He chuckles against my ear, and with one more shift of his hips that makes me groan, he pulls back enough to rake his eyes over me again. I follow suit. Fair’s fair. There are scars I’ve never seen before,stories we will have time for later, but I’m not worried about those as he reaches for the button on his jeans and slides down the zipper.
When he climbs off the bed to shuck them off, leaving them in a heap by his shirt, I take the opportunity to say farewell to mine as well. I shimmy them down my legs until Jamie’s hands meet mine to give them their final tug, discarding them with the rest.
He lies down beside me, on his side, fingers tracing my hip and down my thigh. “Did I tell you that you’re beautiful yet?”
He knows he has, but I nod anyway, feeling my already flushed skin warm more under his perusal. I’m not in sexy lingerie but he devours me with his gaze as if I were. “Did I tellyouthat you’re beautiful?” I parrot his words back to him. They’re true; he’s stunning. He shakes his head with a smile and a chuckle. “Well, you are.”
I roll onto my side and our bodies press together again, hotter, more insistent as my mouth finds his and our hands begin to move more freely.
He moans and I gasp. He nips and I suck. He pinches and I squeeze. Each movement is a puzzle piece fitting together to form the whole picture. The picture of who we are now and who we’re meant to be.
We take our time. The dinner on the table forgotten, other needs taking priority over things like hunger for food. No, the only hunger that matters is the one we have for each other, and we’re voracious.
The only moment of hesitation comes just before Jamie brings us fully together, when he leans down to press the sweetest kiss to my lips and whispers, “Tha gaol agam ort.”
I love you.
And then he shows me it’s true.
We sit with bowls of reheated steak and ale pie in our laps on the couch. I’m dressed in only Jamie’s button-down shirt, and the messy bun I was sporting earlier is long gone, my hair cascading around my shoulders in chaotic waves.
“What will I have to do to earn the secret recipe for this? It’s incredible.” Jamie moans around another mouthful before tearing off a chunk of bread to dip into the thick gravy at the bottom of his bowl.
“Hmmm.” I hum and tip my head side to side. “I don’t know. It’s a closely guarded secret. I can’t go around giving it to just anybody.”
“But I’m not just anybody,” he jokes, waggling his eyebrows, “now am I?”
I laugh and set my bowl aside. He anticipates my next move and sets his down too so he can grab my waist when I settle over him, straddling his hips on the couch. I’ve never eaten dinner in such a state of undress, but I don’t mind it with him, because considering he’s in only a pair of dark boxer briefs, there’s little between us. And even though it’s been less than an hour, I want him again.
“I guess not.” I press a kiss to his bare chest, just above his heart. I lean back, moving my hand to replace my lips over the thumping rhythm in his chest. “Truth?” I ask, holding his gaze.
“Always,” he whispers with a kiss against my jaw.
“Did you mean it? What you said?”
The whispered Gaelic wasn’t a one-time thing while he made love to me, worshiped me, made me feel things I never imagined, but it’s still hard to believe it’s true.
“Yes.” He punctuates the word with another kiss, light and soft against my lips. “I know it’s soon, but it doesn’t feel that way at all… I’ve never not loved you. I made myself forget that I did for a while, but it was always here. Itwillalways be here.Iwill always be here.”
I study him, not sure if I should let myself believe those words either. “What are you saying, Jamie?”
“I told you after our first date that I wouldn’t walk away from you again… And I won’t. I can’t. I want you, I want us… I want a relationship with Nox. I can’t have those things from Tahoe.”
“But your whole life is there… I—”
“But my whole heart is here. What good is a life without it?” he asks, tipping forward to kiss me again, and I melt against him. Letting everything he’s said fuse together the parts of my heart I never thought would heal.
And this time it’s me moving above him when the words slip from between my lips. “Tha gaol agam ort.”
I love you.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Jamie – Now
Lennox is arriving today. I’m nervous, and excited, and unsure of how we’ll all fit together now that I’ve decided on a move to Scotland.
I thought voicing that decision, making it official, would be scary—that I’d have all sorts of second thoughts, but that hasn’t been the case. I’m at peace over the idea.
