She crumpled with another keening cry and threw herself back against his chest.
Not knowing what else to do, he released a heavy sigh and gently stroked her hair. Sometimes lasses just needed to cry things out. Mrs. Thistlewick had told him that once a long time ago.
Then she mumbled something into his tunic.
“What was that, my weepy mouse? I couldna hear ye.”
She sat up and wiped her nose with her bedraggled square of linen. With the look of a child caught stealing food, she said, “I am not a virgin.”
He wanted to laugh but didn’t dare. However, a wee bit of teasing was impossible to resist. “I didna think ye were. Not a woman of yer age, ye ken?”
She glared at him. “Well, I am not exactly past my best-by date either.”
“Nay, my love.” While he wasn’t certain that she meant she wasn’t close to spoiling, he guessed as much. Gently but firmly, he eased her closer until the irresistible temptation of her mouth was within a hairsbreadth of his. “Ye most definitely are not past yer best-by date. Now tell me, I beg ye, will ye grant me the honor of becoming my wife before this weary old year passes?”
“Ye are certain ye still want me? Even after all I just told ye?” Worry and concern shouted from her. From the pucker of her brow to the way she chewed the corner of her lip. “I dinna want ye regretting it.”
“Dinna fash yerself, m’love,” he said softly, then said it again with a long, slow kiss. “Just say the words I long to hear.”
Without a word, she pulled back and almost stood, wrestling with her skirts. Then she straddled him and gave a suggestive smile while settling back down onto his lap. Both nearly undid him. “I would marry ye this verra minute.” She slid her hands up around his shoulders and laced her fingers in his hair. “But might we wait to fetch the priest until a little later?”
“Most definitely.” He trailed his hands down her back, then up beneath her skirts, and cupped her lovely arse in both hands. “I have dreamt of this,” he said in a rasping whisper before covering her mouth with his.
She moved against him with a needy purr that vibrated into him. He released her buttocks long enough to yank his kilt out of the way so their naked flesh slid together in delicious greeting.
“I plan to relish ye long and slow this first time,” he said between kisses.
She didn’t answer, just reached between them and settled his cock inside her hot, wet depths. “Sorry,” she said with a breathless nuzzling of his neck. “We can do long and slow next time, aye?” She rocked her hips and released a tantalizing gasp. “I couldna wait any longer. I have wanted ye so verra long.”
He held tight to her, helping her ride harder and faster. “Aye.” The words came out in a groan. “Long and slow next time.” He rolled her to her back, sprawling her beneath him and settling in with a pounding rhythm.
Arching, she met him thrust for thrust. Her breathless cries spurred him faster. She clutched him and shuddered, sending him straight to wondrous oblivion.
Arms locked, he drove deep and hard, then stayed. Gloriously agonizing spasms shook him as his seed left him.
The library door flew open so hard it banged against the wall. “Chieftain?” Jasper shouted from the threshold.
“Get out!” Gunn roared. “Now!”
The door slammed shut.
“I suppose we should have locked it.” Lorna shook beneath him with a lazy giggle, mischief in her eyes.
He winked. “Now ye are my wife. We have a witness to the consummation.”
Her smile faded, leaving in its wake a dangerous thoughtfulness. She barely shook her head. “This seems so impossible. Ye believe me and love me anyway.”
“I believe yebecauseI love ye.” He resettled his weight so as not to crush her, resting his forearms on either side of her head. His old, unrealistic fears nagged at the back of his mind. What if the same thing that brought her to him decided to steal her away? Send her back to her time? “Swear ye willna leave me, Lorna. I couldna bear it, ye ken?”
She gave him a look that made him swallow hard. “If fate decides to rip me away,” she said softly, “know that I did not go willingly, aye?”
He ran his thumb along the fullness of her bottom lip. “Ye will fight like the fury ye are? To stay with me?”
With a gentle touch of his face, she gave him an encouraging smile. “I will fight with everything in me. To stay at yer side. Through this life and the next.”
Chapter Thirteen
Still warm andtingly from their wonderful clearing of all misunderstandings, Lorna shook out her skirts, then checked her hair. “Bloody hell. My pins. Help me find them. Ebby gets so frustrated when I lose them.”
