered her to come to him if she needed more help.

She wasn’t insulted by his lack of confidence in her ability. He couldn’t possibly know what she was capable of doing. She would have to show him she could handle the responsibilities that came with being the laird’s wife. Only then would he quit his worrying.

She was eager to get started. “I’ll go downstairs and begin right away,” she announced.

He shook his head. “You haven’t recovered from your injury. You must rest.”

Before she could argue with him, he pulled her to her feet, kissed her on her forehead, and then walked over to the door.

“Wear my plaid, wife.”

She forgot about her nakedness and rushed over to him. “I have a request to make.”

“What is it?”

“Will you please call all the women and children together? I would like for you to introduce me to them.”

“Why?”

She didn’t explain. “Please?”

He let out a sigh. “When do you want this done?”

“This afternoon will be soon enough.”

“I planned to call my warriors together and give them the news of our marriage, and they would inform their wives, but if your heart’s set—”

“Oh, it is.”

“All right, then,” he conceded.

She finally let him leave the chamber. She didn’t hurry to get dressed. Iain’s lovemaking had worn her out. She got back into bed, wrapped herself in the bed covers on his side of the bed so she’d feel closer to him, and closed her eyes.

Her little nap lasted three hours. She wasn’t ready to leave her chamber until early afternoon. She felt guilty for wasting her time, but that didn’t make her hurry. She put on the same white underdress because she still hadn’t collected her clothing from Frances Catherine’s yet. She tried to fashion Iain’s plaid, made a muck of it, and finally went to find one of the elders to help.

Gelfrid came to her assistance. He escorted her down the steps.

lain was waiting in the great hall with Graham. They both smiled when they spotted her.

Brodick came strolling into the hall then, drawing her attention. She turned to smile at him.

He bowed to her. ??

?They’re waiting for you, Iain,” he called out. “Judith, you could have lost that eye. You’re damned fortunate.”

“Aye, she is,” Gelfrid interjected. “I’m not understanding why our laird wants to speak directly to the women,” he added then.

He wanted an explanation, of course. Judith wasn’t going to give him one. She smiled at the elder and turned to her husband. He took hold of her hand and walked to the door.

“Iain, you trust me, don’t you?” she asked.

He was taken aback by her question. “Yes,” he answered. “Why do you ask me that now, Judith?”

“Because there is a special . . . situation, and I want to make certain before I act that you trust me enough not to interfere.”

“We’ll discuss this tonight,” he told her.

“Oh, it should be taken care of by then.”

He held the door open for her and followed her outside. She started down the steps. He stopped her by putting his arm around her shoulders and hauling her up against his side.

And then he addressed the gathering. The women, so many she couldn’t begin to count, stood in front with their children by their side. The courtyard was filled, and the hills below.

Judith barely paid any attention to what her husband was telling the group. She despaired at ever finding the boy in such a crush of people, but she was determined to try. She did find Frances Catherine and was pleased to notice Isabelle stood next to her friend. lain stopped. “Keep talking,” she whispered.

He leaned down. “I’m finished.”

“Iain, please. I still haven’t found him. And don’t look at me like that. They’ll think you think I’m daft.”

“I do think you’re daft,” he muttered.

She nudged him in his side to get him to cooperate.

He started talking again. Judith was about to give up when her attention was drawn to one of the midwives; the one named Helen, she recalled. The midwife looked ill, frightened too. Judith’s attention stayed on the woman a bit longer than necessary while she wondered why she would be so visibly upset by this marriage news. While she was watching her, Helen half turned and looked down, behind her. Judith saw the boy then. He was diligently trying to hide behind his mother’s skirts.