IntoEternity (8 page)

“Oh, how lovely it is, Alexander,” Gusty gasped at the grand
sight of the Sutherland keep.

“I am pleased you find my holding acceptable,” he teased as
he reined his mount and let her take a good look.

She swatted his shoulder. “Stop it. I mean it. This is
magnificent.”

In the bright moonlight the fortress stood majestic above a
farmstead that sprawled over the top of a long hillside surrounded by a vast
meadowland. She shifted in his arms to get a better look as they carefully made
their way over the narrow road that wound between large boulders and patches of
dark shrubbery. The keep sat high above a walled bailey and the moonlight
reflected silver off the waters of the moat, which encircled the outer wall.

As they approached the main gate Alexander called out to the
gatekeeper to open for them. Once inside they rode across a large yard of sorts
and stopped outside the stable, where a young boy came running forward to take
charge of Caesar. Alexander helped her down from his mount and Gusty turned to
look unabashedly around the inner bailey and up at the ancient keep above,
which was lit by torches and the moonlight. Before she could object to his high-handedness,
he grabbed her hand and pulled her along after him up the numerous steps.

After only a few steps, she started to tire. The stairs to
the keep were steep and Alexander took them at a brutal pace. She pulled back,
digging in her heals in an attempt to slow their pace so she might catch her
breath. He tugged on her hand but she refused to take another step.

“What is it?” Alexander finally asked her.

“If you think I’m climbing all those stairs without stopping
to catch my breath, then you can think again, Sutherland,” she stated between
gulps of air.

He made a noise in the back of his throat but instead of
arguing with her, he hoisted her up over his shoulder and she had to endure the
rest of the climb upside down.

“You’re a real gentleman, you know that.”

She grumbled under her breath but the tightening of his arm
across her legs indicated he had indeed heard her mumbling. Great, he had
excellent hearing as well as being as strong as Hercules! Luck was on her side
though, since there was no one around to witness her humiliating position as
they crossed the deserted great hall and climbed another flight of stairs. They
made a few turns and traveled down several torch-lit corridors before he
stopped at one of the doors and pushed it open.

The chamber he carried her into was warm and comfortably
appointed with a huge canopy bed against one wall and tall, drape-covered
windows and a large desk against another. A blazing fire in a great stone
hearth, which covered one whole wall, provided the only illumination. Apparently
someone had just built up the fire before she and Alexander arrived, an
indication they were expected. The warmth of the room felt wonderful and she
suddenly realized just how cold she was.

Alexander walked over to the bed and set her in the center
of it. He followed her down, crushing her beneath his large body. For a brief
moment, she wondered if he might make love to her again but he merely cupped
her face gently between his hands and touched her lips with his, tasting her
lightly before he rolled off her onto his back, giving her space. The only
intimacy he dared was to take her right hand in his left and squeeze it
slightly. With his other hand he pulled the bed covers up over them for warmth.

“Sleep, Augusta. You are too tender and sore for anything
more.” He closed his eyes with a deep sigh of what sounded suspiciously like
contentment.

Gusty was too restless to sleep. Her mind whirled with
everything that had happened to land her in the bed of a virtual stranger. She
lay next to him, wide awake for what seemed like hours, unable to sleep, moving
restlessly on the bed. It was not by accident that her elbow found his side or
ribs several times as he snored the night away.
How
can the man sleep
so peacefully?

* * * * *

Gusty lay awake in the semi-darkness unable to sleep. The mattress
beneath her crackled as she shifted her legs to ease her stiff muscles. She
attempted to raise her right hand to brush the hair from her brow to get a
better look at the room, forgetting for a moment that her wrist was bound at
her side. She lifted her left hand and found it free. Pushing the mass of hair
from her eyes, she turned her head and found her nose pressed into a hard, hair-covered
chest that smelled very masculine. A hand found her shoulder and patted it.

“Sleep,” he mumbled.

