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“I want to drop to my knees and worship ye, as well, but first we must talk more,” she said, forcing herself to address what she had been putting off regarding Eolande.
“Aye,” he agreed, the word full of regret. He bent his head to her chest and brushed a feathery kiss over one breast and then the other before carefully covering her once more. When he held his hand out for her to place hers in his, she could not help but smile at the sweet gesture. She slipped her small hand into his bigger one, his fingers curling tightly around hers, as he led her to the bed. They sat and turned toward each other, but he did not relinquish his hold on her hand. “Why did ye go to see Eolande?”
She hesitated. She wanted to be truthful, but to lay her heart before someone was a frightful thing. “I wished to hear what her foretelling of my future was,” she admitted.
“Why?” His gaze penetrated her to her soul. Even if she had wanted to hide what she was feeling from him, she felt certain he could somehow sense it. “I wanted to see if she would tell me anything of my future that would help me remember my past.” She paused. “And I wanted to see if she said anything more about the prophecy for ye and me.”
“Because?” he asked in a deceptively calm voice, yet she saw the urgency flash in his eyes.
“Because in spite of my fears, from the moment I awoke here with my memory gone, I knew one thing for certain: I was drawn to ye. I may nae remember what lay behind me, but I feel in my gut that I’ve nae ever been drawn to a man like I am to ye. I—”
His hand slid to the back of her neck, and he tugged her to him, crushing his mouth to hers. The kiss ravaged her senses and left her panting, and when he pulled back and gave her a look of pure, male triumph, she was glad that she had revealed her heart to him.
“Ye never did tell me who told ye of the prophecy. Was it Marion?” he asked, surprising her.
“How did ye ken?” she blurted, relieved not to have to keep that secret from him. She wanted no secrets between them, but she also didn’t want to cause Marion trouble.
“Dunnae fash yerself, lass,” he said in a gentle voice. His finger traced a circle over the top of her hand, which brought a flutter to her belly. He looked contemplative, and she thought he might not even realize he was absently comforting her with his touch. “I’m nae cross with Marion. I ken that Iain must have told her, and she, in turn, revealed it to ye, but Marion would only do so out of a wish to help me. I’ll nae say anything.”
“And do ye feel she helped ye by telling me?” Sorcha asked with a bit of hesitancy.
He squeezed her hand and brought it up to his lips to place a chaste kiss to the top. When his lips brushed her skin, her breath caught, and desire once more tugged at her.
“I do,” he said. “If ye had nae gone to see Eolande, then I believe I would have continued to fight what I feel for ye, though I dunnae ken that I would have defeated it.”
Her heart hammered so hard, she took a breath to try to slow her racing pulse, but it was to no avail. “What do ye feel for me, Cameron?”
“I am drawn to ye as ye are drawn to me,” he said.
Her chest swelled with happiness as he continued. “I feel I have kenned ye for years, though it has been but a few days. To see ye with another man fills me with jealousy. To know someone is trying to kill ye makes me want to kill them. I want to learn the secrets ye keep here—” he splayed his palm over her chest, and she was sure he felt the rapid beat of her heart. His eyes locked with hers, smoldering in their intensity. “I have nae ever wished to ken the secrets of a woman’s heart. I did nae believe I would ever wish to, but now I do. Will ye let me learn the secrets that ye recall and share yer memories with me when they come to ye?”
“I want to,” she whispered. “I want that verra much. But I must tell ye first what Eolande foretold. I’ll nae have ye blind about it.”
He nodded and took her hand in his once more, intertwined their fingers, and covered their hands with his other one. She smiled down at their hands. It was the most perfect moment, and she prayed it was but one of a thousand more to come, yet fear twinged within her.
Cameron heard worry in Sorcha’s voice, and he found it impossible to remain silent. His need to ease her anxiety flared. “When Eolande foretold my future so many years ago, I scoffed at the idea that that I’d be willing to forsake my honor and betray my family and king for ye,” he said. “But mere days after ye came here, I sensed in my bones that I could grow to care for ye so much that I would do these things without hesitation.”
“Nay!” she cried out and wrenched her hand from his grasp while springing to her feet. It was most definitely not the response he wanted. She whirled away in a blur. Just as suddenly, she whirled back around to face him. “What I fear more than anything is that these things would come to pass, and then ye would hate me because of what ye felt ye had to do.”
He shot to his feet, closed the distance, and pulled her into his arms. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to cradle this woman in her distress, to provide a space where she could always come that would protect her from harm. “I feared that, too. But Iain told me something, and after I thought on it awhile, I kenned it was true.”
“What did he say?” she asked.
He brushed a strand of her golden hair out of her face and tucked it behind her shoulder, purposely allowing his fingers to graze the skin near her shoulder bared by her léine. Desire shuddered through him as he felt her tremble, but even greater than the yearning was the intense pleasure he received from the simple act of holding her and touching her so familiarly. “He said that ye were in my head, and ye are.”
She smiled slightly, and he could not resist the urge to brush his fingers over her lips. Her sharp intake of breath, and the flush of desire that covered her chest and stained her cheeks made him hard with wanting. He dropped his hand and continued. “He also said that once a woman is in yer heart, though, it’s possible to live without her, but it’s misery. And he would ken, Sorcha. He endured it when his first wife died.”
“Oh,” she said with a soft, sad murmur.
He cupped her face in his hands. “I kinnae live with nae giving us a chance to discover what may be. I will regret it, and the regret will eat at me until I am miserable. So what say ye? Do ye wish to chance fate with me?”
“I do,” she said, but he read hesitation in her eyes. Before he could ask her about it, she spoke again. “When I went to see Eolande, she told me things I believe ye need to hear before ye decide for certain. I already ken I want to move forward with ye, but I want ye to ken.”
Triumph and pride rushed through him. He pressed his lips to her forehead, her cheeks, and settled his mouth tenderly on hers. He didn’t know how to say how happy her words had made him, but he hoped his kiss showed her. When he pulled away, she looked utterly bemused and very enticing. “I dunnae need to hear what the seer said. All I needed to hear was that ye wished to move forward. The rest—the prophecy, the king, all of it—we will resolve together.”
“Cameron,” she said, desperation in her voice and a plea in her gray eyes, “I kinnae be with ye unless I ken ye have heard and accepted everything that could come to pass.”
“Tell me, then,” he said, understanding deep within that nothing she would reveal would change his mind but also sensing exactly how important it was for her to tell him.
