Smiling, she turned around just in time to see James step through the trees. The smile on his face was all she needed to propel her feet forward and throw herself at him. He caught her and hugged her tightly. His arms felt like Heaven, and she could die happily in them.
“Lord, mo stòr, how I missed ye.”
Katie pulled back, hands framing his face. She was a foot off the ground but knew he would never let her fall.
“Sweet James,” she whispered, her eyes touching all planes of his face. “I’ve missed ye so verra much.” Her eyes were moist when she tilted her head slightly. “Kiss me?”
“I would sooner cut off my legs than deny ye.”
His firm lips touched hers. Katie’s moan was quiet when she moved upwards and wound her arms around him. Her fingers wove into his hair, and she crushed her lips to his tightly.
James growled, arms tightening around her waist.
Their kiss was pure rapture.
Their mouths collided again and again. James hesitantly moved his tongue into her mouth and she moaned, allowing him. She tentatively touched hers with his, and he groaned. They kissed as if they only had moments to live. James began slowing, sensuously kissing her until they were able to take much needed breaths.
They were panting and staring at one another.
“I may need to be absent again, if this is the welcome I receive.”
Her smile made it seem as if the sun was rising rather than setting.
“Why so long?”
He nuzzled the side of her neck before answering. “We were waiting on word from allies. It took longer than what we’d anticipated.”
“Allies?” Her eyebrows furled. “Is something amiss?”
“I doona wish to lie to ye or nay make ye aware of what is transpiring.”
“Then do not.”
“My father and I willna be forced to comply to the pact.” He added, “the rescinded pact. This means that Kerr will more than likely attack. He is receiving aid from someone, we doona know who. My father and I had to call upon our allies and ask for their assistance should the need arise. This took some time.”
“This is dangerous. Have ye spoken to my brother?”
“Connor knows what has been transpiring. Do not worry so, mo stòr. All will be well.”
“Ye must marry her. I doona wish to see anything happen to ye, yer clan, or mine. Or anyone.” Her lips began to shake. “While I tell you this, deeply in my heart, I doona wish for ye to marry another.”
His eyes would not let hers go. “Never, my love. Doona ye worry. But this is one reason why I returned now.”
“What is?”
“Let us wed.”
Katie turned rounded eyes to James. “Are ye mad? How? We’ve feuding clans prepared for war.”
He nodded sagely but offered her a rare grin.
“In secret, my love. Only us, family, and the priest will know. Then the issue of marriage is moot.”
She sighed as her eyes wandered over his face.
“I canna allow ye to place all that ye hold dear in peril just to wed me.”
He tightened his familiar arms around her body. Touching used to be loathsome to her. It had even been difficult to be affectionate with her family.
Yet James’ arms made her feel warm, loved, and safe.
She had made great progress, and it had been largely due to James.
James tipped her chin up.
“Sounds like ye speak of a sacrifice for compromise, as if I am yielding something I truly desire in exchange for chattel I doona want just to save a friend.”
Katie’s eyes looked away but James gently thumbed her face back to meet his eyes. She did so reluctantly.
“Ye are my heart, Katherynne Ramsay. Ye are what I hold dear.”
Her breath was tremulous as she released it. Her watery gaze held his.
“Ye deserve better.” She shimmied down to her feet.
She looked away again as she said the words and bit her bottom lip. She'd said them so softly, he strained to hear the words.
“Nay, lass. ‘Tis I who is undeserving of ye. I'm a selfish bastard for seeking ye out and wanting to make you mine.”
He paused for a moment.
“And ye are mine. Doubt that not.”
He words shook with possessive earnest.
She shook her head.
"But I'm nay a virgin, James!" She turned away from him. Her tears would not stop. They’d been forcibly kept tightly inside of her, as she was fearful of giving audible words to her fears.
He placed a hand at her waist as she still kept her back to him. Gently, he turned her to face him. Her sad eyes caused him pain.
"Think ye that virginity matters to me more than my love for ye? Virginity is as much a mental state as a physical one, mo stòr. There've been many a lasses, I've been told, who've never lain with a man yet doona have their maidenhead."
She turned to him again, cheeks aflame.
"Truly?"
He nodded.
"Ye've heard? Ye've never lain with a virgin?"
He shook his head.
"Ye were savagely taken by force. Consent is an important component. That was nay lovemaking.” His hands framed her face. “They took that decision away from ye, love. Lovemaking is beautiful. When we make love, it will nay just be a meeting of our bodies," he said gently, bringing her into the fold of his strong arms.
"It will be a meeting and melding of our minds, our hearts, and our souls. It will be us loving each other, and knowing the most intimate of things about one another."
He moved backwards again and paused to caress her cheek.
"Ye are a virgin, mo stòr, in the very truest sense of the word."
He paused again, his eyes studying her beautiful face and luminous hazel eyes. He rested his forehead against hers.
"Nay, I have never lain with a virgin, but ye will be my first, as I will be yers."
Tears slid down her cheeks as she quietly wept. She brought a hand up to his face and caressed his cheek.
“What if I canna?”
Her words were soft and unsteady.
“Canna what?”
