In his home, surrounded by the things that truly mattered to him, it was easy to imagine him as the quiet, sensitive lover. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seem glimpses of that side of him all along. But she’d seen the fierce protector in him, felt the warrior conqueror when he took her earlier. And she was falling for both men.
He moved his way back to her mouth, and when he pulled her more fully under him, he moved between her thighs, and took her in one, slow, deep thrust. She arched, gasped, and felt her body climb straight up that peak. But rather than build on that, and take her faster, thrust harder, he kept it slow, steady, climbing her up slowly, sweetly, until she thought she might sob from the need for release.
“Graham,” she said, on a choked plea.
“Shh,” he said, against the side of her neck. “We’ve all the time in the world. Let me…”
Love you.
Those were the words she heard, and it made her own heart take flight. He hadn’t said them, but she knew, in that moment, it was what she wanted. Wherever her path took her—if she could find a way to stay on Kinloch—that was her intention. She wasn’t giving up without the fight of her life. One thing McAuleys were really good at, was going after what they wanted. And getting it.
He slid an arm beneath her back and pulled her up that last bit, so he could slide the rest of the way. “Oh. That is…”
“I know,” he whispered against her neck.
She felt him gather, his body tensed, and he grew fuller, yet continued his slow, steady strokes.
“Graham,” she whispered.
“Darling Katie,” he said, then arched his back and groaned, long and low, as he pulsed into her until he shuddered from the strength of the release.
Her body shook right along with his. When he tried to move away, she held on tight. “Stay,” she asked him. “With me.”
His hold on her tightened until she thought she might faint, but it was the sweetest, instinctive hug she’d ever received. It was as honest a response as she could have hoped for.
When they could both finally breathe, he slipped from her, rolled to his side, and pulled her with him, keeping her close. “That was…”
“I know,” she said, pressing a kiss to his chest.
“I dinnae want to move. I think all my limbs have been turned to water.”
“I know exactly how you feel.”
“Let me catch my breath, then I’ll take ye into the shower—”
“If you show me how it works—”
He tipped her face up to his. “I want to go on record right now.”
“Okay,” she said, fighting a smile at his oh so serious tone. It was the twinkle in his eyes, though, that really caught at her heart. They were back to fun, but there was another layer to it. A more poignant tug in her chest, and the deep affection that had been growing for him all along, had reached a fully new plateau. “Go on.”
“You’ll always be an independent free spirit, it’s who you are. But I am finding that I enjoy, a great deal, taking care of you. In ways big and small. So if you can understand by allowing me these small pleasures, you’re making me happy, perhaps it willnae be such a challenge for you to let go a little bit.”
“Would these little things include scrubbing my back in the shower?”
“It would be a most delightful place to start, aye.”
“Then I believe I am willing to give it a go.”
He grinned. “This is a partnership that might have a bit of merit.”
“I’m happy you feel that way,” she teased back.
He hadn’t said a word about her earlier declaration, about wanting him to marry her. He’d played it as a joke at the time, but she was pretty sure he knew she’d never been more serious. Every moment they spent with each other served to strengthen what they could have together. She was going to have to trust that, trust him.
“How did the meeting go, with Roan and Shay?”
She’d expected, perhaps, a bit of frustration on his part, as she’d known he was a bit worried that his friends wouldn’t support his desire to see the end to the Marriage Pact, but she hadn’t been prepared for the way his expression immediately shuttered. Not when they’d made such huge strides in reaching a new level of trust with one another.
“Don’t do that,” she said, but softly.
“Do what?”
“Shut yourself off. I take it the chat didn’t go as you’d hoped.” She pushed up a little, and framed his hard jaw with her hand. “I’d like to think you could talk to me about everything. I’d like to have that freedom with you. I’ll try and always keep an open mind, but you’ll also know I will tell you how I honestly feel. I’d hope for the same trust and feedback from you.” She smiled at him. “I’m no’ just looking for a partner in the shower, ye ken.”
His lips twitched, and she felt like she’d just made a major inroad.
“You’re uncanny with that, ye know.”
“I’ve Scot blood in me.”
“You’ve a few things Scot in you, as a matter of fact.”
His comment elicited a surprised burble of laughter from her, and she swatted him. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“If I’m to trust you with the serious topics, then I should know I can trust you to handle my bawdy humor as well. What?” he asked, when she looked at him askance. “Do I no’ strike you as the type?”
“I’m not so sure there is really anything you could do or say that would surprise me. You’re an amazing dichotomy of so many different things. I haven’t learned them all yet, so you might catch me off guard from time to time.”
“I find I dinnae mind that so much. You blush the most becoming shade of pink.”
She lifted up and kissed him on the chin. “So do you. So I understand the attraction. Just remember, fair’s fair.”
“What have I done?” he said with mock horror.
