Keagan squealed a war cry, opened and closed his hands, then dove headlong into Faolan’s arms.
Faolan laughed as he swung the boy up into the air and held him overhead. “Well done, Keagan! Ye’re barely a year old and already ye’ve walked across the courtyard.”
Maxwell clapped Faolan on the back as he grinned up into the drooling tot’s face. “A fine lad! He’ll soon be ready to sit a horse and learn to handle a sword.”
As he set the toddler back on his feet, Faolan placed a crooked little finger in each of Keagan’s chubby hands. Together they inched in a circle about the courtyard, the huge man bent as he steadied the exploring baby.
As Ciara watched them, she stood with a hand to her throat and blinked hard against the happy tears stinging against her eyes. Brushing her hair away from her cheek, she caught Maxwell staring at her, a strained look upon his face.
“What’s wrong, Maxwell?” Ciara studied him, her senses heightened as she peered into his mind. She searched his memories; she found the many times he’d witnessed Faolan suffer when life had been unkind.
Maxwell kept his voice low so Faolan wouldn’t overhear and moved closer to Ciara’s side. “I never thought I’d live to see Faolan this happy. Ye have no idea the change ye’ve brought into his life.”
“And he into mine,” Ciara whispered as she remembered the darkest times of her past.
Maxwell shook his head in amazement as he watched Faolan continue his stooped walk around the yard with his son. “We all know there’s something special about ye, Lady Ciara. We’ve seen the inexplicable things ye’ve done. What I ask of ye now, I ask because I care for Faolan as a brother. I mean ye no disrespect in what I am about to say.”
A chill nicked its fingers along her spine at the echo of his words. Her eyes narrowed, as Ciara forced her focused gaze straight ahead. “Speak your mind, Maxwell. Stop hemming and hawing. What is it that you would ask?”
“Don’t hurt him.” Maxwell huffed as though the words left a bad taste in his mouth. “All I ask is that ye do not hurt him. The man has suffered enough.”
Ciara raised her chin as though she’d been struck, flattening her mouth into an unhappy line. She inhaled a deep breath then released the air as if she turned loose of her very soul. “I swear to you, Maxwell. I will do everything in my power to keep any of us from suffering any more pain.”
ChapterEleven
Heavy crimson bed curtains cocooned the frame, enclosing them in their own private nest. Just enough firelight filtered in around the bedposts to cast a seductive glow. The covers were wadded against the footboard and pillows lay scattered about the bed. Their naked bodies glistened in the hazy light; the pounding of their hearts settling to a regular rhythm as their breathing returned to normal.
Ciara nestled her head into the crook of his shoulder, one leg stretched over his love-dampened body. As she snuggled herself tighter against his heated flesh, she almost purred as her still throbbing body hummed in sync with his.
Faolan’s hand lazily traced up and down her back, sending delicious shivers up her spine. She raised her head to draw her lips along his tempting throat, his salty skin sweet, as she tasted the tip of her tongue along the line of his stubbled jaw. “I’m surprised we didn’t wake Keagan. I’m afraid I got a bit loud that time. It’s a good thing you thought to pull the curtains. They must’ve muffled some of my cries.”
Faolan chuckled as he fondled one of her breasts and kissed her forehead as he pulled her closer. “I like it when ye let me know I’ve pleased ye. I love the sound of your moans.”
Propping herself up on one elbow, Ciara tapped the end of his nose. “You weren’t so pleased the other night when Keagan suddenly appeared by our bedside and asked you why you made me yell.”
His face a complete mask of seriousness, Faolan avoided Ciara’s taunting gaze by staring up into the canopy of the over-sized bed. “I thought I handled the lad’s question quite well, even though it was a bit ill-timed.”
Ciara pushed herself even higher up into the pillows and reached down to pull at the coverlets against the growing chill of the room. “You told him you were trying to convince me to give him a little brother and I was yelling because I wanted him to have a sister.”
Faolan rumbled with laughter as he pulled Ciara back down into the depths of the pillowy mattress and rolled to pin her beneath him. “What would ye have me tell the lad? He’s a bit young to learn the way of things so early. He’s naught but four years old.”
Biting her lower lip to keep from laughing in his face, Ciara planted her hands against his shoulders. “Your explanation was all well and good until he decided to repeat it to Sorcha and all the kitchen maids.”
Faolan groaned as he settled himself back between her legs, then grinned as he raised his head. “So that’s the reason for all the laughter in the kitchens whenever I call out your name.”
Wrapping her legs around him to pull him in deeper, Ciara arched her back and agreeably sighed. “That’s because he also told them that you call out to me in the darkness because you sometimes lose me under the covers.”
As he settled his hips into a tantalizing rhythm, Faolan ground his body into hers. Then in the middle of nuzzling her neck, he paused and raised his head. “Where did he come up with that one?”
As she raked her hands down his back and matched her thrusts with his, Ciara struggled to maintain the conversation rather than spiral into mindless oblivion. The time for talking had passed; she just needed to feel. “I might’ve…told him…” she managed to gasp before her voice trailed off into a delirious moan.
* * *
The faintest hintof approaching summer rode in the air. The freshest smell of new life teased the weary senses worn and tired from the staleness of winter. The morning sun shone as a brilliant medallion suspended in the crisp blue sky. The early rains had finally cleared. The world sparkled fresh and new as the day it sprang forth. Anticipation crackled in the air.
Ciara didn’t realize so many of the clan could fit in the courtyard of the castle. Their faces beamed with expectant smiles. Word had traveled fast. This morning was a rite of passage for Keagan, and apparently, no MacKay wished to miss it. Faolan’s closest guards formed in a semi-circle around the front of the main stable. With their arms extended and locked at the wrists, they resembled a human fence.
Ciara paced the broad front steps of the keep, gnawing at her lower lip. She knotted her arisaid between her hands and stared within the arc of awaiting warriors. In her mind, she knew Keagan was growing up, but in her heart, he was still her baby.
