Highlander's Reckoning (The Sinclair Brothers #3) (13 page)

That sent her over the edge. Her head fell back and
her fiery hair spilled over her bare shoulders as she cried out, pleasure
claiming her.

As the tidal wave of release ebbed within her, it
fully crashed over him. He gripped her hips, pulling her down hard into his lap
as his body was racked with his release.

Their breaths mingled as they both slowly came back
down from the heights of pleasure.

“That was…unexpected,” she said with an airy
chuckle.

“Aye, we managed to negotiate a compromise rather
than simply fighting,” he said, giving her a teasing grin.

“That’s not what I meant,” she replied with an
arched eyebrow. “But I suppose you’re right. We did talk through an issue and
solve a problem.”

“And all it took was for both of us to be half
naked.”

That earned him a swat on the shoulder.

He sobered suddenly. “I’m serious, Rona. I know we
got off on the wrong foot—”

“—Wrong
feet
.”

“Aye,” he said, capturing her gaze. “But I want
things to be better between us. To be like this.”

He brushed a stray strand of red hair out of her
face tenderly.

“So do I,” she said quietly. “We’re learning.”

He intentionally glanced down at their
still-entwined bodies and then shot her a wolfish grin.

“If this is learning, I’ll gladly be a student for
life.”

Though March had arrived a few days ago, spring
still seemed ages away as Rona settled her warmest cloak, the one with
rabbit-fur lining around the neck and hood, onto her shoulders. She was only
going down into the yard, but a biting wind racked the castle and churned the
loch into an angry froth. She pulled a rabbit muff out from Daniel’s armoire
just for good measure.

Their
armoire, she
reminded herself. After that passionate afternoon in the study, Daniel had
insisted that she fully move into his chamber. Though it was strange to share
such an intimate space with the man, she was more than happy to endeavor to
become used to it.

Besides, they had engaged in far greater intimacies
than simply sharing an armoire, she thought with a heated flush. Most
nights—and sometimes mornings—they explored and tasted, touched and teased each
other, learning the other’s body and the depth and breadth of their shared
pleasure.

She tossed a glance over her shoulder at the
now-quiet chamber, the memories of their lovemaking sending shivers down her
spine. As she made her way down the spiral staircase and through the great
hall, she let the pulsing memories warm her.

In the nearly two weeks since their heated encounter
in the study, another kind of intimacy grew between them. He’d shown her not
only with his body but also with his words and actions that he was placing his
trust in her.

Though he always insisted that he accompany her to
Mairi and Ian’s cottage, he never tried to forbid her from going again. When
they were out with Bhreaca, he would often quietly ask her about how she’d
trained the falcon, or why the bird meant so much to her. And with each passing
day, she opened up more to him, like a flower coaxed by the sun. Her fear of
him betraying her or unleashing her secret seemed like a distant memory.

And he’d opened up to her more, too. He’d told her
about his beloved uncle William, his late mother’s brother, and how he’d taken
a terrible fall from a horse several years back that left him nearly invalid.
He spoke fondly of his young cousin Will, whom he’d practically raised after
William’s accident. And he’d even told her about his family’s close
relationship with Robert the Bruce.

Well, some of it, anyway. He explained what had
happened to his clan and their lands in the Battle of Roslin—with Raef Warren
leading the destruction and death—and the Sinclairs’ loyal service to the Bruce
throughout his campaign to free Scotland from English rule.

She sensed that there was more, that the ties ran
deeper, but she was determined not to push him. He’d tell her in time, she
reassured herself.

Though the vivid images of their lovemaking still
warmed her cheeks, that last thought cooled them somewhat. They had nothing but
time ahead of them to deepen their trust, learn more about each other, and
perhaps even come to love one another.

And yet…and yet…

It irked her that he still hadn’t completely opened
up to her. He now knew all her secrets. But why did she get the sense that
there was more he wasn’t sharing with her?

She pushed through the large wooden doors leading
from the great hall into the yard. Despite the biting wind and the three inches
of snow covering the yard, the castle’s men were lined in rows, swords in hand.

“Block low!”

Daniel had his back to her, his concentration locked
on the rows of men facing him.

