“Okay, maybe not ordinary. We live in a village with a ghost coo and book wyrms and gnomes. But as close to ordinary as we can manage.”
I laughed despite myself. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” She kissed me again, slower this time, deeper. “Now take me to bed before I lose my nerve.”
“Lose your nerve?”
“I’m trying to seduce my fiancé, and you keep making me have emotional conversations instead.”
“Apologies. How inconsiderate of me.” I scooped her up, and she yelped, her arms wrapping around my neck. “Better?”
“Much better.”
I carried her to the bed, a massive four-poster thing, which looked like it had been in the castle since the Middle Ages, and laid her down on the covers with a gentleness thatwas almost reverent. She looked up at me, her curls spread across the pillows, her eyes dark with want, and I had to take a moment just to drink in the gorgeous sight of her.
My fiancée.
The word still didn’t feel real. After years of wanting and waiting and wondering if I’d ever get to call her mine, she’d said yes. In front of everyone, while we were both still damp from the loch and shaking from adrenaline. But she couldn’t take it back now. Everyone had heard her agree to be my wife.
“You’re staring,” Agnes said, her cheeks flushing in the most adorable way possible.
“How could I not?” I picked up her hand and kissed her ring finger. “You’re the bonniest lass in all of Scotland.”
“You don’t need to…”
“I can do what I want with my fiancée. And right now, it’s appreciating her beauty.”
“Well, appreciate faster.” Agnes tugged at my arms, trying to pull me closer.
“No.” I climbed onto the bed, settling over her, and kissed her forehead. “I don’t think so, love. I do believe I’m going to take my time.”
“Graham—”
I kissed her eyelids. Her nose. The curve of her cheek. “I almost died today.”
“I’m aware.”
“Which means I’ve got a new perspective on things.” I kissed the corner of her mouth. “A new appreciation for life. For time. For not rushing through the moments that matter.”
“And this would be one of those moments?”
“Every moment with you matters.” I finally kissed her lips, soft and slow. “But this one especially.”
She melted into the kiss, her hands sliding up my arms to my shoulders. I wanted to kiss away the understandable tension in her body, the fear she was trying to hide, and the worry she couldn’t seem to shake. I wanted to take that worry away if I could, even if for just a little while.
“Let me take care of you,” I murmured against her mouth. “Just for tonight. Let me be the one who takes care of you.”
I pressed my lips to the hollow of her throat. “You deserve to be taken care of. You deserve to be worshipped. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing exactly that, starting right now.”
Her breath caught as I pulled up the borrowed jumper she wore. Slowly, I pressed kisses to each new inch of skin I revealed. Her body trembled beneath my lips, and I was drunk on her response to me.
“Graham,” she breathed.
“I’ve got you.” I pulled the jumper over her shoulders and sat back to look at her. “God, Agnes. Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”
“You’re biased.”
“Damn right I am. Doesn’t make it less true.”
