Chapter Thirteen

Janet's cheeks pinkened with mingled anger and embarrassment as Euan's man Niall escorted her back to her sleeping chamber. Her only consolation was that the gruff warrior looked as though he felt sorry for her. In fact, just before he locked her inside he turned to her and mumbled sheepishly, "for the record, milady, I do no' think ye were tryin' tae escape."

And then he was gone, leaving Janet alone to stew. She was angry. Very angry. But also quite frightened. The final look Euan had thrown her way before galloping off had been laced with promises of retribution. She could only wonder at his punishment.

One side of her, the indignant half, wanted to stay right where she was and await his arrival so she could rage at him for treating her like this, for not believing her when she'd told him the truth. But the other side of her, the pragmatic half, wanted to bolt. Janet had no clue as to how her husband planned to punish her for her alleged sin, but she conceded rather gloomily that none of the scenarios she was coming up with in her mind boded well.

Janet paced back and forth in the bedchamber, uncertain as to what she should do, what she should say, when Euan finally saw fit to make an appearance. Just then the door came crashing open, causing Janet to whirl around on her heel and dart her eyes nervously toward her husband.

He looked angry. Very, very angry. For some reason or another she wasn't afraid of him any longer though. For some reason or another rather than cowering as most would have and she probably should have, she found her eyes narrowing acidly and her lips pinching together. "Go away," she seethed, turning around, giving him her back. "I have nothing to say to you."

It took Euan five long strides to reach her. When he did, he whirled her around to face him. "I'm certain ye are verra angry with me," he gritted out, his nostrils flaring, "for putting a stop tae your grand plan. But ye will do as I bid ye regardless."

That was too much. She thumped him on a steely arm, not that the big ogre so much as flinched from it. "This is ridiculous!" she screeched, raising her voice to him for the first time since they'd met. "I wasn't trying to run," she fumed out, "and I resent the fact that you don't believe me!"

His nostrils were still flaring as he searched her gaze. He looked like he wanted to believe her but was afraid to hope. And then the vulnerability in his eyes was quickly masked and the steel replaced it. "Take your clothes off," he ordered her.

Janet's eyes widened. Her chin went up a notch. "No."

"I said," Euan repeated icily, "take your clothes off." A tic was working in his cheek now.

"I heard you and I said no." She crossed her arms defiantly over her breasts.

Apparently he didn't care for that answer for the next thing Janet knew he was lifting up her skirt and removing her dress himself. She struggled, indignant now. "How dare you!" she sputtered as the dress went over her head and sailed towards the other side of the room.

"I am Euan Donald, Mac Dhonuill nan Eilean," he said arrogantly. "I dare what I will." His black gaze raked her body insolently. "Go lie on the bed."

"Are you deaf?" she screeched. "I don't wish to speak to you let alone have sex with you! You didn't believe me when I told you the truth and I have nothing more to say to you!"

A vein in his neck began to pulse as his face stained red with anger. "Ye expect me tae believe ye were climbing up the wall tae see the beach!" he roared.

"Yes! I expect you to believe it!"

Euan growled like a trapped animal, the need to believe his wife warring with rational thought. He didn't know what to think in that moment, just knew that he needed to be inside of her. "Get on the bed," he bellowed.

Her chin lifted impossibly higher. "No!"

He slashed his hand through the air. "Now."

Janet's eyes widened at the unadulterated pain laced in that one word. It was that knowledge, and not the order itself, that sent her legs gliding toward the bed. Climbing up on top of it, she sat there on her knees and waited, uncertain as to how she could convince him she had been telling the truth out there on the wall. It was paramount that she convince him. She didn't want him hurting inside.

"Why did ye run?" he asked as he took off his clothing and joined her on the raised bed. "Did ye really think I'd let ye go?" He ground that question out through a clenched jaw as he came down on his knees in front of her and took her breasts in his palms. "Ye should have known better, Seonaidh, leamsa." Janet, mine.

She met his tortured look unflinchingly. "I did not run from you."

His black gaze softened somewhat, but Janet could tell he wasn't yet totally convinced. He was beginning to believe her, though, which gave her new hope.

