WHEN GAVIN OPENED his eyes again the cottage had gone dark. Easing off the bed, he went to build the fire, and then went outside to relieve his bladder. From the position of the moon he knew it was near midnight. They’d slept through the entire day and half the night. When he returned inside he saw his bed was empty, but Catriona’s gown lay beside it. The tartan and his lady had gone out the back door into the woods, likely so she might answer the same call of nature.

He stripped out of his tunic, washed out his mouth with some whiskey, and then found some ripe sand pears that would serve as a midnight snack. He was considering making a brew when Catriona slipped back inside, wrapped up in his tartan and nibbling on a sorrel leaf.

The firelight danced in the red tones of her hair, making her tousled mane look as if it had been strewn with tiny garnets. She’d draped the old blue tartan around herself like the gown of a goddess, and it wrapped around her slender body like the finest of silks. It struck Gavin then, just how beautiful she was—and completely unconscious of it as well.

“I would have hunted for berries, but ’tis too dark.” She came to him, the scent of the sorrel perfuming her like tart strawberry, and let the tartan slide a little from her bare shoulder. “And then I left my gown and clogs here. ’Twould no’ be wise to scamper about the forest wearing only your plaid.”

“About that.” He tugged at the fold over her breasts. “’Tis a cold night. I’ll want it back.”

She pouted a little. “How shall I keep warm?”

Gavin grinned. “I ken a man who can help you with that.” Just as he made to take her in his arms, she sidled away from him. “He’s very good, Cat.”

“Och, right, for I’ve met him,” she said gravely as she stole one of his pears and nibbled at it. “He kept me warm on the shore one night, as proper as you like, save for one kiss that fair curled my toes.” She eyed him. “I’d have the other. That great, grand beast of a man who seizes me and touches me and doesnae stop with one kiss, even in the pouring rain. Can you persuade him to warm me?”

“That beast is no’ very good,” Gavin warned as he went to her, and threaded his fingers through her hair to tip back her head. “He wants only to have you naked, under him in his bed, where he can have his way with you.” Her eyes had gone dark, and her lips glistened with the juice from the pear. The combination made his blood burn. “I wouldnae tempt him.”

“But he makes me feel such things.” She moved her shoulders, loosening the tartan, and watched his face as it slipped down. “He’s only to look at me and I grow hot and restless. And see now.” She let the tartan fall to her waist, baring her red, tightly-puckered nipples. “What he does to my body.”

Their first time together had been so passionate and emotionally-charged that Gavin had lost complete control. Now she was offering herself to him again, teasing and playful, with complete trust and openness. He didn’t deserve her, but he’d spend the rest of his days trying to.

“I’m your man, then.”

He stepped back to strip off his trews, and reached to push the tartan over her hips, letting it fall to the floor. Drawing her closer, he ran his hands from her shoulders to the tight, delicious curves of her buttocks. She wriggled against him as he clamped hold and lifted her, his cock pressing into her belly like a twitching iron rod.

A sigh of longing stuttered out of her. “Do you never do this in a bed, my fine beast?”

The last woman he had taken to bed had been Thora, but the memory no longer made him feel miserable. He had started his life over, and Catriona, who was as honest and loving as Thora had been deceitful and full of hate, would never betray him.

“Mayhap you should teach me that, too,” he told her, walking with her plastered against his chest to drop with her on the bed. “How do we begin, my sweet Cat?”

“You must do as I show you.” She climbed over him, straddling his belly as she pushed him back against the ticking. “Close your eyes, and dinnae peek.”

Gavin obeyed her, although he grumbled over being denied the sight of her lovely, flushed face and pretty, tight-peaked breasts. She lifted up, shifting down to graze his cock with the damp softness between her thighs, before she settled on his legs. Her hands swept over his chest, stroking his muscles with tantalizing caresses. The brush of her hair joined her fingers as she put her mouth in the space between his collarbones, and used her tongue there to trace the hollow.

The touch of her lips made his shaft swell, and then he felt an odd, sharp sensation spread over his upper arm. “What do you now to me, sweet Cat?”

“I mean to cover you with kisses,” she murmured as she moved her lips to the flat pebbles of his masculine nipples, laving one and then the other. “That makes you shake.”

“You make me crazed.” Gavin almost opened his eyes as he felt the needling sensation in his bicep grow more intense. “Do you use your nails on me?”

She murmured a no before sliding down to his belly, where she tongued his navel and circled it with kisses.

“I’m here.” The soft curve of her cheek rubbed against the throbbing swell of his shaft. “You’ll want to look now, I ken, but– Gods, Gavin.”

Light filled his eyes as he opened them, and saw a gilded blue haze. He dragged Catriona up onto him, holding her as power surged through his body. He felt something clawing at his arm now, and turned his head to see the inked lion staring back as it crouched, as if to spring.

“Lovely Cat.” The words came out of his mouth in a low, feral growl of a voice that was nothing like his own. “I’ve lain in wait for you, watching and wanting. Give yourself to me, and I shall make you my queen.”

She should have shoved herself away and fled, but Catriona only stared back at the lion. She reached for his arm, and ran her fingertips over the ink as if to stroke the bristling back. “The beast awakes in you.”

Gavin struggled with the power, fighting for control. “Cat, get away from me before it hurts–”

“’Twill no’ harm me,” she whispered. “’Tis part of you. I can feel him now. He wants us both. He wants to share our pleasure.”

A rumbling groan erupted from Gavin as he rolled Catriona under him, pinning her beneath his weight. His cock felt as if it might explode before he could get inside her, but still he tried to be gentle as he fitted his straining dome to the wet ellipse of her opening.

She arched under him. “Dinnae keep it from me, please, Gavin, please. I need you.”

