Callum awoke to a touch as light as a feather trailing down his chest. He opened his eyes to find the room in complete darkness, except for the moonlight that streamed in through the window. Marsaili sat atop his hips, her thighs on either side of his.
“Will we nae wake Brody?” he asked.
Marsaili chuckled. “He awoke crying nae long ago. I took him out so as nae to wake ye, and Marion was in the passage doing the same with Royce. She said the two of them like to sleep side by side, and I wished to have a bit of time alone with ye, so…”
“So Brody is sleeping with his cousin?”
Marsaili grinned. “I hope so. Callum, I had a dream,” Marsaili whispered, running her fingertips down to his braies, hooking her nails under them, and then touching the tip of his staff, which had become painfully hard.
He hissed in an effort to hold in a groan of pleasure at her touch. “What did ye dream?” he asked.
“Of the time we joined our bodies. I have dreamed of that night many times. I dunnae wish to wait until we wed to feel ye within me again. And tomorrow we will be traveling and nae be alone, so…”
“So we have but this night,” he finished for her, sliding his hands up the silken skin of her thighs, under her thin léine, and to her perfectly rounded bottom, which he squeezed. Need rushed through him hot and fierce. It was the need of three long years without her. His pulse spiked as he rolled her over to her back and climbed atop of her. “I dunnae think I can be slow, lass. I have longed for this too much. But the next time—”
“The next time?” she asked with a giggle as she slid her palms up his bare stomach to his chest.
Lust strummed through him, making him tremble. “Aye, the next. Tonight, after the frenzy, there will be calm, slow, pleasurable torment.”
“I look forward to it,” she promised, wrapping her arms about his neck and tugging him toward her.
He did not need to be asked in any other way. He crushed his mouth to hers, as he pulled her léine up to her hips and slid the undergarment off. She parted his lips with her tongue, and the reckless abandon he tasted in her mouth, the feverish need he felt from her hands, and her thudding heart that matched his own took the little control he had.
He trailed his hands to her breasts as he kissed her and ran his fingers over her hardened buds. When she moaned her pleasure, he teased her there with pinches, but he needed more, and he sensed that she did, too. Breaking their kiss, he took her nipple into his mouth and sucked and pulled, spiking his desire with each luscious stroke. Her gyrating hips and the way she tossed her head back and forth told him her need was as great as his.
She clutched his arms and whispered fiercely, “I’ll take tenderness later, aye. Come in me now, I beg ye.”
He quickly kicked off his braies, braced her thighs, and slid into her with a groan. She fit him perfectly, just as he remembered, and the moment he started to move, so did she. They found a rhythm that made everything fade away but the two of them, and all the moments that they had lost, they reclaimed with each kiss, each touch, each whispered word of love. They found their climax together, covering each other’s mouths to silence their screams of release, and when their wild joining was over, they lay panting side by side.
Once their breathing had calmed, Callum felt his need for her rising once again, but he hesitated. They had been through much, and he did not want to tire her, or if she was sore, he did not want her to feel she must acquiesce, but she turned into him suddenly and placed her hand on his hard staff.
“And now the slow,” she whispered, nipping his ear, kissing his neck, and trailing her lips down his abdomen to between his thighs. And then she gave to him, and in return, he gave all of himself to her well into the night, then longer still until dawn, when they both fell into a weary sleep.
Hours later, they were awoken by Marion knocking on the door. Marsaili answered it, and a moment later, Brody waddled into the room to announce that he was hungry. They dressed and made their way to the great hall to break their fast before traveling on to his home. The great hall was mostly empty, as they had risen late, but as they finished eating, Broch and Maria entered. They approached the table, hand in hand.
Callum was pleased, and he could see that Marsaili was, too, by the way she grinned. He cocked his eyebrows at Broch, who shrugged as if to say he was not quite sure where things would lead with Maria but that he was pleased. “We wish to travel with ye to yer home so Maria can see her sister.”
“Yer sister?” Callum asked, startled.
“Aye,” Maria said. “She is married to a Grant, and when Marsaili and I escaped Innis Chonnell, I was traveling to Urquhart to ask to become part of yer clan.”
Callum smiled. “We would welcome ye as an addition, if—” he glanced at Broch “—that is what ye wish.”
“We shall see,” Maria said, her gaze sliding toward Broch, a blush tingeing her cheeks.
Later that day, they departed for Callum’s home with full bags of food and a contingency of MacLeod warriors. The journey was peaceful, and it gave Callum time to truly contemplate what he had known for years. He had wanted a marriage born of affection, and now he would have one. He had given his love to Marsaili three years prior, as she had given him his, and once that had occurred, their love would not be denied for anything—not alliances, nor treachery, nor promises offered to another. He would do his best to fix the situation with Coira, but in the end, his most important task in life was to love Marsaili and Brody, and protect them with his life.
They rode into the inner courtyard of his castle at nightfall. His brother was there, along with at least a hundred of Callum’s warriors. Cheers went up when he dismounted his horse. He glanced around the courtyard, noting his mother’s absence, as well as those of Coira and her father. He wanted to draw Marsaili to his side, but he did not want to shame Coira and make things worse. He turned to Marsaili, and when he saw her looking so unsure, so anxious while she clutched their son, he thought he would lose his mind.
He reached out for Brody, eager to tell his brother about him, but at that moment, his mother came into the courtyard with Coira trailing behind her. Shock swept over his mother’s face when she saw Marsaili, and Marsaili stepped away from him, holding Brody to her chest. Behind her, the MacLeod guards, led by Broch, closed in toward her. Callum clenched his teeth in frustration that Broch thought he needed to protect Marsaili in Callum’s home. This had to be settled at once.
“Mother, take Marsaili and—”
“My son,” she interrupted. “This is my son, Brody.” She gave Callum a beseeching look. Knowing Marsaili and her kind heart as he did, he suspected she was considering Coira and how learning everything here and now in public would embarrass the lass. He nodded his acquiescence, though he despised not telling everyone of Marsaili and Brody directly.
His mother puckered her lips. “I dunnae ken why she is here, but I’ll nae—”
“If ye dunnae do as I tell ye,” Callum said, pitching his voice low so his clansmen would not overhear, “I will set ye out of my home and forget ye exist.”
