“And you will be.” He pulled back from her, wiping her cheeks with his strong fingers. “We’ll have a fine wedding here on the front lawn. Cate and Mairi put on grand affairs. What? Why are you crying even harder now?”
“I already wed the MacDowylt,” Isa blurted out. She wanted to ease into the news, but her mind and her mouth were working at odds with one another. “I said my vows to him in order to...”
“You dinna need to give that a second thought, love. I already know about it and why you did what you had to,” he interrupted. “I heard you tell Leah the story. It’s no in the least important now.”
He wasn’t listening. He didn’t understand.
“I’m a married woman.”
She blinked back her surprise, her tears drying on her face as he laughed! Laughed as if this horrible, horrible situation were something funny.
She tried to resist when he pulled her back into his arms, his chest still spasming with his chuckles.
“Oh, love, yer no a married woman. If anything, yer a widow.”
Pushing away again, she studied his beautiful smiling face for some clue as to the madness that possessed him.
“A widow,” she repeated. “And how would you ken that to be the case?”
“Because MacDowylt was a Mortal. A fine man, by my guess, based on the improbable spate ofluckwe encountered in our escape from Castle MacGahan, but a Mortal nonetheless. And I’ve yet to meet the Mortal who can live for over seven hundred years.”
“Seven hundred...” The future. Of course. Leah had told her Robbie had lived in the future. It was the whole point of what they’d done.
“Aye. My condolences, Mrs. MacDowylt, but yer husband’s long dead.” He touched his lips to her forehead and then her cheek. “Yer mine, Isabella MacGahan, as you were intended to be from the beginning of time. All mine.”
He lowered her to her back, covering her with the warmth of his body, crushing his lips to hers.
Her mind soared to that wonderful place he took her when they kissed and her need for him crashed down over her, hot and heavy.
He lifted his head, obviously aware of his power over her, grinning like a madman.
“I’ve so many things to show you. So much yer going to enjoy. In fact...” His eyes lit up and his grin turned seductive. “Oh, I’ve a grand idea.”
He backed away, off the edge of the bed. Standing beside her, he began to unwrap the plaid he wore around his hips.
“Grand idea indeed,” she agreed, fumbling with the ties on her overdress.
“Arms up,” he ordered, and when she complied, he pulled the layers of her clothing up over her head and tossed them to the floor. “Thankfully here you’ll no be wearing so many things all at once. It will make life much easier on both of us.”
“Much easier,” she agreed breathlessly, not giving any thought to what he blethered on about.
As easily as he’d appeared to lift Jamie earlier, he picked her up in his arms and started toward the room where he’d taken the bandage.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“This is the master bathroom.”
Nothing in this chamber looked in the least bit familiar. A see-through box filled one side, and on the other a cabinet jutted from the wall, made of a fine, polished stone. Above the cabinet hung what had to be the largest, clearest, most wonderful mirror in the world. The largest one she’d ever seen before had been no bigger than the width of her two hands.
She felt her face heat as she looked at their reflection in that amazing mirror, a disrobed woman in the arms of an equally bared man.
He obviously noted her fascination with the mirror and set her on her feet in front of it. Standing behind her, he wrapped his arms around her, fitting his palms over her breasts and pulling her back up against him.
He dropped his lips to her neck, running his tongue from her collarbone to her ear while she watched his movements in fascination.
“Funny,” he whispered. “I thought that piece of glass good for nothing but my morning shave. Until now.”
He captured her eyes in their reflection and held them as he placed his hands on her shoulder and slowly slid them down her arms. Grasping her wrists, he lifted them above her head, draping her wrists over his shoulders.
