“Please do not keep elements hidden from me.” She nudged her nose against his, once, delicately. “I may not be able to share all my flesh with you, but thoughts – these are another matter. One I hope will be a signature in our times to come even after you have been released from this post and…and have chosen another.” Best to air this out now; maybe the heartbreak would lessen.Nope, not a chance – heart still cracking in two at the mere thought.
“Another?”
“Aye; once the Northmen are vanquished from these shores, you shall be free to choose another who may be a wife in every sense.” Her heart broke completely. “This cannot be me; you shall wish for a family of your own…”
“Cluaran,” he interrupted gently, “you are mistaken. I am to be at your side,always. The choice taken by me this day is not one which will be cast into the winds once the siege is done.” He….he meant to stay with her? Her heart skipped a beat.
“MacCade” – she tripped over her words slightly – “I considered you would wish to seek another to warm your bed and not remain a guardian knight.”
“Nae, I only seek you.”
Her brows rose slightly. “Regarding the chancellor’s warning, in one aspect it does ring true. A lad, I am well aware, has needs which must be met. Instinctual needs.”
“You let me worry for this.” Aonghus nodded casually.
Her brows shot higher. “I could not possibly ask for you to remain celibate for the remainder of your days. I saw those wearing a gown in the feasting hall, the direction in stares your way. There shall come a time you yearn for touch, MacCade; it would be ill of me to consider otherwise.”
“There are knights who take a stronger vow than what I seek forthwith.”
“The Templars.”
“Aye, they are but ones who gather to such a calling, alas; there are other knights in a similar stead.” He shook his head. “I do not seek to remain fully celibate as they are. I yearn to savor kisses from these delicious lips you own.” His mouth brushed hers in a bold caress. “I long to capture a touch.” She gasped when his palm rose, then brushed her breast. “My thoughts grow wild with how you will appear when your garments line the floor.” He let his other fingers linger upon the curve belonging to her backside. “There are thresholds I shall not cross; however, I propose we claim what is offered within them. We stay the course till deemed otherwise, agreed?”
She kissed him – hard.
***
Her touch was beyond reproach; could he remain to those thresholds he had just stated? Deepening their kiss – if it meant chancing never being able to savor this with her, then, aye, discipline must reign supreme. Would it break him? Hell. It just might.
As he leaned back to marvel at the acceptance of their terms regarding intimacy, he found her lips were flush; more than this, her…her whole face was a rather crimson shade. He had hurt her! Dammit. It had to be from his beard.
Her delicate skin was burned by his touch. He would see about this first thing tomorrow. For he was not going to give up the taste she held or the ferocity which drove her touch upon him.
His eyes strayed toward her gown; even unable to claim her fully, if yearning to seeallof her could cause the flames to rise in the hearth, the chamber would be ablaze. No, a Templar he was not. As if sensing his desired thought, her whisper snared his attention: “At the feast’s close I saw fit to dismiss the chambermaid from her duties in undressing me for the eve.”
Before the final word left her lips, his palms sought the ties at her gown’s waist. Her hands reached skyward while he lifted the gown.Whoosh.The woolen bathed the floorboards. The curves belonging to her figure gave a hint of outline beneath the pale chemise, which was the weight of a petal. The effect had been uniquely intensified by a single trail of moonlight soaring through the arrow slit behind her; the result seemed as otherworldly glorious as she.
He raised his hand to caress her cheek. “Always and forever, my Cluaran, I am yours. I will guard and watch over you as none other unto my last breath,” he vowed and brushed the stray tear having escaped her lash with his coarse thumb. “Every last speck you own, my lady.”
Stepping forward, he brushed his lips over the curve belonging to her neck. “This I will protect.” She gave a sigh from pleasure.
What to undo next?
Her hair.It must be down– free and wild as she. In deliberate movements his fingers released the wimple, which joined the gown in a blink. He began unplaiting the braids about her skull in utmost care. For a moment, her fingers wove in his as she met his eyes, searching his face.
All the years he had a bitterness bottled up regarding his past. Never. Never had anyone believed in him as she. It made this bitterness and anger gush from that bottle till the last dropwas now gone. He was hers to command after she had claimed the feat he never considered possible: to carry hope.
She leaned forward, kissing his palm, before releasing him for completing his next task. The first braid became free as her spirit; the waves wove like an auburn cloud down her shoulders, cascading about her waist. Moments later the second braid released.
He paused a moment to bathe in the sight. The firelight behind him etched time flecks in a crimson dance over her tresses. He took a knee before her; she looked down at him curiously, his action as if he were almost to worship her.I am.
On a will of their own, his hands reached for her chemise’s hem. He raised the final barrier between them. As the linen lifted, his palm grazed her flesh: a brush upon her ankles, up her calves, a long and slow and burning trail he took; her breath caught at the caresses from his palms while his fingers meticulously held the frail fabric.
“These limbs I will guard, always,” he declared and paused while meeting her gaze.
He could tear the wisp of linen away and claim his view.No, this would not do.Savor every touch.In the days to come the war would be unleashed; even with her element as a fate-seer, the fates might strike with a fist to take him away in a moment beyond all control.
His palm stroked the curve belonging to her thigh as she murmured, “Aye, MacCade, for you, ’tisonlyfor you.”
