Sawny narrowed his eyes at the priest. “I’ve spent the past two months in a dreary cell with only the thoughts of this woman keeping me alive and the vow that the moment I escaped that hell, I would come here and wed her as intended. I am two months late on that promise, so ye will wed us now.”
He spoke with all the force his chest could muster. Father Geordie’s dour look remained as he looked past the couple to Seamus. He, Reade, Maddock, and Arran had shifted to stand in the aisle between the pews, hands on their sword hilts, as if guarding the church against an unknown enemy. They might not understand what was going on, but they were going to protect the MacDonalds and this ceremony all the same. Seamus dipped his chin toward the priest who huffed again.
“Well, then.” The priest flicked his eyes from Sawny to Adaira. “Marriage! Marriage is what brings us here today! Do ye have the rings?”
With a surprisingly steady hand, Adaira handed the bluebell-etched ring to Sawny and the priest began their wedding ceremony.
And the moment Sawny and Adaira had waited for was real – they were married. And when the priest announced themman and wife,he wrapped his arms around her waist and crushed his lips to hers, kissing her desperately and passionately.
As man and wife.
Finally.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Thepriesthadbarelyspoken the wordsman and wifewhen Sawny was dragging her away from the church. He did not head toward her father’s keep, rather he clasped her hand and raced with her toward the woods.
“Adaira!” her mother called out behind her. Sawny did not turn around or acknowledge her at all. He was resolute in his intention.
His actions were desperate and rushed, and his urgency reminded her of the last time she had shared her body with him. They had snuck into the woods that time, hiding from her family, back when the world was clear and their future bright and untainted.
Now they both bore the stains of the past several months, but Sawny did not seem to care. Her betrothed was –
Nay. Herhusband. He was her husband now.
The damp ground grew mushy under her feet. In the pale, misty light, she could see his thin body was clad in tattered clothing that fit him more like a blanket than a kilt.
Rain patterned down, whetting their clothing and hair until they were as sodden as the ground upon which they stood. Once he found a spot he believed to be private enough, he whirled around, his wet embrace tight. He held onto her as if he were afraid to let go, that if he did release her, he might lose her again.
“Sawny!” Adaira cried. Her hair had slipped from its pins, spilled in slippery damp locks around her head, and now stuck to her face. “What are ye doing? They are awaiting us!”
He placed his hand on either side of her face and stared into her eyes with such ferocity that her chest quivered.
“Let them wait,” he breathed in his raspy voice. “Let the world wait. God himself can wait. Because we have waited too long. We had time and hope and love thieved from us, a greater thief than I could ever be, and I will never, ever, wait for ye again. And I will have no one in all of Scotland call this marriage into question.”
His hands were on her skirts, exposing her pale thighs to the cool air and his surging, searching cock. His face pressed into the curve of her neck, warming her skin as he panted against her.
“I canna wait again, Adaira. Never again. Please, Adaira.”
His pleading voice tore her breath from her lungs.
“Sawny –”
His hand worked his braies, releasing his manhood which brushed against her, hot and demanding. His thighs moved between hers as his body slammed her against the smooth wood of a birch tree.
He did not have to ask. She had been ready for him the moment he shoved open the church doors. His narrowed eyes bore into hers, sharing the intensity of his desire, of his passion, of his need for her.
“Please, Adaira. Let me make ye my wife in full.”
His raspy voice conveyed his sheer desperation, and she would deny him nothing.
“Aye, Sawny. Aye. Enough time has pa–”
She did not finish her words. Sawny surged forward until the tip of his cock easily slid into her welcome sheath. He exhaled a long, shuddering groan, and the heat created from their joining drove the chilled air away. She clung to him and gasped as he thrust inside her, joining them in the most intimate way, joining them again after being so long departed.
Something about his passion was dire, irrationally consuming, and it drove him as if he had lost all his senses. He had one pursuit — Adaira.
Sawny’s legs shook as he thrust inside, his cock finding home.
