The Sinner Page 9

  Perhaps God was a female after all.

  * * *

  The howling wind woke Glynis, and she huddled against Alex, cocooned in the heat of his body folded around hers. She’d never slept with a man’s arms around her before—if she didn’t count her husband falling into a drunken stupor on top of her after he was done poking her.

  The dim gray light of dusk still filled their shelter so she had not dozed long. With Alex lying behind her, touching her, she would not get back to sleep soon.

  Alex was in a deep slumber, judging by how still he was. She felt edgy and restless. When she scooted closer against him, she felt his shaft, hard and urgent against her bottom. If he were awake, she’d have to move away. His hand moved to cup her breast. Each time she moved it away, it returned as if it belonged there—when, of course, it had no business being there at all. She felt guilty, but so long as he wasn’t awake to know she liked the feel of his big hand covering her breast, was it truly a sin?

  Did she care if it was a sin?

  “Glynis.”

  She sucked in her breath at the sound of Alex’s voice in her ear.

  “I can’t be responsible if ye keep moving against me like that,” he said. “I’m begging ye to stop.”

  The devil made her press against him.

  “Ahh, ye feel so good,” he said, and she sighed with him as he ran his hand all the way down her side to her thigh and back up again.

  She willed him to do it again. When he did not, she rolled onto her back to look at him. He propped himself up on his elbow and leaned over her with his face so close that she could feel his breath. Unable to resist, she cupped his cheek with her hand. The scratch of his rough beard felt good against her palm.

  “We can’t do this, Glynis.”

  “Why not?”

  Alex gave her that smile that always made her stomach leap. “Ye know the reasons.”

  Glynis had been responsible all her life—putting her clan first, taking care of her sisters and brother, offering guidance to her father, whether he took it or not—and what had it got her? Magnus Clanranald was what. Doing as she ought had bought her a foul husband who shamed her—and who would murder her now if he could.

  “Ye kissed me before. What’s the harm in doing it again?” She ran her tongue over her top lip, remembering the taste of his mouth on hers. “Kiss me, Alex.”

  His eyes went dark, and he clenched his jaw for a long, long moment. When he finally gave in and leaned down, her stomach tightened in anticipation. The moment his lips touched hers, fire spread beneath her skin. She pulled him down into a deep, openmouthed kiss. Aye, this was what she wanted.

  The heat from his body sizzled through hers. Her breasts ached, her head spun, and she felt as if she were falling backward, though she was flat on the ground. When he cupped her breast, she moaned into his mouth. Their legs became entangled as their kisses grew deeper, more frantic. She wanted to feel his weight on her, to feel his bare skin beneath her fingers.

  But Alex broke away. His gaze was smoldering and his breathing harsh.

  “’Tis is a dangerous game you’re playing.” His fingers shook as he brushed her hair back from her face. “One thing is bound to lead to another.”

  “I’m hoping it will.” Glynis wasn’t sure when she had decided that she wanted it all, but she had.

  Magnus had been such an oaf. He had claimed it was her fault that she didn’t warm to his touch, but she understood now that Magnus hadn’t the slightest notion how to touch her. She wanted to know what it was like to feel passion in the night, and she would never have another chance.

  Or a better man to show her.

  “Ye may think this is what ye want,” Alex said, “but ye don’t really.”

  “I do.” Her fingers still gripped the front of his shirt, and she wasn’t letting go.

  “Perhaps ye do right at this moment, but ye would regret it later.” He sighed as he traced the side of her face with his finger. “I don’t want to be a regret.”

  She shook her head vehemently from side to side. “I won’t regret it. I promise.”

  Alex gave her a faint smile. “Then I will. Ye are precisely the sort of woman I avoid bedding.”

  Her stomach clutched, and she turned her face to the side.

  “What’s wrong with me?” she asked, her voice coming out high and thin.

  “Ach, ’tis not that I don’t want to,” Alex said, grazing his knuckles against her cheek. “I’ve never wanted a woman this much.”

  No doubt he was stretching the truth, but there was such longing in his voice that she did believe he wanted her.

  “Then why not?” she asked.

  “Ye would expect more of me than I am able to give,” he said in a soft voice. “Ye would want me to be there tomorrow and the next day—and a year from now. I can’t make a woman happy for that long.”

  “You’re wrong about what I want,” she said. “I don’t want a husband—but I do want this.”

  He made a low sound in the back of his throat that sent a thrill vibrating through her.

  “I’m careful,” he said, “but there’s always a chance I could get ye with child.”

  She had no idea what he meant by being “careful,” but she shook her head again. “I told ye that I’m barren.”

  From the time Glynis started her fluxes, her stepmother had lectured her that it only took once for a lass to get pregnant. But even fertility charms had not worked for her. Glynis had lived with Magnus for three interminable months before she stabbed him and fled, and she had not conceived.

  “You’re not the sort to have affairs,” Alex said.

  “How can ye say I’m not the sort when I’m the one asking?”

  “Because ye couldn’t take it as just a bit of fun,” he said, twisting a strand of her hair around his finger. “Ye don’t have a frivolous bone in your body, Glynis MacNeil."