Sleep he says!
He’s the cause of this fiasco!
She turned over and rolled as far away as their tied wrists would allow. Memory
of the long evening and night she had spent in his company came flooding back
and uneasiness besieged her. The fact she couldn’t move her right arm attested
to the fact she was now at the mercy of this large barbarian who lay next to
her sound asleep. She closed her eyes and tried to swallow the lump of
apprehension that filled her throat, making it hard to breathe. This had to be
part of one of her nightmares and when she finally woke up she would find
herself home in her own bed, with Michael pounding at the front door, reminding
her of an appointment she had forgotten.

“This is just a bad dream. It will all go away when I wake
up,” she whispered.

But she opened her eyes and found nothing had changed. The
large barbarian still lay beside her, snoring lightly, and judging by the smile
on his lips he
was
wrapped in a dream. A very good one…

No getting around the facts—everything she had experienced
in the last six months was real. The gorgeous giant in bed with her was real
enough, if her sense of smell was anything to go by, and she was bound to him.
After the Sutherland had seized her on his beach and tied her wrist to his with
a piece of cloth, she had not known what to expect from him. But what had
happened next was not even close to what she had anticipated. By Scottish
tradition she found herself handfasted to the Sutherland. She had been tricked.

“Well we will see how long this lasts. I might have been
born in this century but I am a modern girl. I have some brains. I’ll think of
something to get me out of this mess.”

* * * * *

Literally pulled from the warmth of her peaceful slumbers,
Gusty found herself tumbling through space to land with a painful
thunk
.

“Ooooh! Ooooh for God’s sake!”

She blinked up at the giant Scotsman who stared down at her,
slack-jawed, as if he had no idea how she had gotten onto the floor. The very
cold floor, which felt like ice against her bare bottom. She sat there stark
naked in the bright light of morning, no doubt giving him an eyeful. Gusty
reached behind her and pulled the plaid she had been wrapped in all night from
the bed and covered herself.

“Will you be more careful? I will have a bruise to show for
that spill.”

He gave her a hand up from the floor and as she gained her
feet, she barely suppressed a moan. Her hand went to the offended muscles of
her derriere and before Gusty stopped to think about what she was doing, she
let go of the plaid and it dropped away from her breasts. At the sharp gasp
from Alexander, she fumbled frantically to retrieve it. But before she could
rearrange the cover to her satisfaction his hand brushed her bare bottom. She
gave a surprised squeak and pushed him away.

“Stop it! Untie me this instant! We can’t go around like
this.”

“No.”

He didn’t mince words. Before she could argue further he
pulled her against his chest, pressed his mouth to hers and while she was
distracted, he ran his hands down over her bottom and kneaded her bruised
buttocks suggestively.

“You are bound to me until I say otherwise,” he murmured
against her lips.

He lifted her until the junction of her thighs molded over
his arousal. He shifted his hips against hers and pressed her tighter. She
opened her mouth to object to the liberties he took and he filled her mouth
with his tongue. He kissed her long and deep until she clutched frantically at
his shoulders, pulling him close as she moaned with need. He raised his head,
effectively putting an end to the kiss, and gave her a smug smile.

“I think you had better arrange that plaid a little better,
my selkie. I would not take kindly to my men viewing your lovely body. I am the
only man to have that honor.”

By the time he finished speaking, Gusty’s cheeks blazed. His
kisses had rendered her mindless and speechless. And until he mentioned it she
had forgotten she was nude. Annoyed at his self-satisfied expression, she drew
back her fist and slugged him in his belly. He did little more than grunt and
then the bastard had the nerve to grin at her pitiful attempt at revenge, while
she howled in pain, cradling her hand against her bare breasts.

“You damn barbarian! You threw my dress away last night. What
do expect me to wear now?” His lack of consideration for her modesty infuriated
her but mostly she was angry because he had ended their kiss so abruptly,
leaving her wanting more.

