-Cara-

Keegan held her cheek tenderly. His chest rose as he inhaled deeply before letting it out in a heavy sigh. The hand sneaked from her cheek into her hair. The green eyes glowed as they met hers. The intense way they studied her caused an urge to want to look away wash over her. But she couldn't.

"What are you doing to me?" He whispered and moistened his lips. Her heart felt like it was growing bigger from whatever it was that he was doing to her. It grew by the sole tenderness which he spoke to her. Did they both have these intense feelings towards one another, she wondered. Or was it just her? No. There had to be some sort of mutual affection between them.

His other arm was snaked around her back and he pulled her tightly against his body. It caused her to whimper airily when she felt him still inside her. He was still of an impressive size even thought it had been a while since he came.

"I think I do to you, what you do to me..." She said best she could in his language.

Her heart started to pound nervously in her chest. It was a very overt way of asking Keegan what he was feeling, just without the words 'do you like me'? Cara felt a bit childish for putting it like she had, but she didn't want to blurt it out. It felt better to dance around it. Then, if he rejected her, she could blame her lack of knowledge in his language. Couldn't she?

A wide smile was the only answer she was given from Keegan, and it was all she needed to feel her nervousness run off her like water. She could see the relief he was experiencing, fill his eyes, meaning that he had wanted to ask her as well, but obviously hadn't had the courage to do it yet.

-Keegan-

Cara's eyes glistened as they silently agreed that whatever they were - and had been for quite some time now - feeling towards one another, was mutual.

Keegan drew a mental sigh of relief and couldn't ever remember having felt so joyous and blissful as he did now. Before he could think to take the initiative, Cara pressed her soft lips against his. She grabbed his cheek softly. An involuntary low growl left him and his grip around her tightened. His hands loved the sensation of her soft skin in them and he enjoyed the moment immensely.

"I want you again." The words literally slipped out of him. He breathed heavily as the kiss ended, first after it had taken a very fiery turn after what he'd said.

He grew hard agan when he noticed how she responded so quickly to what he had said. Her lips clung to his, signaling her confirmation. He stole a much deeper and harder kiss just as the previous ended.  

Then, something caught his attention. A sound ripped him from the paradise he was currently experiencing. He froze instantly. His grip around Cara stiffened. She noticed that his attention had left her for something around them and stiffened as well. Her hands dropped from his cheeks to his shoulders. 

"What is it?" She asked in a whisper. Her forehead leaning against his.

"Quiet." He breathed and studied their surroundings closely with his eyes, not moving an inch from where they sat. "Be still."

It sounded like a twig breaking... or someone stepping on some dead branches. He kept listening while pretending to just sit there with Cara. Whomever it is, they aren't as good at sneaking as one need to be in this terrain. He thought darkly.

"What is it?" She whispered impatiently, slightly squirming in his embrace. Wanting to cover herself. He could hear the fear in her voice but she followed his lead; she did nothing and kept from moving.

"Someone is here." He answered silently.

The sound of steps moving away from them reached him and he turned his head directly in the direction from where the sound eminated from.

Whoever was watching them, had noticed that they had failed in sneaking up on them and was now leaving. While his eyes scouted the area he cojld hear them hurry away, not paying attention to keeping quiet after their presence was no longer a secret. Keegan considered bolting after them in his bare skin but what good would thaf so?  It would leave Cara unprotected, and just as naked as he was. He wasn't going to let her sit in her skin, alone, practically begging someone to take her from him again. No. He was going to stay right were he was; with his arms around her, where he could protect her. 

Keegan snatched his shirt from the ground when he couldn't hear anything anymore. Or see anyone for that matter. A long moment had passed and his heart was pounding inside his chest, every part of him was on edge, high strung and waiting for chaos.

He swept the shirt around Cara's naked body and told her to get dressed while he kept watch. He was tense all over from knowing that someone had been watching them. For how long had the person, or persons, been watching them?  

"Someone is here?" Cara asked quietly, standing close to him as he stepped into his trousers. "Is it your friends?" Her hands clenched the shirt in front of her chest and she threw nervous looks towards the trees. Her eyes lingered at where they last had seen his friends as they had left them. Although, that was almost in the opposite direction from where he had heard the ogling bastards. No, it hadn't been any of his friends.

"No." He answered darkly. "Whomever it was, isn't here anymore." He fished his underwear out of the grass and stuffed them into the pocket of his trousers. "They would've stepped forward as soon as they realized that I had heard them." He continued. When she didn't say anything he threw her a quick glance and saw that she hadn't understood all of it. "No. They wouldn't watch us." He explained in a pace she could follow. He also tried to use words she had learned. "They would have told us that they watched us. They wouldn't hide."

