Kai gives me a tender kiss, careful not to smudge my lipstick. “I’ll be waiting for ya at the altar, little fox.”
Whistling, he boxes the wolf mask back up and walks out the door.
My beautiful husband is indeed waiting for me, standing by the priest with Michael, Logan and Ethan as his best men, wearing a huge grin as he watches me walk down the aisle on the arm of Dougal, who kindly requested the “honor,” as he’d said. Sloan, Catriona, and Kenna stand next to me as I join Kai on the dais, and I look out over the guests.
I recognize so many more faces than I expected to. My bridesmaids are beaming, and Kai’s best men are wearing huge grins. The last strains of the bagpipes float up into the afternoon sky, and Father Hamilton nods to me kindly and begins the ceremony.
“Dearly beloved, you have come together with the intention to enter into marriage…”
After the rings are exchanged and vows made, Father Hamilton closes his book with a smile. “You may now kiss the bride.”
Kai sweeps me off my feet, lifting me for a toe-curling kiss that takes over every cell in my body, his tongue sliding into my mouth, and I feel the growl rumbling in his chest.
“I didn’t know a heart could contain this much happiness.”
I’m sitting on Kai’s lap, watching the sun sink into the golden hour. But for the first time, I don’t care about taking pictures. The Lady Elspeth has three photographers racing around the celebration, and every one of them looks exhausted.
“I’m a wee bit surprised ya didn’t melt into a puddle of tears whenSeanaircame over,” he says, kissing his way down my neck.
“Just a few!” I say defensively.
Cormac MacTavish Senior is still a legend of a man, even in his seventies. He took my hand after the ceremony with a warm smile. “Congratulations, my dear. You’re a brave and strong lass, and it’s a pleasure to call ya a MacTavish. And while ya have a grandfather, God rest his soul, I want ya to know that I’m proud to be yourSeanair,your grandfather, too. Ya will always have family at your back.” His eyes twinkled, “And, sometimes right in your face. But we’ll be here.”
“Thank you,” I’d croaked, and by then, my carefully applied mascara was a hopeless case.
“I love your –our– family.” I kiss Kai again. “And I love you. So much.”
“My bonnie wife, I love ya too. You’ve been in my heart since that first night on the island,” Kai says. He nuzzles the side of my neck. “I do believe it’s getting late, Mrs. MacTavish.”
“Really, Mr. MacTavish?” I give him my best innocent look, which is not remotely believable. “And what should we do about that?”
With a deeply satisfying growl, he sweeps me up into his arms, and with a chorus of cheers and catcalls, he puts me in his silver Mclaren convertible, which really does look like a spaceship, and we speed down the drive, my veil flying off my head and I do not even care.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
In which things are sweet… and then very savage.
Luna…
I can smell the salt in the ocean breeze as Kai turns down a private lane. There are no other houses on this road, just the Atlantic on one side and the forest on the other.
Then he rounds a bend in the road, and I see it.
A big - but not monstrously big - stone house with Gothic-style windows and an old-fashioned slate roof. He pulls up to the front, and I let him help me out of the car.
“There are turrets,” I whisper, putting my hand over my mouth. The light is on in one of the little towers, and sheer white curtains are blowing in the ocean breeze.
Kai hands me a key.
Opening the oak and iron door, I wander in a daze, looking at the wood herringbone floors, the enormous fireplace in the living room, and the kitchen with a magnificent view of the ocean and herbs drying on a rack over the blue La Cornue range. Just beyond it, an open door shows a perfect little greenhouse, just big enough to grow flowers with a comfortable bench swing, ready for a stack of books on the table next to it.
“I…” I turn in a circle, almost tripping on my dress. “This… how… Did you somehow create this out of thin air?”
He’s leaning against the granite kitchen counter, watching me with a smile. “No, though I did have to get the greenhouse built on the back to make it just right.”
I’m crying again, not that it matters since most of my makeup is gone by now. “When?”
Kai’s smile doesn’t waver, but I can see the flash of sorrow in his eyes. “When you went to California. It was my act of faith, ya see. I would have your home ready when ya returned to me. I could never let ya go, love. Not for long. It nearly killed me, that week we were apart.”