And then Euan was massaging her nipples, rubbing them between his thumbs and forefingers and Janet found her lips parting on a breathy sigh under the sensate assault. "Ye have beautiful thick nipples," he said gruffly as he plumped them. "I want them pokin' straight up in the sky for me tae suckle of."

Janet gasped as his lips closed around one diamond-hard nipple. He slurped it into his mouth, closing his eyes as if to savor it, rolling it around between his tongue and teeth. Liquid desire shot through her, dampening the flesh between her legs and elongating her nipples further. She ran her fingers through his hair and mashed his face into her chest. "Yes, Euan," she breathed out. "Oh yes."

He drew from her hard then, sucking on her nipples incessantly until she was panting for air and he was primal with the need to fill her up with his cock and his cum.

"Whether ye want me or no'," Euan rasped out in a moment of unveiled vulnerability, as he pushed her down onto her back and settled himself between her thighs, "I will always want ye. I will always need ye."

Janet's eyes closed briefly, saddened as she was by the pain in his voice. Her eyes opened and clashed with his. "I love you, Euan. I swear to you," she promised softly, "that as ludicrous as my explanation might have sounded back there at the wall, it was the complete and total truth." She wrapped her legs around his waist. "I will never run from you. I love you."

He lay poised above her, his eyes searching hers frantically for the truth, hoping against hope that he could believe what he'd been told.

"Tha gaol agam ort, a Euan." I love you, Euan.

He impaled her in one long stroke, inducing Janet to gasp as he filled her. "I love ye tae," he rasped out, his teeth gritting at the exquisite feel of her tight flesh enveloping him, sucking him in.

Janet clutched his buttocks in her hands and stroked them soothingly. "Do you believe me then?" she whispered. "Please tell me you do. Even if it's a lie. I couldn't bear it if I thought you believed Stuart."

Euan kissed her lips gently, sipping at them. "I believe ye, my love. And that's no' a lie."

Janet had no time to respond to that pronouncement, for within the next breath her legs had been thrown over his shoulders and Euan was drawing himself up to his knees. His callused fingers digging into the flesh of her hips, he held her steady and impaled her to the hilt.

"Oh yes."

"Mmm," he said thickly as he began to rock in and out of her cunt in long, deep strokes, "ye feel so good tae me." He thrust harder and deeper, his strokes becoming faster and more penetrating.

"Oh God."

The sound of her vagina sucking up Euan's steely flesh was as much of a turn-on to Janet as her husband's primal pumping. She bore down on his cock, meeting his thrusts, loving the deep mounting he gave to her when her legs were splayed wide over his shoulders. "Faster."

Euan's jaw clenched tightly, his muscles cording and tensing, the veins on his neck and arms bulging. Grabbing her thighs, he pounded into her slick flesh.

Faster. Harder. Faster still.

"Oh yes."

And then Janet was coming, her back arching and her head falling back in ecstasy as she moaned wantonly for him, her nipples stabbing upwards as her sopping flesh contracted around the length and breadth of him. "Yeeeeessssss," she groaned, gyrating her hips at him as her cunt sucked every bit of pleasure from him that she could.

"Janet." Euan used his fingers to clamp down on her jutting nipples as he thrust into her once, twice, three times more. Throwing his head back, he made a guttural sound as his orgasm ripped through him, spewing into her flesh.

Both of them dripping in perspiration, Euan held his body over Janet's while they both steadied their breathing. He kissed her softly on the lips, then eased her splayed legs from off of his shoulders. Coming down on the bed beside her, he drew her into his arms. "I love ye," he murmured, kissing her temple.

She smiled contentedly. "I love you too."

They were silent for a long while, enjoying the simple pleasure of basking in each other's embrace. Eventually it was Euan who broke the languid quiet. "I was wondering aboot something," he said, stroking her thigh as he spoke.

"Mmm. What about?"

"Ye are no' of the clan Hay."

Janet grinned, sensing the question that was coming. "No I'm not."

"Where did ye come from then?"

"It's a long story."

"We've plenty of time."

She smiled up at him, running her hand across the impressive width of his chest. "True. But before I tell you that story, I have something else I'd like to tell you first."

Euan cocked a black eyebrow. "Sounds intriguing. And ye sound mischievous. Should I round up a tankard of ale before we talk?"

She grinned. "You might need two."