by Lucy Monroe
Soon they would consummate their mating and marriage, but only when he had proven himself worthy of the honor. Not like six years before, when he’d taken prematurely that which he’d then proven he had no right to because he had not honored her gift, as was right.
Moving in and out of her with his finger, he licked and suckled at her nether lips and clitoris until she was rigid with the need to come. She babbled her need while her body jerked against his mouth with both demand and supplication. It would take so little to bring her to that point of ecstasy she so clearly wanted, but that would not be enough.
Not enough to erase old memories. Not enough to supplant them firmly and irrevocably with new ones. Not enough to show her how very much he esteemed the gift of her body.
He backed off, sitting back on his heels as he mentally planned her further ravishment.
“No,” she cried out, reaching for him.
“Shh,” he soothed, his hand caressing her thigh and his wolf crooning in his chest. “I will give you what you desire, in time.”
“Now,” she demanded.
He grinned loving this show of confidence. “Soon.”
He returned to her body, tracing those slim silver lines she had been so worried about with his tongue. She squirmed, making soft whimpering noises. He would show her just how enticing he found these marks of womanhood. He caressed her breasts as well, showing with his touch and mouth how much he enjoyed their curves and the hard berry-sweet tips.
She writhed against him, but he did not give into the urge to finish what he had begun.
He would bring her to the brink of climax, but she would only go over that precipice when he’d fed her a surfeit of pleasure. When he had created a new memory for her body that would supersede all others.
Shona responded to his every touch with a passion so beautiful, it took all of Caelis’s self-control not to come himself while he took his beautiful mate right to the edge of the pinnacle time after time.
When he finally brought her to climax, she screamed out her pleasure and the convulsions around his fingers lasted minutes not seconds.
Her body finally collapsed back to the fur, boneless, her eyes half-mast, shallow panting breaths coming from between her parted lips.
“That was amazing,” she gasped out between breaths. “How did you…Why did you…” She seemed unable to complete a thought.
That pleased him unutterably. “You are amazing.” And he was so hard he hurt.
“No. You…you are the incredible one. You took nothing for yourself.” The confusion in her tone and eyes was sweet to be sure.
“Giving you pleasure is a privilege I will never again take for granted.”
Her eyes glistened again, but this time the sight did not hurt him. “I want you inside me.”
“Soon.” When vows had been spoken between them before witnesses.
She needed that, even if she no longer realized it. Mayhap, he did as well.
“I said I would marry you.”
“Aye, and we will be married with a priest speaking his blessing over us.”
“Why do you not join with me then?”
“Because it will come after.”
She smiled at that, an expression deep in her emerald depths that said mayhap she was fully aware that waiting was what she needed.
“Will you…” She blushed again, her gaze dropping.
“What, mo gra? What do you want?”
“Not your heart,” she slurred without near the conviction she’d shown earlier when claiming he did not love her. “I want you to do what you did last night.”
He wanted that, too. So much. He moved up her body so he could rub his aching sex against her sensitized flesh.
She writhed, but did not push him away. “Yes, like that. Feels so close.”
“Aye,” he said across their mental bond.
“So intimate.” She pushed up against him despite her evident lethargy.
He would have agreed but he was too busy coming against her body just that quickly, his seed marking her again and causing his wolf to howl with triumph. They had wanted her too much and for too long to last once her pleasure had been ensured.
He collapsed beside her, his hold on her tight despite his sense of relaxation.
She cuddled into him. “I am not going anywhere.”
“Tomorrow, you leave for Balmoral Island.”
She tensed. “What? You are refusing me now?” she asked, though sounded like even she could not believe that.
Good. “Dinna be daft, mo toilichte. We will leave after we break our fast. The day after tomorrow.”
“We?” she asked, sounding both hopeful and still slightly worried. “Why the day after?” came out as a clear afterthought.
“How can you doubt it after what we just shared? And because your dearest friend is to be mated with the traditional Chrechte ceremony tomorrow evening.”
“I’d forgotten.” Shona’s fingers worried against his chest. “How could I have forgotten?”
“It has been an eventful day.”
“It has. And I don’t doubt you.”
“Good.”
“When did you decide to come with me?”
“As soon as you announced your intentions of going.”
She made a scoffing sound.
There had been no real decision to make. “I would trust your safety to no one else for the journey.”
“Oh.”
He surged up to lean over her, his warrior’s heart catching at the expression on her lovely oval face. “You will make yourself known to your family. I will state my intentions toward you to them. But heed my words, mate, no one—not even you, my dearest Shona—will keep you from me ever again.”
Her smile was like the sun coming through an unexpected break in a heavy gray sky.
* * *
Waking held tight in Caelis’s arms was much more comforting and enjoyable than Shona would have admitted, even to herself, the day before. It seemed so normal to be cuddled together under a fur, their naked limbs entwined.
