Scotland
26 MAY 1753
"MAVERICK BRODIE FRASER , THIRD EARL OF VISCOUNT GLENMORISTION",
walked across the floor. Droplets of water trickled from his
wet hair down his broad chest, and gathered into a single
rivulet between the double ridges of muscle in his ab-
domen.
Moonlight shimmered through the open window,
casting a silvery glow to his bronze skin, creating the illu-
sion that he was sculpted of molten steel.
The tub behind him had grown cold and been forgotten.
The woman on the bed was also cold and forgotten. She
knew it.
And she didn't like it one bit.
Too beautiful for me, Calentha thought.
But by the
saints, the man was a poison draught, another long cool
swallow of his body is the only cure for the toxin.
She thought
about the things she had done to win him, to share his bed,
and-God forgive her the things she would do to stay
there.
*************
She almost disliked him for it. She knew she disliked herself
for it. He should be hers, she thought.
She watched him
stalk across the spacious room to the window which opened
between fluted granite columns that met in a high arch
twenty feet above her head.
Calentha scoffed at him be-
hind his back. Foolish-such large unprotected openings in
a keep or arrogant.
So what if one could lie in the massive
goose down bed and gaze through the rosy arch at a velvety
sky pierced by glittering stars?
She'd caught him gazing that way tonight as he'd
slammed into her, exciting that bottomless hunger in her
blood with the rock-hard kind of maleness only he possessed.
She'd whimpered beneath him in the greatest ec-stasy she'd ever experienced and he'd been looking out the
window as if no one else was there with him.
Had he been counting the stars?
Silently reciting bawdy dittys to prevent himself from
toppling over and falling asleep?
She'd lost him.
No, Calentha vowed, she would never lose him.
"Hawk?"
"Hmmm?"
She smoothed the lavender silk sheet through her trem-
bling fingers. "Come back to bed, Hawk."
"I'm restless tonight, sweet." He toyed with the stem of a
large pale blue blossom. A half hour earlier he'd swept the
dewy petals along her silken skin.
Calentha flinched at his open admission that he still had
energy to spare.
Sleepily sated, she could see that his body
still thrummed from head to toe with restless vigor. What
kind of woman would it take-or how many-to leave that
man drowsing in fascinated satisfaction?
"More woman than her, and ye gods, how that offended her."
"Her sister who warmed his bed until Calentha had found a way to take her place?"
The words were out before she could prevent them."
" Who satisfy you better, me of my sister
Her words dragged his smoky gaze from the night, across the wide expanse of the bedchamber, to rest on the sultry, raven-haired Gypsy."
"Stop comparing yourself, sweet. You know it's foolish..."
"How can I not when you compare me to a hundred, nay a thousand, even my own sister?"
"And how many do you compare me to, lovely Calentha?"
"She spat out the word with distaste. Life was too unpredictable for virginity to be a prized possession amon
"The poison words of accusation tumbled out fast and furious at the only man who had ever made her pagan blood sing, and his boredom between her thighs had been chiseled in granite upon his perfect face this very evening."
******************
"In truth, for many evenings now."
He endured her anger silently, and when her words finally ceased, he turned back to the window.
The call of a lone wolf echoed through the night, and she felt a similar cry rising within her.
She understood that the Hawk's silence was his goodbye. Overwhelmed by rejection and shame, she lay trembling in his bed—a bed she knew she would never be invited to share again.
She would destroy anyone for him.
This is precisely what she intended moments later when she lunged at him with the silver dirk she'd taken from the table by the bed.
Calentha might have been able to leave without vowing revenge if he had shown even a hint of surprise or alarm. A flicker of regret, perhaps.
But he displayed none of these emotions. His perfect face lit up with amusement as he deftly caught her arm, sending the dirk flying through the open window.
He chuckled.
And she cursed him, along with all his descendants and any who might follow.
When he silenced her with kisses, she cursed through clenched teeth, even as her treacherous body yearned for his touch.
No man should be so "captivating. No man should be so unattainable. And so utterly fearless.
No man should be able to abandon Calentha. He was finished with her, but she was not finished with him. She would never be finished with him.
"It wasn't your fault, Hawk," Raven remarked. They sat on the stone patio of GLENMORISTION, sipping port and enjoying fine tobacco in a purely masculine setting.
MAVERICK BRODIE FRASER MACLEOD rubbed his perfect jaw.
******************
With a steady hand, bothered by the slight shadow of stubble that always appeared a few hours after shaving.
"I just don't comprehend, RAVEN. I believed she found joy with me. Why would she want to harm me?"
Raven raised an eyebrow "Just what do you do to the women in bed, Hawk?"
"I provide them what they desire. Fantasy. My willing body and soul to satisfy their every whim."
"And how do you discern a woman's fantasies?" RAVEN inquired.
The Earl of VISCOUNT GlENMORISTION chuckled softly, a deep, assured rumble that he knew captivated women.
