“That’s it,” he urged, the bed squeaking underneath them. “Give yerself tae me, Iris.”
“James!” she called out, her body letting go before she realized it.
He shuddered and groaned her name as well, the moment suspended in time between them.
Their union was consummated.
Panting, Iris looked up at James, who was staring down at her.
“Mah love,” he whispered, his eyes shining with the tenderness that Iris felt in her chest. There was nothing frightening about what they had experienced, nothing worrisome that made her question their union.
She only felt love.
“I love ye,” she told him, pressing her hand to his sweaty chest.
His smile was tremendous.
“I love ye as well, Iris.”
EPILOGUE
SIX MONTHS LATER
“James Lennox!” Iris bellowed out the door, her hands on her hips. “Dinnae hide from me!”
James ducked behind the hut, holding in the laughter that threatened to give away his location. He knew that Iris was upset about the jest he had pulled on her this morning, and while he would pay for it when she found him, he didn’t mind.
That was one of the best parts of their marriage.
Crouching so she wouldn’t see him, he thought about the last six months with his wife. They lived on McGregor land, not far from the keep that he had spent his youth in. It had been a long discussion between them on where they would set down their roots, but James had been surprised when Iris had agreed to live in his lands.
“I cannae be a warrior all mah life,” she admitted one evening when they laid in bed. “I always thought I would, but now, I want more out of our life, James. I want a family.”
He did too. So they had moved to the village on McGregor land, and Ian had appointed his sister an emissary to keep the peace between the two clans. James himself was still training to be an advisor, wanting to spend his nights in the arms of hiswife and not on the battlefield even though he had every chance to become a warrior for Irvine. The laird had in fact given him a warrior’s sword, but while James thought he would miss the chance to be the warrior he always wanted to be, he had realized that something was far more important in his life.
Iris. Iris was his life, his future, his world.
“There ye are!”
James barely had time to react before Iris clocked his shoulder with her fist, rubbing it nearly immediately.
“I cannae believe ye did that, James!”
He chuckled as he took her hand in his and pressed his lips to the reddened area.
“Do ye not like having a tiny lizard in yer bed, lass?”
She looked down at his breeks pointedly.
“I never said it was tiny.”
He growled at her and she shrieked as he pulled her against him, peppering her face with kisses.
“I will show ye just how tiny it is, lass.”
“James!” she laughed, the sound filling his heart as it did every time. “Stop! I have something tae tell ye!”
He paused, and she placed her hands on his cheeks, tenderness shining in her eyes.