“If you think it’s successfully changing the topic, you’ll find you’re mistaken,” she told him. “So, tell me what went on with Roan and Shay. I take it they weren’t receptive to your abolitionist ideas.”
“Not entirely, no.”
“Do you think they’ll come around? Will you be able to persuade them?”
“They made a pretty good case for keeping the Pact intact.”
Surprise had her pushing up to a half sit so she could see his face more fully. “Really? Did that make you see things differently as well?”
He shook his head. “No’ in the way they’d hoped. But they did make me think on the part of my job I talked to you about the other day.”
“That being?”
“Feeling as if I have a sense of what my people need from me in terms of personal direction. As I said, I understand economics, and keeping us a successful, thriving island in terms of our bottom line.”
“But you feared you didn’t have a sense of how to maintain the emotional balance. You said you thought they were happy with your performance, though.”
“No one has said anything, no. But I fear if I pursue this path I am on, it will become an issue and swiftly. I dinnae want to disappoint them, and Roan and Shay made a case for giving them hope.”
“By marrying someone you don’t love?”
His arms tightened around her, surprising her with the instinctive gesture. She tried not to react to it, but it made every part of her want to sing for joy, knowing he truly did want her. He might not be prepared to admit the full breadth of it yet, but some part of him already knew what was there, what could be there, between them.
“Perhaps they can explain it to you. I suppose it makes sense, if you look at it through their filter. It just doesnae happen to be the way I think. I’m no’ sure if a compromise, in this case, is what I should do. I feel that I would be cheating us both.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“I had Shay post the banns for a clan council meeting. Two days hence.”
“You’ll put it to a vote? So soon?”
; “No. I just want the opportunity to tell them why I feel as I do, and listen to what they have to say. I’m hoping that will guide me in what I should do next.”
“Would you really walk away? End your work here?”
“If they decide that fate is the ultimate decider, and Iain ends up the victor, then I dinnae see how I could stay on. If they truly believe that life and their future is best left to the whims of fate, then they’ll embrace the path that doesnae have me on it. They can’t have it both ways.”
“What about you then? I mean, where would you go? What would you do?”
He smiled then, and it surprised her. “Asks the woman on the brink of making the same journey. It’s no’ like this is all I can be, Katie. It’s just what I want to be. But perhaps my fate is to take a new direction as well.”
She curled back beside him, her mind racing in all new directions. She hadn’t expected the reaction to his desire to end the Pact to be a positive one, certainly not initially anyway. But it was all rapidly growing far more complicated than she would have expected.
So she pushed, when she otherwise would have counseled herself not to. She had a feeling once the two of them essentially reentered Kinloch society, things were going to move swiftly toward one conclusion or another. She didn’t trust they’d have much of a chance to control things once everybody else began to have a say. So she had her say, while she still had his complete and focused attention.
She scooted up, until their faces were level, and cupped his face until he turned to look fully into her eyes. “I know it is with the best of intentions you want to move your people past an ancient restriction you feel would serve not only the current generation, but generations to come—in a better, more freely adaptable way. It also honors your own feelings.”
“Aye, you’ve just stated it far more clearly than I could. Perhaps I should have had you with me at the meeting.”
She smiled at that. “I’m a hell of a negotiator.”
“I’ll tuck that fact away,” he said, smiling too, but she saw the strain around the edges.
“But there is a third option.”
“What do you mean?”
“You want the Pact abolished. Your friends seem to think not only will that not happen, but that the law, as it stands is still more benefit than detriment to the people of Kinloch.”
“That is the crux of it, aye.”
“If the time constraint elapses, what are the chances that Iain will make good on his threat?”
“According to Roan, high to near on a certainty.”
“So let me propose to you a third option.”
“Please do,” he said, pulling her hand presently cupping his cheek around to his mouth, where he pressed a rather hot and bothersome little kiss to the palm of her hand, which she then snatched away.
“No distracting the negotiator.”
He grinned unrepentantly. “I’m merely trying to gauge just how finely honed those skills of yours are. If I’m going to take you into battle, a clan leader needs to know these things.”
She wiggled her eyebrows at him, but when she spoke, she’d never been more serious. “That is exactly my proposition. Take me into battle with you.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning you give your people what they want.” She took his hand then, and pressed a hot, sweet kiss of her own to the center of his palm. He didn’t jerk it away, but his expression definitely changed to one not so confident as before.
“What are you plotting inside that lovely blond head of yours?”
“I’m just saying we’re not exactly repulsed by each other.”
“Ye can safely make that argument, aye.”
“Why don’t we end Iain’s reign of potential terror. Give your people the wedding they want. Then continue on with your quest to abolish the law, for those who come after.” She held up her hand. “Let me get it all out there, then you can shoot me down. Doing it that way you wouldn’t be working under any time constraints, and you’d have me there, pitching the battle with you.”
“Why on earth would they want to repeal something they see is still working?”
