Hero of a Highland Wolf (23 page)

He soon had divested her of her soft sweater and jeans, smiling to see her wearing the bra he had so victoriously attached to the pirate's flagpole, and kissed her more insistently. He bared her breasts, then leaned down to suckle one, not expecting her to melt onto the chaise lounge.

She smiled up at him, wearing only her pale blue lace thong and bra now. “All we need is a cluster of grapes that you could feed me—”

“We have all the fruit we need right here.” And then he slipped off his boxers and joined her, dragging her panties free and tossing her bra to the floor.

His hand curled in her silky hair. He kissed her mouth before he moved lower to suckle her breast again. This time, she couldn't escape him.

Both their hearts drummed hard as their lusty scents mixed—she-wolf with male wolf, sweetness and spiciness. His erection pulsed against her thigh as he licked and pulled at her nipples with his lips, loving how they extended with his touch, loving her heated flesh.

He knew before he reached between her legs that he'd find her ready and wet, eager to accept his rigid cock.

Everywhere her hands touched him made his blood run hotter. He throbbed for her, needed release, needed her.

He loved how she took him to task about the lad, yet at the same time teased him about it. They were perfect for each other, perfect as mates and leaders of his pack.

Oh, yeah, perfect, he thought as his fingers sought to give her pleasure while his mouth met hers. Her eyes were closed, her expression one of concentration as he played with her clitoris, working it, bringing her higher. He pushed one of her knees up and then the other, spreading her. She smiled at him, her eyes half-lidded, her body open to him. And then he stroked her again until she cried out, involuntarily closing up on him.

He pushed her legs apart again and entered her hard, heard her gasp, and meant to pull out, but she stopped him with a harsh, “No.” With renewed vigor, he thrust into her with hearty and lusty need. She anchored her heels against his arse and thrust her hips, connecting with him forcefully.

“Lass,” he groaned as she gave him a cocky smile, knowing just how fast she could turn him into a powerful firestorm of craving, and just how quickly she could bring him to completion.

He continued to thrust, to prolong the glorious feeling of being tucked inside her hot, wet, velvety sheath.

Finished, but only for the briefest of times, he sank against her, their hearts still pounding hard and furiously, their breathing rushed, the only other sound the crackling of the logs in the fireplace.

He toyed with a curl of her hair caressing her shoulder and kissed her cheek. “Now you were saying about this cluster of grapes?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling, her hand stroking down his hip. “I envisioned you feeding me while I lay on the chaise lounge in a toga, one breast exposed, or maybe both. Then I'd seduce you.”

His cock stirred inside her.

She chuckled and kissed his ready mouth. “You're insatiable.”

“I can't help it if the notions you have and your sweet body make me behave so wickedly. I will have to ensure Maynard adds grapes to the grocery list.”

“I noticed he added doggie treats so I wouldn't make mincemeat of another choice steak.”

Grant smiled. “Tell me more about your Grecian plan of seduction.”

She ran her hand down his arm. “You'd wear a kilt. I thought of a toga, but I'd rather seduce a kilt-wearing Highlander, chest fully bared.”

He leaned down and licked her breast, his cock pulsing again inside her.

She laughed.

He started to kiss her lips again. “Keep talking about this seduction. Show me.”

Colleen couldn't believe talking about her sexual fantasy would turn Grant into a raging inferno of love all over again. Then again, he'd really gotten into her being a pirate wench.

When they finally retired to bed that night, she vowed she'd have to come up with more sexual fantasies for her Highland warrior, who was one hunk of a wolf in the flesh.

Before Grant and Colleen ventured forth the next day, they cuddled together in their bed. If anyone had told her she'd be doing this while she came for her yearlong stay, she would have thought him crazy—especially when she had believed Grant and his kin were human. She sighed, then smiled up at him. “So…what are you going to do for your stag party?”

“I'd skip it to be with you.”

She sighed. “I've already promised the ladies, and they're all game to have the bachelorette party.”

Grant had every intention of learning just what the ladies had scheduled.

After eating lunch, he met with his brothers in the study, while the ladies conversed in the great hall, discussing their secret schemes.

“In the history of
lupus
garous
, I don't think I've ever heard of our kind having a stag party
after
the mating,” Enrick said.

“I agree. Which is why we need to learn just where the lassies intend to go,” Grant said, wanting to have fun with the women, but feeling a little out of sorts when he learned they intended to leave the property and possibly run into unsavory sorts. Not only that, but he worried the other women might encourage Colleen to kiss a male stranger, or hug him, as a silly last farewell to single life. But their kind didn't do such things—not once they were mated, which for
lupus
garous
was more binding than any wedding ceremony.

“Wait,” Lachlan said. “I thought we were talking about a stag party.”

“Our job will be to ensure that we can participate in the lasses' party like I did with Ian's kin last time. We just need to learn where the women are going and—”

Darby poked his head in through the study doorway. “They are headed for Kelton's Pub, my laird. But first to Lily's bed and breakfast.”

Grant smiled, glad his valet was so capable of spying on the ladies without their knowledge. Then he frowned. Unless they knew very well that he'd overheard them speaking of their schedule.