* * *

Seeing Gavin’s skinwork come alive with light had been startling, even a little frightening, but as soon as Catriona sensed the presence of the beast his purpose flooded hers. He had slumbered deep within the highlander until Gavin had come to the island. What they had shared at the falls had roused him from his sleep, and now he wanted everything.

From the rigid set of his shoulders Gavin still resisted the beast, but she could feel his will wavering. Deliberately she stroked his ink again, this time with the edge of her nails, and spread her thighs wider. Her folds splayed over his swollen dome, drenching him with her silkiness as she lifted her hips.

“There,” she whispered, tugging his head down to hers as she moved against him. “’Tis where you belong. Inside me, loving me. You cannae hurt me when I want you so much. Give me all of you, my man, my beast.”

Gavin’s body jerked over her as he penetrated her with a slow, heavy thrust, his shaft stretching her as it plunged in. He drew back to watch her face, his own tight with hunger, and plowed as deeply as she could take him. Once planted in her, he swelled even more, his cock filling her as if their sexes had locked together. Then he moved, drawing back to thrust again, and it still felt as if he were inside her, stretching her to her limits.

“You are his mate and mine, my naked Queen,” the spirit’s voice said, rumbling. “I possess you with him.”

“Aye, we do.” Gavin watched her face as he worked in and out of her with steady, passionate strokes. “Give me your lips now. I want to taste your cries as I fack you.”

Catriona pressed her mouth to his just as a moan erupted, and he drank it from her, his hands dragging her legs up around him, his tongue sliding deep. Her breasts heaved against his chest, hot and aching, and the rasp of her nipples on his skin drew his mouth from hers.

His breath rushed against her ear as he muttered, “I want to mark you with my mouth and my hands and my seed. I want you to wear me like another skin. You’ll never be free of me, my beautiful Catriona.”

His words hurled her past pleasure and into a dark, hot explosion of bliss that stretched on and on until she cried out his name, and he took her mouth again.

Catriona clung to him, kissing him back as her body writhed under his. Still he pumped in and out of her, riding her delight until he dragged her from the trembling end into yet another release. All she knew was him and his devouring mouth and his hard, endless facking.

When his eruption came he drove into her and held himself deep, ending the kiss to fling his head back and let loose the roar of the beast. Inside her body his cock and that of the spirit’s pumped together, saturating her with creamy heat and soft, satisfied power. It spread through her like light, rushing into her womb and curling there to resonate with the purr of an exultant feline.

Deep inside her Catriona felt a glow begin, unlike any she had ever known.

Gavin collapsed, his big frame shaking, and rolled onto his back with her still impaled on him. He held her there, brushing the hair from her face and caressing her spine as they both trembled through the aftershocks.

His hand abruptly stilled, and he lifted her from him to put her on her side. He checked her from her lips to her thighs, his fingertips searching for she knew not what. Only when he touched her belly did she feel a tenderness that made her glance down.

Just above her navel a shape like a lion’s paw appeared, etched in gold and blue as if she had been inked.

“You marked me.” She gingerly touched the skinwork, which sent a pleasant tingle through her fingers, and then she saw his expression. “It doesnae hurt. ’Tis just a surprise and a very pretty one.” It wasn’t what was causing the glowing sensation, however.

“I didnae do this.” He bent his head to examine the ink more closely, and then checked his shoulder. “’Tis the same as mine, but how?”

A dim memory came back to her, and she almost cried out as she realized what the glow was, but she couldn’t tell him that now. He would think her crazed for certain.

Quickly she focused on his ink, and recalled where she had seen it before this night. “Men with skinwork like yours came to Everbay once. I dinnae ken why, but my mother said they were Pritani.”

Gavin’s expression turned grim. “Likely they came hunting the undead.”

“I wish I might tell you more of them, but they didnae stay long.” She caressed his ink with gentle fingers. “I’m glad you marked me. I like your beast very much.”

He gathered her close. “Even when I’ve told you naught of my life,” he said gruffly, “Nor my past?”

“You will when ’tis time for me to ken.” As she would, once they left the island.

“But I do have a confession,” he said, his eyes looking deeply into hers.

Her excitement dimmed. “Out with it.”

“The Mollers didnae take the fisher to Shetland,” he said, as a grin spread across his face. “’Tis a slow time since the herring have no’ yet begun to run, so Bjarke granted my want for leave.”

She traced the curved line of his mouth. “I’ve still something to tell you too, but I must first take you to meet Ennis and Senga.”

Gavin nodded. “And where do they live?”

She allowed herself a small, smug smile. “I’ll take you there in the morning. I’ve told them a little about us, and they are eager to meet you. No, dinnae scowl so. They’re the best and kindest of folk.” Her gaze shifted to the window, and what she saw there gave her a start. “Gods above. ’Tis dawn now.” She frowned at him. “Where went the night?”

He gave her a tender kiss. “I didnae notice. You kept me busy, wench.”

“Expect many nights the same.” Catriona rose to her feet, tugging him up. “Come outside, and watch the sunrise with me.”

He wrapped her in his tartan before he pulled on his trews and followed her through the door. The grass bowed, heavy with dew, and the air had the clear, cool scent of night rain. She walked with him into the clear, where she saw a perfect rainbow arcing over the island. It stretched across the pale sky with bands so vivid they seemed painted.

Her hand crept to cover the tiny glow in her belly as she turned to him. “’Tis an omen to see a full rainbow at dawn. It means that a great circle will soon be completed. What was will return to what is.”

Gavin smiled and put his arm around her. “You’ve come back to me, so I believe it.”

She saw the beauty of the colors reflected in his moonstone eyes, and knew in that moment she would love him for the rest of her days. “You’ll no’ have to chase me again, my lad.”