Highlander’s Broken Love by Fiona Faris
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“What are ye doin’ here?” Alex said, taking the reins of the horse and helping her down.
“My father made a deal with Grier. He thinks Ian took me, and he’s coming for revenge, regardless of what I say. I cannot stop him,” Elisabeth hurried to explain as her feet found the ground. “Tell me, please, where is Ian?”
“Of course,” Alex took her arm. “This way.” He offered her his arm and led her across the camp. She was a little surprised by the care he was showing her as they crossed the camp together. “Ye will have to be careful when ye warn, Ian.”
“What do you mean?” Elisabeth asked, just as they reached the flap of a tent.
“I mean he’s clearly strugglin’ with who yer faither is,” Alex whispered to her as they came to a stop. “Ye’ll need to show him he can trust ye.”
“Then I’ll prove it to him,” she nodded, knowing she had to try everything she could now, in order to save Ian’s life.
“Then good luck, Elisabeth,” Alex smiled and pulled back the tent flap, urging her to go inside.
“Aren’t you coming?” she asked.
“Nay,” he said, “this is best for the two of ye to discuss alone.” She nodded and walked into the tent.
It was the same tent that she had been taken to after her release from the cage. She found Ian fast asleep in the cot bed on the far side of the room, with a blanket half flung over him, with one leg hanging out and half his bare torso revealed. Elisabeth had to swallow past the attraction she felt, seeing his bare chest again.
Now was not the time for that. Now, she had to persuade him to trust her.
She tiptoed toward him and reached out, slowly going to wake him. As her hand touched his shoulder, his eyes shot open.
* * *
Ian didn’t have time to register who it was who had woken him. All he knew was that there was an intruder in his tent who had touched him. He reached out and grabbed the wrist of the person before flinging them over his body and down onto the bed, ready for a fight.
“Ian! It’s me,” the voice that called to him stunned him.
His eyes widened as he stilled and noticed who it was that he was so ready to do battle with. It was Elisabeth. He blinked a few times, wondering if he was dreaming, but no…she was there, in flesh and blood. Her blonde hair was wild and unruly from riding, her blue eyes were staring intently at him, and her cheeks were reddened. She was wearing a pale blue silk dress that hugged her figure gloriously. At the sight of it and the way he had pinned her down to the bed, he leapt up to his feet, in shock.
“What are ye doin’ here, Elisabeth?” he said angrily, watching as she moved quickly to sit straight on the bed.
“Ian, please, listen to me,” she reached out a hand toward him, but he avoided it, not letting her touch him. “I need you to trust me now.”
“Trust ye? How can I do that?” he asked wildly, as he walked away from her. He went for the flap in the tent, determined to get as far away from her as possible, but she had jumped off the bed and followed, coming straight to him. She pulled on his arm, tugging him to look back at her. “Let me go.”
“No,” she said with passion, pulling on him hard and dragging him back across the tent. “I am not going anywhere until you listen to me and let me speak. You are in danger. My father is about to attack the camp.”
“And ye expect me to believe that?” he said, snatching his arm out of her grasp. “You are his daughter. This could all be a deception. He could have sent ye here to say this; then, the moment I move me people, we could be walkin’ into an ambush. Or I could prepare for a battle right now only to tire me men out and find an attack come in the night. How can I be certain ye are nae manipulatin’ me?”
“He has no idea I’m here,” she said, reaching for him again. He moved his arms away, putting them behind him so she couldn’t grab them. Instead, her hands went for his neck and pulled him down toward her. He was stunned by the movement, but he didn’t pull back. “Listen to me, Ian. I am not my father.”
“Ye share his blood,” he said quietly, distracted by how close they now were. He’d been dreaming of her for the last few nights, dreaming of having her back beside him. Now that she was here, he was confused.
“And you share Grier’s blood. You share Jockie’s blood, yet I know you are not like either of them,” Elisabeth’s ardent words made him falter. It was the exact same argument Alex had used. “You would never do what Grier did to me, throwing me in a cage, and you never would have tried to do what Jockie attempted either. You guarded me the whole night and slept by my cage to ensure no one laid a finger on me. I do not judge you by their standards. Do not condemn me because of my father, I beg of you.”
He clamped his lips shut, unable to say anything at all.