  “I won’t have this chance again,” she said. “I’m always watched over—I’m never free.”

  Her family criticized her for being too serious-minded. Now that she’d decided to do something wholly irresponsible and wicked, she was determined to succeed. She was never one to do things by halves.

  “I won’t wed again. Before I spend my life alone, I want to be with a man.” She sensed Alex was weakening and ran her hands up his chest. “I want to be with you.”

  Lightning cracked and flashed through the gap in the hanging blanket. For an instant, its white light shone on Alex, making him look like the fairy king himself come to work his magic on her. Every young lass in the Western Isles was warned that the fairy king could not be resisted without a special protective charm.

  If Glynis had such a charm, she would toss it away.

  She let her gaze drop to Alex’s mouth and whispered, “Show me your magic.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Alex knew it was wrong, but it would take a saint to resist her.

  And God knew, he was no saint.

  Though he rarely paid for his sins, they would both pay a penance for this. No matter what Glynis said now, she would regret it. And even though he knew that, Alex was helpless against the pull of desire, both hers and his. He had wanted her from the moment he’d seen her collecting shells on the beach at Barra. All he could do was make sure he gave her enough pleasure that the sin might seem worth the cost to her.

  But every plan, every thought, every bit of reason left him when his lips met hers. He sank into her, their tongues moving in a slow, passionate dance that left him wanting more. He kissed her eyebrows, her cheeks, beneath her delicate ears. Then he buried his face in her neck and breathed in the smell of her skin.

  When she wrapped her arms around his neck, he moved his hands over her, following the sleek lines of her body. She was like the sea, both mysterious and familiar at once. He wanted to discover every mystery, to know every secret place.

  Lust surged through him as Glynis melted in his arms like soft wax. Alex thought he knew women, but he felt
as if he was sailing in uncharted waters. And if he fell off the edge of the world, he would not care because no woman had ever felt this good.

  He needed to feel her against his skin. He got up on his knees and jerked his shirt over his head. When he tossed it aside, he felt as much as saw her gaze move over his chest in the near darkness. Her gaze dropped further to his staff, which was standing up begging to be noticed. Her lips parted as she stared at him, sending another bolt of lust shooting through him.

  “Are ye warm enough to take off your gown?” he asked, trying and failing to keep the note of desperation from his voice.

  She gave him a solemn nod. His serious lass.

  As he leaned over her and eased her gown up over her long, slender legs, he wondered if he was too young to have his heart give out. She was like a doe, graceful and made for running. He wanted to run with her, to go wherever she would let him.

  He lifted her knee and kissed it. It was perfect, like the rest of her. She drew in a sharp breath as he slid his hand up the silky skin of her inner thigh. His mouth followed his hand as he worked his way up, inch by inch, torturing them both. When his fingers brushed the curls between her legs, she jolted.

  “Shh,” he soothed her. “I’ll make ye feel good, I will.”

  God in Heaven, she was already wet for him. He wanted to bury his face between her legs and taste her, but she had tensed, and he sensed that would be a new experience for her best saved for a wee bit later. For having been married a year, she seemed innocent. But then, some fools never took the time to savor a woman.

  Alex intended to savor every inch of Glynis MacNeil until she was weak and sated from their lovemaking. And then he would do it all again.

  “Can ye sit up so we can get your gown off the rest of the way?” he said, as he pulled her up.

  When she wrapped her arms around him, they fell into deep kisses again, and he found it hard to concentrate on unfastening the hooks at the back of her gown. Finally, he eased the gown up over her head. He pulled her against him again and closed his eyes against the sensation of her soft skin beneath his hands and her breasts pressed against his chest.

  They fell back onto the blankets. It was too dark to see her now, but his hands and mouth explored her body. He kissed her breasts, teasing the nipples with his teeth and tongue, then sucking until she whimpered and arched against him.

  He moved to lie beside her and kissed her as if he would die if he could not—because he believed he would. She was slick and hot beneath his hand. The little sounds she was making as he touched her were driving him mad with desire. He ached to enter her, to feel her tight around his shaft.

  He rolled with her until she lay on top of him. It was too soon, too soon. He tried to catch his breath, to slow himself down. Her heartbeat matched his as he held her tightly against him.

  “I want ye inside me,” she said.

  Heat surged through him—and he was certain he’d never heard sweeter words in his life. He took hold of her hips to ease her down. Sweat broke out on his forehead as the top of his shaft pressed against her center.

  “God in Heaven, ye feel good, Glynis,” he said, closing his eyes.

  “We can do it like this?” she asked.

  “Have ye never been on top?” What in God’s name had been wrong with her husband?

  “What do I do?” she asked.

  “Sit up. Aye, like that.” He groaned, and Glynis gasped as she slowly sank down on him. As he held her hips to guide her, he said in a tight voice, “It’s like rocking to the motion of the sea.”

  Her ancestors must have been sea nymphs. In no time, she was making him blind with desire. He was mindless of anything except the rhythm of her hips and the feel of her tight around his shaft. Her breathing was already ragged when he ran his hand up her thigh and found her sensitive nub with his thumb. It was too dark to see more than her outline. But over the howling wind, he heard her gasps and whimpers.

