Highland Fires Read Free Page A

water.
    “Here,” Ahryn said as she took the cloth and
gently pushed him to his bed. “You sit and I will tend to your cuts
as I tell you my story.”
    “How did you know I wanted to know your
story?”
    She raised her Fae eyes to him and smiled as
she knelt before him. “It doesn’t take Fae magic to read the
emotions that cross your face.”
    Lugus looked at her, really looked at her.
Aye, she was Fae and had all the characteristics of the Fae, but
there was sadness in her eyes, a sadness that Lugus himself lived
with every day.
    Her eyes were large, expressive with gently
arching flaxen brows. She had high cheekbones, a stubborn chin and
a long, graceful neck. Her lips, wide and full, drew his attention
like a bee to a flower.
    He hadn’t been this close to a woman since
Moira. Nearly five years of his self-imposed prison on the isle. He
blamed it on the fact that he had been without a woman for so many
years that his body yearned for Ahryn. His body needed relief and
would take any female that came near it.
    When her long, tapered fingers touched his
injured knuckles he nearly came off the bed. No one had touched him
in what seemed like ages. He had forgotten what it was like to have
comfort, even in such a small does as someone tending to a wound,
and he was startled to find he craved it.
    Her touch was gentle as she removed the dried
blood and dirt that had become imbedded in the skin, her finger
stopped to examine each of his tattoos. Lugus fisted his other hand
at his side as he tried to keep his breathing normal and his mind
focused on Ahryn’s story instead of the hunger that had been
awakened in him.
    “Your story,” he bit out between clenched
teeth.
    “Aye, my story,” she said softly. She glanced
at him and gave him a small smile. “I’m sorry this pains you. I am
being as gentle as I can.”
    He gave her a nod and allowed her to think
his actions were due to his discomfort of her cleaning his
wounds.
    “I am curious by nature. Something that has
oft times gotten me into a spot of trouble,” Ahryn said as she
wrung out the cloth and turned back to his hand. “My friends and I
used to come to this realm during Beltaine and Samhain. It was a
world like none other. So like ours, yet so different.”
    Lugus knew exactly how she felt. The realm of
Earth had often called to him as a young boy. The people were so
innocent of the magic and evil that hovered around them.
    “Yet, the more times I came,” Ahryn
continued, “the longer I wanted to stay. The people I met were very
friendly. It became so that I would sneak away and venture to this
realm even if it wasn’t one of the sacred days. My father
discovered this and sought to put an end to it.”
    Lugus suspected that she had been kept out of
this realm for a long period of time. “How long did he keep you
away?”
    She raised her gaze to him. “Centuries. It
was only after someone tried to take over both realms that he
loosened his hold over me. He assumed that after all those years I
would not wish to visit here again.” She raised her hand with the
cloth and began to dab at the cut over his brow.
    “He was wrong,” Lugus said.
    She smiled slightly. “Aye. For awhile he
thought I was coming to meet a man, so he tried to force a marriage
on me. I refused. After a particularly painful fight with my
father, I came here. To Scotland.”
    Lugus waited for her to finish. She didn’t
speak again until the wound over his eye was cleaned.
    Her eyes met his as she sat back on her feet.
“I only meant to stay for a few hours. I wandered the market place
as I usually do. That is where Marcus first saw me. I knew as soon
as I felt his gaze that he knew what I was. I wasn’t afraid though.
As a Fae I knew I could get away at any time.”
    Lugus sat forward with his elbows on his
knees. “What happened?”
    “I stopped by a small shop that sold jewelry
among other things. I found a pair of earrings that I knew my
sister would enjoy. I purchased