He hadn’t meant to kiss her. It wasn’t something he’d planned. But as she’d stood before him, so close he could smell the sweet scent of her hair, he hadn’t been able to help himself.
And it had been every bit as good as he’d imagined. Better, in fact. The feel of her, the taste of her, had lit an ache inside him the likes of which he’d never felt in his life. Jamie had known women. Plenty of women. But none of them affected him the way Elise did. None of them made him feel so…so…whole. Soseen.
So aye, as they rode he couldn’t stop himself from watching her, enthralled by the sway of her hips and the fullness of her lips. Behind them in the bay, the tide had turned, wiping away their footprints, erasing any evidence that he and Elise had ever been there. But Jamie wouldn’t forget.
He shifted in the saddle, trying to focus his scattered thoughts. He was Lord of the Isles, dammit, not some lovestruck youth! So why did he feel like one? Why was he so helpless around this woman?
The wind carried the tang of the sea, mingled with the scent of salt and heather, and he sucked it in deeply, trying to get a grip on himself. His horse’s hooves struck the rocky path in a steady rhythm, but his heartbeat was anything but steady.
He tried to focus on the task that had brought them out here in the first place—the pirate base they still hadn’t found—but it was no use. His thoughts drifted back to the beach, to the feel of her hand on his cheek, the moment her defiance had softened into something else entirely. He’d kissed her like a drowning man reaching for air, and for a few fleeting seconds, he hadn’t felt the weight of command, of duty, of the Isles.
Just her.
A gull cried overhead, its call sharp and lonely against the wind. He swallowed hard.
The sun slipped behind the western cliffs, and the path narrowed as they finally approached the road to the keep. The towers of Dun Arach came into view, carved from stone that caught the dying light.
Elise broke the silence. “You’re quiet.” Her tone was teasing, but her eyes were searching. “Was it something I said?”
“Just thinking,” he said with a shrug.About you.
“Dangerous habit.” She gave him that sideways grin that always did something strange to his chest.
He found himself grinning back at her. He always wanted to smile when he was near her. “So I’ve been told. Elise, listen—”
“My laird!”
Jamie turned his head. A group of mounted warriors was racing towards him from the direction of the keep. Lathercovered their horses’ flanks, and the warriors themselves were dirty and sweat-streaked.
A shiver of dread went right through him. He nudged his horse towards them as they came thundering up.
“What is it?” he demanded. “What’s happening?”
“An attack!” one of his men, Malcolm, replied, swallowing thickly. “At Ingeld. Came out of nowhere.”
Jamie went cold. “Go back to the keep,” he said to Elise. “Stay there.”
She flushed. “But I can help—”
“No!” Jamie snapped. Dear God, the thought of Elise in danger was more than he could bear. “Two of my men will escort ye back to the castle. Keep Dun Arach safe. I’ll be back soon.”
Her jaw moved and her eyes shone with fear for him. But she only nodded tightly.
Jamie stared at her a moment longer, all the words he wanted to say clogging his throat. Then he snapped at Lewis and Conn to keep Elise safe, whirled his mount, and went thundering off with his men.
His thoughts churned. Was this the revenge attack they’d been fearing? But why Ingeld? It lay several miles to the south of Dun Arach, but Jamie couldn’t think why the pirates would attack there.
The stench of burning hit him long before Ingeld came into view—thick, acrid smoke that clung to the back of his throat and turned the sky a sickly gray. Jamie urged his horse forward, dread churning in his stomach.
The village should have been quiet at this hour: fishermen mending nets, children playing in the streets. Instead, as they rounded a bend in the road and the village came into view, he saw the place was in a tumult.
A crowd had gathered along the harbor road, villagers shouting orders, passing buckets from hand to hand. Sparksleapt upward in angry red coils as two large buildings roared with flame, their thatched roofs collapsing inward like dying beasts. The heat washed over Jamie even from thirty paces away.
A sick feeling of dread filled his stomach as he realized what he was looking at. The village itself had not been the target of the pirates’ attack. The homes, the boats, the people had been left untouched. No, the pirates had had a very different target in mind.
Jamie’s grain barns. Two of the largest on Islay were here in Ingeld.
And they were both on fire.