She didn’t remember a fur being on top of them the night before, though. Hadn’t it been one of the Sinclair plaids on her borrowed bed?
Caelis must have moved the one he’d brought with him from beneath them to cover them, but she could not remember him doing so. Though she’d been less than sensate when he finally declared the time for sleep had come.
In the morning light coming in through the high window, she could see more details of the fur and she realized she’d seen it before.
And not just the night before in the hallway.
She pulled the corner of the fur up to look at the soft leather underside; sure enough, there was an S and C burned into the leather with an intricate Celtic knot joining them.
It was the same fur they had made love on six years ago. Tracing her finger over the lines of the symbols, she tried to fathom what it meant that he had this fur with him at the Sinclair holding.
The tension in the body beside her told her that Caelis had woken up.
She looked up at his long-beloved face. “This is the same fur.”
He did not ask the same as what; he simply inclined his head in agreement. “It is.”
“How?”
“I use it as my bedroll, always.”
“Even when you are going to another holding to bring back Uven’s daughter?” Though the proof was covering her with delightful warmth.
“Even then.”
“But why?”
“It is our mating fur.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Chrechte tradition is that special furs are prepared for the joining of a Faol and his mate.”
“But you did not make me your mate.”
“Oh, I did. Our bond was formed when you gave your body to me.”
“You really thought I would stay and that Uven would change his heart.”
“Aye.”
“You were stupid.”
“Aye.”
She smiled. “I love you.”
“You said so last night.”
“I thought you might like hearing it this morning, too.”
“I do.”
“Good.” Even if he did not love her, so long as he did not take her love for granted, she could find contentment with him.
She was certain of it.
She had lived with worse and could feel only gratitude her past would never be her present.
Chapter 21
Raise a Chrechte child with knowledge of the sacred laws and he will grow into a man of honor.
—CHRECHTE SACRED LAW, FROM THE ANCIENT SCROLLS
Shona was delighted to find Audrey waiting in the great hall with Thomas, the children and Vegar when she and Caelis came down to break their fast.
The daughter who had been so shy when they left England was ensconced contentedly on Vegar’s lap, talking to the rag doll Shona had made her when Marjory was a baby. She lifted the doll to Vegar and said something that Shona could not hear.
But it caused Vegar to look uncomfortable, and that brought a bit of a smile to Shona’s face. She was shocked beyond believing when the dour warrior kissed the doll on its raggedy mop of a head and pretended to feed it.
Audrey laughed lightly and Thomas said something, but Vegar did not seem annoyed.
Or as unirritated as the man had ever seemed in their brief acquaintance.
“I am glad to see our children and their Uncle Vegar getting along so well,” Caelis said with a smile in his voice.
Shona stopped in their progress toward the main table and stared up at him. “Uncle?”
“He is mate to your heart-sister. That would make him uncle, but he is also the closest I have to a brother.”
“What about Darren?” she asked, naming Caelis’s younger brother.
Sadness and anger emanated off of Caelis. “He died much like Jon did, on an assignment for Uven for which Darren had neither the experience nor training.”
“Is that when you began to question Uven’s ways?”
“I began to doubt our laird’s omniscience when you left our clan.”
Shona accepted the claim without comment, starting forward again. She noted that the warriors they passed were careful not to brush against her.
“You marked me with your scent again, didn’t you?” she asked across the mating bond.
A rich chuckle sounded in her head though his face remained impassive. “Most of these soldiers are human and have no idea you wear my scent.”
“Why are they so careful not to touch me then?”
“Because I am a formidable warrior and anyone looking at us recognizes you are mine.”
“I don’t even wear the MacLeod colors, much less a sign proclaiming me yours.” She still wore her English clothes, but Caelis walked so close, there could be no doubt they were connected in some way.
“I am all the sign these men need.”
“Arrogant,” she said aloud as they reached the table.
This time, his laughter was out loud and for some reason both the Sinclair and Vegar joined in. Thomas smiled, too, like he was holding back mirth.
She glared at them all, but turned a smile on Abigail and Audrey. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.” Abigail’s smile was kind. “You look well rested.”
“I am. Thank you.” She looked Audrey over critically. “You slept last night.” Shona was glad. She’d been worried her friend might lay awake in nervous anticipation of the mating ceremony to come.
“I did.” Audrey gave a look toward Vegar that was not difficult to interpret.
Audrey might well still be a virgin, but she was no longer wholly untouched. Shona was deeply grateful the experience had so obviously been a positive one.
She could almost look with favor upon the cantankerous Éan warrior because of it.
“Are you still angry with Da?” Eadan asked as Caelis helped Shona to sit before joining her on the long bench.
“No, sweeting. I am not.”
“Daddy says no puddings every night,” Marjory announced unhappily.
“You are sweet enough to do just fine without dessert every night.”
Marjory sighed, but nodded. “I likes it here better than home, anyways.”
“That is good, because this is our home now.”
“Here?” Marjory asked with a dubious look around the great hall.
