“Aye,” he agreed, dipping low to make sure she could hear every word. “But I like to hear ye say it.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, mustering every bit of strength she had in herself to get the words out.
“I want… I want ye to take me, Tavish,” she murmured to him, her lids fluttering as she said the words out loud.
She was still getting used to being so bold in her talk, but when it came to him, she knew he wouldn’t have settled for another less.
He grinned, tossing aside his shirt as he moved between her thighs. Catching her hips, he brought them flush with his so that they were pressed together; she could feel him against her, so close to filling her but still holding back, as if he was waiting for her to ask for it again.
But then, mercifully, he gave her what it was she needed so badly. Bucking his hips forward, in one motion, he entered her to the hilt, filling her in a single moment and drawing a cry from between her lips that must have been audible all the way through the Keep.
In that moment, though, she couldn’t find it in herself to care. Perhaps some part of her wanted people to hear them, to know that he wanted her and her alone…
He held her hips up, her shoulders still resting back on the bed, so he could drink in every moment of her expression as he moved inside of her. His body rocked against hers in slow, deep motions, like a stone dropped into the still of a pond, sending ripples coursing out across every inch of her body.
Her breath was coming faster now, the mixture of his gaze and the physical sensations already boiling within her to the point of no return.
He moved into her in deep, harsh thrusts, the kind that spoke to the depth of his passion for her, to the fact that he couldn’t even come close to containing it.
She reached for him, locking her hands with his.
“I’m not going anywhere. Whatever it is that lies between us, whatever doubts ye might still be clinging to, I will do everything I can to knock them loose for good,” she promised him silently between rasped breaths.
She didn’t have much in the way of a range of movement at the angle he had her pinned to, but she used whatever she could to move back into him, coaxing him deeper, deeper, deeper, until it felt like the two of them might never be parted.
She felt him finish first, the warmth of him inside of her, the parade of curses that spilled from his lips as though nothing godly could have made him feel as good as she did. And it was that sight, his eyes burning dark, that pushed her to her own release, whatever control she had left finally giving in and giving up as she cried out once more.
She might not have had the nerve to curse like he did, but he could tell that the passion was just as certain from her end as it had been from his. He kept their hips drawn together as the convulsions of pleasure moved through her body, her lips partedas she panted for him, that expression on his face so addictive she wished she could capture it forever.
And, as he slowly withdrew from her, he leaned down to plant a kiss on her lips, brushing them against her softly.
“There’s my girl,” he murmured as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.
And just like that, breakfast was entirely forgotten, leaving nothing but the warmth of his presence here wrapped around her and the promise that, whatever came next, she would be there for him in any way she was able.
Chapter Sixteen
Tavish hookedthe reins of the horse around the large steel post that sat outside the local inn and turned to see where Ailsa had already managed to get to.
He couldn’t help but smile when he saw what she was in the midst of. From a large satchel over her shoulder, she was distributing blankets to a small group of children who had formed around her skirts, making sure that each of them had one to take away with them.
“And share them, if ye can!” she called after the little ones as they took off back in the direction of their houses.
Or, at least, what remained of them.
The attack on the village had not been a pretty one, and it had left a few of the would-be homes burned to the ground, or close enough to it as made no odds. Most of the townsfolk had been out in the fields when it had happened, so at least no lives had been lost, but they had lost their homes, and for some, that was about as bad as it got.
For many of them, their homes had been the places handed down to them through generations. Now, they were left with nothing—nothing to fall back on, nothing to call their own,except the kindness of the townsfolk who would do their best to make ends meet.
She planted her hands on her hips as she watched the children leave, and she glanced back towards him, pulling a face.
“I don’t suppose ye think they’ll actually share them, do ye?” she asked him, and he shrugged.
“They might not,” he conceded. “But their parents will. They ken that the only way to rebuild is if they look out for one another.”
She smiled, a little sadly, as she cast her gaze along the small street that made up most of the hamlet of Naoburgh. A few of the houses that still stood had been badly singed in the attack, the blackened wood damp from a recent rainfall, and a few people were making their way back and forth with the supplies that Tavish had brought down to get them through the following weeks.
While they focused on the rebuilding of their homes, they could not be expected to work the fields, and they would need someone to provide for them in the meantime.
