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Duncan saunters into the cave with his easy smile and sparkling eyes. My stomach tingles looking at him and my heart beats faster. He strides past others working and stops in front of our workbench.
“Miss Alesoun, do you mind if I borrow my betrothed? I’d fancy a walk if she’s willing.”
Alesoun barely looks up from her work. “Don’t you young ones be dallying. There’ll be time enough for such nonsense once you’re well and wed in the eyes of God.”
“I’ll never dishonor her,” Duncan says with a half-bow.
“You’d best not, or I’ll skin your hide myself,” Alesoun says, resting her hand on a small knife she uses for trimming leaves from branches.
Duncan laughs and holds his hand out to me. I take it as I walk around the table. He traces a circle on my palm with his index finger. It tickles and feels nice at the same time.
“I’ll be back soon to help,” I say as we leave the cavern.
Outside, the clan is busily preparing for both a feast and the impending winter. Duncan guides us along the cliff wall and onto the path that leads up. He’s moving so fast I struggle to keep up and he doesn’t stop until we’re behind the rise of the cliff. Hidden from sight he spins me around and into his arms.
As he wraps his arms around my waist I’m swept away. The breeze blowing through my hair cools the rising fever on my skin as our lips meet. I run his coarse hair through my fingers, loving the texture of it on my fingertips.
My heart races as my body responds to his. He’s musky, smoky, and full of the wilds of the Highlands themselves. I drink him in, his smell, his touch, and his breath. Taking in all that he has to give even as I return the same.
We kiss longer than I’ve ever kissed any boy in my life. A kiss I never want to end. A kiss of celebration, of joy, and of freedom. Distantly I hear the raven cawing, but Duncan’s kiss pushes out any thoughts or concerns.
Only when breath runs out do we break at last. I stare into his piercing beautiful eyes. He smiles and then we’re laughing. We break our embrace, but each keep an arm around the other and we walk. There is no need for words as we let our feet drift. The sun shines bright from a rich blue sky, beams of light dancing across the peat, moss, and grass. Craggy rocks rise ahead and around us. In the distance is the standing stone and idly I lead us towards it.
“Ah, Quinn,” he says. “No one has ever made me feel like you do.”
“Known a lot of girls, have you?”
“I’ve known some,” he says.
“Oh have you now? Been a bit of a man about? Spreading your wild seed?” I tease.
“No, ach, no I’d never, I wouldn’t, you know—” My wide grin stops his sputtering, and he laughs, shaking his head. “Aye, you’ve called me out.”
I touch his cheek and trace the line of his jaw.
“You are a very pretty man.”
“I prefer to think I’m ruggedly handsome.”
“Aye, that you are too.”
“You’re like an impossible girl,” he says. “I know your secret, and know this—I only love you more for it, but you’ll learn.”
“I’ll learn?” I arch an eyebrow, not liking the implications of what he’s saying.
“Aye, you’ll make a right perfect wife. Alesoun will help you to learn the ways.”
Anger slices through the joy that only seconds before filled my thoughts. I stop so fast he takes two steps before realizing I’m no longer walking. I glare at his confusion and anger pounds in my head in time with my heartbeat.
“I’m not going to be your ‘perfect’ wife.”
ChapterTwenty-One
“Of course you will,”he says, clinging to his smile. “How could you not?”
“And what, exactly, do you mean ‘the ways’?”
“You know, of a wife. Keeping a home, raising bairns, caring for our hearth.”
