CHAPTER 46

Jamie and Ian came back to the cabin close to an hour after Lizzie had. Skylar was concerned when she saw Jamie's hands bloodied and bruised, but he assured her it was nothing serious and Claire would be able to clean and bandage it easily.

Jamie sent her inside to get Claire so she could do just that, but before she walked through the door, she turned back to him and Ian and saw they were whispering close together with very intense expressions on their faces. She had no idea what that was about, but she figured it couldn't be anything important since neither of them said anything to her about it. So she brushed it off and forgot about it.

A month had gone by since that day and things had returned to the Fraser-version of normal. Fergus and Marsali came to visit for a few days with Germain and were shocked, to say the least, to meet Brianna. Jamie and Claire had put together some story about Claire giving birth to her and having to give her up when she left Scotland during Culloden and they had gotten in touch when they all came to America. All in all, Fergus and Marsali were very happy to meet her and extended to her warm welcomes into the family.

During this period, Skylar and Ian had decided to push their engagement and eventual wedding off even longer so that Brianna would get all the attention and focus that she needed while she figured out what to do about her pregnancy.

Skylar tried to remain optimistic even though it was slightly frustrating. "We've waited this long. What's another few months at the most?"

In turn, they used every chance, opportunity and excuse they could think of to get just five minutes alone; not to "do anything", per say, but just to be together without being watched over by five other people. And they were very lucky if they managed to get in a whole five minutes before someone found them.

But one day, a miracle happened and everyone was away from the cabin. Claire had gone to another family settled on Fraser's Ridge to assist a birth and had taken Lizzie. Jamie had been gone for a few days already because he had been called to Wilmington to meet with Tryon on some issue or another that Jamie had no interest in discussing with him. Then lastly, Brianna, with Murtagh accompanying her, went out to pick herbs for Claire that were running low in her supply and needed refilling. So, Skylar and Ian were taking advantage of every minute they had the Ridge to themselves.

Ian currently had Skylar pressed against a tree with one of his hands next to her head and the other firmly holding her hip. She gripped her fingers in his hair and they were feverously making out. They had been going at it for close to a half hour and their lips were past swollen, but they continued anyway, ignoring their soreness.

Pulling away for a second just to catch his breath, he told her, panting, "Christ, I could kiss ye all day and never tire of it."

Also breathing heavily, she cupped his face and replied, "I'm not stopping you."

They smiled at each other for a moment and quickly connected their mouths again.

Without speaking it out loud, they both knew that this may be the only opportunity they would have likely until they were married to finally break the sexual tension that had only been building exponentially since the day they met. But not knowing when anyone could get back and then come looking for them was too big of a risk to take, so neither brought it up.

Ian took his mouth off of hers and placed feather light kisses down her jaw. When he reached her neck, he continued down, but replacing pecks with long slow kisses. Skylar closed her eyes and let her head fall to the side to give him easier access. At the base of her neck, the part right above her collarbone, he bit her skin; not too hard, but she definitely felt it and she gasped. He sucked the spot to soothe the slight pain. She couldn't hold back a quiet moan as he did. Something about that particular part of her body sent fire through her and she held his head there to give it more attention. He understood and sucked harder, nipping at it as well. She gave up trying to keep her breathing steady and bit her lip to keep in as much noise as possible inside. Ian pushed against her as flush as he could and squeezed her hips so tight he was sure there would be bruises the next day.

"Get a room you two."

Ian jumped back from Skylar so fast it was as if he had been electrocuted. They looked and saw Bree, chuckling in amusement at what she had walked in on.

They stood a good six feet apart from each other, both of their faces three shades of red, as Bree and Murtagh continued past them. Murtagh kept a stern gaze on Ian until he couldn't keep his head turned anymore. Jamie clearly had instructed him to watch the two in his absence to make sure they didn't get up to anything; or more like, make sure Ian didn't try anything.

When Brianna and Murtagh were out of sight, the young couple released the breaths they were holding in. They looked at each other and just started laughing. Whatever mood was being made was completely gone now.

"I should help Bree refill the herbs," Skylar said.

"Aye, and I need te tend te the animals. With Murtagh."

"Good luck with that. That should be fun."

Ian closed the space between the two, grabbed her face, and kissed her long and filled with infatuation.