Cara didn't look the least calmer, and why would she? Keegan could see why she wasn't relieved that his friends - if they had watched them - would have let them now it. It was easy enough to read the thought which were currently present in her mind; why would they watch to start with? A hint of humiliation played in her eyes and he hated it.

I hope she does not believe that the others - and me included - watch one another do what we just did... He thought and threw a worried look in Cara's direction as she tied her skirt around her waist.

He himself didn't feel at ease either, but as strange as it was; he would have had preferred it to be someone he knew in the foliage... At least then he could beat sweet the life out of that person when he got his hands on them.

However, it hadn't been anyone he knew... It had been a stranger. This had him on edge. That someone had watched them from afar made something in him very suspicious of who it could have been. Was it someone that was out for Cara? Again? He kept his concerns to himself. 

She has enough on her mind... He concluded when he looked at her again; the humiliation was still present in her eyes and now it had spread to her whole face. Her shoulders had crawled upwards a bit as well. It made her look uncomfortable and scared.

"Let's go." He growled when the sight of her feeling so unsafe made him simmer on the inside.

.  .  .

Keegan decided to leave Cara at home with his mother while he went to see Jared. He needed to find out if it had been his friends that had been hiding in the bushes, or if it had been someone else. Cara had also suggested that they did not tell his mother about the ordeal, which he quickly agreed with.

No good will come from telling her. Cara had told him right before they had entered the house. She was absolutely right. In more aspects than the part of someone spying on them. Keegan didn't know how his mother would react if she found out that they had shared a moment which his mother deemed only for those who were wedded, and was not committing any sins in doing so. No. Cara was right. They shouldn't tell her about it, or anything even remotely close to it.

As they walked into the house, they were greeted by his mother on her knees. She was in the middle of scrubbing the floors because Keegans 'bloody mut' had run in, covered in mud and dirt and what else he could have rolled in. Keegan pressed his lips together as he watched how his dog had spread his mess everywhere.

He looked at Cara and they shared a look that stated how both of them were unwilling to stick around. Without uttering a single word, they immediately decided that Cara would go with him instead. Neither of them wanted to be in the presence of the  woman snarling curses on the floor. They left.

A while later, Keegan was standing on the porch to Jared's house. He had knocked, impatiently and could hear his friend argue with his mother over who was going to greet their unexpected guest. He looked over his shoulder; Cara stood by the wooden gate and waited. The sight of her calmed his soul temporarily. Even though he knew she wouldn't have gone anywhere, he still had to make sure that she was still where he had left her.

A fear was growing deep inside of him. A fear that whoever had been by the lake, was there for a reason. And a part of him was almost certain that it was the same people who had taken Cara the last time. While another part of him thought that he night be overreaction, but he was too scared to take any chances.

Jared was the one who finally opened the door, and in doing so, ripped Keegan from his dark thoughts. "Well, well, well." Jared purred with a smirk on his lips as soon as he recognized his friend. "How was things after we left?" He pumped his eyebrows, grinned while crossing his arms and leaned against the door frame. 

"Did you leave? Truly?" Keegan countered, going straight to the point. He was too unnerved to wait. "You - or Fergus - didn't stay behind?" He asked. The thought of Fergus ogling at Cara had Keegan almost in an instant rage.

The content smirk on his best friend's lips faded. "What do you mean?" He asked, brows furrowing when he couldn't make sense of what Keegan was wondering. 

"I mean, did you actually leave or did you or any of the others stay... close by?" Keegan hated that he had to ask, but he needed to be sure.

"So you did roll around with her after we had left..." Jared's smirk returned and there was almost a hint of pride in his eyes. "Did you get to finish this time?"

Keegan raised his hand while lowering his head in tiredness, signaling that Jared had no business in that part of Keegan and Cara's... well, life. And that he wasn't going to share this with him.

"It's not funny, Jared." Keegan muttered, wiping the smirk ride of his friend's face. "Did anyone of you stay?" The repetition of his question finally sunk into Jared's thick head. 

"No, why would anyone stay and watch you?" He answered and grimaced as if the sight would have disgusted him.

"Because I heard someone." Keegan answered but lowered his voice when Jared's mother walked past them. He hadn't even noticed her approaching them. "Come on. I don't want to discuss it here." He urged Jared and threw another look in Cara's direction. Luckily, Jared's mother knew better than to stop and talk to Cara. 

