Part 9 (2/2)
Before he could reply, she whirled on her heel, fanning her long tresses in a wide arc around her, and stormed off to the water's edge.
He followed her, determined to set her straight. There were many things he enjoyed, like working up a good sweat on the practice field, and raiding, and playing chess. He liked playing chess.
”Davina, I-”
”What happened to Will?” Finn disengaged himself from Colin and stared at the man milking his wound like a la.s.s.
”Robert punched him in the face for chasing the lady,” Edward informed him.
Rob glowered at him over his shoulder. ”I didna' punch him, and why the h.e.l.l are ye right behind me?”
”Of course, now he's going to bite off Edward's head,” Davina practically hissed while she soaked some reeds in the water.
”Mayhap our rogue cousin will have more sense now, aye, brother?”
Rob met Colin's knowing gaze and then closed his eyes. He knew how it looked. He didn't like Will or Asher giving Davina so much attention, but it didn't mean he wished his best friend harm. Or did he? What the h.e.l.l was happening to him? Davina was to blame, of course; his wee fairy G.o.ddess who enchanted all the men around her. He moved aside when she shoved past him on her way back to Will.
”I think ye should-”
”Shut up, Finn,” Rob said, and set off after her again. When he reached her, he waited while she wiped Will's face with the wet reeds, patient even when his cousin slipped him a furtive smile from the corner of his mouth. Rob wouldn't be baited.
”Poor Will,” Davina soothed, giving Will's nose a thorough looking over. ”I do not think it's broken.”
”'Twouldn't be the first time if it was.” Rob only meant to ease her worry. He realized too late that it was a mistake.
”By your hand?” Davina straightened, wiping her hands on her gown, and gaped at him.
”Nae, not by me. I... I only meant...” Rob clenched his jaw. Why in blazes was he stumbling over his words? He could admit when he was wrong-though such occasions rarely arose. Mostly because he never acted rashly. He was usually patient, deliberate, never truly letting anything disturb his calm. But that had all changed since he'd met Davina. He could blame his brooding disposition of late on a dozen things, but he knew she was the cause. He wanted her. Despite the danger she might or might not bring to his clan, despite her promises to G.o.d, he wanted her, and not being able to have her was winding him up tighter than a bowstring. He barely recognized himself and he didn't like it. He looked down at his cousin. ”I didna' mean to strike ye,” he said, trying to make amends.
Still clutching his nose, Will-who'd faced his share of sword-swinging Highlanders bent on cutting off a limb, expelled a withering sigh. ”'Tis understandable, cousin. I know how ye frown upon games.” He finally let go of his nose and rose, as good as new, to his feet. ”But mayhap with her, 'tis more than that, aye?” He winked and strolled off with a victorious grin on his face.
Rob fought the urge to fling his cousin into Loch Awe.
”You frown upon games?” Davina looked more stricken than when Will's face crunched under his hand. ”And why would it be more than that with me? Is it my happiness that makes you angry, Rob?”
Och, h.e.l.l, he didn't want her to think that. He reached for her hand to stop her when she moved to walk away from him. ”Davina, I...” He looked up and scowled at finding Asher and Finn standing close by, watching and listening to what he had to say. ”I wish to speak to ye. Alone.” He held out his arm to stop the captain when he moved toward them. Asher skidded to a halt, careful not to make contact with Rob's palm.
”Stay here.” Rob softened the edge in his voice, sympathetic, though he hated to admit it, to what drove the captain to follow her, for he was just as pitiful. ”She'll be safe with me.”
Edward cut Davina a hesitant look, and then nodded and watched in silence while Rob lifted her to his saddle, leaped up behind her, then trotted off toward the woods beyond the campsite.
Chapter Fifteen.
What could he say to her? What should he say? Rob had no idea. The one thing he never spent much time training with was la.s.ses. He'd never had time for them. At least, not for anything more meaningful than a few hours of pleasure. After that, he threw himself back into what was most important. His duties to his clan. Duties he had tossed to the wayside since holding Davina Montgomery in his arms. Each day while he battled his feelings toward her, he also battled his logic for bringing her home, for not questioning her more about why an earl and a duke wanted her dead. 'Twas enough to drive his rational heart mad. But the more he rode with her, the more he came to know her, the less he cared. They had covered a good distance of leagues with her perched sideways on his lap, and not once had she complained. She had lost almost everyone she loved, yet she found joy in things as simple as a sunset or-he smiled rather hopefully at the stand of short hawthorn trees up ahead-a canopy of tiny pink blossoms.
Aye, he thought, bringing them to the trees. What chance did his sensible heart have against the sweet thrills she found in the mundane?