That made her heart sing just a little, but she kept it under wraps. “If we talk to them, implore them to search their hearts, and free their future leaders to be allowed to follow theirs…I think together we might make a stronger case. Precisely because we did follow the law, but still want to seek freedom for those who come after. And…” What she’d said so far was the easy part. What she had to say next was the hard part, the part she really didn’t want to point out, or put on the table. But it had to be said if she was to ultimately get what she wanted—Graham wanting her as freely and fully as she wanted him. “If the law is abolished, you would be free to dissolve our union, and still seek the partner of your choice. And show them for real, what that would give them, and give to you.”
She knew it was the best possible solution to the problem, but she didn’t want him to actually take her up on that last part. She didn’t want to see his reaction to that comment.
So, it made her heart decidedly heavier, when he seemed to take it under serious consideration. “You’d do that? We wouldn’t be able to judge how long it might take.”
“I want time here, to sort through my future options. I’ve nowhere I have to be. If the situation becomes untenable, then you can simply divorce me, and move on in whatever manner you wish, Pact or no Pact.”
“Not one union has ever been dissolved. Four hundred years.”
“You want to dissolve it all, so ending the lengthy streak is hardly a sin by comparison.”
His expression shuttered a bit, but she didn’t call him out on it. She wasn’t feeling quite as generous as she’d been feeling minutes ago, when she thought he’d balk at the idea of letting her go. Or had certainly hoped he would.
Surely they were on the path to that destination—marriage—already. But, her confidence a bit shaken, she wasn’t as happily ready to skip down the aisle. Yet she either had conviction in her own plans, or she did not. She could hardly ask that of him, and not be willing to trust in her own vision. There were no guarantees in any event.
“Ye’ve given me a lot to think on,” he said.
She nodded, wishing she had a bit less on her mind at the moment. But it was all part of the same thing. She needed him to be as sure of her, as she felt she was about him. It was just the beginning…she needed to keep the faith.
“You know,” she told him, “I am suddenly ravenous. Why don’t you show me the mysteries of your shower and I’ll clean up while you put together whatever goodies you brought back with you from…”
“Port Joy?” he offered when she didn’t attempt to mangle the village name. A glimpse of the teasing smile curved his lips. Clearly his thoughts were on other things. Like whether or not he was game to marry and divorce her to make a point with his people.
Oh, Katherine Elizabeth, what have you gone and done now?
Chapter 20
“They are truly works of art,” Katie breathed, as she looked from one basket to the next, lining the showcases in Roan’s office. “My God, I had no idea.” She turned to face him. “These are made right here on the island? All of them? How many do you ship, say, in a month?”
He pulled out a spread sheet and handed it to her. She looked over the numbers and her mouth fell open. “Oh, my word.” She looked up to find Roan smiling quite proudly.
“We’re only back up to sixty-seven percent consistent crop production. We could push the market further, but we have to be confident we could continuously fulfill the demand.”
Katie laid the spreadsheet back on the desk and picked up the small catalog that showcased their work. “How often do the pieces change?”
“Continuously. Mostly the catalog is a means of showing what our range is. Many of our customers want the unique, the one-of-a-kind.”
“You do that? Custom baskets?”
“In a sense. We can take recommenda
tions of color schemes and quote a price range, but the weaver has the freedom to create whatever she wants, so long as it meets the criterion of the agreed upon price.”
“What is the percentage of customer dissatisfaction?”
Roan handed her another spreadsheet. “Third column is the rate of return or refusal for the past corporate year.”
“Wow,” she said, seriously impressed. “I guess your reputation helps in that regard a lot. With such a subjective product, that’s really an amazingly low figure.”
“We’re proud of it, aye.”
“Still, the marketing challenges you face with that kind of stock fluctuation—”
“Are indeed challenging. It’s my job to come up with solutions.” He cocked his head and studied her as she handed the folder back to him. “Would it be presumptuous of me to assume your role in McAuley-Sheffield was in some way parallel to my, admittedly, much smaller role here?”
“You may assume that, yes,” she said with a smile. “I don’t know that I can honestly say I had the same honest passion for it that you do for yours, but I can say with a fair amount of confidence that I was pretty damn good at it.”
“Good,” Roan said, clapping the folder shut in increased excitement. Considering he’d been pretty much a zero-to-sixty sort whenever they’d spent time together, that was saying a lot. “Would you be remotely receptive to seeing some ideas I’ve been playing around with, for the fall and winter campaigns?”
“Sure,” she said, surprised to realize she meant it. It was entirely different than back at home. She truly was free to do what she wanted. The knowledge that she might contribute something made her feel energized about trying. No one was more surprised than she was. She’d thought she hated her job.
Maybe it was just her employer.
He handed her another file. “Look these over. If you can pry Graham out of his lab, hijack his computer and go to the website listed on the front sheet. That’s us. Look and see what’s going on now, to understand better where I’d like us to be.”
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