He hadna had the chance to live here happily yet. He planned on doing it now.
Dropping the reins of his horse, he raced after Ismay. He caught up to her quickly, laughing with her as they entered the house together.
He showed her every room, as she requested, lighting candles in each room they entered and apologizing when he realized there was no food or ingredients in the larder.
“I wanted to prepare fer when ye came here,” he told her.
“’Tis perfect,” she said, coming up behind him and closing her arms around him. “I need nothing but ye.”
He turned in her arms and aimed his smile on her. “Ye have me, lass.”
“Even here in this house?”
He looked around and nodded. “Everywhere,” he promised.
When he leaned in closer, she closed her eyes, readying for his kiss.
While his tongue stole over hers, he lifted her off her feet and carried her upstairs to his bedroom.
*
Ismay opened hereyes and looked at the side of the bed where Constantine had slept in the night. The space was empty now. She thought about rising, but she didn’t want to leave his bed. Not ever.
She sighed then smiled, then giggled at the scandalousmemories rushing into her head. She had no idea he could make her feel the way he had. What man was like him? None, that was who!
She squealed with delight at all the new sensations he had awakened in her. She had trusted him not to hurt her, and he hadn’t. He was gentle, though restraint tightened his jaw and made his muscles tremble.
She’d known from the moment she came awake that she was in love with him. Her! In love! Och, her father would not have believed it. If he had tried to wed her to Constantine, she would have agreed wholeheartedly.
Where was he? Getting them something to eat, mayhap? Had he gone hunting? She waited a little longer, humming as memories played through her thoughts, leaving her smiling.
Finally, she left his bed and swung her legs off the bed. Immediately, pain assaulted her. She put her hand between her thighs, over her chemise. She was sore there. For some mad reason, it made her smile again. Would she ever be able to stop? Would she feel this happy waking up with him every day? Aye! Every day.
Now that Constantine had dealt with Chief MacRae, she was no longer worried about him finding her. Besides that, after traveling alone and fighting for her freedom and her life, she trusted herself more.
She would never be so afraid of any man again.
She left the room and called out his name. Silence replied. She knew he wouldn’t go too far, so she took the opportunity to look around in the daylight streaming through the windows.
There was a carved staircase leading to the landing below. She vaguely remembered being carried up them last eve. She blushed and then spun around in a circle.
She felt reborn, renewed. Her world and everything she believed about herself had changed. She loved Clan Chief Constantine Cameron of Lochaber.
Walking past the stairway, she continued down one of two large corridors with three doors on each side. One way led to a library, a study, and another bedroom. The other, when she traipsed down it and swung open doors, led to two solars. One was decorated in darker wood and bigger furniture while the other was just as spacious with more delicate furniture and lighter wood. It would have belonged to another woman he’d loved had she lived. The third room was smaller than the rest, with a smaller bed.
“Even here?” she asked, stepping into the room.
Everywhere.She heard his deep voice in her thoughts.
Looking around his daughter’s room, Ismay couldn’t help but lose her heart to him even more—if that were possible. He had handed his broken heart to her and let her heal him. It was no small offering to accept. This house proved it. He’d loved. He healed. Now, she prayed he was ready to love again. She would be by his side if he did and she would make certain she lived so his heart never broke again.
“Katie’s room.”
She turned around hearing his voice at the door. She offered him a comforting smile, knowing how difficult this likely was for him. But mayhap, it was part of his healing.
“She never spent a day here,” he went on, entering the room and sitting on the bed. “I dinna know what else to do with it.”
“Why do anything yet?” she asked, sitting beside him. “Though her life was brief, she was yer daughter. Ye shouldna’ ferget her or her mother.”
