To Love A Highlander (Highland Warriors Book 1) Read online

Roark did not argue that he would join them, he simply nodded and turned his horse to wait a short distance away.

  Craven turned his mare and brought the horse alongside Trumble. “You will return to the keep and wait there. Do not dare leave the village.”

  Espy was shaking her head harder with each word he spoke. “This could be a trap.”

  “Warrick will confront me. He will set no trap. I will see to this and return home. You will do as I say and stop shaking your head. I can see the smile on Roark’s face, though my back is to him, that my wife argues with me. He will tell me I should turn you over to him so he can save me from a disobedient wife.”

  Espy stopped shaking her head and launched herself at her husband, almost toppling out of the saddle and into Craven’s powerful arms. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him for all to see.

  When Espy ended the kiss, she raised her voice so all could hear her. “I love you.”

  Craven’s heart slammed against his chest and it swelled with pride at his audacious wife. She let all know that she truly loved him.

  “I will be waiting at home for you, husband,” she said and settled herself back in her saddle with Craven’s help.

  Craven gave his warriors orders and took Tass with him as he rode off.

  Espy worried over her husband the rest of the ride home. Or was it that she was parted from him that had her feeling so unsettled? It continued after arriving at the keep and though she tried to keep herself busy, she could not keep her mind off her husband.

  With dusk came more worry that he would not return tonight and when night did fall and he was not home, she began pacing in their bedchamber. If he was with anyone other than Roark she would not worry so much, but he was Warrick’s man and that alone was cause for worry.

  What of her grandmother? Was she safe? And Adara? With Warrick’s men so close, how could she be safe?

  I will keep you safe.

  His words so clear in her head brought her to an abrupt halt. But who will keep you safe?

  The door opened and Craven entered.

  Espy did not hesitate. She ran and leapt into his arms.

  Chapter 28

  Craven caught her around the waist as her legs wrapped around his waist and when her mouth settled on his in an urgent kiss, he felt at home and at peace once again.

  Their lips locked as if they would never part, as if they needed each other’s breaths to survive When neither of them could no longer breathe, their lips parted, but they did not. He carried her to the bed and sat down with her legs still wrapped around him. His hands left her waist to yank up her skirt and her hands wasted no time in pushing his plaid out of the way.

  He grabbed firm hold of her bottom. “I should take my time with you, tease you wet and—”

  “I am already wet with the wont of you,” she said and tried to maneuver herself over him. “Later you can tease me wet again.”

  “Promise?” he whispered near her ear and nipped along it.

  Gooseflesh tingled along her neck and down her arm and she feared she would come… she was that much in need of him. “I promise if you do not slip into me now, you will suffer for it.”

  He nibbled along her ear again. “There is only one way you can make me suffer. Never to hear you tell me you love me again… you would break my heart.”

  Espy snapped her head back away from him. “I will never stop telling you that I love you, for I will never stop loving you. Even when I pass on, nothing will stop my spirit from whispering in your ear how much I love you.”

  “Hear me, Espy, for I need to say this. I loved Aubrey with all my heart. I never thought I could ever love like that again and it amazes me to discover that somehow, someway you have shown me that I can love again and with more depth and joy than I ever thought possible. I will always cherish the memories I made with Aubrey, but it is time to put them to rest and make new ones. I love you, Espy, like I never thought I could. You stole my heart and it is yours to keep.”

  Tears trickled down Espy’s cheeks and with a soft whisper against his lips, she said, “Now, husband, show me how much you love me.”

  Craven kissed her lips gently. “That, wife, will take the rest of our lives and beyond.”

  He lifted her and she reached down to guide him into her. He lowered her down slowly on his shaft and she sighed, the pleasure more intense than it had ever been now that he had admitted his love for her.

  Once fully inside her, there was no stopping either of them. She gripped his shoulders as his hands gripped her waist and helped her ride him.

  While Espy wished it would go on forever, her need was too great, his words of love having excited her to the point of climax. She would not last long, but then they had all night.

  “I cannot wait,” she said, trying hard to delay her pleasure since she had barely settled around him.

  “I want to watch you come,” he said and bit playfully at her neck before bringing her up and down on him harder and harder until…

  Espy screamed out, her head tilting back and her eyes growing wide as she shattered in climax. It rolled and rippled through her like a wave that had captured her, tumbling her with never ending pleasure.

  She gasped in dismay when Craven yanked her off him, though he soon had her bent over the bed, her skirt hoisted up and burying himself inside her once again. His hand sneaked around to settle between her legs and tease her already highly sensitive nub, and she cried out as her desire soared once more.

  He pummeled her with his thick shaft and nothing ever felt so wonderful and the intense joy had tears pooling in her eyes.

  Craven loved how she met his every thrust, throwing her backside against him, letting him know she wanted more and more, and tightening around him as if she would never let him go. And he did not want her to. He delayed his pleasure as long as he could, letting hers build again until their bodies demanded release, and they both exploded in a blinding climax.

