Just Wait For Me (Highland Gardens Book 3) by Dawn Marie Hamilton Page B

brushed the flesh
of her thighs with eager fingers.
    “Stephen, please!” she begged.
    “Easy, sweetling. I will provide what you seek.” Honor
blurring, he was more than ready to stake his claim.
    Cold air swirled over his bare backside, stopping him
mid-motion. Jillian halted, too. Munn whirled into the chamber, landing on the
floor beside the pallet with a smack.
    Stephen rolled off Jillian covering them with a plaide at the same time. He didn’t ken whether to thank Munn or curse the wee man his
timing.
    “Urgh!” Jillian growled, breathing heavy. “Where did he come
from?”
    “Shhh,” Stephen whispered into her ear.
    She, once again, lay on her side with her back to his front.
He rubbed a hand in a circle over her shoulder blades, hoping to ease her ire.
    “Where have you been?” he demanded of Munn.
    “Searching the wood for the lass.”
    “The lost bairns brought her here.”
    Munn’s snarl would make Stephen laugh if he wasn’t sporting
a rock hard erection with no relief forthcoming. ’Twas for the best. He
shouldn’t have carnal relations with Jillian. She didn’t deserve to be so
dishonored.
    An image haunted him of waking in Calyn’s bed, both of them
naked, and not kenning how he’d gotten there. Her father and brother glowering
from the bedchamber doorway, swords raised in menace. Tears and claims he’d
stolen her maidenhead. Hours spent in Allain of Dunadd’s study, trying to talk
everyone down, only to give in to her father’s demands. Then the rushed
handfasting.
    He’d never shown interest in Calyn, nor she in him. How had
he ended up in her bed two nights before he was to leave for war? And
worse—handfasted to the wench the next day.
    She’d claimed he’d bullied his way into her bedchamber and
pressed her to submit. He’d never in his life taken an unwilling maiden. His
honor would never allow such. What had really happened that night?
    There were no bruises on her pale skin. Not that he would
ever harm a woman. No sign of forced entry to the chamber. No proof to support
her claim other than the fact he woke naked with her in the same bed.
    Would he ever learn the truth?
    She’d been more than happy to make the handfasting pledge.
Did Calyn carry his bairn ? The thought deflated his cock like naught
else could. They’d not been together since. If no bairn was conceived on
that one night, the handfasting would end in a year and a day.
    It would be too late to pledge his love to Jillian, she’d
already have returned to the future, but at least he would be free of Calyn.
And, perhaps, he could try yet again to pass through the faerie knoll to
Jillian’s future.
    “Stephen?” Her hand softly brushing his cheek startled him
out of the grim reverie.
    “Aye?”
    “Munn has gone. We can…”
    Stephen grabbed his crutch and hauled himself up. “I need to
soak my leg.”
    He wasn’t worthy of Jillian’s touch. ’Twas wrong to dally
with her. He would see her safely to the Sithichean Sluaigh and naught
more. Then return to Dunadd and make inquiries about the events of that
ill-fated night.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Stephen leaned back against a smooth section of stone
wishing to soak away the chaos in his mind. The warm water and gentle mist did
little to ease his troubled heart. Jillian lured him like moth to flame. When
she kissed him—
    Deep grumbling heralded Munn’s entrance into the waterfall
chamber. “Ach, the stench of the lost bairns lingers. So they guided the
lass here? Dinnae trust them.”
    “Aye, they ran off with her belongings. Things that will
cause trouble if discovered by the wrong someone, if you ken my meaning.”
    “Nary a soul will find the things. The bairns hide
their horde well. In a hollow tree surrounded by a dense thicket. Concealed by
fae magic.”
    “Munn, you ken the bairns are not truly changelings.
They possess nae magic.”
    “Each are gifted. Protected by the fae.”
    Stephen sighed. “There are other problems. I dinnae wish to
stay