Makenna was sharing a piece of herself she had shared with no man. Colin felt both satisfaction and fulfillment, knowing he was the first to discover the passions that lay beneath her prickly demeanor. It would be worth enduring a hundred verbal wars with her to experience this again.
Makenna moved closer, clinging to him as if her body knew there was more. Colin’s heart was pounding so fast he thought it would explode. Every caress, every response she gave him was genuine, unrehearsed, unforced. She wanted him; he wanted her. Badly. So much that if he did not stop now, he wouldn’t be able to.
When he finally forced his lips to release hers, his chest was heaving with the effort it took to breathe. He gathered her close against him and thrust his fingers through her thick damp hair.
A deep sigh escaped her slightly swollen lips. She could feel his dark body hair beneath her cheek in the opening of his leine and decided she never wanted to move. He smelled so good, and it felt strangely right to be this close to him. Tomorrow she would wonder why she had been drawn to his embrace, and if she had only imagined the powerful emotions hidden beneath Colin’s cool exterior. But for right now, she just wanted to relish his strength and control and the intoxicating effect of his kisses.
Colin held her for several minutes waiting for his body to calm. Instead, every muscle remained alive with need. She had to leave and quickly, before he lost the control he took such pride in having. “Be at the chapel an hour before the sun sets. Tomorrow we will be wed,” he ordered gruffly, moving her away from him.
Colin quickly turned around lest she see his burgeoning manhood. Cold water was his only hope in dampening the fires she had ignited with her honest response to his embrace. Even with his back to her, he could still see the memory of her naked flesh as she emerged dripping with lucky droplets of water that touched every morsel of her body.
He dove into the cold waters thankful for their magical cure, but he knew it was only temporary. Later, as he sought sleep, he would remember her taste on his tongue—hot, wet, and sweet. Thank God, he only had to wait one night. Makenna would be his wife on the morrow and as soon as possible afterward, he was going to make love to her until all the needs pulsing through him were satisfied.
Makenna stood puzzled and hurt, staring at his retreating back for several minutes. After all his talk about running around unescorted, the man was actually going to leave her to ride back to Lochlen alone while he took a swim. The kiss was just a way for him to manipulate her into abiding his will.
She found her brown chestnut tied beside his large black mount and jumped on its back. She looked at the vacant spot from which Colin disappeared and uttered aloud, “You may be able to kiss, Colin McTiernay, but you’re still an overgrown giant. And you may be getting a wife tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean I will suddenly submit to you or your archaic rules. I will ride, and I will hunt, and I will keep training with a sword. And you can find someone else to run your keep and warm your bed.”
Makenna turned her horse and began riding hard back to the noise and firelight of Lochlen. Tears flowed down her cheeks. “What were you thinking, Deirdre?”
Chapter Two
Makenna felt like her mind had temporarily dislodged from her body. From the moment she had woken up, the noise in her chambers had only grown in volume. Her sisters, Rona and Ula, had ordered everyone to report to them, and they had claimed the bride’s room as their base of operations. Nonstop orders were issued to a constant stream of people shuffling in and out of her room. After years of watching her sisters orchestrate every clan event whether large or small, Makenna knew the role she was expected to play—silent and unseen. It seemed her wedding day was to be no different.
“There,” Rona announced with a dramatic sigh, rising to close the door. “I believe everyone is ready but you, Makenna. I am not sure how you would have managed if Ula and I had not been so willing to sacrifice our time away from our own homes.”
With her tall, elegant frame and enviable blond hair, Rona epitomized the Dunstan daughters and she had never let Makenna forget how incredibly different she was from the rest of them.
Makenna glanced at her sister before turning away to roll her eyes. “It’s the least you could do after barging into my room,” Makenna mumbled to herself. “The sun had barely risen before I had to deal with you and Ula’s never-ending chatter about every little thing from my hair to my dress.”
Makenna knew she should have expected her sisters’ early morning greeting. In an effort to gain their father’s favor—and some of his riches—Ula and Rona had arrived at Lochlen over a month ago to ensure that the wedding went off as planned. Brimming with never-ending criticism about the feast, the ceremony, her dress, and even the priest presiding over the nuptials, they had been nearly intolerable. Throughout it all, Makenna had remained firm. There was going to be no wedding, so it was not necessary for anyone to make plans.
Until last night.
As usual during warm summer days, Makenna had opened the window’s shutters and let in the cool night breeze. Normally, such conditions lulled her quickly to sleep, but after Colin’s unexpected kiss and her bewildering response, rest had eluded her. Every sound, every whisper seemed to float up and into her room. She had not realized she had been waiting for Colin until she heard the fateful signs of his return.
The soldiers were just beginning to leave the lower hall for their beds when she heard the fleeing of clansmen feet outside her window. She sat up and listened intently for Colin’s footsteps to follow. She could hear nothing. The man walked with a purpose and with complete control. He probably hadn’t even shuffled his feet as a child.
Snuggling back under the covers, Makenna heard a jubilant roar coming from the lower hall. Colin had announced his decision.
“Those tolla-thons think it’s all him. Well, somebody should thank me as well. It’s not just their commander sacrificing himself for them. I believe I, too, will be at that altar pledging my life away,” she muttered out loud, ripping the light woolen throw off her legs.
Makenna grabbed the Dunstan plaid off the bed and wrapped it around her. The bold red material with bright stripes of yellow, green, and blue clashed terribly with her dark red hair, but it represented all that she loved.
She tiptoed to the heavy wooden door and lifted the latch quietly in case a servant was sleeping outside her door. It was unlikely. She hadn’t had help for months. One day the girl had simply vanished. Left to fend for herself, Makenna soon discovered how much the chambermaids had assisted her with everyday things. Pride kept her from asking the old steward why they had suddenly left. No doubt he would just point a long, crooked finger directly back at her. The man was an expert at assigning responsibility, accountability, and then blame, but he never managed a word of encouragement.
Makenna crept down the hallway to the tower stairwell illuminated with torches at each floor. Her sisters were just below, but she did not intend to sneak past their chambers. She was going up.
Since Forfar Tower’s erection, the laird’s sons and daughters resided in its walls. Its counterpart, Canmore, housed the laird’s solar and his connecting dayroom. Standing on either end of the fortified gatehouse, the towers secured the interior castle ward. Makenna’s great-grandfather decided Lochlen’s inner yard was not large enough to handle the clan’s growing numbers and had ordered a second curtain wall to be built. The resulting enormous outer gatehouse towers provided the sleeping accommodations for most of the soldiers when assigned to Lochlen. This left the upper floors of the inner gatehouse for visitors and other people of importance, and the lower floors for storage, guards, and machinery to operate the portcullis.