She rested her forehead on his shoulder, unable to maintain his gaze.
“What if I canna ever share my body with ye.”
He gently took her chin again and gave her a moment to meet his eyes.
“I will wait however long it may take, and longer still. And if we find that ye canna, then be it so.”
Her eyebrows creased.
“But James. What about heirs?” She whispered, “I know men have urges and needs.”
He shook his head.
“It concerns me not. The only urge and need I have, is ye. Nothing else is of import to me. I love ye, Katie. Ye are my heart, my soul. Ye belong to me as I belong to ye. I vow to love ye, cherish ye, and protect ye. There isna anything that will ever change that.”
Her gasp was soft. Her worry had consumed her. She didn't know whether she'd be able to be intimate with a man.
And it didn't matter to him?
She brought her hand up to his cheek and caressed it.
“I love ye, James.”
“Will ye have me as yer husband, mo stòr?”
On her tiptoes, she slowly moved her head towards his. His eyes were staring into hers intently. She touched her lips softly to his and it was like magic inside her, like a flower blooming under the sun.
“Aye, Sweet James. My heart’s desire is to marry ye, my love.”
Chapter Seventeen
The following evening, the family gathered in front of their loch. Maddie and Miriam had adorned the area with flowers. Petals rested on the dewy plush grass. Candles lit a path to where the couple stood, gazing at one another. The candles surrounded them and the priest in a circle. The wind was light, and the stars and moon were luminous.
Under their stairs, and before their families and their loch, they recited vows to one another.
Katie wore a lush cream-
colored gown, with a crown of white flowers on her head. They were beautiful against her rich brown hair.
James was in his ceremonial wear, proudly displaying the blue, black, and gold plaid of his clan.
“D’ye promise to love, care, and cherish him, placing him above all others?”
Rubbing his hands, which were joined with hers, she smiled up at him. Watery eyes lovingly caressed his face.
This was the man that would become her husband.
This was the man she’d often thought about as a young girl when she wondered about her future.
James was him.
He now had a face.
“Aye. I will love and cherish him for the remainder of my days, and beyond. I love ye, James Rhiseart Menzies.”
James’ gaze was intense as he looked at her. His grip was strong yet gentle, when he brought her hands up to his mouth for a kiss.
“I have my own words that I’d like to say, Father.”
His voice was solemn, accentuating his brogue more than on any other occasion she’d heard him speak.
“Proceed.”
“The whole of my life, I never envisioned that I’d marry.”
His gaze saw through her, to the soul that resided in her body.
“I never believed I’d find a woman who would make my steps lighter, who would know my soul, and who would fill my heart.” Her hands squeezed his as two tears slid down her cheeks.
“When my eyes first fell upon ye, there was an awakening in my soul. ‘Twas as if it recognized ye as its other half, as its mate. I knew at that verra moment, Katherynne Eleanor Ramsay, that ye were meant to be mine. For the remainder of my days, my love, my heart, mo stòr, I vow to protect ye, cherish ye, and love ye. My life for yers, always.”
Her lips trembled as they rounded, and her eyebrows curved over burning eyes. He brought their joined hands to his mouth and kissed her hands.
The priest continued with the ceremony until he announced they were married. James moved forward and cupped her cheeks, his eyes never wavering once during the ceremony. It was as if only she existed. The fierce determination and love that shone in the golden depths of his eyes caught her breath.
“Katherynne Eleanor Menzies, I love ye. Now and always.”
Tears freely fell down her cheeks and onto his hands. Slowly his head neared hers, and she met his lips with hers.
Their kiss was soft, tender, and loving. When James heard whistling, he moved back laughing at the pink hue of Katie’s cheeks.
“Father.”
Douglas came forward and gave James a folded Menzies plaid. Taking it, he draped it across Katie, and secured it diagonally at her hip with a beautiful brooch that caught the moonlight.
“Beautiful.”
He smiled at her. “It was my mother’s.”
Once the plaid was on her, James stood and stared at her. The possessiveness that swept through him at seeing her in his clan’s plaid was powerful. It enflamed a basal instinct in him as a man seeing his woman wrapped in his plaid displaying to all that she was his.
And no one else’s.
The family walked forward and congratulated them.
“Ye should leave. With yer wife. Live off the land until it’s safe.”
James was taken aback, and his eyes moved from his father, to Connor, to Malcolm, and to Katie’s two other brothers.
“What d’ye speak of? I must stay and fight.”
Douglas shook his head. “Nay, Son. Go with yer wife. Keep her safe. This is my fight, nay yers. ‘Twas my signature on the pact promising something I never should have.”
“Da, I-”
Douglas shook his head. “Live son. Live yer life with yer wife. Ye’ve been loyal to me, the best son I could have ever asked for. Do this for me. Once the clan war has ended, I will send for ye. Tell us where ye intend to go.”
There was remote area on Menzies’ land he’d been wanting to take her, and knew that it would be a great place for them to keep away from everyone while the fighting transpired. It wasn’t like James to run from fighting. On the contrary, he ran towards the sounds of metal against metal, and the torturous screams of men. Fighting was in his blood. For Katie, however, he would do anything to keep her safe.
