The Highlander's Bride

by Donna Fletcher

  Sara hurried after her sister. “I’ll help.”

  Cullen watched them disappear into the cottage. He looked down at Alexander on the makeshift swing. “Women, my son, are something men will never understand,” he said.

  The little boy giggled, squealed, and kicked his feet.

  Alexander spent much of his energy throwing stones and bouncing up and down, his little chubby hands clapping with delight at every splash. He ate in between rubbing his eyes, his father folding back the sleeves of his beige knit sweater to keep them out of his busy mouth. It didn’t take long for the child to cuddle in the extra blanket and fall sound asleep.

  With time finally theirs, Cullen whispered to Sara, “What if you’re with child?”

  Her startled eyes met his and he saw in them a flash of joy that faded all too soon as her hand drifted to rest on her flat stomach.

  She turned the question on him. “What if I am?”

  “You would go with me,” he responded without reservation. He’d have no child of his growing up fatherless.

  He watched her breath catch, and then she took a deep breath as if fortifying her courage.

  “Perhaps it is best we no longer—”

  “Make love, be intimate, lose ourselves in each other,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “We consummated our vows, so it isn’t necessary—”

  “The hell with necessary, I want you,” Cullen said bluntly.

  He was glad he made her smile. He loved when she smiled, her eyes sparkled, her cheeks flushed pink and her rosy lips grew dewy and just ripe for kissing.

  “We should be practical,” she advised.

  “The hell with practical.” He leaned closer to her. “I want to be wicked.”

  Sara reached out and toyed with the ties on his shirt. “I love when you’re wicked.”

  “You can be wicked yourself,” he teased, unable to keep himself from running his finger over her plump juicy lips. They were warm and wet, just right for a nibble or to suck and kiss. and damn if he wasn’t growing hard with the thought.

  “I know that look,” Sara said, sinfully soft.

  “Tell me about it,” he urged, his finger stroking down along her neck to the mounds of her breasts peeking from her blouse.

  Sara’s grin was as blunt as her words. “You grow hard for me.”

  He laughed quietly, definitely not wanting to wake his son. “How can you be sure?”

  Sara slipped closer, their shoulders touching, and she slipped her hand beneath his kilt to rest faintly over him. Her laughter was more a smug murmur. “I don’t even have to touch you to feel your strength.”

  “I insist,” he breathed across her moist lips, though never connected with them, and felt her shiver.

  Her eyes closed slowly and opened just as slowly as she ran her tongue in a wicked tease over her lips. And when she squeezed him, all of him, he nearly jumped in tortuous pleasure.

  “Mmm,” she whispered. “I can almost feel you filling me.”

  He kissed along the edge of her ear. “I can almost feel your tight sweetness wrapping around me.”

  He groaned when she squeezed him more firmly.

  “I want you,” he whispered, nibbling at her earlobe.

  “And I you,” she murmured, and stroked the hard length of him.

  “Keep that up and—”

  “We’ll soon be mating on this blanket, where your son sleeps,” she reminded with a gentle kiss to his cheek.

  “‘Sleeps’ is the opportune word,” Cullen reminded.

  Sara giggled. “We’ll have to be quick, lest he wake, and discreet, if prying eyes should be watching.”

  Cullen grabbed hold of her and tumbled her back on the blanket, coming to rest on top of her. “We’ll simply look like—”

  “Playful lovers?” she asked, reaching down to release him from his kilt.

  He groaned, his forehead resting on hers. “And quick it will be, I assure you.”

  Sara wiggled beneath him. “I couldn’t agree more. I am so very ready for you.”

  He smiled and kissed her quick, his eager hand roaming down to hike up her skirt.

  “Da!”

  Cullen and Sara turned to see a smiling Alexander roll to his knees, then stand and toddle over to them.

  Chapter 30

  A few hours later, Sara saw that Cullen’s passion continued to lurk in his dark eyes. It was faint, barely distinguishable and certainly not noticeable to anyone but her, and it kept her own desire edgy.

  They rejoined her sister in the cottage, the day having grown cloudy with a cool wind. Cullen sat on the floor before the burning hearth, he and his son playing with the wooden whittled horse he had brought him, while Sara and Teresa brewed hot cider to chase away the chill.

  If she thought her passion would subside easily, she learned fast enough that her husband did not intend to let that happen. Each time she brushed past him and he was certain no one saw, he’d run his hand beneath her skirt to stroke her leg. One time he managed to reach and brush intimately between her legs. She near gasped but caught herself and merely smiled and hurried away from him. When she failed to slip past him again, he mouthed coward at her and she nodded to let him know she fully agreed.

  A short time later a rough wind arrived along with Shamus, who shut the door firmly against it. “It looks like a storm is brewing and it won’t settle easily.”

  “I agree,” Cullen said, standing with his son in his arms and casting Sara a look that warned of a far different storm, one of passion too long delayed.

  Sara reached out for Alexander, and the lad went to her eagerly, his pudgy arms going around her neck. She hugged him close knowing that any minute his father would announce their departure, and he did.

  “We should leave before the weather worsens.”

  “Or you could stay the night,” Shamus offered.