“Uh-oh,” Enrick said with a twinkle in his eye. “Does Colleen know about Lily?”

“There's nothing to know. She was a one-night stand and never anything more. And human. As for the pub, we'll arrive before the lasses get there,” Grant said, not about to be thwarted. But he and his men wouldn't go to the B and B. The pub was where they'd have their fun. “I want ten men to follow them without their awareness, purely as a precaution to watch over them.”

Lachlan said, “Enrick, you'd better watch out. Heather MacNeill already stole your trunks. Never know what she might do if you show up to harass her.”

Enrick gave him a look that said he was game, which surprised Grant, but he had more pressing concerns in mind. Such as getting to the pub before the women arrived, and ensuring the women had no troubles along the way.

The bachelorette party was in full swing as Colleen and the rest of the ladies dressed in their clan plaids—MacNeill for some and MacQuarrie for others. Calla was wearing the Stewart plaid. The younger women wore minikilts. The older women's skirts reached their ankles. Colleen felt so deliciously naughty. She was told in no uncertain terms that the lasses went regimental also. Not so much that it was a military or guy thing, but in the very old days, women went without. That was when the fashion was to wear long gowns—easier to use the bathroom. And, of course, if a woman chanced upon her lover in the glen and no one was about, that made things…easier.

But even so, she felt absolutely scandalous wearing a minikilt and no underwear.

Not that they had any intention of meeting up with the guys tonight. They had their own stag party going on somewhere.

No matter how much Colleen protested not wearing underwear, Julia said, “When it comes to bachelorette parties, propriety goes out the window.”

Colleen suspected Ian wouldn't agree with her decision, and she was certain Grant wouldn't, either.

The men had been so busy talking in the study that she and the ladies had managed to slip out without their knowing. Someone would be sure to tell them eventually. But the ladies would be off on their adventure before that happened.

In a caravan of several cars, the ladies stopped to take pictures of themselves by the green hills and sheep, their skirts blowing in the chilly breeze. Colleen posed for pictures with her friends and several of the MacQuarrie women who were her new kin now. No wedding was needed to make it so.

They dropped by the B and B owned and operated by Lily, Grant's former lover—or one-night stand or whatever she had been to him. Colleen knew she needn't have bothered, but she wanted to make sure the woman knew Grant was now strictly off-limits.

Lily raised her brows when the thirty women entered the small lobby of the B and B and then spread out into the living area.

“Grant and I are getting married, and we're having our bachelorette party tonight. So if it would be all right with you, we wanted to take pictures in your B and B since you are friends with Grant. We'll be posting the pictures around, so you might even get some business,” Colleen said in a she-wolf got the he-wolf sort of way.

The woman didn't appear happy about Colleen's claim to Grant, but the chance at free publicity had her hopping to, in an effort to take the best pictures of the group inside the inn and out.

And then everyone chanted, “Pub! Pub! Pub!” and they were off again, only this time to enjoy a bit of brew.

As soon as they arrived at the pub, they knew they were in trouble. Grant and his male friends and kin had parked their vehicles there. Colleen hadn't meant to crash his party this early in the night or to do so at the pub, thinking more in terms of doing so at the castle, privately. But this
was
where she and her friends intended to go for
her
party. So it wasn't
exactly
crashing his. Only she was certain that as soon as he got a look at her tiny kilt, he would insist the party was over.

Shoulders straight back, Julia opened the door for Colleen and then she stepped in, followed by the rest.

The men in the pub quit talking and laughing and turned to see all the women enter. But they didn't look quite as shocked as she had expected. Well, maybe a little, as they eyed the women's short tartan skirts. Then they smiled as if they'd pulled a fast one on the women. Had the men known the ladies' plans?

She suspected so. The cads. “Grant, what are you and the rest of the men doing here? Who told you we were going to be here?”

“The castle walls have ears, lass,” he said, reaching for her arm.

The crowd of men took up virtually every seat. The ladies would have to go outside and use the benches on the patio if they wanted to sit down. Grant patted his lap to offer her a place to sit, up close and personal.

She smiled down at his wolfish grin. “You're being a gentleman and offering your seat to me, right?”

“Aye.” He patted his lap again.

She laughed and shook her head.

“Scottish hospitality, lass,” he said. Before she could let him know she was all for sitting on his lap and in his arms, he seized her arm and tugged her down. She laughed as she sat rather hard on his lap. He groaned a little, and then she wiggled to get comfortable and made him groan some more. Served him right.

Grant set the tone for the party, and ladies squealed as Ian and his brothers collected their mates and pulled them onto their laps. Others did the same.

Calla ended up on Guthrie's lap, but Colleen wasn't sure if Guthrie offered her the seat or she had claimed him. Colleen glanced around to see where Heather had ended up. She was sitting on Enrick's lap. Colleen wondered if Heather's request for her to grab a pair of his trunks so she could display them on the pirate's pole meant there
had
been something going on between the two of them before this—despite her denial.

“You really aren't here because you knew we planned to come here, are you?” Colleen asked Grant. She couldn't believe he'd really want to crash her party again.