“You are mine, Augusta. Your gown was part of your past—you
left it behind when we were handfasted. Now you belong to me. It is my duty to
protect you. As my wife, you are my responsibility. No other man has the right
to provide for you—not your grandfather, not your father. I will provide for
you what you need. It is my right.”

He wore a bland expression but his eyes were dark with
suppressed passion. He was not as unaffected as he would like her to believe. He
smiled at her—lustful and needy-- causing her breath to stall in her throat.
She tried to take a step back but she was anchored to him. She raised her
unfettered hand in a signal for him to stop.

“You stay away from me! You…you—”

His head swooped down and he kissed her hard, ravaging her
mouth with his lips, his tongue and his teeth. The kiss went on and on until
Gusty clung to him for support. She had two fistfuls of his long hair, tugging
him closer, hanging on for dear life. When he finally ended the kiss, it took a
moment or two for her to realize how badly her body had betrayed her. She was
supposed to be resisting this man’s charms. She was supposed to be giving him
the cold shoulder, not falling all over him every time he kissed her. She was
so mortified by her lack of control she groaned.

“Gusty? What is it? Are you ill?”

The worry in his voice killed the scathing retort she was
about to deliver and instead she replied, “No, I’m not ill. But I need a few
moments of privacy, if you don’t mind.”

A sudden urge had made itself known to her in a very
pressing manner. Her bladder was as full as it had ever been and if she did not
empty it soon, she was going to embarrass herself. Using the privy would also
give her an excuse to put some distance between her and her Highlander.

Her
Highlander?
When had she started thinking
of him in those terms?

Gusty refused to meet his eyes as she struggled to come up
with a way to state her need. Her cheeks heated. First she made a fool of
herself by responding so passionately to him and now she’d have to humiliate herself
by asking to use the toilet or whatever the hell they called it in this
century. How could something so natural be so embarrassing? She had to get away
from him.

“I must… I have to… Damn it, where is the bathroom?”

At the questioning look on his face she realized he had no
idea what she wanted.

“I need to…relieve myself. Do you have chamber pots around
here or what?” She glanced around the room but did not see anything that
resembled what she needed. There was no privacy screen or blocked-off alcove.
If she did not find a bathroom soon, she would embarrass herself by piddling on
the floor.

“Where do you…relieve yourself, I mean…you know…pee?” Her
face could not have gotten any hotter. Before she could say another word he had
the door open and they were on their way down the hall, him stark naked and her
covered by a thin blanket. She tried to slow him down but he was undeterred.

“I guess this means you have no intention of untying me?
Will you be joining me? Do you have his and hers accommodations? Or are you
just too pigheaded to listen to reason?”

“You talk too much, Augusta.”

He sounded gruff. With his back turned toward her she could
not tell if he was smiling but she suspected he was.

Still confused by the emotions that flooded her when he
kissed her, she fell silent. His kisses were amazing, to say the least. When
his lips met hers, her mind went blank. He could have ravished her on the spot
and she would not have tried to stop him. She shivered at the memory of the way
they came together on the seashore. She breathed out on a long sigh. Her life
in the Middle Ages had just taken on a whole new aspect.

Gusty shook her head in resignation and tried to concentrate
on her surroundings as he led her down the hallway. The servants they passed
stopped in the middle of whatever they were doing and stared. Was it the sight
of their unclothed master or the half-naked, wild-haired woman he towed behind
him? Perhaps the barbarian didn’t make a habit of bringing strange women into
his home. The thought warmed her, which only increased her frustration and
anger. Why should she care what this man did? The pressure on her bladder had
increased to the point she thought she might burst but her irritation
outweighed all. She tried to hold her tongue. She really did. But the pressing
need to gain some control over her situation had her pulling back and dragging
her feet.

“Where are we going?”

He stopped suddenly and she ran right into his back. A
grumbling noise came from deep within his throat and escaped on a muffled
curse.