Page 38 of Highland Steel

“For me, it is. It’s nothin’ new,” he said, flashing a bright white smile that was illuminated in the moonlight.

“Well, I find it odd.”

“Nay, it’s no’ odd. It’s . . . excitin’.” He reached out and gently cupped her cheek. Her eyes closed and she leaned into his caress, feeling her knees becoming weak beneath her. “Why dinna ye try it?”

“What?” Her eyes sprang open. “Me? Naked? Nay, I couldn’t.”

“Why no’?” he asked. “It’s only natural. After all, it is the way we’re all born, and nothin’ to be ashamed of.”

“I suppose you’re right but –” She looked around. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re out in plain sight,” she said with a shaky voice.

“It’s the middle of the night. No one will see us. And I noticed ye didna deny the fact ye want to lay with me. Or am I wrong?”

Why did he have to ask this? Yes, she wanted to couple with him more than anything right now. She was eight and ten years of age and much too old to still be a virgin. Most girls her age were already married with children. Lately, she’d been feeling an emptiness within her. What she really needed was a man in her life. She didn’t want to go through life all alone. Rhoswen couldn’t deny the fact that coupling with him intrigued her, but neither did she want to sound like a strumpet by admitting it either. And certainly, she didn’t want her first time making love with a man to be on the ground out in nature!

“I don’t know if I can do it,” she told him, stalling for time.

“Do what? Get naked?” He chuckled. “It’s easy, I assure ye. Here, let me help.” His hands covered hers and he gently pried her fingers from the shawl, letting it drop to the ground at their feet. She felt the waves washing over her toes as the water slid over the shore and then once again receded. The inward and outward motion of the waves only made her think of two people doing the same thing during the dance of lovemaking.

Logan’s hands slowly slid down her back and cupped her bottom, giving her a squeeze. A moan of delight involuntarily left her lips. She felt him raising the hem of her gown upward, and a cool breeze hit her legs. All the while, she held her breath, letting him do it. Then he lifted her gown over her head in one motion, throwing it to the ground. She stood there now in only a thin shift.

“Relax, lassie. It’s quite fun if ye just give it a chance.” He cupped her breasts right through her shift, and put his mouth over one mound, nipping at her through her clothes.

“Oooh,” she said, her head falling backwards as he slid a hand beneath the neckline of her shift and rolled her nipple between his fingers. Her breathing deepened. She was on fire. When he reached for the hem of her shift next, she felt as if she had to stop him.

“Wait, Logan,” she said, causing him to drop the hem. He kissed her atop the head, talking into her hair.

“Och, lassie, please dinna change yer mind. I am so hard for ye right now that I’m about to burst.”

“Nay, I didn’t change my mind about coupling. But I don’t want my first time to be down in the dirt.”

“Yer first time?” He released her and took a step backward, running a hand through his windblown hair. “I’m sorry, Rhoswen. I should have remembered ye are a lady. Ye want to be a virgin when ye marry. I dinna ken what I was thinkin’.”

When he started to turn away, she decided she didn’t want him to go. So she reached out and grabbed him, pulling him to her and kissed him hard.

“I’m confused,” said Logan, hesitant to kiss her back. “Do ye want this or no’? Because this back and forth is drivin’ me mad.”

“Yes, I do want to make love with you, Logan. Please don’t leave.”

“But . . . what about bein’ a virgin for yer husband?”

“Hell with that,” she told him. “I’m most likely never going to be able to go back to England, and I’m not even sure I have a future anymore. So I’m going to live for the day.”

“Well, if ye’re sure.”

“Just don’t make me rut in the mud like an animal. That’s all I ask.”

He chuckled at that and pulled her back into his arms.

“I’m sorry, my bonnie cailin. I love nature so much that sometimes I forget I’m no’ an animal myself. But I have a place we can go that I think ye’ll like better.”

“Take me to it.”

He scooped her up in his arms, and carried her up the shore. Jack ran off into the night. The sound of a barking dog filled the air in the distance. Logan brought her to a small hut that was up from the beach but still near the water.

“Is that where you’re taking me?” she asked, her heart beating wildly in her chest as she hung on to him with her arms around his neck. “What is it?”

“It’s a small shack where the MacKeefes keep the fishin’ gear,” he told her. “There is also a pallet in there that I put there myself for when I sometimes sneak out of camp to take a nap durin’ the day.”