A Touch of Fire

 

A week later, Ella wandered down the woodland path as Angel happily rooted in a clump of ferns off to her right. She smiled at the dog. Life was strange. She’d rescued the little animal only to have him repay her in kind.

Through a gap in the trees ahead, she spied the flat field where the Barn of the Damned had stood the week before. A lot had changed since the day she’d first glimpsed it. Duncan had vanished during the search, along with the seaman he’d hired.

Lady Leighton had named Ashton her heir.

The winter wind tugged at her shawl as she paused on the freshly tilled soil. She was glad the barn was gone. Perhaps Ashton could let go of his past.

“Ella?”

Ella turned to see Ashton striding toward her. With a smile, she stepped forward to greet him.

“Why are you here?” Ashton asked when he reached her. “Haven’t you had enough of this place?”

She patted his cheek. “I shall plant a garden here. I’ll give it a new life.”

A smile entered his eyes and he folded her in a warm embrace. She burrowed against his chest. He’d been treating her like a fragile flower the entire week. At first, she’d appreciated the sentiment, but now? Now, she wanted to feel his skin against hers, his flesh pounding her channel as he sent her to dizzying heights of pleasure.

Ashton released her and stepped back. “You’ll catch your death in this cold,” he said.

“Hardly,” she nearly growled.

As she turned, a glint in the dirt caught her eye. She stooped and brushed the dirt away. A ring. She picked it up and stood. Gold with an onyx stone.

“What is it?” Ashton asked.

Ella extended the ring toward him.

His eyes widened as slowly, he took the ring. “My God, Duncan lost this ring… It wasn’t a dream.” The last was said in a hoarse whisper.

“A dream?” Ella repeated. “What does it mean?”

He didn’t seem to hear her. “Duncan was here, all those years ago.”

Ella stilled. “What do you mean?”

Ashton rubbed the dirt way from the stone. “Duncan was here, Ella. I was drunk, but I was certain I saw him open the gate for the maid. He took her to the back of the barn. He left the gate open. The bull….”

Realization struck. Duncan was responsible for Ashton’s father’s death. Anger streaked through her. The title of a Demon Lord would have suited him well.

“Then, it was Duncan, not you,” she murmured.

Ashton clenched his jaw. “He swore I ordered him to leave and that he’d obeyed. The maid swore she saw him at home. Yet…” After a moment, he released a sigh and glanced around. “The past is gone and buried, lass. Let us speak no more on the matter.”

“As you wish.” Ella leaned her head against his shoulder.

He slipped the ring into his waistcoat pocket, then slid an arm about her waist. “Come, let us go. I’ll not have you become ill from the cold.”

“I am not so delicate, Ashton,” she complained as they set off. “I am a hardy woman, if you care to recall. Was I not washing clothes when we met?”

He granted her a nod. “Aye, but you are Lady Strachan now, and I will not have you so much as look at a washtub.”

Ella wrinkled her nose. “Truth be told, I shan’t miss washing clothes.”

Ashton cradled her hands in his. “These hands are meant for other things now.”

His fingers felt so warm on hers. Ella slowed and looked up at him through her lashes. He came to a stop.

“You are beautiful, Ella.”

His eyes darkened. A shiver of excitement raced straight to her core. She ran a slow hand over his powerful, hard chest. He made a sound, low in his throat and began walking her backwards toward a large oak, step by step, until the tree bark pressed her back.

He brushed his lips lightly over hers. “I want you,” he whispered. “Now.”

Her heart began to pound. “Here?”

“Aye,” he breathed into her mouth.

She met his kiss halfway in a frenzied claiming of the lips. He rucked up her dress and slipped a knee between her legs. As he lifted one of her legs with his arm, she unbuttoned his breeches and freed his swelling shaft.

He rubbed the length of his manhood between her folds. “You are wet for me,” he grunted in approval.

He lined his cock up to her entrance and took her in a single, glorious thrust.

“Yes,” Ella gasped in pleasure as her channel stretched around his girth.

This was a new kind of coupling, a frantic, desperate one. One that thrilled her to the core.

 He hefted her up against the tree and wrapped her legs around his hips, her weight penetrating her even deeper on his shaft. She clung to him, desperately, as their coupling grew feverish, closer to a ravishing.

“Say my name,” he demanded as he drove into her in fast strokes. “Say it.”

 “Ashton,” she mouthed, scarcely able to breathe. “Ashton.”

 “You are mine,” he growled. “Say it.”

She did.