The Highlander's Captive Bride (Scottish Highlander Romance) Read online

  “Regret that I am no longer living? That I am no longer eating, or no longer loving a woman? I regret nothing. Every day I am alive, I live life to its fullest.”

  She stared at him but seemed bereft of thought, trapped in his face and not sure of what she wanted to express.

  “The question is,” he said, walking closer to her, “Are you living life without regrets? If you died tomorrow, would you be ready? Or would you feel that you missed out?”

  His face, his entire presence was electrifying, the same feeling one gets when standing in the middle of a thunderstorm or that long and panicky second when someone caresses your neck with a blade.

  “Well…” she said nervously, noticing he was inching his way closer into her space. “I think I have some regrets. But mainly…I just…uh…”

  “Stop talking. Do what’s in your heart.”

  Seumas reached over and put his lips to hers, tasting the air, the small sliver of space that separated their faces from touching.

  She broke away from the trance and left his lips, eyeing the floor and feeling deep shame. “Of course I have desires. Regrets. But I owe something to my father. He cares for me. All my life he’s been the only man I’ve ever known. He protected me. I can’t betray him or my morals that he taught me. So I have regrets. But that doesn’t make me easy prey.”

  Seumas smiled and nodded. “He raised you well. Responsibly. I forget what it’s like to have a family. It has been so long since I have felt love or been loved by anyone. The life of mine, it’s a cold and lonely one. Sometimes doing random acts of kindness is the only way I still feel alive. Alive, like you call it. Not just waiting to die or be killed.”

  “You don’t have to do it, you know. The life you live? You may be something of superior blood, but you are not a slave to someone’s else rules.”

  “It is an honor, an oath of blood,” Seumas said, angered at the very thought of abandoning his obligation.

  “Well you have your rules and I have mine. I can’t become intimate with someone, knowing the weight of emotions that follow. They say, women like us, we have sex for every reason but the act itself. That’s the easy part.”

  “I suppose it is,” he said with a half-smile. He was torn. In love, sure, who wasn’t? But curious about her moral stance, her own oath that she had just like him. Most women would have jumped at the chance to bag a highlander, or simply rebel against her father like a bad girl ought to. But she was different. She had strength of character.

  “So you have an obligation to care for your family, just as I do my oath. The fact that these vows are unbreakable makes me want you all the more.”

  “I’m sure it does,” Torra said with a smile. “We all want what we can’t see. Heaven, happiness.”

  “So what must I do to go on? Rid myself of your memory?”

  “Hmmm,” she said, sizing him up and moving just a tad closer to flirt with danger. “I guess you’ll have to dream. A vivid dream, one in which you win in battle and win the heart of the fair maiden.”

  “Aargh, my dreams torment me. A nightmare is a better way to call it.”

  They both laughed but Seumas lost his smile quickly. “Look, I meant everything I said. No lying or distortions. It is best that you go away from this place. Crestoff…”

  “It’s our home, Mister Seumas. We aren’t that different. We both have a choice. To fight for who we are or to die because of a stronger opponent. We are not your family. Don’t lose any sleep over us.”

  Seumas nodded unsurely. He knew the right thing to do would be to keep walking away, to turn away from her and stop interfering with their family laws. But for once, it wasn’t just his yearning doing the talking. He knew the family was in trouble. More than that, he knew that she really was like him. Lonely, barely alive. More obligations than good memories. It didn’t seem right. If he left her today, he would have nothing else left in life but battle, and maybe another hundred years or so of walking the earth. Barely conversing; hardly a person worth heroically saving anymore, that’s for sure. This one, she was a good woman, the type who had standards. A code.

  “Listen,” he said, walking against his will, his body not quite ready to surrender as quickly as his mouth. “As far as I know, this might be my final battle. Fighting two highlanders in less than a month’s time, my odds aren’t phenomenal. If I die, I die with honor. But there’s no sense in a man dying alone when he can join with others and protect them as well. It is a selfish and dull existence, for a man to only take care of himself.”

  “What are you blathering on about?”

  “I’m saying, why don’t you marry me?”

