Highlander's Seduction (The Matheson Brothers #3)

“I intend to, but only after I’ve adored the rest of you first.” Slowly, he trailed his lips down her neck and along the low-cut neckline of her gown. Her nipples beaded and poked the pale blue silk. Cupping her breasts through the cloth, he thumbed the rising peaks. She was so responsive, every inch of her his to treasure. “My woman, my mate. I intend to kiss you, to leave not even one inch of your body untouched, then I intend to make you mine.”


“Aye, please. I’ve waited over a thousand years for you. I almost cannae believe this moment is real, or that I might have allowed our bond to never be.” She palmed his face, brought his mouth back to hers and kissed him, until the taste of her swarmed his senses and he desired a whole lot more. He licked her tongue, the inside of her mouth and heat flared through him, from his fingertips to his toes. Keeping his passion in check with her right now would be a losing battle and it was just as well he didn’t have to. She’d agreed to their joining, desired it as much as he did.

More. He needed more. To feel her skin against his, her body wrapped around him, all skin on skin and nothing else. He tugged her bodice down, dipped his head and grazed his teeth over one nipple. Her full, warm breast taunted him to take more and he sucked the delectable bud deep inside his mouth and tickled the tip with his tongue.

“Oooh, that feels—oh, wait.” She moaned, her fingers digging into his shoulders as she latched on and shook him. “Amelia calls. The wind ripples with her need.”

“The wind what?” Desire hazed his mind.

“I must go.” She disappeared and he fell onto his face into the fur bedcovers.

“Cherub?” He shoved up and searched the room. She was gone, her scent barely lingering in the air. Well, that was fiercely frustrating. His bear rumbled his displeasure at the loss of his woman and his soul cried out for her return. This couldn’t happen again.



Cherub fixed her bodice as she shimmered through the air toward the village. Amelia had called out to her, displacing the very air itself in her desperate need to make contact. That need had penetrated the fog in her head, just.

The moment she’d whisked in over the village, she breezed down and slid underneath Amelia’s door, took her true form and uncloaked. “Amelia? ’Tis Cherub. I’m here.”

“Thank goodness.” Amelia hurried toward her from a side room, hands clasped in her deep green skirts. “I wasnae sure if you’d hear my summons considering your mate’s recent arrival.”

“You knew Kirk was here?”

“I was in the forest picking berries for a blackberry pie when I sensed the ripple in the air that signified your match had been made. It has been years since my skill has ever arisen in that way, but the thread linking your soul to his was so strong it near knocked me right off my feet.” She hustled toward the trunk sitting under the narrow window overlooking the central village fire pit where two ample-chested women stood in aproned skirts tending to two large fire-blackened pots. “I cannae believe you’re mated to a shifter, but so happy I am that you are.”

“Our bond took me quite by surprise, particularly since he first sensed me five years ago and I never did.” She squeezed her friend’s arm. “Your call was urgent. Tell me what you need.”

“Aye, I worry over Joseph.” She picked up a pair of lad’s breeches where they sat atop the chest and handed them to her. “He should have returned from collecting herbs near the burn more than two hours ago. Olaf has searched and cannae find him, and ’tis so unlike my son to wander off without a trace. I cannae help but worry since the MacKenzie’s recent attack was such a short time ago. Gilleoin has additional patrols in this area, and we’ve heard of Nessa’s vision, but I needed to ask you if your bear would be able to track him for me? Gilleoin and Kenneth both rode through here an hour ago toward the tip of the loch and willnae be back for some time, otherwise I’d ask them to shift and search for him.”

“Of course. I’ll ask Kirk to search for Joseph. We’ll do so immediately.” She clasped Joseph’s breeches to her chest. “Where did you see Joseph last?”

“He entered the forest a little farther along the cliff-top trail. I watched him from the shoreline while speaking to one of the other village lasses. Where the rock sits beside the tallest pine tree. That is the place where you need to begin. From there, head toward the burn deep in the forest.” Amelia clutched a hand to her heart, her short brown locks bobbing on her shoulders. “I have a terrible feeling that willnae leave me. ’Tis as if he is now far away. I should never have allowed my skill to decline so greatly. I can take on mist form, but only for a few seconds at a time.”

“I’ll find him and bring him home. Dinnae fear.” Her heart ached for her friend and her declining skill. Taking on mist form was essential for a time-walker if they wished to hold onto its restorative healing power. Immortal they were, but they could still suffer an injury and only their ability to move into mist allowed for that full healing. “You must strengthen your ability and I’ll aid you, until you can hold your mist form as you used to.”