“We’re here,” Lucca cuts in, smiling gently. “We would never miss this.”
Shaking my head and teetering between laughing and crying, I say, “I’m so happy… just… thank you. All of you.”
After a quick round of hugs, they hurry off to take their seats and I am left in the little courtyard with my father.
“I must admit, I didn’t expect this outcome,” he says, walking with me to the start of the dark green carpet runner that leads to the altar and Cormac. “But this is even better than the other alliances I’d considered.”
I rest my hand on his proffered arm, barely touching him. “Just remember your first loyalty. To your family. You owe it to Michael to give me every scrap of information you find about the MacTavish group. There’s so much here to explore.”
I can hear the greed in his voice, the anticipation lighting up his eyes. Not from his daughter getting married of course, but from the possibility of sucking the wealth and power from another family.
“There’s only one wrinkle there, Papa,” I say sweetly, eyes forward and hearing the first strains of O’Carolan’s Concerto. “I’ve already told Cormac all about what you’ve been ordering me to do. Initially, he wanted to feed you false intel just to play with you. But then…” We take the first steps out onto the carpet, pacing carefully, step, pause. “We decided that instead, I would never have to see you again.”
Step, pause. “Ever.”
White-faced and furious, Malcolm Chandler puts my hand in the warm one of my savage Scottish Laird and Cormac’s grin illuminates me, making me feel lighter than air.
“You are the most beautiful sight,” he whispers.
“I really love you,” I whisper back.
“Aye, how could you not?”
Oh, that cocky bastard.
Epilogue
In which there is the best of all possible combinations: dancing, cake and sex.
Mala…
During the wedding ceremony, Cormac and I drank from the Quaich cup together - a beautifully carved silver cup given to us by his parents. We had our hands bound with their family tartan in the handfasting ceremony. Then the bagpipes played as the priest pronounced us husband and wife, soaring joyfully over the rolling green hills of the estate, and when he cupped my face in his hands and murmured, “My bride,” I didn’t know a heart could hold this much joy.
I’d learned to guard the small doses of happiness I received in life carefully, storing them away to bring out to remember later when things were especially dark, to keep moving forward. But here, the day overflowed with happiness, the sheer flagrancy of it was impossible to keep up with and I stopped trying, letting it wash over me in waves.
We all danced to the music of the Scottish country band, drank to a dozen toasts, each bawdier than the last, and ate an insanely delicious wedding cake with three spectacular layers under white fondant and fresh flowers.
Mariya held out another plate to me, eyes wide. “Did you know there are three different flavors for the cake layers?”
“I had the honey lavender one,” Meiying said, offering me a forkful.
“Oh, sweet baby Jesus that’s good,” I moaned. “I ate the salted caramel one and didn’t think anything could be better.”
“You haven’t tried this layer,” Mariya said, putting the plate in my hands. “It’s floral pistachio.”
“Give me a bite of that,” Willow stabbed at my plate with her fork.
They sent the men off to fetch more plates of each flavor as Cormac put me on his lap. “You are never allowed to moan like that again unless I am inside you,” he murmured. He wasn’t that quiet about it, because Willow and Athena started snickering and when he kissed me, licking any remnants of the lavender cream off my lips, they all hastily deserted us.
“I should have done that sooner,” he grinned, “I’ve been waiting to have ye’ all to myself.” His lips were back on mine, thoroughly exploring my mouth until I was nearly boneless with need.
“Now, I must go handle something unpleasant,” he says, wrapping his arms around me. “Your father, to be precise. Now that he realizes you will not spy for him, he will be petty. He will wish to renegotiate our terms.”
“What does that mean?”
He must see the sudden spike of fear in my eyes because his soften and he kisses me again. “It means nothing. The deal is ironclad and absolute. I will give him some small concession and then guide him and your brother off the estate property and have them escorted back to their hotel.”
“I’m so sorry my father is an asshole,” I whisper, feeling the shame heat up my face.