  She stepped back in shock and dropped her mouth open; it might as well have touched the floor. “What madness is this?”

  “I have been alive for so many years. Fought many battles. But the only time my inner turmoil went away was when I was with a family. They all died. Some of natural causes, others not. But those are the times I cherish most. Living with real people, not warriors. I believe you, and I see eye to eye on many things. You think I want you for one night. But what I say is, life is short. If we have only one night left, I’d rather spend it with you.”

  “Oh, Seumas. You don’t even know what you’re saying,” she said, so touched by the futile gesture she almost cried. “But all we are is two doomed souls reaching out to each other. It’s romantic. But it’s going nowhere.”

  “Your father doesn’t like me. Your mother…”

  “She likes you.”

  He smiled. “Of course. But you and your father both suspect me of something that’s not true. I can prove to you that it’s not. More importantly, I will stay and protect you from the highlander that’s coming for you. I would offer my services for free, but knowing you, you’d hardly request that big of a favor from me, would you?”

  “That’s very noble of you, Seumas. And if you offered those services…well, we would be forever in your debt. Although, I don’t think my father would have it. The only thing worse than his temper for suitors is the idea that he needs someone’s help to win.”

  “Then I guess it’s just a dream, isn’t it?” He said, walking closer to her and eyeing her cold and shivering lips in thirst. “I would never bargain with your virtue. I would never offer to marry you if you found me to be a crusty old ogre. I don’t want anyone’s pity, or worse, the idea that a woman was forced to do a disgusting thing to save her family. The invitation is withdrawn. I apologize for my lewdness…”

  She stared in instant regret, though a bit tongue in cheek. The man was clever. And yet he was truthful. He was sort of a bargain in this scenario, given his strength and sorcery. But she didn’t like the bartering terms. Love had to be longer lasting. It had to be stronger than an, “Aww hell, we might as well do it before we die” sentiment.

  “…But not my desires,” he said with a final bow.

  “Wait.”

  “What’s that, fair maiden? Don’t you dare compromise now.”

  “No…it’s just…I think you owe me something.”

  “Me? Owe you?”

  “Yes. I gave you my undivided attention, considered your proposal and now it’s my turn to receive equal compensation for my time.”

  He laughed. “Really now? And what is your request?”

  “I have…I have never been kissed before. Though I am not giving you all that you desire, I am willing to give you this one trifle.”

  “Just one kiss?” he asked. “That’s worth a million gold pieces, which I could never repay you.”

  “Then I guess you will be in debt to me,” she said, tilting her head and pushing back her hair, eager to feel his embrace—just one.

  “I would gladly kiss a beautiful woman like yourself, Torra. But I don’t think just one kiss is going to happen.”

  She bobbed her head in sarcasm. “I will just expect you to control yourself, Mister Seumas.”

  “It’s not myself I’m worried about. I don’t think you can handle just on
e, my love.”

  “Well, then I guess you must fulfill your obligation at any cost, oath keeper.”

  “Then I will.”

  He reached over and kissed her fervently, without restraint, treating every second as if it preceded a deathblow. He savored her taste and soft lips.

  She kissed him back, their lips ramming together and inhaling each other’s breath. He kissed powerfully, every bit as starved and ravenous as a warrior savage. But as he held her in his arms, she felt his peace. His power was magnificent because he was content. Nothing to prove, as he had his greatest battles hundreds of years ago.

  But his soul was in his kiss. As he kissed her, a fire inside Torra was unleashed. She craved his touch, his fiery lips and volcanic spittle. It seemed to light her inside, setting her heart and her loins ablaze.

  She almost broke the kiss, the moment she realized that her skin was flushed, wanting to tear open barriers and lie bare skin to skin with him. It was a demonic rage, a yearning that couldn’t be put out. This is what her father warned him about all those years ago—passion. It’s passion that blinds you.

  “Wait,” she said, finally breaking his embrace and putting her hands in between her face and his. Just as soon as she did, however, he took her hand and kissed her; first on the finger, then on the palm and then the wrist. He became intoxicated with her scent and taste and desired to sample her every morsel of skin.

