She reached up to brush her fingertips across his wrinkled brow. “She was disappointed when I said you wouldn’t marry me. I don’t think she realizes that everything she told me only made me better understand why you can’t.”
He regarded her with such tenderness as he caressed her cheek, it was hard to believe he was the powerful lord of a great castle. Now, he was simply the man she loved. “Riona, perhaps I should forget marrying Eleanor.”
She put her finger to his lips to silence him and shook her head. “If you lost Dunkeathe after all your efforts and suffering because of me, you might come to resent me. I won’t hazard that. Let’s enjoy what we have now, for the few nights we have left.”
“Once I’m wed, that will be the end, Riona,” he said, his voice low and mournful. “I will be faithful to the vows I make before God.”
“I would expect no less. And when you announce your choice at Lammas, my uncle and I will leave.”
Afterward, she would never see him again.
In spite of that, she gloried in the strength and warmth of him as they held each other, basking in his affection. Not afraid of the future, whatever it held. And yet…“Nicholas, if I should be with child when I go home, should I send word to you or would you prefer not to know?”
Taking hold of her shoulders, he held her away from him, and in his face, she saw the answer even before he said it, and was glad. “Of course you must tell me. Girl or boy, any child of ours will be known as mine, and proudly so.”
She smiled at him, loving him. Respecting him. Proud to have been his lover, come what may.
“But what of you, if that should be?” he asked, concern in his dark eyes. “How will your family treat you?”
“Uncle Fergus will be shocked, and disappointed, I’m sure. Kenneth…?” She shrugged her shoulders. “The same. But they won’t abandon me or force me from Glencleith. They are too kind and generous.”
“For your sake, I’m glad, but if you ever need anything, whether you bear my child or not, you mustn’t hesitate to come to me.”
“I will.” She stroked his arms and her body warmed as she leaned closer to his. “So we won’t worry about a child, but accept it as a gift, one to the other, if that should come to pass,” shewhispered as she wrapped her arms about him. “Now kiss me, Nicholas, and love me, while we can.”
His eyes flared with exciting intensity as he took her in his arms. He kissed her fervently, while her tongue invaded the heat of his mouth, seeking that slick intimacy that foreshadowed the other.
Her upper back and shoulders against the tree, his fingertips glided over her bodice, then his palm cupped her breast. His hips pressed against hers, reminding her of what they’d done every night since she’d gone to his chamber the first time, as if she needed it. All the reminders necessary had been in his eyes when he looked at her, the smile she’d never seen him give another, the fierce passion in his kiss. And now his touch.
How she loved the strength of him, the power, the resolute will that had kept him alive for so long. She even admired the toughness he had acquired to survive.
She had to feel his naked skin, the heated flesh. Eagerly she thrust her hands under his tunic and over his flat stomach. One went higher, to brush lightly over his hardened nipple in a way that made him break the kiss to gasp, while her other hand went lower, to stroke the hardness there.
He closed his eyes and groaned as she aroused him further, delighting that she could make him feel such pleasure. Licking his neck. Kissing his jaw. Nibbling lightly on his earlobe as he stood still, powerless to move.
Until suddenly his eyes flew open—his desire-filled eyes, wild with a primitive hunger that took her breath away. “I wantyou now, Riona,” he said, his voice husky and urgent. “Right now. Right here.”
She said no word, but reached for the drawstring of his breeches and pulled the knot undone.
With a low growl that made her burn with passionate yearning, he grabbed her buttocks and lifted her. Her arms about his neck, she wrapped her legs around his waist, her skirt and shift bunching about her thighs. His breathing ragged, he moved forward so that her back was full against the tree.
Holding herself steady with one arm, she reached down and guided him into her, muffling her moan of welcome against his neck as he entered. She held tight as they loved, biting her lip to keep from crying out with the sheer pleasure of having him hard inside her, filling her anew with every thrust, his breath hot on her cheek. The tension, wondrous, delicious, seeming never ending, built and built until she could stay silent no longer.
“Faster,” she begged, panting. “Harder.” She had to feel that moment of shattering ecstasy. She couldn’t wait. “Please…”
And then the tension snapped. Throbbing, she couldn’t stifle the groan that arose deep in her throat, a primal cry of release, echoed by her lover as he, too, climaxed, there against the tree.
Afterward, he stood still, his chest rising and falling as he breathed deep while she kissed his cheek and stroked his hair.
When he eventually withdrew, she unwrapped her legs and lowered them until she was standing. He adjusted his breeches as she brushed down the skirt of her gown.
Taking a deep breath, he raised his dark eyes. “Riona, that was…” He shook his head, and his wonderful, rare smile reappeared. “You simply astonish me. I’ve never met a woman like you in all my life.”
“I’ve never met a man like you,” she said, fixing her disheveled hair.
He took hold of her upper arms and kissed the tip of her nose. “You look beautiful—like a goddess of the forest.”
“I think I probably look a mess, and if I don’t fix my hair before I return to your castle, everyone will guess what I’ve been doing, if not with whom.” She cocked her head and ran her gaze over his magnificent body. “If they could see you now, they’d have their suspicions about you, too.”
