Fifteen
He understood the fear in her eyes, and he loved her all the more for it.
Love.
The knowledge hit him hard, and his body trembled with the realization. What was between them was love. She had taken his heart like a warrior princess. She had laid siege to him and he’d not even realized what was happening. He was hers completely. There was no way to deny it.
Lachlan saw the moment she recognized what he felt. Bridgette’s eyes widened, her lush lips parted, and her chest rose with a quick intake of breath. His heart beat like a drum within him.
She shook her head. “We kinnae!” He took a step toward her, and she scuttled back. “The seer’s prophecy!” she protested, her voice shaking.
He closed the distance and claimed her mouth, silencing any other protest. She was hot and sweet and brought his lust for her, which constantly simmered inside him, to a roaring inferno. Their tongues touched and tangled, and a deep moan escaped his throat. He wanted to possess every part of her, yet he knew words needed to be said. He forced himself to break the kiss but kept his arms locked around her back. She glanced up at him, her lips red and swollen and her bright-green gaze a bit dazed.
She raised her hand to his face, and he realized she had the edge of her gown grasped in her hand. He stood still and allowed her to wipe away the blood that must have been smeared upon his face. Her hand trembled slightly, and unshed tears filled her eyes. His heart twisted in his chest at her pain, and his and Graham’s, too. He understood how she felt because he felt the same way, but he had to make her understand what he now knew.
He caught her raised hand in his and then grasped the one by her side. He brought them to his chest and held them against his heart. “We have tried to deny how we feel about each other, and that did nae work. Then we tried to hide it, and it has been revealed in spite of it all. Graham may never accept us,” Lachlan admitted. “I think I only just kenned the truth of that when he told me he hated me and I saw the enormity of the jealousy that drives him. He dunnae want ye because he loves ye; he wants ye to spite me.”
“Perchance,” she said in a begrudging whisper, “but if we rush this, that is perchance what will make the seer’s prophecy come true to its terrible end!”
The seer’s prediction weighed heavy on Lachlan’s mind, as well, though he was loath to confess it. “I love my brother, and I dunnae want to hurt him. It pains me that I have. And I’ll go as slow as ye wish, but, lass, I love ye.”
She gaped at him for a long moment, then finally spoke. “Ye love me?”
“Aye.” His voice, which was normally strong and true, trembled. He didn’t care. “I dunnae want to live without ye. I dunnae want to live another moment fearing ye may become another’s.”
“I dunnae want that, either, but we kinnae simply feign the prophecy dunnae exist. Even if the king gives us consent to marry—” She blushed. “Though ye have nae asked me, I believe we must wait for a time. Perchance that will be the choice that changes the future.”
He wanted to argue with her. With a fight for David’s throne likely brewing between David and Robert and the Campbells most assuredly aligning themselves against David and, therefore, Lachlan’s clan—not to mention his uncle likely being somehow embroiled in a plot—he did not wish to wait and allow Bridgette to be without the protection of being his wife. He understood many men who were against the king would seek to gain her brother’s allegiance through marriage, even if they had to take Bridgette by force. Those men would be fools, as Alex would never ally himself with someone who took his sister against her will, but the damage to Bridgette would be done all the same. He shuddered at the thought, but the stark worry and stubborn tilt of her chin told him he’d not win the argument of marrying with haste this day.
He pulled her to his chest once more and buried his face in her lovely hair. “The king knows of my desire for ye and has left it to be settled between me and Graham.” He felt Bridgette sag against him in relief. He cupped her chin and lifted her face to his. “Do ye love me, too?” He needed to hear the words from her mouth.
She twined her arms around his neck. “Oh, aye. I love ye, and ye ken it, ye devil. That one word is nae strong enough to express how I feel.” She took his hand and spread his palm flat against her chest. Underneath his fingertips, her heart pounded. Their gazes met, and she pressed her hand to his.“Mo chridhe.”
“Yer heart,” he repeated. He was her heart. “Aye, and ye are mine,m’eudail.”
She smiled. “I like hearing ye call me yer darling.”
He slid his hands into her hair and kissed her hard on the mouth, then more gently until she was whimpering into him. He pulled away and kissed each of her eyelids. “M’eudail.”Then he brushed his lips to her forehead, nose, and each cheek. He pressed his lips to the slope of her neck where her pulse beat.“M’eudail,”he whispered again.
Yearning hummed in his ears, head, and blood. His breath became ragged as he slid his hands to her waist and made himself pull away.
She surprised him by catching him by the hand. “I dunnae wish ye to stop. I wish ye to make me yers.”
“Ye were mine the day I first kissed ye, lass. It was simply that neither of us kenned it yet.”
The lustful look she gave him made him ache with need. She interlaced her hand with his. “I kenned it. There was never another man for me after that day. My words just now were nae clear. I wish ye to join with me now, so that we may be as one.”
Desire mingled with surprise, but God’s bones, he wanted her. “Do ye nae wish to wait until we are married?”
She shook her head. “I dunnae wish to wait one more breath.”
