“How about we sit back down again,” Camden chuckled softly, lowering him back until he was sitting on the earth once more.
“She’s fine, Tam,” Erskine rushed to explain. “Just a cut on her head.”
“Lord Moore pushed her—–she hit her head on the ground,” Laura said, speaking quickly in the effort to get her words out.
Tam looked up to Erskine.
“Ye should have shot him,” he said with barely concealed rage.
“Perhaps so. But then it would have turned into somethin’ political, an English Lord shot by a Scottish Laird-to-be,” Erskine agreed with a nod. “Look at ye,” he turned his attention back to Laura and softly took hold of her chin. The move was so gentle as he raised her head, examining all the bruises that were scattered across her skin. “Are ye all right?”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “Did you mean what you said just now?”
“What?” he asked, a small frown appearing on his handsome brow.
“That you love me?” she asked with hope, biting her lip as she waited for the answer. In response, Erskine’s worried face cracked into the most beautiful smile.
“Of course, I love ye. Do ye nae ken that by now?” He moved toward her, closing the distance between them and capturing her in a kiss.
Laura did not care the men were watching; she even forgot briefly where they were. All that she cared about was that Erskine was there. He had saved her. She had not been wrong about him, he had always been the man of passion and heart she had thought him to be, and he had saved her from Lord’s Moore’s vile clutches.
Their kiss turned more heated, to the point that she could feel Erskine holding her up against him and opening her lips, moving their tongues together in a sensual dance.
At a whistle beside them, Laura remembered where they were and pulled back.
“Who was that?” Erskine asked, looking between the three of them. Camden shrugged while Aiden and Tam pointed at him. “Tam, we need to get ye to Magret.”
“Aye, I could do with it,” he nodded, “but please, daenae let me rush ye,” he teased with a smile. “Are we to have a weddin’?”
“Aye, me faither has given his blessin’.”
“What?” Laura heard the words and flicked her head back toward Erskine. “He said yes?”
“Aye, he did,” Erskine shared her smile. “If ye will still have me, that is?”
As he waited for her answer, she almost laughed, thinking how ridiculous everything was that she had been thinking of Erskine in that carriage.
He has always been the good man I thought he was.
“I love you,” she said in answer, and he kissed her again.
“All right,” Tam’s voice could be heard over their kiss, “Camden, help me onto me horse. Or we may be here all day havin’ to watch these two.”
Laura giggled as Erskine pulled back from their kiss. He towed her quickly toward his horse, never releasing her hand. Laura was certain she would never stop smiling again as she felt his warm palm in her own. When he climbed up onto his horse, she tried to take her usual place behind him on the saddle, but when he offered his hand to help her up, he hesitated.
“Nae there,” he said softly.
“What do you mean?” she looked up in surprise.
“Over here,” he smiled and adjusted her position on the ground, showing he wanted her to sit up in front of him. She returned the smile, unable to stop thinking of the way their bodies would be pushed together as they rode.
He pulled her up, and she sat sideways on the saddle in front of him. Her front was against the curves of the side of her body, with one of his arms looped around her back, holding onto the reins and the other keeping her in place in front of him. She shivered in the seat in front of him.
“Cold?” he asked in a whisper.
“No,” she replied quietly, struggling to think how she could tell him it was a shiver of excitement from his touch. “Happy,” she opted for the best word, and he smiled again, dropping his lips to hers.
“Come on, ye too!” Camden’s voice made them part from each other. “Or we’ll never get back to town to see Magret.”
