Page 79 of Hard-Hearted Highlander
“What?” She shifted her gaze from the furnishings to him. “No, no harm,” she said. “I’m fine.”
Except that she didn’t look fine. She looked as stunned as she’d appeared last night.
He tossed his cloak onto a chair. “And Avaline? How does she fare?”
Bernadette winced and shook her head. “It’s chaos at Killeaven. His lordship has gone to call on a man he calls Buchanan, and has inquired after a caretaker for the property. He and Lord Ramsey mean to take their leave straightaway, as soon as they find passage. He’s so angry, Rabbie.”
“What of Avaline and her mother?”
She shook her head. “He refuses to accompany them back to England. He swears he can’t bear the sight of them and has told them they might rot at Killeaven for all he cares. They are, of course, frantic, as they have no idea how they will return to England and are frightened of staying on without the least bit of protection.”
Rabbie could well imagine how intimidating the prospect would seem to the two Kent women, particularly with no friendly faces around them. Neither of them possessed the fortitude necessary to live in the Highlands. “Aulay will see them to England,” he said.
Bernadette’s bonny eyes rounded. “Aulay!”
“Aye, Aulay. He intends to sail in two days as it is, returning my brother and his family to England. Cailean and Daisy will see Lady Kent and Avaline safely home.”
“He would be so kind after all that has happened?” Bernadette said. “Whatdidhappen, Rabbie? Avaline wouldn’t speak of it. She’s scarcely stopped weeping since last night.”
“I donna know, really,” Rabbie said. “Aulay said she had a fanciful notion that he esteemed her.”
“Foolish,foolishgirl!” Bernadette said, and fisted her hands, knocking them against her legs in frustration. “Now what will become of her? I tried to warn her, I begged her to cry off—”
“It’s my fault,” Rabbie said brusquely. “I wouldna give her the attention as I ought to have done. But I’d no’ fret over her future, were I you. I rather suspect she’ll have more Scottish suitors. Killeaven is valuable property.”
“No,” Bernadette said. “They’re all going home and they won’t come back, I swear it. Avaline is too humiliated.” She ran her hand over her head, resting it on the crown a moment, then dropped it. She looked as if her thoughts had taken her out of this room.
“And what of you, Bernadette?” he asked quietly. “What will become of you?”
She jerked her gaze to him when he asked, and a shot of uneasiness sluiced through Rabbie. “I’m to stay behind until a caretaker can be arranged and installed.”
That sliver of uneasiness began to rush like a river. “And then what?” he asked, his voice damnably weak.
“I suppose I am to return to my parents in Highfield.”
He shifted closer to her. “I wouldna like to see you go,” he said. “God has shined His light upon me and I donna want to lose you.” He reached for her, drawing her into his arms. “Icannalose you, Bernadette,” he said, and lowered his head to kiss her. The moment their lips touched, a violent turmoil of desire rose up in him so strong that it felt as if he might disintegrate with it. His arms slid around her back and he held her tightly to him. The kiss was urgent, and Bernadette clung to his neck, almost as if she feared he would step away if she let go.
There was no inhibition between them now—their want had been laid bare. Rabbie would not have believed it possible to feel this way again, but this desire for her pulsed in him like a living, breathing thing.
He lifted his head, impulsively kissed the palm of her hand that she’d pressed against his face, then roughly took her head in his hands and gazed at her. “Where did you come from? How did you appear on my cliff?” It was a rhetorical question, but it mystified him how this woman, thisSassenach,might have presented herself when he needed her most. He grabbed her up, lifted her off her feet and kissed her, then walked with her to the settee, falling onto it with her. He pressed his lips against her cheek, her eyes, and her mouth again. “I’ve fought my desire for you, I have, but I’m powerless against it.”
“As am I,” she admitted, and dipped her tongue into his mouth, and sent a wave of prurience crashing through him, pushing him into the deep of absolute desire.
He shifted onto his back, pulling Bernadette on top of him, his hands on her body, his lips on her mouth, on her face, her ears and neck. He was intoxicated with her soft lips, the weight of her breasts, the curve of her hip. The bedlam of the last twenty-four hours fell away—Rabbie was only aware of Bernadette, of her scent, of the feel of her hair beneath his fingers, of the smoothness of her skin.
He had to have her out of the gown. He rose up, his fingers working on the fasteners of her gown, then the stomacher, until he could reach the strings of the stay.
As he worked to disrobe her, she fumbled with his neck cloth, pulling it free, and undid the buttons of his waistcoat. In a flurry of movements, his chest was bared to her, and her breasts to him. He took them in his hands, and Bernadette gasped softly, then dropped her head back with a sigh of longing.
This beautiful woman before him who longed to be touched was an elixir to Rabbie. She was a salve to his mortally wounded soul and he couldn’t imagine anyone else, not even Seona, being the person he needed at this moment in his life. Only her.
He twisted again, this time standing up with her. With her gown dragging behind her, he began to move her across the salon and down the corridor to his room. He put her on her back on his bed and crawled over her, taking her breast in his mouth.
Purely male instinct was guiding him now, his hands and his body moving without his conscious thought, his body striving to feel every bit of her, his desire to give her pleasure overwhelming him.
She was growing impatient—she undid the buttons of his pantaloons, pushing them down his hips, then taking him in hand, stroking him. Any splinters of reason that had remained in his thoughts tumbled away. He pushed up, bracing himself above her with his arms, and stared down at her.Diah,but she was arresting in her beauty. Had she been so beautiful the first moment he’d laid eyes on her? Because there was no woman on earth who could possibly compare to her now. He couldn’t look away from her body, ferociously aroused by her stark femininity.
She watched him take her in, her expression full of tenderness and another emotion that shone bright. That emotion felt like love. Rabbie couldfeelher loving him, and the crack in the shell around his heart widened.