In perfect unison, the men dipped the tips of their
swords and swiped their blades to the right, blocking an imaginary blow.

“Spin right!”

The men stepped through their block and swiveled
around so that they had their backs to Daniel.

“Thrust!”

With a synchronized, wordless shout, all the men
lunged forward at their invisible opponents.

“Hold!”

The men froze as Daniel slowly walked through their
ranks. He occasionally adjusted one of the men’s stance or repositioned the tip
of a sword.

Rona couldn’t help but follow his every move with
her eyes. Despite the cold, he wore his normal garb—high boots and wool
stockings, his red kilt, and a plain linen shirt, which the man had audaciously
rolled up at the sleeves. His sheathed sword bobbed at his hip as he moved
lithely and smoothly among the men.

“You’re aiming for the gap between your opponent’s
mail and his helm, Patrick,” Daniel said as he approached one of the younger
men-at-arms. “Not his heart.” Daniel gripped the lad’s wrist and raised it a
few inches.

A foreboding shiver slid over Rona that had nothing
to do with the chill in the air. The memory of Daniel standing over those
English scouts in the Galloway woods and slitting first one’s throat and then
the other’s flitted back to her.

Despite their increasingly candid conversations,
Daniel hadn’t spoken to her again about either killing those men or the
potential repercussions of his actions. Yet in the last two weeks, he’d been
training the castle’s men harder than ever. Surely Raef Warren, the man she now
knew was a monster, had noticed that two of his scouts had gone missing. Did
Daniel suspect that Loch Doon would come under Warren’s attack? Or was
something else driving these grueling training sessions?

Her longing to know everything, to have the whole
truth from him, gnawed at her once more. They still had a way to go before they
were completely open and honest with each other.

Just then, Daniel turned to resume his position in
front of the men and caught sight of her. Even from several yards away, his
eyes scorched her. He let his gaze travel up and down her length, and despite
her thick winter cloak, she felt naked and exposed. An increasingly familiar
heat began to simmer low in her belly as he strode toward her.

“Continue in pairs. Each of you take turns attacking
and blocking,” he ordered over his shoulder to the men without taking his eyes
off her.

“You come like a thief in the night, wife,” he said
with a suggestively raised eyebrow as he halted in front of her. Luckily, the
clanging of swords rising from the men behind him kept his tease private.

She blushed at his double entendre.

“And you will catch your death dressed like that out
here,” she responded haughtily.

“Is that an offer to warm me?”

She tried and failed to suppress a coy smile.
“Perhaps. But you appear occupied.”

His face fell into wry regret. “Unfortunately,
you’re right. I really shouldn’t neglect the men’s training.”

Her curiosity tugged at her again. Before she could
stop herself, it got the better of her. “What is so urgent about their
training?”

Apparently her question also revealed a hint of her
annoyance, for he frowned slightly. She cursed herself. Hadn’t she just been
reveling in their budding trust and openness? And hadn’t she just firmly told
herself that she would wait for him to choose to open up to her? She shouldn’t
pry, but it pricked her pride that he was still keeping things from her.
Perhaps she hadn’t been completely honest with herself when she’d thought
earlier that she could be patient and wait for him to confide in her.

“The men must always be ready for anything,” he said
vaguely, and she sensed that he was assuming that air of removed command he
sometimes used to keep her at bay.

She should let it go. She should drop it. She should
trust that he would open up to her when he was ready.

“What aren’t you telling me?” she blurted out
instead, her frustration turning to indignation.

He considered her silently for a moment, his face a
mask of stiff detachment.

“It’s none of your concern,” he said coldly.

His iciness only made her temper flare hotter. She
opened her mouth to shoot him a biting retort, but before she could, he spoke
again.

“I don’t want to involve you in this, Rona,” he said
quietly, his voice losing its hard edge. “It’s too dangerous.”

His words doused the flames of her anger. Instead,
she suddenly felt sad.

“Perhaps one day you will see that I am capable of
handling the truth from you.”

He raked a few loose strands of dark hair back from
his forehead. She looked down at her feet, no longer wanting to face his
searching blue-gray gaze.