  Craven let out a roar and he had to drop over Espy, his climax so powerful that it stole some of his strength. He pressed his hands on the bed to either side of her shoulders and held himself suspended over her. He shuddered against her when the last of his climax rippled away and he felt her do the same.

  His breath was just calming when he thought he heard Espy sniffle back tears. “Espy?”

  She sniffled again.

  He slipped out of her and took her in his arms to settle in his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed. “I hurt you. Why did you not tell me I was hurting you?”

  Espy shook her head and wiped at her tears.

  He brushed her hand away and wiped at them with his thumb. “You should have stopped me.”

  She shook her head again. “You did not hurt me. My tears are happy tears. I never knew making love could feel so wonderful.”

  Craven sighed with relief. “Damn it, wife, you frightened the hell out of me. I thought I hurt you.”

  “You love me too much to ever hurt me,” she said and kissed his cheek.

  “That I do, wife, but you will tell me if ever our lovemaking turns too much for you.”

  She laughed softly. “You will do the same?”

  He laughed along with her. “That will never happen.”

  “We shall see,” she teased.

  “I need nourishment since I intend to keep you busy a good portion of the night.”

  She pointed to the table over near the window. “I thought you might be hungry when it grew later and later and you had yet to return home. We will eat and you can tell me how things went with the ill warrior.” She eased off his lap when she saw his dark eyes grow alarmed.

  “Your arm bleeds,” he said, standing abruptly. “I should have never let you lean on it as you did. It must pain you.”

  “Not much and I will see to changing the cloth,” she said in an attempt to calm him. Truthfully, she had not given thought to her wound. She had been too lost in making love with her husband… a husband who loved her. She felt the pai
n now, but it was far from unbearable.

  “I will summon Innis,” he said.

  “No,” she said, grabbing his arm as he went to walk past her. “We finally have time alone. I can tend the wound. You can help me.”

  “You will do nothing more to disturb it tonight or until it heals,” he ordered.

  Her chin slumped along with her shoulders and she said with disappointment, “As you say, husband.”

  Craven lifted her chin. “I do not want you in pain or your wound not healing.”

  “I want to make love again tonight,” she confessed.

  He ran a gentle hand along her cheek. “I promise you we will, though you will not move that injured arm.”

  Espy smiled, pleased. “As you say, husband.”

  It did not take long to change the cloth on her arm and to remind herself to avoid strenuous movement until the wound showed signs of healing. As soon as the task was finished, they ate, enjoyed wine, and talked.

  Espy learned that it had taken time to treat the ailing warrior since it was a wound to his side that needed cleaning and tending that had caused him to fall ill. Afterwards Craven had seen Cyra home safely.

  They talked of when they were young, Craven telling her of his brother and sister he had lost and how much it had pained him while she spoke of the loss of her parents.

  “My da blamed himself for my mum’s death. She fell ill after returning from a journey he refused to let me go on and did not want my mother going on. But my mum would not let my da travel alone. She feared something would happen to him and she would never see him again. She knew I would have my grandmother to look after me, but there would be no one with my father to let us know if some harm or illness had befallen him. Oddly enough, it was an illness caught in a foreign land that took her from us and my da blamed himself.”

  They turned quiet until Craven asked, “Have you always had a fear of confined places?”

  “No, it started after being locked in some of the cells with the tortured and dying. It did not bother me at first, but one day the guard forgot to let me out and I had to spend the night, though I was glad I did since the person died holding my hand. For some reason the small cell closed in around me along with the darkness and the stench, and I feared I would never get out that they would forget about me and I would rot away.”

  The thought of what she must have gone through turned Craven’s stomach and like her da blaming himself for her mum’s death, he blamed himself for her fear of confined places.

  “I called out as soon as the guard made his rounds the next morning and he apologized and begged me not to tell the lord of the keep or he would suffer for it. He made certain I was never locked in again, but the damage had been done and the many times after that I had to tend those in cells only increased my fear.”

  “This Arran, he knows you will help him no more?” Craven asked, letting her also know that her days of rescuing the so-called innocent were done.

  Espy sucked in her lower lip as if to keep herself from responding and turned her head away from her husband not wanting to look in his eyes.

  “Look at me, Espy,” Craven ordered with a gentle strength that had Espy relenting. He did not like the worry or the sadness he saw in her eyes. “You can tell me anything. I have told you time and again that no matter what it is I will keep you safe.”

  But would he keep Adara safe? She recalled her grandmother’s words.

  You are a healer. Do what is best to help heal her.

  Espy took a sip of wine, then began to speak. “Arran almost got caught during one escape. After that, his fear of being caught grew as did what his family would suffer, not to mention me since it would be near impossible not to confess under unbearable torture. He took his family and left, not telling me where he was going so that neither one of us could surrender the other if our past deeds somehow caught up with us.”

  “This was after what happened at Warrick’s keep?” Craven asked, thinking he was not going to like her answer.

  “No, Arran and I went separate ways months before.”