Caelis leaned across the table and tugged Marjory’s braid. “Nay, mo breagha. Our home is to the south. Your mama meant Scotland.”
“Isn’t England in the south?” Eadan asked.
Marjory’s eyes narrowed. “I do not want to ride horses for days and days and days anymore.”
“The ride to the MacLeod holding is not so long as to England,” Caelis promised.
It was long enough, and he would learn that children Marjory’s age did not make a discernable distinction between a couple of days shy of a single sennight and two full weeks. Anything over a day was going to earn her disfavor.
“We are going to the island,” Eadan said to his sister. “We’ll have to ride horses for that.”
“How did you know about that?” Shona asked.
Had her son had another of his dreams?
“You said so. Our family is on the island.” Eadan looked at her as if he was worried she’d forgotten.
Shona found herself laughing. “I did say so. You are right.”
“We will leave for Balmoral Island tomorrow morn,” Caelis informed the Sinclair laird.
“We will go with you,” a big, dangerous-looking man who sat beside the laird’s daughter Ciara said.
Ciara looked at her husband with question. “I thought we were not making our monthly trip to the island until the new moon.”
“I have a mind to get to know Vegar’s English mate and the woman who would tame the MacLeod.”
“He is not laird yet,” Shona pointed out, but ’twas clear these fierce warriors saw Caelis’s place in the clan as foreordained.
“You doubt he will be?” the dark-haired warrior asked.
“Nay.”
The man nodded his approval of her agreement.
Ciara made a very unladylike sound of amusement. “Lady Heronshire, this is my husband, Eirik.”
“He is prince of the Éan,” Caelis said to Shona in her head.
Shona stood enough to give a half curtsy to the Chrechte royal. “It is an honor to meet you.”
The prince’s eyes narrowed. “There is no mockery in your scent.”
“Nor should there be.”
Eirik’s gaze flicked to Caelis. “The mating link has formed already?”
“It began six years ago,” Caelis affirmed.
Eirik’s nod was both approving and thoughtful this time. “Ciara said your former laird kept you from your true mate.”
“My own idiocy and misplaced loyalty did that.”
Shona had wanted nothing more than for the man to admit his culpability, but she did not enjoy the self-recrimination in his tone in the least little bit.
Patting his thigh, she said, “We have found our way back to each other and that is what matters.”
“I think certain members of the MacLeod will see things differently.”
Confusion washed over Shona. Was the prince warning of the opposition she would face returning to her former clan as the mate of a Faol?
“He is speaking of the Chrechte among the clan. A true mate is sacred and the fact that Uven withheld you from me gives me unquestionable right to challenge him as pack leader and laird.”
Casting a sidelong glance at the man she’d promised to marry, Shona considered his words. “My return to the Highlands was fortuitous, it would seem.”
“Aye, fortuitous indeed,” Prince Eirik agreed.
Ciara nodded, her expression the peaceful one Shona identified with spiritual counselors who truly sought to bring those who followed them closer to their Creator. “It is imperative that Uven be depose
d as laird over the MacLeod and we thought we had found the answer in Caelis.”
“But?” Shona prompted, having heard the hesitation in the celi di’s voice.
“While the Scottish king will not involve himself in a clan matter so long as the one challenging for right to lead is a MacLeod, garnering the support of the clan is another thing entirely. Uven’s betrayal of Caelis and the proof of that betrayal found in both you and your children will be enough to sway most.”
“Both children?” Shona asked Caelis.
“The very fact that mo breagha does not carry my blood is an affront to our bond that can be laid squarely at Uven’s door.”
“What did you say, Da?” Marjory asked in her child’s mixture of English and Gaelic.
“I said you are my daughter.”
Marjory beamed up at the big warrior. “You are my da.”
“Aye.”
“My da, too,” Eadan claimed firmly.
“Absolutely,” Shona answered at the same time as Caelis said, “Aye,” in his deep warrior’s voice.
Happy with their agreement, Eadan went back to his food. Marjory, who ate small bites provided by Vegar, continued to play with her doll, once again content to ignore the adults around her.
Audrey had turned pensive as they talked and Shona grew worried.
“Is aught wrong, dear friend?” she asked in a side whisper.
Audrey looked at Shona and then Vegar and back to Shona. “What will become of us?”
Shona did not understand the question. Did Audrey mean her and Thomas? The Sinclair had promised to train Thomas in the ways of the Chrechte and Audrey was now married to Vegar.
Sudden melancholy overcame Shona as what these realities actually meant to her. Was she to lose the rest of her family as she had lost first her mother and then more recently her father?
“Caelis,” Shona said through their mating link, not sure what she expected her mate to do to help.
But the thought of losing both Audrey and Thomas was untenable.
“We will travel to Balmoral Island with them,” Vegar said to Audrey. “Afterward, I will go with Caelis to challenge Uven. I am to be his second.”