“My family will arrive in a few days’ time,” he said
suddenly, changing the subject.

That brought her head snapping up. “What?”

“They are coming to…help us celebrate our wedding,”
he said carefully, and again she got the impression that he wasn’t telling her
the whole story.

“But we were married almost four weeks ago,” she
said in confusion.

“They would have come sooner, but the storms have
been fierce in the Highlands.”

She blinked, trying to register what their visit
could mean.

“Who exactly is coming?”

“My brother Garrick and his wife Jossalyn are
traveling from Inverness, probably alone knowing Garrick.” He smiled a little
to himself for a brief moment. “And my eldest brother Robert and his wife Alwin
will travel from Roslin with my cousin Burke and his wife Meredith. Oh, and my
niece, Jane.”

This was too much information to take in all at
once.

“You have a niece? What of your cousin Will? And
what are we going to feed all these guests? Why didn’t you tell me we’d be
hosting?”

He held up a hand to stay her, though his eyes were
soft. “I should have told you sooner that they would be arriving shortly. The
timing has been uncertain due to the condition of the roads, but I believe they
are nearby, if their travels have gone smoothly.”

“You mentioned weeks ago that we’d have a larger
celebration for our wedding, but I assumed you meant when spring was fully upon
us.”

His face was unreadable. “I thought it would be
better to celebrate as soon as possible,” he said cryptically. “Now, to answer
your questions. I have a niece—she is Robert and Alwin’s child, born only this
past December.”

“And the babe and mother are fit to travel all the
way down from the Highlands?”

Another shadow crossed his face, but he kept his
voice light. “Aye, they are eager to meet you.”

She suddenly felt shy and off-balance at the
prospect of meeting so many new people—people so close and dear to Daniel.

“What are they like?”

“In truth, I haven’t met Alwin and Jane yet, nor
have I been introduced to Jossalyn or Meredith. That’s why everyone is so keen
to come down despite this lingering winter weather,” he said smoothly. “It will
be the first time my family and I will all be together in more than a year.
It’s a chance for us to meet and celebrate all these Sinclair weddings.”

“And your uncle William and young Will?”

“Unfortunately, William is not well enough to
travel, and Will has his hands full with his new responsibilities.”

She nodded distractedly, her mind racing at the
thought of all the preparations that would be needed in the coming days.

“I’ll have Agnes make up my old chamber, along with
two others in the tower keep,” she said absently. “It will be tight, but I
think we’ll all fit.”

“And I’ll assemble a hunting party later today,” he
offered. “The castle stores are well-stocked, and with some fresh meat, we’ll
have more than enough for a proper wedding feast.”

She brought her attention from thoughts of preparation
back to him for a moment. “Is this why you’re training the men so hard? You
want to impress your family and show them how skilled Loch Doon’s men are?”

His face relaxed slightly, but she didn’t miss the
barest flicker in his eyes. “Aye, that’s it. As the youngest, I’ve always felt
I had something to prove, as I’m sure you understand.”

But that wasn’t it. Or at least it wasn’t all of it.
Uneasiness settled in her stomach, but she tried to mask her thoughts. What
else was he keeping from her?

“Very well,” she said levelly. “I’d best go see to
the preparations for our guests.”

He nodded, but his gaze searched her. She spun back
toward the great hall quickly, hoping not to give away her doubts under his
scrutiny.

As she slipped inside the doors to the great hall,
she heard him barking orders once again to his men. Though she walked calmly
across the hall in search of Agnes, her mind was in turmoil. Daniel wasn’t
telling her something. Though it made sense that his family would want to
gather for a wedding celebration, why would they come down during this hard,
lingering winter rather than wait for spring?

Suddenly she realized that in a matter of days,
she’d be meeting her new brothers and sisters by marriage. That thought sent
her careening into panic. Would Daniel’s brothers and cousin be just as
difficult and stubborn as he was? And what would the women be like? Would they
embrace her, or would they think her odd and unladylike, as she often felt in
the presence of other women?

Her mind swirled.

“Agnes!” she shouted up the spiraling stairs in
hopes that her maid would hear her. “We have much to do!”