“I know, and I want you to soak for as long as you need. But once you’re done, and it’s cooled, I’ll join you.”
“However will you fill the time?” Alex purred as he bent to lave Caitlyn’s nipple. She playfully pushed him away with a groan until he stepped into the tub. They enjoyed companionable silence, which Alex needed as he settled his aching arm in the near-boiling water. He focused on relaxing every muscle, starting with his toes and finally moving to his face. Watching him, Caitlyn lathered a linen and began washing him as his head tilted back. She left his maimed arm for last, moving around the tub to take care not to undo the ease he’d found.
Alex guided Caitlyn into the tub, encouraging her to straddle him. He eased into her, and with relief that they had privacy at last, they clung to one another, a fresh wave of relief choking them both. As she rested against his chest, the connection ran through their bodies to their souls. Their hips rocked in slow rolling rhythms, neither in a hurry to end their coupling. When they leaped over the precipice together, they fused their lips. Alex helped wash Caitlyn’s hair, but spent more time lathering soap over her breasts than in her hair.
“Caity, I’ve never thought to admit this to you, but now that we’re married, I wish to tell you every dirty thought I’ve had aboot us, in hopes we can make at least half of them happen.”
“Oh?” Caitlyn wiped away the soap from her eyes as Alex poured fresh water over her hair.
“When the grass in the north meadow grows tall, I wish to take you out there and strip you bare. I want to lie beside you, running my fingers over your silken skin as it darkens. I dream aboot you being the same hue as your arms and face go during summer. It’s the rich tones of the finestuisge beatha.I wondered so many times what secrets I might discover when you were my wife to undress and love. Now I wonder if you might grow dark enough to match those delectable nipples. I would be the only soul to know other than you.”
“You really wish me to be so dark?” Caitlyn hadn’t moved while Alex spoke, shocked and discomfited by his confession. She’d taken such pains to avoid the sun once she arrived at court, and it forced her to mingle with the other ladies. She’d found appreciation, and she felt relief, for not looking like Cairren. To hear Alex’s fantasy was unnerving.
“Mmm. People speak as though you’re an exotic oddity, but Caity, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Your skin gleams when it’s darker, and it’s as though all I can do is follow the dazzling light. You’re a siren.”
“If any other mon said that, I’d feel disgusting and dirty. But you say it so simply, so matter of fact. It’s as though,” Caitlyn paused as her lips pressed together, “you state the obvious.”
“It is obvious to me.” Alex shrugged one shoulder. He laid his hand on her wrist as she reached for the razor and shaving cream. “Caity, I didn’t think of it until now because it didn’t stand out. In every dream, our children look far more like you than me. I remember marveling at how we created such beautiful weans. I hope that comes to pass.”
Caitlyn considered Alex’s words as she lathered his face, never asking whether he wished to continue shaving his beard off. He sat still as she worked, and she sensed no hesitation on his part. Once his face was clear of whiskers, she cupped his jaw.
“Whatever their skin, I hope at least a few of them resemble you. When I was younger, I used to believe there was no mon more handsome and braw than you when you entered manhood. Now I’m certain that’s true. If you’re more comfortable with a beard, I will never ask you to shave again. But please know, I detest the grizzly thing.” Caitlyn rubbed her nose against Alex’s.
“For you,mo ghràidh, I will do aught. The bluidy thing itches anyway. I don’t understand how Father and Brice tolerate them.”
“I suspect a woman will come along who may convince Brice to shave his. But I watched your parents when we arrived. I think your mother prefers your father’s beard.”
Alex pretended to shivers in mortification before capturing Caitlyn’s lips. “You have been my best friend almost all my life, and now you are my partner.”
“Our marriage will always be richer for being more than just lovers.”
Caitlyn and Alex moved to the bed, where they were soon asleep. True to his warning when his mother tried to rouse them for the evening meal, they remained tucked away in their shared chamber for three days. When they emerged, no one could doubt the couple had been meant to be since the day Alex rode into Dunure’s bailey as an arrogant little lordling, and Caitlyn was a mischievous lass.
Epilogue
“Your daughter shall be the death of me,” Alex bemoaned as he shepherded six sun-kissed adolescents into Mangerton Tower’s Great Hall. He guided them toward Caitlyn, who sat sewing before the roaring fire.
“What has Lily done this time?” Caitlyn asked, sounding beleaguered but winking at her daughter. As the youngest of six, with only older brothers to emulate, Lily was a force in her own right. At five-and-ten, she stood taller than her mother, but Caitlyn remained the one person who terrified Lily. She’d had Alex wrapped around her finger since she entered the world.
“She bet her cousin that she could hold her breath under water for at least a minute.” Alex scowled at Lily, who continued to appear unrepentant as she shrugged at Caitlyn. “She neglected to tell her brothers that.”
“Maman, you should have seen them.” Lily whispered.
“Lily, that wasn’t funny,” her oldest brother, Tavin, growled. “We’re responsible for you.”
“I am responsible for myself,” Lily snapped. “And you’d do well to remember who killed that spider in your boot when you went caterwauling out of the barracks yesterday with only one shoe on.”
“You shouldn’t be wearing those breeks either. It’s indecent,” her youngest brother, Sean, insisted.
“Aye. They’reMaman’sand too short. Are my new ones ready?” Lily grinned when Caitlyn held up her sewing. She handed the freshly finished pants to her daughter and shrugged as Alex rolled his eyes. The growing children moved away from their parents as they sought their chambers to prepare for the evening meal.
“You were the one who wished to continue until we had a lass,” Caitlyn pointed out. “I warned you. The lads may look like me, but they all have your temperament. I had to get one like me finally.”
“But I didn’t think she would arrive in the world to be your miniature in every way but her looks.”
“She’s always been just as I was. You met me at five, Alex. I was willful then, and you complain that I still am.”
“But your willfulness now means going to bed early.” Alex swept a hand through his graying hair as he waggled his brows at Caitlyn. Lily was the only child who inherited Alex’s ebony hair and emerald eyes. She wasn’t as boisterous as her brothers, but she had a stubbornness and daring streak that matched Caitlyn’s. The clan was fortunate that mother and daughter were allies rather than butting heads.