“You don't think I'd want my mate off running around, being with other men for any reason, even just to tease as part of a hen party prank, do you? And certainly not dressed like this.” He slid his hand over her bare leg. “Besides, you'll catch your death in something so skimpy.”

“No, which is why I'm not hugging men for pictures or anything. You would likely hunt them down otherwise, do them bodily harm, and ruin a fun party.”

“Aye, you have the right of it, lass.”

“You know this was supposed to be our last hurrah,” she said, smiling up at him as Julia took their picture.

“
Before
you were mated. Not that I would have agreed to that, either. Once we were mated, any stag parties or bachelorette parties became unacceptable, unless we're together at them. Besides, you have more fun when we crash your girlie parties.”

She had to agree he added a lot of spice to the affair. “Fine. But it's all chick flicks when we return to the keep and…”

Grant kissed her full on the mouth. He was so right. They didn't need the crazy parties to say they were free one last time. Not when they were already mated. That didn't mean ladies' night would be a thing of the past. On the contrary.

“We'll watch them with you. As your mate, I want to know everything you enjoy doing,” he said agreeably.

Colleen patted his thigh. “Are you up to baking decadently delicious chocolate treats?”

“I am. And eating my fair share, too.”

She smiled and hugged him soundly. “I think I'll keep you as my mate.”

“I couldn't be happier with our sleeping arrangements. I do have one question for you, though.”

“Oh?”

“You didn't send those pictures you took of me while I was sparring with Ian to some other lassies, did you?”

She smiled.

“Darby said he swore the man showing off his arse on Facebook was wearing one of our kilts, and the man he was fighting was wearing the MacNeill tartan. Seemed like too much of a coincidence to us.”

She laughed. “What are girlfriends for?”

“I knew it. You said you wouldn't share them.” He squeezed her tighter against his chest.

“Well, at least not the identity of the person bearing that sweet ass.”

“And now who's baring her sweet—”

“I am not.”

He laughed. “With as windy as it is, lass? I'll have my cell handy when we leave here.”

She'd hold her skirt down, then. She shook her head at him, but he was grinning wickedly and she knew he would, too. Not to share it with anyone, though.

When the whole party of stags and hens headed home, it was pouring rain, the first she'd experienced since she'd arrived. A shuffling of who rode in which cars followed. Ian and Julia grabbed a ride with Grant and Colleen, and they could barely see their way to the castle in the downpour.

That night, after watching romance movies and sharing popcorn and some crazy chocolate concoctions, Ian and his family left for Argent Castle with plans to return in two days for Colleen and Grant's wedding. The forecast looked like intermittent rain. But it wouldn't put a damper on the festivities, as excited as everyone was.

Everyone else headed for their respective beds. Grant had wrapped Colleen in his spare plaid while they snuggled and watched the movies, ensuring she didn't show off her legs or other unmentionables in the short minikilt. As soon as he carried her to the bedchamber, he set her on her feet, then ditched the plaid wrapped around her.

“I want you just like this,” he said, running his hand over her bare leg. Still dressed in his kilt and her in her minikilt, they got into bed together. He pulled her back against his chest, his hand reaching down to feel under her minikilt.

She smiled. A questing finger quickly found its way inside between her slick, hot folds, and she groaned with the sensual assault.

“You should have told me you were already wet for me. You don't know how much it killed me to touch all that silky flesh and not be able to lift that tiny kilt and bury myself inside you while I waited for everyone to retire for the night. From now on, you only wear it for me in the privacy of our chambers.”

She smiled, happy to do so, not willing to have a breeze lift her kilt and show off her buttocks. He stole her breath when he began nibbling her ear and rubbed his hard body against her backside.

His phone gave an annoying jingle, making them both tense. It was close to three in the morning, and she couldn't believe anyone would bother them at this hour. Unless it was something serious.

Grant kissed her cheek and withdrew his finger from her feminine folds. “This better be damned important.” He pulled out his cell, still holding her close, moving his hips so he could connect his hard cock with her mini-kilted buttocks. She obliged him by wriggling against him, providing friction, too.

“Aye,” he growled into the phone. He slipped his hand up her sweater to cup a breast, his fingers softly pinching a nipple, making it tingle with need.

She heard Enrick say, “Archibald's men are here. Ian said they saw five of them in the woods prowling the perimeter near the castle, and Baird is with them.”

Her heart skipped a beat. Grant stiffened against her. His sexy scent subtly changed to anger.

Grant swore. “I'll be right down.” He gave Colleen a tight embrace. “Stay here, lass. Don't get undressed. I'll return,” Grant said, still dressed only in his kilt.

She knew then he would shift if he needed to chase the men or wolves down. He kissed her cheek, then stalked out of the room with the cell in hand.

“Did you see any of Baird's cousins? Any of the rest of his men? What about Archibald?” Grant shut the door to the chamber.

Colleen slipped out of the minikilt in a flash, kicked off her boots, and hurried to throw on her jeans and boots again. At the very least, she wanted to watch what was going on from the ramparts.