She straightened to grin mischievously up at him. “ ’Twas fodder for my fantasies, ye ken. I used to imagine yer hands on me when I touched myself.”
Her confession went straight from his ears to his cock. He swallowed thickly. She’d touched herself, imagining ‘twas him?
Just like ye touched yerself right here in this room, a sennight ago, at her command. Ye imagined ‘twas her touching ye then, aye?
Aye. And he’d done it thrice more since then.
But…
“And Treenis?” That bastard had a lot to answer for.
She grinned. “Aye, once I kenned what ye looked like naked, Treenis brought me even more pleasure.”
The growl was already growing in Alistair’s chest when she tugged him toward the passageway.
“Now, come along. I’ll show ye the steps down to the level of my chambers.”
The way he was feeling right now—the way his cock was feeling—meant being near her chambers might be a very, very good idea.
Because, as she pulled him into the darkness and the door swung shut behind them, Alistair wasn’t thinking of this new adventure, nay. He was thinking of his hands on her.
“Lara,” he growled, reaching for her. The candle in his hand was the only thing keeping the darkness at bay, but he didn’t need light to see her. Not when he could feel her.
Using his body, he trapped her against the wall, his free hand dragging up her side until he skimmed across her breasts and cupped the back of her neck.
“Aye, Alistair?” She was breathless. Good.
He lowered his head until his lips were inches from hers. “When I make love to ye, ye willnae be thinking of that bastard, will ye?”
In the light of the candle, he could see her eyes, hooded with passion. “Nay,” she whispered, then licked her lips. “I want ye, Alistair.”
“Good.” He sealed the promise by slamming his lips down atop hers, pressing her against the wall. St. Elzear’s tibia, she managed to taste better each time. But he didn’t give either of them time to enjoy it before he was pulling away, leaving her swaying with need. “Remember that, Lara.”
“Aye,” she whispered, and he smiled arrogantly.
Nodding firmly, he straightened and set off down the passage. She called after him, but it wasn’t until he heard her steps and felt her hand on his arm that he stopped.
“Ye’re going the wrong way.”
He glanced into the darkness in the direction he’d been going. “ ’Tis a secret passage. How could there be a wrong way?”
“There’s a wrong way if ye’re goal is to end up in my chambers.”
He raised a brow, unable to deny the appeal. “Ye have an entrance to the passages from yer chambers?”
“Aye.” She took his hand and began to lead him back the way they’d came. “ ’Tis how my mother leaves at night, when she…”
Lara trailed off, and Alistair grinned, guessing what she wasn’t saying. “When she visits her secret lover?”
She sniffed. “Aye.”
“Who may or may no’ be my father?”
She shot him a glare over her shoulder as they reached a corner in the passage and turned to the left. “I dinnae need to think of my mother’s lover being my laird, aright?”
By his calculations, they were following along beside the bed chambers now. He shrugged. “But another lover would be fine?” He peered at the dimly lit walls, looking for other doors.
“Thinking of my mother in any man’s arms is no’ something I want to think about at all.”
“Moira!” The moan shuddered through the passageway.
She frowned over her shoulder at him. “No’ funny.”
But he merely lifted a brow. “ ’Twasnae me.”
“Moira, lass, ye’re killing me!”
Since Lara was looking right at him, she had to know he hadn’t been the one uttering such passionate moans. The moment Alistair wondered if she thought it might be the ghost, her eyes widened.
“The candle!” She lunged for him, hissing, “Block the light!”
He cupped his hand in front of the flame, and the two of them stood in the semi-darkness, chests rising and falling rapidly as wet, lurid sounds swept around them.
“Blessed virgin,” Lara whispered, dropped her forehead to his chest.
Alistair’s mind jumped ahead. “We’re near the bedchambers, are we no’?”
With a sigh, she pushed away from him and jerked her chin down the passage. They crept forward, coming nearer and nearer to a sliver of light. When they were upon it, Alistair sucked in a breath. ‘Twas a door, open just slightly, through which moans emanated.
“Moira, ye must let me—”
“Aye! Aye! Please, my love, now!”
The couple on the other side of the door likely wouldn’t have noticed Alistair and Lara even if they carried a full candelabra and were playing the pipes…but there was no need to tempt fate. Alistair stepped away from the opening, and Lara followed a little faster than was natural.
They were beyond the next bend before he felt safe removing his hand from in front of the candle flame and glanced at her. He expected her to be blushing, but she was grinning.
“Lara?”
“Aye?”
“I hate to tell ye this, but I suspect my father and yer mother might be lovers.”
She giggled, and his heart lifted at the sound.
“I’ve suspected they might’ve been lovers for a while,” she confessed, as she tugged him onward. “Mam has been sneaking away from our bed since I was a girl. She always locks our door from the inside, but sometimes I’d wake up and she wouldnae be there. Since I’ve gotten aulder though, she’ll often disappear for the entire night.”
He hummed. “And where else would she go, but to a chamber with an entrance to the secret passageway, where she could spend the entire night?”
“Still, I dinnae like to think about it.”
“I do,” he confessed.
She sent a skeptical glare his way. “Then ye’re strange. Here’s the steps, be careful. They’re little more than a ladder really.”
He watched her descend, then followed quickly. “I dinnae like to think of them together together, but I like the idea of my father finding love again. I was speaking with him about it, and he told me