Mother must have had a word with her. There is no chance she doesn't know who Cara is by now. Not with that blabbermouth of a son she has. He thought, impressed that Jared's mother didn't initiate any contact with Cara. He turned his attention back to Jared who had just noticed that she was there. As soon as Jared's eyes found her, it was clear that he was wondering why Keegan had brought her. 

"If that is so, if someone actually spied on the two of you, then you have another problem." Jared said with a grim look in his eyes. "You sure you heard someone?" He asked. Keegan nodded, wanting to hear what his friend had to say. "You're right, we should discuss this elsewhere." He said and looked around as if someone was around, besides Cara who stood waiting some steps away. 

"We're heading to the tavern." Keegan stated and nodded in the direction of the tavern.

"Why?" Jared wondered, his forehead wrinkled. "Not that I am complaining. I'd happily discuss things over a tankard. Or two." He grinned as the two last words left him. "But why the tavern? And why are you bringing her? Besides the obvious fact that you want her around." 

"I am bringing her with me because last time someone snatched her from me," Keegan looked towards Cara and then back at Jared yet again, "it was just her and Orla. If someone did watch us by the lake, and it wasn't any of you sorry lot, then I suspect that it might be the same folks who took her the first time... I reckon that if she's surrounded by people - not just me and my family - she'll be harder to take." He explained and started walking towards the gate.

Jared followed him, agreeing to go along, without as much as a word. Jared never turned down the chance of getting a free drink - or the possibility to drink at all. "The more eyes the better." Keegan stated.

"Or bringing her along will make snatching her a great deal easier." Jared countered, causing Keegan to stop in his tracks, turning around and glaring at him in terror but also with a fury boiling within him. "Strike me again and I will go straight back inside." Jared warned him, waving an index finger between them. 

"What do you mean it'll be easier? Do you think it'll be easier to kidnap her if she's around a lot of people?" Keegan breathed and tried his very best to calm down. It proved very, very, hard, especially since their conversation had shifted into the abduction of Cara.

Jared nodded but then shrugged his shoulders in indecisiveness. It didn't sooth the storm within Keegan. It was as if Jared said 'yes' and then 'I don't know', all in the blink of an eye, and Keegan didn't care for it. He needed clear answers.

"The majority of the villagers don't know her yet, because you - and that mother of yours - has kept her existence hidden from almost everyone in Tranmere. If you keep her with just us, who's supposed to notice her when she eventually gets kidnapped again?" Jared argued and carefuööy stressed the word 'eventually'. "The only ones who will notice if she goes missing again; is us."

Keegan's heart sank. Of course! Jared was completely right! It would do them no good to bring Cara to a crowded place as long as no one knew who she was. 

"So what do you suggest? That-" 

"That you don't hide her any longer." Jared answered simply. 

"But what about the 'witch' thing?" Keegan lowered his voice as they came closer to Cara. 

"Choose." Jared answered frustratingly simple. "Do you want her around or kidnapped?" 

"It is not that simple!" Keegan argued, unconsciously raising his voice in grievance. "If I parade her around, the rumor of that witch Kay was babbling about might cause Cara to become the scapegoat because no one knows who she is and-" 

"And what?" Cara's voice interrupted him. They had kept walkng and not been paying attention to that they were within Cara's earshot. The two of them cleared their throats when it was abundantly clear that Cara had at least heard the last part of their conversation. 

"Your options are bleak, Keegan." Jared answered them both and gave them a contemplative look. "You either protect her from her previous captors, or the villagers' superstition." Neither of the options were ideal.

Keegan sighed and walked up to Cara. She was watching him, worried about their conversation. Despite not having heard all of it, she seemed to understand that they were talking about how to go from here. He drew her closer by her hand and she took shelter in its embrace.

"Both of those options may result in her disappearing." Keegan said and didn't mind his words so Cara could understand him. This, he didn't want her to understand. It was better if she didn't.

Jared nodded in agreement. If she was kidnapped, he would maybe never see her again. However, if he exposed her to the villagers - which he now realized that maybe they should've done sooner to avoid this specific situation - she might be shunned and driven out of Tranmere... Or even worse; put through superstitious witch tests, which almost always led to the poor soul's death. If she was shunned, he could at least take her away if needed, but if she was accused of being a witch - he didn't know how much he could do to protect her from the villagers' superstition and fears.

He looked down at her and knew that the only option he couldn't accept, was being without her. They needed to find a solution which didn't endanger her or their future together. No matter how hard it would be, he wanted her by his side.

He loved her.

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I hoped you liked this chapter!

All the best,

Jenny