  “I see what you mean. But…we can’t. I want to…but I can’t. My father’s at home. There’s no place to do such a thing.”

  “I don’t need anything but your beauty and my curiosity, Torra. Nothing else.”

  “We don’t even have a bed…”

  He couldn’t care any less, as he was already necking her and fanning the flames of passion. She wore old wool, a modest top and leggings. It kept her warm but it wasn’t the easiest racket to get rid of. Seumas kissed his way down from her neck to her chest, taking his warm lips all over her body. He opened her top, pulling open the buttons and then lifting the rest off from her torso to her arms. She welcomed his hard chiseled face to her soft bosom, letting his lips caress her skin. He kept her warm, rubbing his face against her breasts and causing a warming sensation all over her body.

  His hot breath and humid lips seemed to ward off the cold of winter. He kissed a path from her breasts down to her stomach and passed her button, her sighs and purrs like music to his hears. He put his lips on both her erect nipples and rubbed them gently. Then the rugged man leaned over and licked her right nipple in circles, leaving behind a hot little flame of sensation and dribble.

  “Mmmm…yes…do that…”

  She sighed in agony as he put his firm lips to her other breast, nibbling at her hardening nipple and tongue caressing her areola. Just where her body directed him to go. She was inexperienced but felt his power and seemed to involuntarily follow him, solicit him, and call to him with her most sensitive parts.

  “Oh God…” she hummed in embarrassment. She was wet and this was not anticipated. But her scent only pushed him further, wanting to go further with her. He reached up and bent over as he pulled her pants and leggings down, finding a cold shivering body underneath. She was wet as a flood for him, powerless to resist his kiss, his touch, and most of all his flames of supernatural heat.

  Try as she might to slow things down, the immortal one did have an aura of magic to him, and every breath, every droplet of saliva he left on her bare body seemed to glow and resonate and drip achingly like hot wax. It felt painful but yet not the kind of pain you want to stop. She was powerless to say no. The woman tried her best to keep her legs together, if nothing else not to appear too easy, but when his hands emanated warmth and mild electrical current all she could do was spread her intimacy to him—welcoming him to her pussy, her tight-lipped and lightly cut secret that she had shown no man before.

  He rested his fingers on her tits, her so-hard-they-hurt nipples begging for his squeeze. He increased the pressure and she lowered his head down to place steamy kisses on her bush. The drift from the cool breeze contrasted his warm and flaming kiss. She opened her legs farther apart and let him explore her lips, licking her wet essence and tasting the oozing wine.

  “What are you doing to me…”

  “Shhh,” he whispered, still squeezing her nipples from atop as he licked her shaking cunt. “Don’t fight the sensations,” he said to her, looking into her eyes as he looked up from her quaking pussy. “Let it flow. Let yourself surrender to me. Trust me.”

  “Unghhh…I do trust you. With everything.”

  “Give me everything,” he said softly. “Open your legs wider and let me lick you deeper.”

  “Ohhhhh…I’ve never felt anything like this…” she whispered. “It feels very wrong. Reckless.”

  She shook her pelvis back and forth, feeling a deep pang of pleasure. “What kind of magic are you doing to me, ye rogue?”

  “The kind of magic only a special woman deserves.”

  “Mmmm! You do such profane things. No man has ever seen me this way. So bare…so exposed.”

  “Yet I crave more.”

  “Don’t do it…please…I can’t resist you. But I can’t trust you wholly. Because I am afraid…that…”

  “Sshhhh,” he said firmly. “Don’t be afraid.”

  He reached inside her pussy with two fingers and worked a little magic of his own, stroking her sensitive internal spot. “All you have to do is feel pleasure. Let my hand guide you there.”

  “Y-Yes!” She tightened her pussy walls and closed in around his fingers but it didn’t stop him from pounding her raw, using all her natural flowing fluids and then spilling some more. He rubbed her deep inside and then out to the outer regions of her pussy, right below her writhing wet bush.

  “Feel me. Feel my essence and let my thoughts, my spirit, consume you.”

