She started to protest, but in one motion he swept her into his arms, holding her tight as she struggled against him. He kicked the door open and stepped out into the yard, even as she swore and screamed and pummeled him with her fists. God, it felt good to let go of it all!
Ethan and Iona still stood there in the dooryard, now with identical looks of bemusement on their faces.
“Did it go well, Ceann?”Ethan asked.
“Shut up, Ethan!”, Ceann growled as he lifted Ella onto the back of his horse and swung up behind her before she could escape. Wrapping his arms tightly around her, he kicked the stallion and they rode back to Tulloch.
The cry went out as they rode into the bailey, and people suddenly appeared from everywhere, some even cheering Ella’s safe return. It warmed her heart that they had welcomed her so readily, and in that moment, she knew she was home, truly, finally home. But first she would have to settle things with the laird who had stolen her heart.
He swung down from the horse and lifted her gently out of the saddle.Tossing Fallon’s reins to a stable boy, he immediately grabbed her elbow and steered her through the small crowd that had gathered. He looked straight ahead, ignoring everyone, not even pausing. Ella saw Maggie up ahead, shoving on-lookers aside with her elbows, frantically trying to reach her, concern etched on her face. She squeezed Maggie’s arm as they passed by, and gave her a warm smile.
“I’m fine.”
“The bairn?”
“Fine as well.”
That was all she had the chance to say, before Ceann was dragging her up the stairs to his chamber. He opened the door, led her inside, then closed and bolted it behind them.Ella looked around, curious. In all her weeks at Tulloch, she had never once seen his private chamber. He had never once brought her here. She frowned. She was carrying this man’s child, yet never had she spent an entire night with him, or even shared his bed. It would be a beautiful thing, to wake up every morning in his arms.
It was a man’s room, sparsely furnished, masculine and austere. The only outward signs of wealth were the large richly carved wooden bed and the plush carpets on the floor. She glanced back at Ceann, who wore an expression somewhere between pain and fierce determination, his arms folded over his chest.She had already mostly forgiven him, but he did not need to know that yet. There were things she needed to hear him say, first.
He took off his sword belt and placed the weapon carefully on a trunk against the wall. Then he looked up at her. “I should not have doubted you”, he said. “My uncle… he knew… he knew about everything, and he didn’t tell me.”
She shook her head slightly. “You had reason to doubt me, Ceann, I know that, but perhaps you could have let me try to explain.”
“Aye.I let my anger overwhelm me. I wasn’t thinking straight. You never deserved what I did to you. I… I just couldn’t bear the thought that I’d lost you, or that I never had you to begin with…”
“What will you do about Ross? Now that you will have an heir; he is a dangerous man, Ceann. He wants Tulloch, and he wants you dead.”
“I know.My men found a parchment at Rossmoor. It was a copy of the document my father once had.Da must have burned the original, long ago, because I never found it.I had never seen the words… or I might not have suffered for so long. My father tried to tell me, I think, not long before he died, but I was too stubborn to listen. I left then, just like I left you.”
“No Ceann, your trials were part of it all. We both had to go through everything we did in order to find each other. It couldn’t have been any other way. There never was a curse, was there? At least not the way you thought.”
“No, I only had to find my one true love, to have all I ever wanted.” The corners of his mouth turned up a little. “I admit, I was very impatient, waiting for you to come to me.”
Ella scoffed at him. “You weren’t waiting for me when I got here; in fact you spent much of your time trying to keep away from me!” She crossed her arms over her chest and fixed him with a look.
His face lit in a roguish smile. “Had I any idea lass, what I was so busy running from, you would have been flat on your back that first day I found you in the woods. As it was, you have no idea how close you came to crawling out of that tent in the morning without your innocence.”
She smiled. She would not tell him that he had been in almost as much peril himself. Instead she looked him slowly up and down, her eyes roaming appreciatively over his body. So proud, so strong. A warrior whose hands had killed to protect, would kill again. A gentle man, a fierce lover. So handsome, with his deep blue-green eyes and glossy hair falling in disarray about his shoulders. His arms could cradle her or crush her, at his will.
She took a breath. It was time, they had both suffered enough. “Come to me, Ceann.”
He was across the room in two strides, his body pressed to hers before her next heartbeat. He cupped her face in his hands and lowered his mouth, parting her lips with his own on a soft sigh. He kissed her deeply and fully, fighting to go slowly. But when her hands began to slide over his body, his kiss turned wild and desperate.
Ethan was right, Ella thought, as she was crushed to Ceann’s chest, his hands seeking to rid her of her clothing.This man feels so deeply, has so much passion. She could feel him tremble as he struggled to contain all the power he held within. She wanted a taste of that power, the strength of his body, so different from her own. She pulled at his clothes, barely noticing her own were already gone beneath his skilledhands. With a final tug of his belt, his kilt fell away and she had him naked before her, drawing her hands over his broad chest. She followed with her tongue, tasting the salt of his skin. He moaned and tossed his head back. She reached down and grasped the hard length of him, skimming her thumb over the tip. He looked down at her, his breath coming fast and hard. She still held him, pulling him gently back towards the bed. When they reached it, he pushed her back, covering her with his body.
“You are mine now”, she said.
“Aye.”
He slid into her with a soft groan of pleasure, his mouth finding her nipple and suckling until she arched beneath him, urging him to move faster, trying to pull him even closer. As she began to shudder, he rose up and looked down at her, his eyes dark with passion.
“I love you, Ella.Tha gaol agam ort.” Then he stiffened in a moment of pure ecstasy, holding her tight to him as he poured into her.
After, he pulled her close in his arms, burying his face in her hair. “Will you be my wife, Ella?” he asked softly, as if afraid of the answer.
She gave a contented sigh.He asked a question she had never thought to hear, before. After all, he had been an avowed bachelor when she met him. Would she marry him? She thought about Malcolm and Duncan and Esme, and her old life at Mandaine. She missed them all terribly, but she could visit; they could visit. It felt strange not to ask them what she should do, but she was a woman grown. They had always given her the freedom to choose her own way. To spend the rest of her life here with Ceann? It could be no other way.I would do anything to keep him.