"Ah, Raven , you must listen with your entire being. Her eyes reveal it, whether she realizes it or not. In her soft moans, she guides you. In the subtle movements of her body, you perceive if she wants you in front or behind her lush curves. With gentleness or force, if she desires a tender lover or seeks a beast. If she enjoys her lips kissed, or passionately devoured. If she likes her breasts..."
"I understand," Raven interrupted, swallowing hard. He shifted in his chair and uncrossed his legs.
Recrossed them and adjusted his kilt. Uncrossed them again and sighed. "And Calentha? Did you comprehend her fantasies?"
"Very well. One of them involved being Lady Hawk."
"She had to know it was not possible, Hawk. Everyone knows you've been as good as married since King James declared your betrothal."
"As good as deceased. And I don't wish to discuss it."
"The time is approaching, Hawk. You must not only talk about it, you must also act upon it, like go fetch your bride. Time is running out. Or do you not care?"
*****************
Hawk glanced at Raven 's way.
"Just checking, that's all. There's only a few weeks
left, remember?"
Hawk gazed into the night, heavy with
bright stars. "How could I forget?"
"Do you think Malcolm would follow through with his threats if
you don't marry the Comyn lass?"
"Absolutely," Hawk said firmly.
"I just don't understand why he dislikes you so much."
A wry smile crossed Hawk's face. He knew
why Malcolm hated him.
Thirty years ago Hawk's parents had
humiliated Malcolm to the core. Since the
Hawk's father had died before Malcolm could get revenge,
the king had turned on Hawk in his father's place.
For fifteen long years Malcolm had controlled every moment
of the Hawk's life.
Days before his service was to
end, Malcolm devised a plan to change every future mo-
ment of it.
By the king's order, the Hawk was being forced
to wed a woman he didn't know and didn't want.
A secluded
woman who was said to be quite ugly and unquestionably strange.
It was King Malcolm's cruel idea of a lifetime
sentence. "Who understands the minds of kings, my friend?"
Hawk avoided, ending the topic.
The two men paused in silence, both thinking for
different reasons as they looked at the night sky.
An owl
hooted in the gardens. Crickets chirped,
offering evening tribute to GlENMORISTION.
Stars shone against the night's dark
sky.
"Look. One falls. There, Hawk. What do you make of
it?"
Raven pointed at a white streak plummeting from the
sky, leaving a glowing trail in its wake.
************
" Calentha says if you make a wish upon such a falling
star 'it will be granted.'"
"Did you wish just now?"
"Tinker talk," Hawk scoffed. "Silly romantic non-
sense for dreamy-eyed girls.
" Of course he'd wished
Every time he'd seen a falling star lately. Always the same
wish.
After all, the time was coming.
"Well, I'm trying it," Raven grumbled, not to be swayed
by Hawk's mockery.
"I wish..."
"Yield, Raven. What's your wish?" Hawk asked curi-
ously.
"None of your business. You don't believe it."
"I? The eternal romantic who enchants legions with his
poetry and seduction-not a believer in all those lovely fe-
male things?"
Raven shot his friend a warning look. "Careful, Hawk.
Mock them at your own risk.
You may just really make a
girl angry one day. And you won't know how to deal with it.
For the time being, they still fall for your perfect smiles-"
"You mean like this one."
Hawk arched a brow and
flashed a smile, complete with sleepily hooded eyes that
spoke volumes about how the girl receiving it was the only
true beauty in his heart, a heart which had room for only
one-whoever happened to be in the Hawk's arms at the
moment.
Raven shook his head in mock disgust. "You practice it.
You must. Come on, admit it."
"Of course I do. It works. Wouldn't you practice it?"
"Womanizer."
"Uh-hmm," Hawk agreed.
"Do you even remember their names?"
"All five thousand of them." Hawk hid his grin behind a
swallow of port.
***************
AI Overview
"Blackguard. Libertine."
"Rogue. Roué. Cad. Ah, here's a good one: 'voluptuous," "Hawk supplied helpfully.
"Why don't they see through you?"
Hawk shrugged a shoulder. "They like what they get from
me.
There are a lot of hungry lasses out there. I couldn't, in
good conscience, turn them away.
"Twould trouble my head."
"I think I know exactly which head of yours would be
troubled," Raven said dryly.
"The very one that's going to
get you in big trouble one day."
"What did you wish for, Raven ?" Hawk ignored the
warning with the devil-may-care attitude that was his wont
where the lasses were concerned.
A slow smile slid over Raven's face. "A lass who doesn't
want you.
A lovely, nay, an earth-shatteringly beautiful one,
with wit and wisdom to boot. One with a perfect face and a
perfect body, and a perfect 'no' on her perfect lips for you,
my oh-so-perfect friend.
And I also wished to be allowed to
watch the battle."
Hawk smiled smugly. "It will never happen."
The wind gusting sweetly through the pines carried a dis-
embodied voice that drifted on a breeze of sandalwood.
Then it spoke in laughing words neither man
heard. "I think that can be arranged".