Catching her yawning, he had to smile, especially when she looked so guilty. “I can see I am eagerly awaited.”
“Sorry. It has been a long day, and I do seem to weary more easily.” She watched him undress and idly mused that she might find it easier to feel confident about him if he was not such a handsome rogue. “’Tis the bairn I am told.”
“Ye dinnae feel ill or unduly weak?” He briefly washed up, mostly out of habit for he had bathed before the wedding.
“Nay, nay. There is naught that feels wrong. I just tire with more ease than I have ever done. I need to rest more often but I ken weel that that is surely for the best.” Seeing that he was already aroused as he walked to the bed and slid in beside her, she murmured, “Mayhaps I should rest now.”
Tugging her into his arms, he met her impish smile with a fraudulent scowl. “Ye shouldnae do that.”
“Nay? Ye have something that might interest me enough to keep me awake?”
Hastily removing her nightgown, he held her silken body close and sighed with pleasured relief over the return of something that had been gone too long, something he had missed far more than he could have imagined. “I think I may have a thing or twa to hold your interest for a wee while.” He cupped her shapely derriere in his hands and pressed her closer.
Feeling a familiar, delightful warmth curl through her loins, she murmured her appreciation. “I think ye just might at that, m’lord.”
When he kissed her, she slid her arms around his neck and reveled in it. This time he would not be cutting the kiss short, leaving them both wanting more. Even as she began to succumb to her hunger for him, she was a little unsettled by the strength of it. She was not sure it was good or even wise to want him so much. That worry was soon drowned in a flood of passion, however, as his hands began to move over her in a way that revealed his own hunger.
After being so long deprived, they needed little to bring them to the point where the joining of their bodies was a necessity. Aimil was fleetingly surprised that he seemed as lacking in control as she was. She cried out with relief when he entered her and equaled his ferocity as he lifted them both to desire’s apex. As she began to slip down from the heights his lovemaking sent her to, she clung to him, unwilling to end the unity too soon. Sensing him staring at her, she opened her eyes and smiled lazily.
“Weel, ye were right. That did hold my interest for a wee while.” She met his grin with her own.
“Ye are an impertinent wretch.” He withdrew from her slightly. “I was a wee bit rough. Too long without a taste of the sweetness of ye. I havenae hurt ye, have I?” His hand covered her abdomen.
“Nay. Think of all we did before I even kenned I was with child. The bairn still grows and thrives. Aye, think of all Rory did to me yet, as Old Meg says, he couldnae shake this fruit from the tree. Ye cannae hurt the bairn with a wee bit of love-making. I think ye see it as rougher than it truly is. I dinnae feel as if it t’was verra rough at all.” She smiled crookedly. “So ye neednae fear that the reason for this fine wedding has been banished.”
“Ah, I kenned that something was gnawing at ye.” He gently brushed a few wisps of hair from her face.
“There is naught gnawing at me as ye put it.” She did not exactly wish to get into a discussion about feelings.
“Aye, there is and there has been. Ye hesitated before ye would say the vows.”
“Weel, ’tis a big step to be wedded. Ye cannae tell me ye had no pause, didnae hesitate a wee bit.”
“I didnae.” He smiled when she frowned and watched him through narrowed eyes. “Nay, truly, I didnae. I have been thinking on wedding ye from the verra first time I held ye in this bed.”
“Ye never said a word to me about it.” She felt a spasm of doubt, yet knew that Parlan was not a man to say something simply because he thought it might please her to hear it, to give her lies to ease a worry he only sensed she had.
“Of course I said naught to ye. I was but pondering it. My pondering might have led me to decide I didnae want ye for a wife. Then I would have had to tell ye that. Much better to say naught until I was certain.”
Although she was not sure she liked the idea that for all the time they had been together, he had been more or less testing her, she could easily understand why he had done such a thing. A marriage was forever, and the woman he chose would be the one to bear his children, his heirs. Such a weighty matter should be well thought on. Handfast marriages were little more than a test of the suitability and fruitfulness of a match. Nevertheless, she mused a little sourly, he had taken his sweet time in deciding whether she suited him. That did seem insulting.
“Ye find that less than flattering, do ye? T’was never my intent to deliver any insult.”
“I ken it. I can see the sense of being certain about such an important thing.”
“Aye, but?”
“I didnae say but.”
“T’was there to hear in your voice, sweeting. But?” Although he had no intention of telling her anything he did not feel, he was determined to ease the uncertainties he knew she felt.
“Oh, God’s toenails, did ye have to take so long in deciding?” She hoped her question reflected only hurt pride.
He forcibly restrained a laugh, knowing that would only add to her injured pride, mild as it seemed. “I didnae take as long as ye might think, dearling. Nay, truly, I didnae.” Smiling at the doubt he could read in her expression, he lightly kissed her pouting mouth. “I was but slow in telling ye. I realized I best hurry and speak before I went to the Dunmores.”
“And returned to find I was set to escape.” She realized that had undoubtedly added to that air of wounded pride she had felt in him that night.
“Weel, set to drown, leastwise.”