  Sara knew his answer for it would have been her own.

  “We need to return tonight,” Cullen said, though he offered no explanation.

  “Then you best be on your way,” Teresa urged, and took Alexander from Sara, handing him to Shamus. She then grabbed a small cloth-wrapped parcel and shoved it at Sara with wink. “Something for later.”

  Sara hugged her sister, so very grateful for her understanding.

  With quick good-byes, they were out the door and to their horses.

  “The cottage,” Cullen ordered once mounted.

  Sara nodded, knowing the rapidly darkening sky would allow them to go no farther, nor would their passion.

  It was a chase against nature’s fury and human desire, both raging strong and both needing release. They raced against time, against desire, against the wind, aching and wanting with a need so deep that it grew with the barest of thoughts and the mightiest of tingles.

  Sara knew her breath was lost to more than the persistent wind, her rising passion claiming most of it, as did the thunderous beating of her heart. Lord, but she wanted to love Cullen and have him love her and never have it end.

  The rain pelted the ground just as they rushed into the cottage after sheltering the horses against the storm.

  Sara turned from hitching the door latch, to be grabbed swiftly around her waist with a firm hand claiming the back of her neck, and then Cullen’s mouth descended on hers. He gave her no room to breathe, to think, to react, only to surrender to the passion that had lingered and tormented them throughout the day.

  Their kisses were urgent, born of a need so strong neither of them could fight it, but only surrender to it.

  Cullen hooked her around the waist and hefted her up. She locked her legs around him and threw her arms around his neck to grab hold of his mouth again. She didn’t want him to stop kissing her, and she damn well didn’t want to stop kissing him.

  He tasted too good, felt too good, and oh good Lord, she wanted to feel more, so much more, and knew from experience that he could make her feel like she had never felt or thought she’
d ever feel before.

  “I want you,” he said, pulling away from her hungry mouth only long enough to rush his words out, then reclaimed her mouth.

  His hands worked their way under her skirt as he walked to the bed with her, and she groaned when he grabbed tight hold of her bottom and squeezed a squeal of delight out of her.

  He tossed her on the bed. “No time to undress.”

  She laughed and yanked up her skirt as he shoved his kilt aside and dropped over her.

  “Damn, but I love your unselfish passion,” he said as she reached out to guide him between her legs.

  “And you, husband, are the best lover—”

  He rushed his mouth over hers and finished for her. “The best and only lover you’ve ever known.”

  “Aren’t I lucky to get the best the first time out?” she said, laughed and wiggled his stiff erection inside her with a joyful squeal.

  He took over from there, driving deeper into her, forcing her to grab hold of him and hold tight while he took them on a ride she would long remember and never ever want to forget.

  He made her climax in seconds, her screams alarmingly satisfying, but he wasn’t done. He drove deeper and deeper into her until she felt the passion well up inside again and build until she exploded with an agonizing cry. And then he started again, and later the only thing she could remember was screaming out his name over and over until he finally took her in his arms and held her while she collected her senses, found her breath, and waited for her heartbeat to calm.

  “This isn’t enough, you know,” he said, their garments sticking to their sweat-drenched bodies.

  She laughed, though it was brief. “I do get a chance to rest, right?”

  “Not for long,” he teased with a hug.

  They laughed, though remained as they were beside each other, both still recovering from their anxious lovemaking.

  Cullen turned on his side and kissed her. “This is still our day. We have the whole night ahead of us, just you and me…not the present, not the past, not the future to think about, just here and now, you and me.”

  “And tomorrow—”

  He hushed her with a single finger to her lips. “There’s no tomorrow, only now, this moment, you and me.”

  They stared at each other, dark eyes holding to soft blue-green, and she wondered if his thoughts mirrored her own. Did he feel as she did? Did he believe that tonight just wasn’t enough for them? They needed a lifetime to satisfy their hungry need, and she wondered if even that was enough time.

  But if this day, this night, were all she had, she would take it gratefully, though with an ounce of regret for more. She rested her hand to his cool, smooth cheek, damp from their sweaty encounter.

  “I’ll not let you sleep a wink,” she teased.

  He grinned, his dark eyes glinting with a wickedness that tingled her intimately, though she wondered how, when she had thought herself spent.

  “Is that a challenge, my love?”

  “A promise,” she whispered on a sigh.

  “Then it is best I get you naked,” he said, and proceeded to do just that.

  He refused to let Sara lend a hand. He did it all, removed every stitch of clothing she wore with a slow methodical touch that had her soon on the edge of complete surrender, especially since he kissed every inch of her naked flesh along the way.

  She couldn’t believe she wanted him so soon, but then, she always wanted him. A simple touch, an innocent kiss, and she was ready for him. It wasn’t right, but it felt so perfectly right.

  “I want you all the time,” she breathed on a sigh.

  “I like that thought,” he confessed before teasing her nipple with his mouth.

  They lingered in touches, kisses, and an intimacy born of an indefinable need they both equally surrendered to.

  It wasn’t until night claimed the sky that they halted their lovemaking and sat on the bed wrapped in a shared blanket, nibbling on the sweet bread and cheese that Teresa had packed for them.