Elisabeth was here in front of him, saying all the things he’d been dreaming of her saying, yet it seemed too good to be true. When he closed his eyes, he still saw her father standing over his floggings.
“Yer father is a demon, Elisabeth,” he said simply, opening his eyes again.
“I know,” she said with sadness. “I confronted him last night about the prison and the torture. He didn’t even deny it. He sounded…” she paused as she bit her lip, “proud of it.”
Ian pulled his head back, stepping out of Elisabeth’s reach. She went for him another time, but he resisted, staying away from her.
“Please, Ian, hear me out,” she didn’t reach for him this time. Instead, she ran around him and blocked off the entrance with her arms spread wide. “Just stay here with me and let me speak.”
“Ye realize I could just lift ye up and put ye out of me way,” he said, gesturing to her body standing in his path.
“I know,” she said with a nod, “but I’m asking you not to. Hear me out, and if you still don’t believe me, I promise to leave you, but know this…” she paused, breathing deeply, “no matter how you respond to what I have to say, I’m never going home to my father again.”
These words brought Ian up short. He said nothing, he just fell still and stared straight at her.
“I have never been close with my father,” she said, holding his gaze with unblinking eyes. “He never let me ask about his business, and yes, looking back, I should have made a point of finding out more. I know that now, but, at the time, he made it clear I was not to ask questions, and when your father is General Rolfe…you tend to follow his orders. That was my mistake.”
For that, he couldn’t blame her. The man was a demon, to be his daughter had to have been difficult.
“I never knew about the prison, the torture, or the attack on your clan,” she said, taking a step toward him. This time, he didn’t step away. “I am sorry for it. If there was any way I could undo what my father has done, I would do it in a heartbeat, but I have no such power.” She took another step toward him. This time, she was so close that he could smell her scent. It was floral, and it made him lean toward her, just a little. “I am not loyal to my father, Ian. I am loyal to you.”
As she said the words, she reached up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Gently, she placed a single kiss on his cheek. He didn’t move to return it, but neither did he push her away. Instead, he closed his eyes, indulging in her touch.
“I love you, Ian,” she said, and his eyes shot open again.
“It’s too soon for love,” he said, trying to be logical. He lifted his arms toward her despite his words, unable to resist, and placed his hands on her waist, urging her to sink back down on her heels so he could look into her eyes. “Ye cannae love me,” he insisted, “we have nae kenned each other for long enough.”
“Is there a time limit that must be crossed?” she asked, her eyebrows shooting up. “From the moment we met, this was different,” she said, gesturing between the two of them. “In the short while we’ve known each other, we’ve experienced every emotion that people can experience in a lifetime together. Happiness, pain, guilt, longing. I know I love you, and you telling me it is too quick will not change that.”
He began to drift his hands up and down her waist. He didn’t want to walk away from her again. She meant too much to him and every word she uttered was making the certainty that she was nothing like her father grow in him.
“How can ye be so different to yer faither?” he whispered to her, feeling a tightness in his throat at the thought. “I am worried there is another part to ye I havenae seen.”
“Then let me stay with you and prove it to you,” she said, placing her hands on his bare chest. He nearly growled at her touch. “I love you, Ian, and I want to stay here with you. I know that you feel something for me too. I know it. Can you deny it?”
He said nothing for a minute; instead, he rested his forehead against hers, the intimacy cracking through all the walls he had tried to build to keep her out of his heart.
“Ye ken I cannae deny it,” he said and moved their heads, his lips going for hers. The kiss generated instant heat, passion taking over the kiss. Their lips increased the pressure against one another’s as he pulled her body to his own, marveling at the feel of her body on his and that she was really here in his arms.
He pulled apart, just long enough to start trailing kisses down her neck, incapable of staying away from her.
All of his objections had withered away now. He adored her, the real Elisabeth. She was still the woman he had fallen for; he had just been fool enough to let the trauma of the past blind him for a while and separate her from him.
“Let me prove to you how much I love you,” she whispered in his ear.
“Ye daenae need to prove it,” he said softly. He could feel it now with the way she held onto him. He knew it too, seeing how she had ridden all night to come to him, to abandon her father and choose a life with him instead.
“Then let me show you instead,” she said and stepped back from the kiss. With her hands in his, she began to draw him toward the cot bed, with her gaze fixed firmly on his. He followed her without objection. His adoration for her was taking over. He wanted her. No…he needed her. He needed the comfort and care that this woman could give.