  “Yeees! Oh God, Seumas, yes! You’re making me shiver…making me…explode.”

  He increased the speed of his stroking, grabbing her bouncing breasts as he did, holding her with his strong hands and forcing a loud and powerful orgasm from the depths of her lungs. “Oh yes! Don’t stop! No, wait, stop! You’re driving me to Hell!”

  He stroked her hard, violently, so raw and boiling that she collapsed to the ground from her seated position, pounding her arms on the cold ground below.

  “Ohh wait…stop. Stop. No more. The crazy things you do to my body, sorcerer.”

  “And so much more to come.”

  “Take your clothes off. I want to see what you hide.”

  “I hide nothing. Not even my most obscene desire for you.”

  She pulled his coat off and eyed his hulking body in nervous anticipation. He wore heavy clothing and layers of it, to protect him from swords and inclement winter nights. She took his pants off first, pulling them down after untying the knot and helping him step out. Before she went for his trousers, she pulled open his buttoned shirt, until his hairy but muscular chest and abdomen jutted forth. She kissed his chest and inhaled his smell. Then, as she bent down, she pulled his trousers down to the ground, freeing his dragon of a huge cock. Eleven inches erect and this wizard seemed to have complete power over it, to shift, flex and kick it at will.

  “Oh my, Mister Seumas. It’s quite a monster down here.”

  “Touch it. Your curiosity is my pleasure.”

  She obliged and took her oath of coddling his cock quite seriously. She fondled it and rubbed it shaft to head, feeling the surge of blood go through him. He was uncircumcised and she loved pulling the head out of the skin and bundling it back in. As much fun as she was having, she wasn’t sure what to do next to such a god amongst men.

  He understood the look and smiled. “You don’t have to if you’re not ready yet. But I’ll tell you what you can do for me…”

  He guided her over to his side then pushed her up and over, letting her throttle his lying body. He grabbed his cock in his hand and with his fingers guided it to slide in between her lips,
grazing the clitoral hood. She was wide-eyed and curious at first, playing along by shifting her clit and lips along his cock. But soon, the friction intensified and her clit started to burn with a throbbing sensation.

  “Ohhh…yes! I like this. You’re such a knowledgeable man, aren’t you?”

  “Not really. I just adore the feminine figure. And I can think of all sorts of profane, terrible things to do with our vessels.”

  “Ahhh!” she cried, riding his cock along her clitoris faster, but careful not to slip and penetrate. “This is making me want to scream again…” she said, shifting side to side and concentrating on the friction that was buzzing out of control.

  “Then come again.”

  “Auuhhhh!” she screamed grabbing her breasts and hollering to the mountains, her voice echoing like a bird.

  She lay down to the side of Seumas, her breaths fast and choking. “I want you to feel what I felt.”

  “Stroke me.”

  She sighed deeply and gently encompassed his cock in her hands. She could already feel his energy, his surge inside wanting to bubble forth like a fountain. She stroked him hard and fast, squeezing him, then rubbing him then delicately flushing her fingers across his head. She played with his erection for long minutes on end…but she couldn’t make him lose control as easily as he did to her.

  “Now is not the time. But it’s all right. I got what I wanted. I wanted to see you lose control. Scream in ecstasy. The day is not over and heaven knows what lies ahead of us.”

  *

  Torra spent the dusk outside, fearing nothing except her future. She felt safe in the warrior’s arms. He was a comforting presence: large and agile, and best of all with an aura of magic. She couldn’t help but caress his naked body, even as his fur coat covered them from the cool winds.

  “I don’t see how you can do it,” Torra said. Have such emotional intimacy with a person and then say goodbye. I suppose that’s just the innocent virgin in me talking.”

  “Because I’ve never had much choice,” he said calmly but wistfully. “Many of those I’ve loved were taken from me. I avenged some of them. Not others. But their memories never left me. The first time…no…the first few times, I felt guilt. For trying to move on with my life and start new friendships. But after a while, and after experiencing so much heartache, you start to feel grateful for the moments you do have. No sense in comparing them. You’re grateful for life.”