paused long enough to light the candle she carried before she hurried to her chamber. She came to a halt at the doorway when she saw the tartan of blue, green, and black, the MacLeod plaid, draped over the window.
Lucan must have hung it sometime that morning. She smiled and walked to the window. She ran her hand over the thick wool, amazed once more at Lucan. He surprised her in so many ways.
Cara set the candle down and built a fire with wood that had been freshly stacked. No doubt Lucan had taken care of that as well.
She couldn’t help but smile. There had been a time when she was young that she had thought about finding a husband and having children of her own, but that dream hadn’t lasted long. She had realized soon that the men of clan MacClure looked at her differently than the women of their clan. She might have been allowed to live in the clan, but she had never been part of them.
That’s when she had decided to become a nun. It hadn’t hurt that she felt safe inside the nunnery. She had thought God and the holy artifacts would keep out any evil. How wrong she had been. About so many things.
Now that she had tasted passion, had accepted Lucan into her body, she could think of nothing more than being by his side. It was a foolish dream, she knew, but she couldn’t help it. Their lives would be forever connected, and not just because he saved her from death that first day. It went much deeper than that.
Cara tucked her legs to the side and sat before the fire. She reached up and began to loosen her braid. She used her fingers and massaged her scalp from the weight of her hair. Then she began to comb her long tresses.
Lucan. Her thoughts were never far from the immortal Highlander. She stared into the red-orange flames and sighed. Their lives might be intertwined, but they were destined to be pulled apart. Her death, which was an eventuality if Deirdre captured her, would ensure that, while he lived on forever.
But she couldn’t deny the deep emotions Lucan had called forth. Emotions she had never felt for another person before. They frightened her, but at the same time those feelings gave her strength and pulled her closer to him.
A hint of sandalwood touched her senses. When she lifted her gaze to the door it was to find Lucan. He stood with his hands hanging by his sides, his gaze riveted on her.
“You are so beautiful.”
She smiled at his compliment. “As are you.”
“Nay,” he said with a shake of his head. “Women are beautiful. Men just are.”
“I would have to disagree with you. I see before me a man of strength and power and magic. A man with rippling muscles, and a body very pleasing to the eye. A man with sea green eyes, and a mouth that does delicious, wicked things to me.”
“All that?” He stepped into the chamber and shut the door behind him.
“All that and more.”
“There’s more?”
She smiled at the teasing glint in his eyes. “Shall I tell you?”
“I think so.”
She set aside the comb and bit her lip as he moved toward her. He lowered himself beside her and waited.
Cara reached up and touched the torc around his neck, letting her fingers run over the braided gold bands of the torc. She traced the griffin head and the opened beak. “I find this very beautiful. A griffin. The Celtic beast symbolizing the balance between good and evil.”
“Is that so?” His green eyes were crinkled in the corners.
“Ah, but you already knew that. Tell me, Lucan MacLeod, why do you wear this torc?”
He shrugged. “Every male in my family was given a torc by the laird.”
“Your father chose yours?”
“Nay. It was my mother. She chose all of her sons’.”
“Possibly. My mother seemed to know everything.”
The griffin head on either side of the torc enthralled Cara. Highlanders knew what the ancient Celtic symbols meant, so it was no accident that Lucan had been gifted the griffin.
“You have the griffin. Fallon has a . . . boar, aye?”
“Aye,” Lucan said with a slight nod. “And Quinn has the wolf.”
Cara shifted and dropped her hand from the torc. “A boar means strength and healing, while the wolf means intelligence and cunning.”
Lucan’s hand cupped her face. She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand.
“Cara.”
Her name was a caress on his lips. She shivered, not from the cold but from the passion he awoke within her. When she opened her eyes his face was inches from hers. She saw the gold flecks in his eyes, but more than that, she saw something else, something that made her heart skip a beat.
“Cara,” he said again as he drew her toward his mouth.
She parted her lips for his kiss. His taste intoxicated her, making her drunk from his essence. She shifted to her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck. He slanted his mouth over hers, deepening the kiss.
Excitement burned through her. She had hoped and prayed he would come to her tonight. Her body needed him in ways she couldn’t begin to understand.
She ended the kiss and rose to her feet. His gaze, intense and dark with desire, followed her. Appreciation showed in his eyes when she took off her shoes and rolled down her stockings. He sucked in a breath when she pulled off her gown and chemise, making her bolder with each heartbeat. The chill of the chamber could not penetrate the heat she felt from his eyes.
Her hands itched to touch him, to kiss him and run her tongue over his body. Most of all, though, she wanted to take his rod in her hand again.
She licked her lips when he yanked off his boots. He jerked off his tunic as he climbed to his feet. Cara’s nipples hardened under Lucan’s gaze. The delicious throb she had felt the first time he touched her returned stronger and needier. She squeezed her legs together and sucked in a breath at the sensations.
Her mouth went dry when he removed his breeches and his thick, hard arousal sprang free. She reached for him, but Lucan grabbed her wrist and spun her away from him. He pushed her against the wall.
“My God, I hunger for you,” he whispered in her ear.
His hot breath sent chills over her skin. He rubbed his cheek against the side of her head, his mouth brushing her neck while his stubble scratched her skin. All the while, he ground his cock into her back.
Cara’s breasts swelled and her breathing quickened. She tilted her head to the side and moaned when Lucan’s mouth closed over her neck. His teeth scraped her skin and his tongue laved her. She shivered.
And wanted more.
The hand holding her wrist against the wall tightened for just a moment before he caressed down her arm. His message had been clear:
She wasn’t surprised when he moved her other hand to the wall. Her fingers gripped the uneven stones as his hands wandered over her body. He lifted her thick hair in one hand and kissed the base of her neck.
“So much hair,” he murmured. “I’ve wanted to run my fingers through it since that first moment I saw you.”
His lips kissed first one shoulder, then the other. He grabbed her hips and rubbed his rod into her buttocks. She moaned and arched back against him. He licked the lobe of her ear while his hands caressed her belly.
She needed him to touch her, to ease the ache that had started when he had walked into the chamber, but Cara knew Lucan was taking his time. He would prolong her pleasure and bring her exquisite ecstasy.
He cupped her breasts, pinching both her nipples. She gasped and leaned her head back against his chest.
“Lucan.”
“Aye, beautiful. I feel your desire.”
She rotated her hips while he rolled her hard peaks between his fingers. Pleasure spiked through her and centered between her legs. She felt herself grow damp and squeezed her legs together again. The throb was low