  “Bless your sister,” Cullen said, eating the food with a ravenous hunger.

  “Teresa has been a godsend,” Sara agreed. “I am so happy that she is with child. It will make Alexander’s absence that less painful.”

  “She has been good and generous with my son. I will never forget her kindness.”

  “Or mine?” she asked bluntly.

  He tweaked her nose with his finger. “At the rate we’re enjoying each other, it’s a good chance you’ll be with child and will have to join my son and me.”

  “And if not?” she snapped.

  Cullen stammered. “I—I—”

  “Don’t know what to say?” Sara accused sharply. “You can’t love me, can you? That just wouldn’t be possible. You loved Alaina, God forbid you should love anyone else.”

  “You’ve known how I’ve felt from the start,” Cullen shot back.

  “Of course, you refuse to live. Better to die with Alaina than to ever chance loving again.”

  “She’s been gone only—”

  “Alaina’s gone for good,” Sara spat. “You’re not.”

  “Love doesn’t disappear with death.”

  “It also doesn’t die with it,” Sara said boldly.

  “What would you know?” he accused.

  Sara threw her hands up, the blanket falling down around them, leaving them naked to the waist, though she didn’t care. “You’re right. I don’t know. I only know how I feel about you, and even that seems crazy. How do you fall in love with someone you barely know?”

  Cullen stared at her. “I’ve wondered the same myself.”

  Sara couldn’t dare hope he meant her. She couldn’t stand the disappointment, and besides they were talking about Alaina.

  “Alaina was easy to love?” she asked.

  “Easy, gentle, predictable,” he confirmed.

  “As it should be,” Sara proclaimed with a bravado she didn’t feel.

  “I would have agreed at one time.”

  “You don’t any longer?” she asked anxiously.

  He asked instead of answering. “How do you feel about me and why is it crazy?”

  “I love you.” The words surprised her, but then she couldn’t have stopped them from spewing from her mouth if she wanted to. She had contained her feelings long enough, and with such a short time left, she would have her feelings known and be done with it. The consequences would fall where they may.

  “How?” He shrugged. “We barely—”

  “Know each other,” she finished, the nagging thought too often on her mind. She shrugged. “I have no explanation for you or for myself, though I’ve searched hard for it. Can’t say when or where it is that I realized my love for you. It sort of popped up one day right in my face, and try as I might, I couldn’t make it go away.”

  “You wanted it to?” Cullen asked.

  She laughed gently. “It would have been so much easier if it had, but I knew it wasn’t going anywhere. Love had embedded itself in my heart and it was there to stay, whether I wanted it or not didn’t matter.”

  “So you accept it willingly?”

  “What else is there for me to do? Deny it? Ignore it?” She shook her head. “None work.”

  “You’ve tried?”

  “I surely did, and for my own sanity, but I learned quick enough that love borders on madness, which means there is no sane thought where love is concerned. Nothing makes sense, and to try to reason it is committing yourself to abject failure, thus plunging you into madness, though more accurately into the very depths of love. Does any of that make sense?”

  Cullen shook his head. “Nothing has made sense since I met you. But tell me, why do you love me?”

  “Do I need a reason?”

  He smiled. “There is usually at least one, maybe two or three.”

  “Let me think,” she said, tapping her finger to her chin.

  “You need to think?”

  “It’s an important question,” she said seriously.
r />   His smile sobered. “You don’t know why you love me?”

  “I could give you the usual—that you’re a good man, a good father, courageous, and so forth.”

  “That sounds good,” he admitted.

  Her slow nod turned to a quick shake. “Something’s missing.”

  “What?”

  He sounded anxious for an answer, but how did she explain? She wasn’t certain how to put it into words or even if it would make sense.

  “Tell me,” he urged, gently nudging her shoulder with his.

  She placed a hand over her heart. “I feel the love. It’s there when I glance at you, when you smile at me, when you touch me.” She patted her chest. “I can feel it each and every time, and sometimes it’s just there for no particular reason at all.”

  Cullen remained silent.

  “It makes no sense, I know—”

  “No,” he said. “It makes sense, though—”

  She pressed her fingers to his mouth, not ready to hear that he couldn’t love her. “You told me this day was ours. Let’s keep it that way. Make love to me until the sun comes up. Tomorrow will bring what it may, but today is ours.”

  They drifted into each other’s arms then, and began a night to remember.

  Chapter 31

  Cullen wasn’t sure what to make of the situation with Sara. He only knew it had become more complicated than he’d ever expected. When he agreed to their bargain, the thought of leaving her behind wasn’t a concern. Now, however, he wasn’t sure if he could just simply walk away from her without missing her.

  And if he would miss her, could he possibly be falling in love with her?

  They rode quietly into the village, neither of them having said much since they woke. It was as if something had changed or perhaps was about to change. Cullen couldn’t quite grasp the feeling, he only knew he felt it. It nagged at him, disturbed him, and he didn’t know what to do about it.

  Clouds followed them overhead, though the sun peeked through on occasion and the chill from the day before was gone, replaced by a breath of spring. It promised to turn into a pleasant day, or so it appeared until they entered the village.