“I’d like to sleep here, before our loch.”
James turned to Katie. “Would ye nay prefer a bed, lass? If we’re to live off the land for the following several months, ‘twill be a last comfort ye willna have for a long while.”
Katie shook her head. “I’d like to sleep under our stars and our moon, and next to our loch.”
He enfolded her hands with his and brought them to his mouth. “I can deny ye nothing.”
Katie blushed and smiled. “Thank ye.”
He kissed her hands again, before turning and making his arrangements with her family and Douglas. A tearful Miriam and Maddie hugged Katie, chattering all at once. They hurried to pack necessities for Katie, and before they knew it, it was only Katie and James standing before one another. The candles added an other-worldly ambience.
“‘Twas a beautiful night for a wedding.”
His hand cupped her cheek. “As beautiful as it is, it pales in comparison to ye.”
Plaid had been laid on the ground, and James was the first to lower himself. Katie followed and he waited for her to come to him. If it was her wish, she would, but he would not hurry her.
James felt the familiar weight of her body against his side, and he realized that it was the simple things that he had come to appreciate with her- her soft touch, her companionship as they sat together talking, looking on at the loch.
It was everything about her that held him captivated.
“Where will we go tomorrow? How long must we live like this?”
He hadn’t thought of it before then, and he felt like an arse. Did she want to go at all? He could take her to one of their strongholds, but he rather liked the idea of being alone with her and living off the land.
“Lass, d’ye nay want to leave?”
She raised herself onto an elbow, and looked down at him. “I’d go anywhere with ye, James. Until the end of our world and beyond.”
James turned to her then, also on his elbow, and leaned in to kiss her. She met him halfway.
Their lips touched and their kiss was sweet, and then turned sensual from one moment to the next. James slowly brought his other arm forward and cupped her cheek. Katie sighed into his mouth.
He felt her push him back. “‘D’ye wish to stop, lass?”
She shook her head. “I wish for ye to lay on yer back and for me to be atop. Kissing ye.”
Her smile was timid, and her gaze was averted. His words brought her gaze to his.
“Mo stòr, all that I have and all that I am, my chattel, my body, my soul, it is yers. Ye’ve nay need to be reserved or hesitant in yer requests. It is all for ye, my love.”
Studying his face, she quickly moved forward and kissed him.
“Ye mean behave as I just did?”
Smirking, he nodded and relaxed back, waiting for her to be atop him. Slowly, she rose and settled on top of his solid body.
“Nay any fat on ye, eh, husband? Puts me to shame.”
Her laugh was loose, telling him she was nervous. It was that comment, and her address to him, which gave him pause. Once she was fully on top, she braved a look at him only to find his eyes intently looking at her.
“What? Am I too heavy?”
She made to move but he stayed her with his arms, which wound around her and cradled her to him.
“Ye weigh nothing, wife.”
She gasped at his use of her new title, and they stared at one another before they grinned widely.
“I like that ye called me husband.”
She kissed his lips and moved back slightly. “An improvement upon Sweet James?”
He laughed and the sound was rich, making her arms blossom into goosebumps.
“Mayhap they are on par.”
Her laugh wa
s melodious. “I liked that ye called me wife.”
James moved upwards and kissed her lips. “More than when I call ye mo stòr?”
She nuzzled her nose to his. “Mayhap it is on par, too. The sweet title of wife also causes my stomach to feel as if butterflies flutter inside.”
“Why is that?”
She exhaled and caressed his cheek with her hand. “Because it means that I am yers, and since the moment I saw ye, Sweet James, I wanted to be.”
James’s exhale was hard, unusually so. Katie perked up.
“What is the matter?”
“Yer words,” he said, sliding a hand down through her hair and the side of her head, “They cause me to feel empowered, emboldened. Ye tell me that ye’er mine, and I want to slay life’s demons so that they never touch ye, after I ravish ye.”
Katie dipped her head and he felt her cheeks heat.
He addressed the words she’d said earlier about his hard body. “Ye are beautiful. My body is meant to be hard. I build and I battle, mo stòr, and it has made me hard inside and out, but now, I love. I love ye, just as ye are. Ye are soft where I am hard, and ‘tis wonderful. Our differences are something to appreciate. I love ye, and I love yer body. Ye are like a warm fire when one has been out in the snow. Ye are like a soft blanket when one is cold.”
“Ye surely must have been a poet in a former life.”
He shook his head, laughing. “I merely speak the truth as my soul sees it, mo stòr. I am the luckiest man of all to have found ye. My mouth simply speaks what my heart and soul feel.”
Emotion welled up in Katie, and she lowered her head to kiss him.
It was enchanting.
The warmth of his soft lips as she was on his hard body, sent quivers of an unknown feeling run through her.
Was this passion?
Was this what it felt like?
She knew that it would need to be her to initiate intimacy between them. He respected her, and would not cause her harm by acting in a way that would remind her of that day. Mayhap at first it would have reminded her of that horrid day, but after knowing James’ touch, it was impossible to confuse with another’s.
“I love ye,” she said softly when she pulled away for a moment.
The Highlander Who Loved Me (Heart of a Highlander Collection Book 4) Page 9