Page 38 of Highlander’s Beautiful Liar

Then he slid into her, and she had to bury her face into his shoulders to keep from screaming. After a few strokes, he was inside of her, and she was clawing at his back.

“Easy,” he whispered. “Cora, I doona want to hurt ye. Ye must give yourself a chance to adjust.”

Adjust? She didn’t want to adjust. She wanted everything that he was able to give her, and she ignored his pleas and moved under him restlessly until he grunted and started to move. Slow and easy strokes until there was nothing but him, and for the first time since she’d entered Scotland, she understood the power of the highlander. Not just the brute strength, but the control and depths of their love.

And when she found her release, she cried out his name and held him until he spilled his seed and returned her embrace.

15

Addicted to the way Cora felt at night, he made sure that she was in his arms every night and the moments that he could steal during the day, but even inside her, he could tell that she was holding back.

So he focused his energy elsewhere. Training. Hunting. Learning more about his new clan. It made it easier to deal with the fact that his wife was holding back on him, even in bed when they were alone.

Three weeks had passed since the King had departed, and he could feel the suspicious eyes of Gaston almost everywhere he went, so when the King’s man cornered him one evening after dinner, he wasn’t surprised.

“Alec,” Gaston said in that nasally voice of his. “I cannot help but notice that ye havna been spending much time with yer wife.”

“I have been busy,” Alec said coldly as he eyed the man distastefully. He didn’t understand the reason for King Edward actually leaving someone here. They all knew that he and Cora were not a love match.

“Still, I believe that Innes Campbell is returning soon, and the King must be able to back his word.” He looked uneasy and took a deep breath. “May I suggest that ye take yer lovely wife on a picnic today so that the clan will have something to speak about when Innes does return? I have already had the cook pack something lovely for ye.”

A picnic? Alec groaned. He had too many things to do to play the happy husband, but he nodded. “Verra well. Please make sure my wife is ready within the hour.”

“Aye, Laird. I am sure that ye will have a lovely time.”

A lovely time. Just what was Gaston and the King up to?

Annoyed at having to adjust his duties, he met up with his men. “I have something that I need to take care of,” he told Stephen stiffly. “I trust that ye will be able to run the training session without me?”

His friend raised an eyebrow. “I can. What are ye going to do?”

Looking around to make sure that no one was eavesdropping, he scowled. “Apparently I have to woo my wife so the clan will have something to boast about when Innes comes to visit.”

The men hooted around him and whistled. “Woo yer wife! As if ye have any idea how to do that,” Jamie joked.

“Mind yer tongue,” Alec growled as he shot him a dirty look. “I know how to woo women.”

“Ye know how to bed women, but woo them? ’Tis something entirely different. If ye didnae have a problem with that, then ye would not have to put on a front. The clan would already have something to talk about.”

His friends weren’t wrong, Alec realized. Before he’d married her, Cora had a certain look in her eyes when she watched him. Now she was more guarded than ever. It was a step backward.

Not that he wanted his wife to be in love with him. It was easier when they both understood just what this marriage was—a political step—but there was enough passion between them that they should be able to spend their days with each other instead of avoiding each other.

And he missed that sweet smile she used to give him.

“There will be no more talk of my wife,” he said finally as he stomped away. By the time he reached the stables, Cora was already there and stroking the muzzle of an older stallion while she whispered in his ear. Struck for a moment by the sight, he wondered just what stories she was telling the horse.

“Ready?”

At his stiff tone, she lowered her arm and turned to him. “Yes,” she said politely. “I am.”

Knowing that the groom and the stable boys would be nearby, he forced himself to relax as he gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek before he lifted her into the saddle and adjusted her skirts over her legs. The last time they were in the stables together, she was trying to run away.

Trying to run from him.

Now she was his.

“I know you have been busy,” she said a little too loudly as she looked around furtively. “I appreciate you taking the time to spend with me.”