Highlander's Kiss (Clan Matheson #1)

“There’s the encampment. We’ve made it just afore nightfall.” Julia pointed along the curve of the bay where tents dotted the edge of the forest running beside the mountainous border between them and their enemy.

As they passed the warrior on point watch, he sounded an alert, the horn trumpeting and sending word of their arrival to their clansmen up ahead. They rode on, past a large group of heavily armed warriors training right on the water’s edge. Shirtless, the men wielded swords in a fierce battle of strength against one another, while another thirty men swam toward a small island in the middle of the bay’s waterway, one that held a copse of trees and a wooden shack. As they swam back and reached the waist-depth water, they jogged into shore then swapped out with the battling warriors. They trained hard. Their enemy didn’t sit idle, and neither could they.

At the forest’s edge, another group of warriors aimed their arrows at a white ribbon tied around a wide trunk a hundred feet distant. Each warrior stepped forward to take his turn with the bow. With impressive accuracy, arrow after arrow thunked into the thin strip of silk.

“I’ll go and join the training men before the evening meal. Catch you two later.” Tor nudged his destrier past them then galloped toward a makeshift corral of beams hammered between the trees.

Near the central blazing fire pit, two apron-clad women wearing brown woolen kirtles chopped vegetables and meat on a trestle table and tossed the food into two large blackened pots bubbling on the fire. The heavenly scent of seafood stew wafted around him as he pulled his horse to a halt next to Kirk and Cherub who’d dismounted and spoke to one of Gilleoin’s captains.

“Mmm, that smells delicious.” Julia rubbed her belly. “The dinner hour nears and I’m famished.”

“Wait there so I can aid you down.” He jumped from his horse, swung Julia from her mount and set her on her feet beside him. Holding her close, he stroked up and down her arms and reveled in being able to touch her so freely once more. “How are your legs?”

“My legs are fine since I ride often, and adore it.” She untied her brimmed hat and swished it back and forth with two fingers at her side. “Although I would like to freshen up.”

The wind lifted her golden locks and unable to help himself, he threaded his fingers through the long strands and breathed her white rose scent in. “Even though there are so many warriors swarming this area, you’re not to wander off on your own.”

“I am never alone, not now we have our merged link and you can reach me as you please.”

“Julia.” Cherub waved out. “Come and join me in the ladies’ tent.”

“Coming.” She reached up on her toes and kissed his cheek, her chest brushing his as she did. “I shall see you soon.”

“You will.” He grasped her bottom, his hands getting lost within the mountainous folds of her skirts as he kept her close. “I wish for a proper kiss before any parting.”

“That was proper.”

“Then I wish for an indecent one.” A peck on the cheek would never do.

“I think not.” Giggling, she slipped out of his arms and dashed across to Cherub.

“By the way,” he called out, “where you sleep, is where I sleep.”

“I would never expect aught less.” She smiled at him over her shoulder as she cut a path along the grassy forest verge toward the far tent, her beautiful blue eyes drawing him right inside her. Hell, he’d love to be able to take her away from here, to spend days upon days with her, just the two of them and preferably with no interruptions from the outside world. He missed their cavern.

Sighing, he scanned the area. Guardsmen patrolled the entire encampment. His mate would be perfectly safe here, even if not in his direct line of sight. It was time to find her parents—who damn well better be alive—and kick some enemy butt along the way.

Bringing Aleck and Adair home was the one plan he intended to see come to fruition. The sooner, the better.





Chapter 9


Julia heaved the thick tent flap to one side and ducked inside after Cherub. Being separated from Tavish, no matter the short distance between them, sent unease churning through her. She crossed to the center pole, hung her hat on a hook then shrugged off her riding jacket and strung it over the top. “’Tis no’ easy being separated.”

“Give yourself a few minutes to get used to it. You’ve just completed the bond too which will make any separation particularly difficult.” Cherub wandered toward the corner pile of brown fur pelts, tossed her feathered bonnet onto a wooden crate holding a clay lamp next to it then plopped down on the furs. “Reach out to him along your link as you need to. I can assure you that he too shall be feeling the loss as you are.”

“I miss you,” she whispered to the man who she couldn’t imagine living without.