Read Online Celtic Bride by Margo Maguire - Free Book Online

embraced her, though loosely, and Keelin, fully aware now, relished the feeling of security they brought.
    Her face was eye level with the hollow where his neck met his chest, and the small hairs of his chest tickled her nose. Without thinking, Keelin burrowed her face in.
    “Umm…” Marcus grunted. His arms tightened around her.
    Keelin shivered, not from cold, but from an altogether strange sensation, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. Oddly compelled, she moved against him, eliciting another groan. Marcus’s muscles flexed against her, and one of his hands made circles on her back, pulling her closer to him. She knew he was not quite awake as she breathed in the scent of him. The smell of fresh river water, his chain hauberk, his linen, and something altogether different…something that was distinctly…Marcus.
    Her body felt every inch of his where they touched, and she had the inexplicable urge to taste him. Her mouth was a mere breath away from his chest and she could easily—
    Shocked by her own wanton whimsy, Keelin would never be so bold as to attempt such a thing. No matter how strong the impulse.
    She sensed the moment when he came fully awake. His body tensed and he pulled slightly away from her.
    “Ah, you’re awake, then?” he said awkwardly, clearing his throat as he spoke.
    Keelin nodded. It was still unclear how she’d come to be lying among these thick woolen blankets in Marcus de Grant’s arms. She remembered parts of the previous evening, Marcus’s hands working on the knot at her neck—his kiss, and the way her bones had seemed to melt….
    Cormac!
    Oh, dearGod and all the saints, she suddenly remembered. Cormac O’Shea was slain! And the deed was done by Ruairc Mageean.
    Keelin pushed herself up from their cozy nest and became dizzy with the sudden movement. She went back down on her knees.
    “Easy,” Marcus said as he helped to lower her down.
    “Keely lass?” Tiarnan questioned from his bed.
    “Aye, Uncle,” she replied. She kept her head down. She could not bear to look up at Marcus and see the revulsion she knew he must feel. She remembered clearly now. He’d kissed her, and then she’d “gone to black” on him. What must he think of her?
    “How are ye, now?” Tiarnan asked, propping himself up on one elbow and facing her as if he could see her.
    “I’m all right, Uncle Tiarnan,” she answered as she moved to stand again. “The lad…is he…?”
    “Still sleeping,” Marcus replied. “I checked him not long ago.”
    “No bleedin’ from the wound?” Keelin asked, finally looking up at him. She did not see revulsion, but that could mean only one thing. That he had a rare gift for hiding his emotions.
    “No,” Marcus replied to her question. “And there’s no fever yet, either. Whatever you gave him made him sleep soundly.”
    “’Tis a blessing indeed,” Tiarnan interjected while Keelin studied Marcus surreptitiously.
    Sherecalled how he pulled away from her as soon as he’d awakened, and knew how he must feel, having been forced to spend the night sharing his heat with an aberrant woman of questionable sanity. No man outside Clann Ui Sheaghda could possibly understand the “gift” that was passed from mother to daughter in her family for generations.
    Keelin stepped away from Marcus and went to Adam’s bedside. She knew that Tiarnan was anxious to know what she’d seen, but the vision was still too raw to speak of those things. She would talk to him later, after her heart and mind settled down.
    She lit a tallow candle and listened. Adam’s breathing was soft. There was no unhealthy sound or irregularity to it. His forehead was not hot when she touched it, but seemed to be of normal temperature. She pulled the blanket down and peeled the dressing away from the wound. It looked just as it had the day before.
    As Keelin made a new paste of lady’s mantle and spread it over the wound, she heard sounds of the men outside rousing themselves.