Page 31 of Highland Storm

Lìli considered that truth as well. On that day when her father betrayed the dún Scoti clan, Aidan took up his sword beside his father as a youth of ten and four, and then after his father was slain, he became chief. So, aye, two years younger than Kellen. It was a sad, sad story—one her husband might never have forgiven her for, and yet he had.

Unbidden, Lìli pictured her sire looming over Aidan’s father’s body, his long grey beard splattered with blood. Padruig Caimbeul had gone to Dubhtolargg under the pretense of friendship, supping at their table and partaking of their ale and then altogether, he and his warriors had risen up in the midst of the festivities and slaughtered half the dún Scoti clansmen whilst their noses were deep in their cups. It was the gravest of transgressions amongst Highlanders—to shed innocent blood under another mon’s roof when one was invited in friendship, and for that alone, her father would rot in hell.

And to imagine… all this her father had done without any knowledge about the stone hidden here in the vale. They had come simply to appease their monstrous pride—to say they had driven the heir of Black Tolargg to his knees. They’d defiled Aidan’s mother, left her with a babe in her belly. And that babe was Sorcha, although Sorcha did not realize the truth of her patrimony as yet. Lìli had been sworn to secrecy—as was the rest of the clan—until the day Aidan determined it best to reveal this news. Alas, insofar as transgressions went, Lìli was hardly in a position to hurl any stones.

Reading her so well, and sensing the turn of her thoughts, her husband came and sat beside her on the bed, caressing her thigh.

Lìli smiled, despite her quarrel with him, for she knew him so well. Whenever he touched her belly, he was content to be a father. When he avoided that round, unavoidable, lump that was her belly, he was in the mood for something else…

He continued to caress her thigh. “Will you forgive me?" he asked. "I have missed ye so, my sweetling.”

Lìli inhaled a breath. She was not an old woman, and despite that she had two children and another on the way, she refused to behave like an old woman. In response to his sweet words, she spread her legs a bit—an invitation, if he should like to take it. She was still too vexed to confess it, but she would welcome Aidan’s peace offering.

Her husband chuckled. “I take it you’re pleased to see me, despite our son’s indiscretions?”

Of course, she was pleased to see him—so pleased, that her nipples tightened beneath her gown, aching to be set free. Pouting still, Lìli turned her head. “I am pleased,” she said, and then spread her legs a little wider. “I suppose he is a man, after all, and men will do what they are led to do.”

The wicked gleam that returned to her husband’s bright green eyes nearly stole her breath away. “And what are men led to do?”

“Things they ought not,” she answered coyly.

“Like this?” He snuck a long finger up the hem of her gown and Lìli’s breath caught on a gasp. There he teased her inner thigh. “Should I not do this?”

As an answer, Lìli spread her legs a little wider, reaching down to pull up her gown, but slowly, teasingly, enjoying the feel of the soft wool sliding up the length of her skin.

Aidan chuckled darkly, and stood, looking down on her on their bed.

Lìli had been feeling quite frisky, cleaning everything within sight. The room was cozy with a fire she’d had waiting now for days. Even after all these years, she felt little doves fly inside her breast at the sight of her husband undressing so purposefully before her. He was not a man who shied away from pleasures of the flesh.

At six and thirty, Aidan was still darkly handsome, his hair as black as raven’s wings. His green eyes boldly inspected her, ravaging her body without ever touching her. And yet she felt his gaze as surely as she would his big, strong hands.

As he looked down upon her, he took himself into his hands, teasing her. “Is this what you want, Lìli?”

He stood bare skinned now, his body tinted copper by the firelight and he began to stroke the length of his shaft, smiling wickedly as his thumb caressed the glossy tip.

Gooseflesh erupted over Lìli’s flesh, and she licked her lips gone dry, but she knew something more than she once did about pleasing her lover and she smiled back, nodding only once.

That was all it took.

Her husband fell to one knee… intending to kiss her until she became wet. He loved the taste of her, or so he’d said. But she was already wet, didn’t he realize? From the instant she’d spied that gleam in his eye and the first naughty turn of his familiar lips. Arching into his soft mouth, she reveled in the heat of his tongue…

Aye, this was a fine way to end an argument… a fine way to greet her husband… and, even if she didn’t crave him deep inside her—which she did—she would have let him take her if only for the simple fact that she wanted this babe born.

Right now.

“Make love to me, Husband,” she demanded.

Ever dutiful, and never inclined to disobey… Aidan hooked his arms beneath her knees and pulled her to the edge of the bed, wasting little time in giving her his warm, thick flesh. Lìli felt him slide inside and melted into the bed.

I am his master and he is the master of me.

So it was, and so it should be.

Chapter

Eleven

Dunloppe was another two day’s ride southwest, near the borderlands.