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She took another draft of her milk and stared into the fire.
“I can help you to do that.” His deep, gravelly voice was gentle as he spoke, and it flowed over her like warm honey.
Keira had never felt the urge to be so close to any human being as she did now. The arms around her were big and muscular as opposed to her long, soft woman’s ones. How different they were, and how good it felt to be close and held tightly against his hard chest. She was safe here, she knew it, and after the mayhem they had both managed to navigate through during the past weeks, she needed to feel secure. They both did.
Keira snuggled further into his chest and murmured, “And how can you do that?” she asked. “Perhaps we could build a big wall and put archers on top of it?” Her voice was teasing.
“Yes,” he replied, with a soft smile. “We can do that, but a wall will take months to build. We are a scattered people here. We have not much organization, not much shelter, and only a few fortifications. The only thing that makes us safe is your deal with the other lairds.”
“You mean the Allens?” Keira asked.
“Yes,” Murdoch replied, kissing her long red hair.
“Their castle is a long way away,” she replied, “and although he is a decent man, I do not think we can rely on his support alone.”
“Then I propose two strategies.” He moved closer to her and held his hands out to the fire. “I suggested a while ago that our little band here should form ourselves into our own clan. You were hesitant then. What do you think now?”
“I think we should do it,” she replied instantly. “But with you as its leader, not me.”
He nodded slowly. “I have no fear of leadership,” he answered. “But I do want to be chosen, not to thrust myself into that exalted position.” He grinned self-consciously.
“If only you could see yourself as others see you, Murdoch,” Keira observed sadly. “Everybody wants to follow you because they respect you and have faith in you. You are the only one who does not see it.”
Murdoch raked his fingers back through his wheat-blond hair, making it stand up in spiky disarray, almost like a little boy’s. He looked, if anything, even more attractive than usual, and Keira could not resist putting out a hand to straighten a stray lock of hair from his forehead.
Murdoch laughed softly and removed her hand, then looked at her palm, running his thumb over it. It was hard and calloused with the constant labor of lifting stones, but he admired it more than he had when it was the soft, well-manicured hand of a pampered lady.
“Your hands have changed,” he remarked.
“Yes,” she agreed, “but I like them better like this.”
When he looked up at her again, there was a deep tenderness in his expression. His lips parted, and his gaze dropped to hers.
Keira felt herself beginning to tense up, and a strange tingling began all over her body. Murdoch dropped his mouth to her palm and kissed it gently, causing a shaft of pleasure to shoot straight to her core.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Do you not like it?” he asked softly, flicking a mischievous smile at her.
“I do,” she confessed. “But no one has ever done that to me before.”
“But we have kissed before,” he reminded her.
He was now so close that she could see every one of the golden bristles on his face and feel his breath on her skin. His lower lip was full and rounded, almost like a ripe plum, and Keira longed to taste it again.
Her wish was granted a few moments later as he dipped his head and took her mouth in a soft yet incredibly sensual kiss. She opened her lips to him and once again they began their dance of tongues, and he explored the sweetness of Keira’s mouth until she thought she would die of pleasure. She tilted her head back and surrendered to him completely, moaning with delight.
Murdoch was so aroused that he would have taken Keira at that moment if she had consented. However, they were lying on the floor of a mean little room with nothing but a small cushion between Keira and the hard floor. It was neither the place nor the time for them to be intimate. Murdoch wanted Keira’s first time with him to be in a beautiful bed with perfumed sheets so that he could press her into its soft mattress as he gave her all the pleasure she deserved.
Oh, God, what am I going to do without her if she marries someone else?he thought, suddenly panicking.
He tore his mouth away from hers and said desperately, “Marry me, Keira. I cannot live without you. You are the most wonderful woman I have ever met, and I love you. Say yes, please.”
His words were a desperate plea.
Keira was shocked at the suddenness of his proposal, but as she looked up into Murdoch’s hopeful pale-green eyes, she knew that there was only one answer. She loved him, and she would love him until her dying day.
She felt her face stretching into a smile as she whispered, “What else can I say, Murdoch? Yes. You are the only man I will ever want, and I love you too.”