  Then she fell forward and gripped his shoulders as if she were drowning and he was the only one who could save her. Each sweep of her hair across his chest sent tendrils of sensation to his core.

  Lightning struck again, and he felt as if it ran through his body. His every nerve and muscle strained and jangled with mounting tension. When her body clenched around him and she cried out, he was lost in the tempest with her. His heart thundered in his ears as he pulled her hips against him again and again. As if in the distance, he heard his voice calling her name as he exploded inside her.

  He wrapped his arms around her and held her so tightly that he knew he was crushing her, but he could not make himself let go. He wanted to stay inside her forever.

  How foolish he had been to think that they would not end up like this. From the start, it was inevitable. From that first mindless kiss he gave her on the beach in front of her father and all her clansman. From the night he had her against the wall at Duart Castle, and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Once they met, they were bound to end up lying in each other’s arms like this.

  “I didn’t know,” she said against his chest, and he felt the wetness of her tears on his skin. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”

  Alex hadn’t known, either. In all his experience, he had never felt a need that strong. Never been so completely lost to passion. Glynis MacNeil had caught him completely by surprise.

  CHAPTER 15

  When Glynis awoke, the sun was shining in a hazy glow through the weave of the blanket that somehow still hung over them. Had last night truly happened? It must have, for Glynis’s imagination was not as good as that. She understood now why women were willing to take Alex Bàn MacDonald into their beds for as long as he was willing to stay.

  She risked turning to look at him. Ach, Alex was handsome enough to make the fairies jealous. She let her gaze travel over every perfect, manly feature—the straight nose, high cheekbones, and strong jaw stubbled with golden whiskers. Even in his sleep, his mouth was curved up at the corners, as if he had a wicked secret to tell ye that would make ye laugh.

  Her cheeks grew hot as she recalled all the places his mouth had touched her. Three times he had reached for her in the night and made her feel things she’d never felt before.

  She had wanted to know passion with a man. Too late, she realized that she might be better off not knowing the pleasures that were possible between a man and a woman. It would certainly be easier to live without them if she were still ignorant. She recalled the bliss she had felt in his arms and sighed.

  Nay, she could not regret the night.

  * * *

  “Tell me about your marriage,” Alex asked.

  Glynis turned in his arms, all warm and sleepy-eyed. “Why do ye want to know?”

  He shrugged. “I’m curious, that’s all.”

  Her eyes, as always, seemed to see right into his lying heart. In truth, he had wanted to ask her about her marriage to Magnus all along. He felt the unfamiliar tug of jealousy over this man who had touched her in all the places he had.

  “The two of ye have such animosity toward each other that I figure ye must have cared deeply once.” Alex had learned from his parents how love could turn to hate.

  “Hmmph.” She crossed her arms and stared up at the blanket strung above them. “Magnus Clanranald doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”

  She hadn’t said that she had not cared for Clanranald.

  “Magnus doesn’t like to lose his possessions,” she said. “He thought I was one of them.”

  “Why did ye leave him?” Alex asked.

  “The marriage took place at my family’s castle on Barra, so I didn’t know what was waiting for me at his home.” Glynis was quiet for a long moment before she spoke again. “His mistress was there to greet him, along with a couple of other verra friendly lasses. Magnus made no effort to hide them—and saw no reason he should. He even let his mistress take my place at the table.”

  Ach, it sounded too much like his father. But Alex’s mother fo
ught back just as hard in the bitter war between them.

  “Magnus is the worst of chieftains,” she said, her voice hard now. “While my father sometimes makes errors in judgment, he always tries to do what is best for our clan. Magnus puts his own interests before his clan’s, always.”

  Alex suspected that the true reason she left Magnus was that she didn’t respect him.

  “I tried to protect his own clansmen from him, but I couldn’t.” Glynis brushed a tear away with an impatient hand. “I saw him murder one in a fit of temper and another because the man objected to Magnus’s interest in his daughter.”

  Alex cupped her cheek with his hand. “Magnus’s temper seemed fixed on you when we saw him at Duart Castle. Did he ever harm ye?”

  “No. He knew that if he did, my father would come with his war galleys full of men,” she said. “Magnus didn’t want the trouble—but that was before I stabbed him and left.”

  For all Alex’s sins, at least he’d brought Glynis far enough away to be safe from her former husband.

  * * *

  “Enough of this serious talk.” A slow smile spread over Alex’s face as he leaned over her, and his green eyes danced. “If ye have the strength to make love again before breakfast, I do.”

  Letting Alex touch her all over in the dark of night was one thing, but it was broad daylight now.

  “Ach, I’m sorry, lass,” he said, frowning. “Did I make ye too sore?”

  She was sore, but not that sore.

  “We could try other things,” he said, giving her a look so full of sin that it made her pulse flutter.

  “I’m all right,” she said, her voice coming out high.

  “Then what do ye say, Glynis? In for a penny, in for a pound?” Her breath hitched as he stroked the inside of her thigh. “When ye confess to the priest, the penance is likely to be the same, whether we do it two times or twenty.”