Page 32 of Deception of a Highlander

Heat tingled at the base of her skull and wound down her back before exploding through her limbs. The sensation moved too quickly for comfort and set her heart racing.

What had the old woman given her to drink?

As quickly as it had come, the intensity of the heat faded and with it, the throbbing pain of her wound. The relief did not last long, however, before the room began to spin. Slowly at first and then faster and faster until everything blurred together and threatened to swallow her whole.

Panic wrenched the air from her chest, and blackness wavered before…she meant to cry out for Kieran, but the word came out as little more than a whimper.

The echo of water splashed as his voice called to her from far away. Her tongue grew thick in her mouth, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not answer.

Darkness curled her into its embrace, and she felt no more.

* * *

Kieran rushed to where Mariel lay sprawled upon the floor and gathered her into his arms. The healer had indicated Mariel might appear addled, drunk even, but had said nothing about fainting.

Terror lurched in his chest. Mariel was still. Too still.

Her flushed cheeks burned beneath his fingertips. He had never seen a fever occur so early after an injury, but it did not mean such a thing was not possible.

“Mariel,” he called sharply. He needed to rouse her from the frightening slumber.

Her lashes fluttered, and her beautiful eyes opened and focused on him. Confusion wrinkled her brow, and then a languid smile spread over her lips. “I don’t know how I ended up in your arms, but I’m glad I’m here.”

Relief released the iron grip of fear in his chest. Mariel’s words slurred ever so slightly, but the small lines of pain around her mouth had faded. Despite the strange effects, the healer’s posset was obviously working.

“Are ye feeling all right?” God, did she have to stare at him like that? He eased her into a sitting position and kneeled beside her.

She gave a throaty laugh. “I’ve never felt better.” Her hot gaze crept down his body. “And I’ve never seen you in such a state of undress.”

In his haste to reach Mariel, he had not bothered with so much as a scrap of linen to wrap around his waist. A detail his aching cock already made him regret. To think her thin cotton night rail was all that separated him from her silky flesh…again.

Kieran stretched over her to reach his discarded plaid when Mariel’s small hand settled on his arm, stopping him.

“No. Please.” She shook her head, and her hair brushed his naked flesh. “I want to see you.”

He rose to his feet and held his arms out for her observation.

She looked up at him from where she sat on the floor, and a corner of her luscious mouth lifted in a coy smile. “Should I kiss you?” Her gaze traveled up the length of his legs to where his arousal was beginning to show. “Should I tease you?” She got to her knees in front of him and met his gaze with a heat that left him rock hard. “Touch you?” Her lips were a whisper away from the head of his cock.

“Then, should I leave abruptly?” She gave a satisfied little smirk and settled back on the ground.

The minx. So her silence before was due to his quick departure. “My punishment is to be naked?” Frustration and lust clouded his mind.

She tilted her head to the side, so the graceful line of her jaw was displayed in the soft glow of the fire. “And to be at the mercy of my inspection.”

Anticipation coiled low in his stomach, but he immediately crushed it. Mariel had just fainted, and her words were garbled with the effects of the tea. She was not in her right mind, and he’d be damned if he would allow himself to touch her as she was. Ignoring her pout of protest, Kieran belted his plaid and knelt beside her.

“Ye can inspect me another time. Right now, ye need to be in bed, aye?”

She watched him with a wide-eyed, luminous gaze. She reached out for him, hesitant at first, before gently stroking his naked chest with a feather-light touch that singed his flesh. Her fingertips grazed a crescent scar below his collarbone.

She drew in a shallow breath through parted, glistening lips and let her touch skim down his torso. Her finger ran over his stomach and caused all the muscles there to tighten against her caress.

Kieran couldn’t speak, couldn’t move beneath her study of his marred flesh. Women had marveled at the scars before with exaggerated gasps as they begged for stories of war. Mariel, however, gazed upon him with a pensive expression on her flushed face.

Her fingers dipped low to the hairline scar below his navel, and his cock jerked to attention, stretching for the heat of her hand. Somewhere he dredged up the strength to take hold of her wrist and still her maddening exploration.

“This must have been the most painful.” She slid her hand from his grasp and lightly touched an uneven scar along his ribs where a blade had caught him several years before. The recovery had been considerable.