"Who knows when we'll be able te do that again," he told her, keeping his forehead against hers.

"Patience, my love. They can't oversee us forever. I'll be your wife before long and then we'll have ample privacy with a cabin and a bed of our own." She kissed him one last time then pulled away. "Go to work!" she ordered, shoving him playfully. She smiled at him and walked away, feeling his gaze on her as she went inside.

Bree looked up when she came into the cabin. "Able to pull yourself away, I see," she teased.

Skylar blushed but chuckled and sat down at the table across from the red haired girl.

"Believe me, it wasn't by choice. Please don't tell Dad."

"Don't tell him that you and your boyfriend were basically getting to first base against a tree? Don't worry, I won't. Murtagh's the one you'll need to bribe to keep quiet though."

"Ian's with him now, so hopefully he'll find some way to convince Murtagh he didn't see anything."

"He better. Da nearly throws Ian across the room when he just gives you a kiss, so he would not like to hear about this."

"He takes the loving and protective father role very seriously."

"Yeah, I found that out too. He, like, pretended to attack me to get me to believe the rape wasn't my fault."

"And did it work?"

Bree hesitated. "More or less."

"I'm honestly so surprised at how he's being after he found out about your assault."

"What do you mean?"
"After Bonnet on the riverboat, it almost tore us apart. The guilt he felt over it was so overpowering that he couldn't talk to me or look at me. He couldn't even be in the same room as me. It took more than a week for me to get him to sit him down and listen to me."

"That's awful."

"It really was. But that's why I'm surprised, but extremely glad, that he's not avoiding you. I don't know, we had really been building out father/daughter relationship then and I think he felt he had failed as a father because he couldn't save his daughter from getting hurt and every time he saw me he was reminded of that." She then realized what that statement might have come across as. "I-I didn't mean, um…I'm not saying at all that he thinks any less of your attack because he can look at you. I know that it's destroying him that you were hurt and he would do anything to have stopped it. I just-just, um, I-"

"Skylar," she interrupted, "it's okay. I didn't take any offense. He hadn't even met me yet then. Of course he would've reacted differently having already had such a deep relationship with you. And it's probably because of that that he can be around me. You know what everyone says, parents make their mistakes on the first kid so that on the second they know better. Though usually it's the older sister that that happens with, not the younger."

"Sister?" Skylar repeated.

"Of course. We're both the daughters of Jamie and Claire Fraser, so I've been thinking of you as my sister. Is that okay? You don't have to think the same of me if you don't want to."

Skylar smiled at that. "I was an only child back in my time, so the fact that I have an older brother and an older sister now just makes me feel really really happy." Bree smiled back at her.

"I never had any siblings either, so I'm really really happy that I now have the best little sister I never knew I needed. And as my first act as big sister, can I give you some advice? Da's coming back sometime today most likely, so you'll wanna cover that up before he gets home and sees it." She pointed to her own neck, telling Skylar that there was something on hers. Panic filled the girl's eyes as she leapt up and ran to the mirror.

"Omigod." Ian's bite was starting to form a good sized hickey. If Jamie saw this, Ian was dead. "How do I cover this?"

"I have an extra scarf you can use that's the same color as the one you're already wearing. Just overlap them and make sure the second one pulled up as high as you can get it."

"Ugh! I'm gonna kill Ian!"

Bree laughed. "You didn't seem too unhappy about it while he was making that."

Skylar struggled looking for words to argue back with, but there were none. So she just said, "Shut up."

Bree went out to her and Lizzie's shelter to get the other scarf and helped fit it around Skylar's neck so that the hickey was fully covered.

Once they had finished with the herbs, Skylar went outside to work in the garden. Ian was chopping firewood when he saw her come out and called to her. "Yank!"

She involuntarily smiled seeing him, as she always did, and went over to him.

When she got closer, he scrunched his eyebrows together and asked, "Why are ye wearin' two scarves?"

"You can tell?" She seemed very displeased by that.

"Aye, one's color is darker than the other."

"Shit. Is it like, really noticeable. Like, odd noticeable?"

"Why are you so worried about this?"

She looked around to make sure Murtagh wasn't nearby before she said, "Because Dad cannot see this," She pulled down Brianna's scarf to show him the mark on her neck. Ian's eyes went wide.