Who cared if she was the daughter of General Rolfe? She had proved herself to be nothing like that man. She was Elisabeth. She was her own woman.
“Sithiche,”he murmured as he lowered her down onto the cot bed.
It began with kisses trailed across her lips and cheeks, then down her neck and across the opening of the neckline of her dress. He was entranced with her, wanting to touch her again and relive the night they’d spent together on the altar stone.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered as he kissed her at the top of her neck, under her ear. “I judged ye by yer faither’s standards. That was wrong.” He peppered more kisses down across her cheek and hovered over her lips for a second, waiting for an answer to his next question. “Forgive me?”
“I could not blame you for it, Ian. Not after what you went through. You are forgiven.” With her words, he pressed his lips against hers. The kiss grew more and more insistent, with Elisabeth reaching up to entwine her fingers in his hair and his hands going for the loose folds of her dress, burying his hands in the silk.
As he moved his body against hers, she moaned into the kiss. The light sound was intoxicating to him, making him yearn to have her again. When his hands went for her skirt, trying to lift it up around her hips, he broke their kiss and held her gaze instead.
The intimacy of that gaze was unlike any other, and she went to help him with the skirt. Then both of them were working at getting the skirt and the petticoat up around her hips, until her body was exposed to him.
The last time he had been with her, he had worked hard to be soft and tender with her, yet in the throes of passion, his excitement had taken over, and he had been rough. He’d loved how she seemed to respond to it, pleasured by his passion. Today, they didn’t have a lot of time for anything slow and tender. If an attack was imminent, then they’d have to be quick, but it was more than that. The heat of what they were sharing now was intense, making their hands frantic and their bodies arching toward each other with need.
Ian parted Elisabeth’s legs, giving him room to lie between her. The moment he did, she bucked her hips against his, making him growl as he placed kisses along her neck and nibbled there, creating a small soft mark.
“Please, Ian,” Elisabeth whispered to him, her voice husky with need. “Don’t wait. I want you.”
He didn’t need asking twice. He reared up again, just as she reached down to help him. His torso was already bare, but together they worked to disrobe him of his trews. The moment he was free, his length was hard and ready for her, yearning for her. She threw the trews to the floor as he nestled himself between her legs.
He teased her for a moment, just at her opening, marveling at the way she reached up and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down toward her.
“I love you, Ian,” she whispered and kissed him again. Hearing those words at this moment filled him with a kind of happiness he hadn’t thought possible. He thrust inside her.
This time, it was clear she suffered no pain. Her hands went for his back and her nails started to rake grazes down his muscles. The sensation made him wild, and he thrust again. He didn’t start gently this time; it was fast and insistent. In response, Elisabeth widened her legs beneath him, pulling at him all the more across his back.
With each thrust he made, she came up to meet him, whispering his name as her cheeks flushed with their heat. He didn’t think it was possible for his pleasure to be greater than the first time they had made love, but it was. Each time he thrust inside her, the sensations ricocheted through his body. He bucked harder and harder, needing her all the more, until she was moaning from the pleasure. He grabbed hold of her hips as he moved, clinging onto her as she continued to rake his back.
When he could feel his climax nearing, it was powerful indeed. He couldn’t let himself finish without her, so he took one hand from her hip and lowered it down to her entrance, pressing his thumb against the bundle of nerves at her opening and rubbing it.
Her eyes widened in surprise at what he was doing, then they lidded over, and a smile came across her face as she tipped her head back on the cot bed. Her climax was coming now.
As she fell over the edge, she said his name again, and her body bucked up toward him. Feeling her contract around him was the thing he needed. His body ascended into unearthly realms of pleasure. He rode out the waves, delighting in the way she ran her fingers over his back more softly now as he came down from his high.
When his body stilled, he lowered himself down over her. The two of them were panting heavily, trying to catch their breath.
“Ye came back,” he said through his heavy breaths, “ye came to save me and me people.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Ian. I’m staying with you now.” As she spoke, he lowered his lips to hers again, craving her kiss. Before their lips could touch, there was a sound from outside of the tent.
“Ian!” It was Alex’s voice. “It looks like General Rolfe’s army has arrived.”