Clearing his throat, he dropped his gaze to the top of her head. He was glad she wasn't facing him. Looking at her had a way of muddling his thoughts. Then again, so did wee flowers in her hair. He plucked one from her silvery blond tresses-a harmless act that left him aching to touch more of her.
”Davina, I want to...”
”Yes?”
d.a.m.nation. She turned. ”I...” he began, but when she smiled up at the blossoms falling around their heads, he forgot everything else in the world and let his eyes bask in the sheer rapture of her. And here was another difference still-she was beguiling to the point of distraction, and utterly and delightfully unaware of it. ”Davina, I have been a fool and though I canna' promise it, I will do my best to avoid bein' one in the future.”
Her gaze fell to his and her smile remained, emboldening him to continue. Her forgiveness, like her joy, came easily. ”I may no' partic.i.p.ate in the things ye like to do with the others, but I'll never stop ye from doin' them. I know ye need to.”
Aye, he knew she needed more in her life than protection. She needed joy and freedom to be who she was-whoever that might be.
”Thank you.” Her voice was whisper-soft while she looked at him, a mixture of surprise and hope stirring something within her that made his heart clench. ”My life has changed so much since... since you came into it.” She did not pull away when he lifted his fingers to the curve of her jaw but tilted her head to his touch. ”I feel like I have just been born. I've always wanted to see what was beyond the Abbey walls, but I was afraid. I am not afraid when I'm with you.”
Rob swallowed once, twice. He didn't think she could have made him any happier in that moment. But he was wrong.
”Your friends have become my friends, my family.”
”Aye, that pleases me,” he said, wiping a tear from beneath her lashes, and fearing the drum of his own heart that told him he would battle any army for her; a duke's, an earl's, or even a king's.
Nae, he couldn't. He was already sworn to another duty. He wanted her to understand. ”While my brothers and sister were chasin' sheep in the meadows, I was bein' molded into a man who would someday wear my faither's tartan. When ye come to know Callum MacGregor and what he has done fer his clan-what he is doin' fer them now-ye'll understand how hard I must work at makin' certain his tartan will fit.”
She studied him quietly, carefully, searching deep within his eyes. ”It sounds like you had a childhood very much like mine,” she finally said. ”Your path was set for you and you had no choice in changing it.”
”I've never wanted to change it.”
She smiled at him rather sadly, seeming to understand the battle being fought inside him-the choice he had been ”molded” to make. ”Truly, Rob, the last thing I want to do is bring danger to you or your clan.”
He said nothing, feeling worse than before.
”You've never wanted to chase sheep in the meadows then?” Her eyes s.h.i.+mmered with playfulness, tempting him to forget the battle.
”Nae,” he smiled.
Her mirth faded watching him. She blinked, looking unnerved by something that just crossed her thoughts. ”Did you chase many women?”
”Nae,” he replied, dipping his gaze to her lips.
”Not even one of those MacPherson girls that Will told about?”
He would have preferred her not knowing about that day, but the dreadful antic.i.p.ation widening her eyes as she waited for his reply had the strangest, most satisfying effect on him. He'd been beating himself up every day telling himself that he wasn't jealous of her captain, and here she was a tad bit jealous of the MacPherson sisters. His smile deepened, his blue eyes teasing. ”She chased me.”
When she drew in a shocked breath, parting her lips beneath his curious touch, Rob bent his head to hers. He knew he shouldn't kiss her, but he was tired of fighting what he felt for her. G.o.d help him. G.o.d help them all.
Davina sat motionless, save for the heart thumping wildly in her chest. She had time to realize what he was going to do, but she didn't move away. She didn't want to. After days of riding perched in his lap, acutely aware of the powerful length of his fingers before her, his breath behind her, his arms around her, she wanted something more. Sinful or not, she could not stop her dreams at night, dreams that Rob had invaded, taking the place of everything else. She awoke most mornings breathless from his ghostly, sensual touch and a bit ashamed of the pleasure she took in touching him back. She knew she should stop him now as his fingers slipped behind her nape, drawing her closer, angling her head higher to receive him, but she wanted this too much. Having never been kissed before, she was frightened by the forceful need in his first kiss, but this time his lips grazed hers, a tender, beguiling caress so intimate she was glad she sat nestled in his lap else she would have melted into a pool of liquid at his feet. The smooth stroke of his tongue coaxing her lips apart sent fire through her veins. So much better than her dreams. He took her mouth with exquisite thoroughness, molding her lips to his, tasting her with a hunger he did all he could to control. When he curled his arm around her, drawing her closer and deepening their kiss, she had the feeling of falling deep into a chasm where only he existed, ready and waiting to catch her.
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