Highlander's Seduction (The Matheson Brothers #3)

“As well as can be. Gilleoin still has warriors patrolling the village and the coastline, and now an additional team have also been dispatched to the inn and will remain on alert there. If Colin MacKenzie makes a move, this time we’ll surely see it.” He closed the door, slid the bolt across and set his belongings on top of the wooden trunk near her window. With one brow lifted, he asked, “Have you had a chance to eat?”


“Aye, with Amelia and Olaf afore they tucked Joseph into bed. Nessa joined us. They’ll remain here until the threat against them no longer remains.” She plucked at the sheet draped over her lap. “Amelia asked me again if I can aid her in her retraining and I’ve given her my word I’ll do so just as soon as possible. She must restore her skill, and to its strongest once more.”

“That’s great news.” He knelt at the hearth, his white tunic stretched taut over his broad shoulders as he bent to the task of lighting the fire. Quickly and surely, he pulled stringy bark off a log, struck flint with his dirk then coaxed the sparks to life. He built a roaring fire with twigs and wood from the basket until the flames licked up the flue. Slowly, he rose, drew his shirt over his head and crossed to the side table. He unbelted his sword and weapons, propped them against the wall then poured water from the jug into the basin. Cloth dipped, he wiped his arms and chest, his golden skin gleaming in the firelight. His muscles bunched and moved as he bathed, every inch of his hard body making her fingers itch to touch him.

Heat flooded her below and she licked her lips, wishing she could lick him instead. “You are too far away.”

“So are you.” He dried himself, unlaced his boots then prowled toward her barefoot, his rawhide pants riding low on his trim hips. “Are you tired?”

“No’ since the moment you walked in my door.” She tugged the covers back on her side and wriggled over to make more room for him.

His golden gaze, so hungry and needy, devoured hers as he slid in beside her. “I’m a little worried you’ll suddenly disappear again.”

“I shall try to give you more warning the next time.” On her side, she cupped his cheek and blew out a long breath. As much as she wished to complete the bond with him, one last glaring issue remained between them. “Kirk, I…” How did she word this?

“What’s worrying you?”

“There is something we must discuss.” She brushed her fingers back and forth over his stubbly jaw. “There is pain in living an endless life, and you’re so very close to your brothers. Should we move forward with this bond, then you’ll need to accept that one day they will age and pass away and you willnae.”

“That thought crossed my mind, right after you told me Amelia spoke a spell to bind a piece of Olaf’s soul to hers, that he too had now become an immortal as she was.”

“Aye, they will walk the same path for the rest of their lives, together as one.”

Looking into her eyes, he lifted a lock of her hair and twined it around his finger. “Which means I’ll always be here on this Earth for my brothers, their children and their grandchildren and so on. That’s a gift of reassurance I can give them, for all of us to treasure. As for the pain, I know the good times to come will far outweigh the bad and since we’ll be able to travel through time, whenever I truly have a desperate need to be with them again, then it’ll be possible to return to them. Won’t it?”

“Aye, should you ever wish to see them, I will gladly take you to the time you need to travel to. I do so for myself with my own kin, so I need no’ suffer too greatly either.”

“See, then I’ll never truly lose them and that in itself is yet another gift.” He touched his heart. “So too, my brothers will always reside right here, where all my kin do, no matter where I am.”

“As my kin do as well.” Her heart lightened, the final fear which had been niggling at her winging away.

“There isn’t anything we can’t tackle, provided we do so together.” He set one hand on her outer thigh, his warm palm like a brand against her skin. “We will always be one.”

“All I want is to be yours, in every way.” She spoke the words directly from her heart.

“As I wish to be yours.” He eased her shift up until he’d exposed her entire leg then gently, he caressed her flesh, right over her thigh and around to her bottom. “Your skin is so soft, so dazzlingly bright even in the moonlight.”

“If you find it too much of a distraction, I can cloak myself.”