Page 42 of Highlander’s Bride

“Tell me what ye want, lass,” he murmured.

“You…” A moan came. “Inside…”

He chuckled against her folds and gave a lick. “Say please, lass.”

Her only reply was a moan as he added more pressure.

“Say please.”

“Ahhh…”

An urgent pounding sounded against the door. Damn it! She was so close, he could feel her flesh tight and hot and ready.

“Go away!” he yelled.

But the pounding resumed. “’Tis Iòna, Lord! I am back.”

Somewhere at the edge of his consciousness, he remembered that he had sent Iòna for Seoc. He straightened his back, trying to focus and ignore the hot need of arousal in his body.

Iòna’s voice came again. “I have the lad, Lord. He’s here.”

Chapter 20

Illuminated by the flames from the fireplace in the great hall, Seoc devoured chunk after chunk of bread, almost without swallowing, eyebrows drawn together in a perfect, somber line. He’d grown up so much in the past four years that Raghnall might not have recognized him if he’d met the lad somewhere on the street. He wasn’t tall, though, and looked malnourished—the bones of his skull protruded through the thin muscles of his face, and dark circles shadowed his golden-amber eyes.

There was so much of his mother in the lad. Mòrag had been a fierce woman, a woman who had been protecting herself and her son for years before Raghnall had appeared. And this lad, no doubt, had her determination and her bravery.

Raghnall swallowed what felt like a rock with sharp edges as he chased away the dark melancholy that bit him in the middle of his chest. “Ye grew up,” he said into his cup of uisge and threw the fiery liquid into his throat.

The lad didn’t even look at him, the loud chewing, almost slurping sounds the only response.

“He…” Iòna cleared his throat. “He didna want to come.”

Aye, why would he? The lad knew even better than Raghnall who was responsible for his mother’s death. But the lad didn’t know what was best for him. Raghnall was the only one left to take care of him. Had he not been too late and had married Mòrag, he’d have been the lad’s stepfather by now, responsible for his life and well-being.

“Ye take me away from my aunt and uncle,” Seoc grumbled and spat out a small bone onto the floor. “Ye send a man I’ve never seen in my life…”

“I sent ye yer mother’s engagement ring,” Raghnall said, staring at the piece of bone on the floor like it was the piece of his own heart.

“Aye, but the day she died taught me nae to trust anyone,” said Seoc and locked his eyes with Raghnall for the first time.

A chill ran down Raghnall’s spine as he realized how much older the lad seemed for his ten years of age. He didn’t have the eyes of a child whose only concerns were to run around and play with sticks and stones.

This boy had to grow up earlier than he should have—all because of Raghnall.

“Aye, rightly so,” said Raghnall, his voice cracking. “But now ye’re with yer clan.” He paused, letting the contractions in his throat pass, then added at the edge of his breath, “With me.”

God, Angus was right—the responsibility, the weight of taking care of someone besides himself was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. He felt his fingers tighten around the smooth surface of the bone cup. “And I will take care of ye.”

For better or for worse, he now had a wife with death sitting on her shoulder and a young lad who looked more like a barely domesticated wolf cub than a human.

And, somehow, the cub wasn’t impressed at the opportunity to be Raghnall’s responsibility at all… Mary and Joseph, help him.

“Well, hey there!” Bryanna’s voice even sounded like sunlight, illuminating the great hall with the energy and warmth of summer. “You look hungry.” She entered, almost flying like a faerie, looking weightless.

She sat at the bench between Raghnall and the lad, who watched her with wide, careful eyes. Raghnall noticed that the lad trusted her more than him, even though he was seeing her for the first time.

Earlier, when they had been so abruptly interrupted by Iòna, Raghnall had barked out that his son had arrived and left, ignoring her open-mouthed surprise. Shocked to hear Seoc and Iòna had returned so soon and worried about the lad, he had never even given her a kiss or said how much he regretted the interruption, how he didn’t want to leave her and would rather stay and finish what they had started.