"Did I do-"

"Yes, yes you did. And if Dad sees it, you're dead." She readjusted the cloth so that the hickey was completely covered again.

"Why am I the only one who gets in trouble fer these things? Ye come on te me just as much as I do ye."

She put on the most sweet innocent voice as she said, "Because I'm the pure little angel who has never been touched by a man and would never dream of partaking in anything that would risk my virtue." He rolled his eyes at the "protect her virtue" excuse. He was just as sick of it as she was. She continued, bringing her voice back to normal. "You, on the other hand," she pushed him by his chest against the tree they were in front of and got as close to him as she could, "are a man of loose morals who has had women before." She dragged her hands down his sides to his hips, making him shiver. She kept one hand pushed against him, and used the other to pull his shirt collar down slightly to expose his collar bone. She kissed painfully slow across it and the base of his neck as she went on, "So obviously, you are the one who would try to seduce me. It could never be the other way around." She could hear him take long deep breaths, trying to keep his breathing from getting too heavy. She grinned to herself in amusement at the effect she had on him, though knowing full well he had the same effect on her.

She grazed her teeth on a spot of his neck. She did not want to leave any sort of mark as evidence, but she still wanted him to be able to feel it. She sucked very gently on it, and when her hot breath hit his slightly wet skin, he let a quiet moan escape his throat and his hands shot to her backside, pulling her in closer.

Skylar looked up at him. He was looking down to her as well, his face flushed and his pupils were so big that his eyes were basically black. She stood on her toes and kissed him softly, though Ian responded much more hungrily. She let him have this for a few seconds before she forced herself from him and put a foot of distance between them.

"Now Ian, what would Dad say?" she teased him with her sweet voice again.

"Yer cruel," he said back, almost glaring at her. He was panting by now.

"I have no idea what you mean. I would never try to tempt you with anything indecent." She bit her lip and gave him a smirky smile, then walked away, not looking back at him.

Ian watched her go, focusing on how fitted her pants were and thanking the Lord that she had chosen to wear them that day. But at the same time, he was desperately trying to ignore the growing tightness of his own. This was one of the few times he was thankful they slept in separate spaces.

Jamie got back just before dinner that night. Skylar was obsessively pulling the scarf up, beyond terrified that it would slip and Jamie would see the mark on her neck. She kept glancing at Ian and could see he was anxious over it too but trying to hide it. He knew too well that it would be the end of him if his uncle saw what he had done to his daughter.

Thankfully, they made it through the rest of the night without any problems. The next morning however…

When Skylar woke up, she completely forgot about it and got dressed like usual, not thinking about the now significantly darker bruise being fully exposed. But she was reminded immediately when she walked outside to join everyone for breakfast and the first thing Jamie said to her was, "What in God's name is on yer neck? And ye better tell me that's the result of an unfortunate injury."

Skylar stuttered, trying to think of something on the fly. But she wasn't fast enough. Ian came out at that moment and when Jamie saw him, he jumped up and pinned Ian against the shelter. He had drawn his knife out of angry instinct but didn't press it against his nephew's throat, even though that's what he was wanting more than anything to do.

Skylar was able to separate her father from the 18 year old who looked like he was about to pass out from fear.

Jamie's blood pressure started to come down as Skylar swore to him that Ian hadn't "robbed her of her virtue," like Jamie had threateningly accused him of just two seconds before.

When he was no longer seeing red, he sheathed his knife and said to Ian, keeping his voice as calm as he could, "I apologize fer jumpin' on ye like that. But if I find out that she's lyin' and ye bedded her out of wedlock, it'll be yer head te pay, lad."

Skylar told Ian that it was probably in his best interest for him to have little interaction with her for at least the rest that day. Ian agreed and didn't come within 3 feet of her for that day and the next. By the second day after the near murder, Jamie seemed to have moved on from it and never brought it up again; though he was now supervising the young couple even more closely. Skylar made sure to keep her neck covered until the hickey was fully gone five days later with Claire's help.

Okay, this is honestly just a bunch of filler that was originally in the next chapter but I decided to separate it because it was unnecessary-necessary things that were just piling on top of the big things in 47.

So click next and keep reading!