  “You freed those women on your own from Warrick’s dungeon?” he asked, shaking his head, finding it difficult to believe.

  “I did. I had come across the old woman, Nelia, and was staying with her when a summons came for her to tend one of Warrick’s warriors. She was not feeling well enough to go and asked me to go in her place. The warrior recovered so well and so quickly from his wound that I was summoned repeatedly to the keep to tend the ill and after a while I was considered the clan’s healer.”

  “Warrick would treat his healer well, why chance his wrath, his revenge by freeing his prisoners? I know Warrick, he does not imprison the innocent.”

  “The two women I freed and the one who died were innocent. They were brought to the dungeon in the dead of night, accused of theft, though no one would say what they had stolen. They had already been tortured and I was summoned to see to the wounds. I spent days healing them and talking to them. The one woman had been tortured so badly, I feared she would not make it if I did not get her out of there as soon as I could.” Espy turned her head away a moment, wiping away a single tear. “I was too late to help her. She died.”

  “You saved the other two,” Craven said, hating to see the deep sorrow in her soft blue eyes that only a short time ago had been filled with such joy.

  “Their crime did not fit their punishment,” she said, shaking her head. “I do not care if it is not for me to decide. Besides, both women claimed their innocence over and over even though tortured. I could not stand by and do nothing, especially since the one woman had been battered far more badly than the other and it was not just from torture. I did not know how she was even capable of doing what they accused her of, since she was filled with such fear that she barely spoke.”

  “You did what you could for her,” Craven said.

  Espy stood and walked over to her husband to curl up in his lap, his strong arms closing around her.

  “What is it? Tell me,” he urged, seeing her face crease with worry, though pleased she brought her problem to him… pleased she trusted him.

  “The woman’s name is Adara and I confided my true identity to her and told her about where I lived and a secret place I would escape to in the woods near my grandmother’s home when I needed to be alone. I suppose I shared that with her in case there ever came a time she needed such a place.”

  “She is there now?” Craven asked, though knew it must be so, for it better explained what may have happened in the woods.

  Espy nodded.

  “That is where you went the morning after we wed?”

  She nodded again.

  “It is who you were protecting from the woman who attacked you?”

  She spoke as she nodded again. “Adara saved my life. I told her to run, but she did not run far and when I thought I was about to die, Adara returned, jabbing one of the woman’s daggers into her back.”

  “Then I owe Adara for saving your life,” Craven said, a horrific chill racing through him at the thought of Espy lying dead in the woods never to be found, taken from him as Aubrey had been.

  Espy felt another single tear gather in her eye. “I am grateful you will help Adara. She has been hurt, I sometimes fear, beyond repair. But with a home here with the Clan MacCara and knowing she is safe, I hope she discovers how truly strong she is.”

  “I will need to speak to Warrick about her,” Craven said and felt his wife’s body grow rigid in his arms. “I will make it right for her. I will pay the person she stole from, more than she owes if I have to.”

  Espy shook her head. “Adara swears she stole nothing.”

  “I will speak with her and clear up the misunderstanding or pay the debt whichever it may turn out to be. You will take me to her in the morning.”

  Espy scrunched her face as she tilted her head to the side. “That might be a problem. Adara has a great distrust of everyone, particularly men.”

  “She trusts
you does she not?”

  “Aye, but one look at you and she may run.”

  “I am that ugly?” Craven asked, feigning an insult.

  Espy laughed and poked him in the chest. “You have more than fine features, but you are also large and your size can intimidate.”

  “Then you will need to make her understand that I will not hurt her. That I am there to help her. There is no telling what danger she is in if someone is out to find her and if Warrick’s men find her, there would be no helping her once they have her. She is far safer here than anywhere else. You need to make her understand that. Does she know of any reason someone would be after her?”

  “She is as perplexed as I am, though for some reason I feel the dead woman was in some way connected with Ober. It seems unlikely that two people would have such similar, yet vague complaints of an illness,” Espy said, suspicions rolling around in her head.

  “Tomorrow the body will be available for all to view. I want to know if anyone recognizes her. We will see what Ober does when he looks upon her,” Craven said. “For now, the night is ours.”

  Espy smiled. “Let us not waste it.”

  Craven laughed and lifted her along with himself out of the chair and walked to the bed.

  Chapter 29

  The morning dawned gray and somber. Everyone was concerned about viewing the dead woman who had tried to kill Craven’s wife. It had everyone talking, speculating, wondering if the beast was cursed and would lose yet another wife.

  Espy was more concerned with Adara. As soon as the viewing of the body was done, she would take Craven along with several of his warriors to get Adara and bring her to the keep. She worried that the young woman may have already run away or worse that Warrick’s men had captured her, and then there was the chance that whoever looked for her had found her.

  The more she had thought on it, the more she worried for Adara’s safety and the more she wanted to get her safely to the keep. Espy did not want all that the young woman had suffered to be in vain. It was time for Adara to be free just as she had finally been freed.