“I will feed you upon our return.”
“This is your brother’s birthday, have you taken the time to wish him well? Since you have returned from your twelve-year-and-nine-month hiatus on the sea, have you spent any time with your tenants? Visited the village?”
“I have been a bit occupied, love. As you well know.”
“Aye, so occupied you could not wait to leave Stonehaven after Jedburgh. I know these people better than you do. Your people. Your family.”
“I am glad, Rose.” He touched his lips to her ear. “But as much as I enjoy these moments together, I have not changed my clothes in days, and I have slept little these past weeks. All I want is to bathe and take you to bed.” He turned her in his arms so that they both faced the crowd.
Angus raised a mug in toast. “To our laird and his bonny bride.”
More bantering went around. “We’ll not be mindin’ if ye wish to take the lass from us tonight,” someone shouted over the laughter.
Ruark waited for the drinking to finish. “Aye, lads, we were just discussing our possibilities. She’s missed me.”
More laughter. Rose squirmed from him. “You cannotbe gone for weeks, then return and with the snap of your fingers think I will jump.”
“Looks to me like she’s already forgotten ye, my lord,” another barked from the back of the crowd, and laughter followed as other men and women alike joined in the good-natured ribbing. “Maybe ye just have to remind her a bit harder.”
Rose looked shocked and he almost felt sorry for her. But the Scots were an earthy bunch and less inclined to a civilized fight when it came to their patriotism, their home, and their women. What she did not understand was if they did not truly love and care for her, none would have raised their cups in toast.
Everyone expected him to take her from here, and never one to disappoint, Ruark picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, to the eruption of applause. “Now if you will all excuse me, it has been a long time and I would like to take my bonny bride home to bed.”
Chapter 21
Lying across Ruark’s shoulder, her fists pounding on his back, Rose stopped shouting only when he slowed to instruct Colum to see that the boys and Julia got back to Stonehaven safely.
Deaf to Rose’s fury, Ruark swung her up on Loki, then mounted behind her. He settled her across his lap. He placed his palm across her stomach to hold her firmly against his chest as he bent to secure the reins. Then he galloped away from the celebration she had helped organize. He rode for a mile in his estimation before he felt her shuddering inhalation, as if the effort would calm the race of her heartbeat that thumped so heavily against his palm. His mind was too awash with whatever she was feeling to define his own emotions.
Her full mouth, inviting his gaze, remained neither flat nor pursed, hinting only of the intensity of her control.
“Are you planning to remain silent all the way home?” Ruark asked.
Apparently, she was. He could kidnap her. Twice. Wed her against her will. But he could not make her talk.
He waited until he had ridden a suitable distance from the lodge, until he could no longer see the glowof orange in the sky from the bonfire. Then he reined in Loki. “Dammit, Rose.”
His hand swept along the taut curve of her waist, and he turned her in his arms. A gust of wind snatched the hem of her dress. She did not resist him, not because his physical strength made escape impossible, but because her power against him lay in submission.
He rubbed his thumb across her cheekbone. The moonlight revealed her eyes, wet with hurt. In the charged silence, all he wanted to do was kiss her.
The magnitude of his desire had reached proportions startling even to him. Desire he was only beginning to understand.
He had wanted her since the first time he had seen her at the abbey. A passion that had slowly grown and fed upon itself, that had awakened him at night these past weeks, that had stopped him in the middle of a meal or a conversation as he remembered her touch, the scent and texture of her hair, the taste of her on his lips, and why he had wanted to get home to her.
He caught her chin with two fingers. “Rose ...”
“Let go of me. Please.”
“Tell me you did not miss me,” he cajoled.
He could read the answer in her eyes. She would be lying if she told him nay. His hands came over her breasts to undo the laces on her bodice. “You would force me, Ruark?” The question was a wounded whisper.
He stared at her upturned face. She was his wife. She must know there could be no question of force.
He paused. His eyes closed briefly, then opened.
“Tonight ’twas a bit of good sport for all, Rose. We are just wed. I have been absent nearly a month. No one thinks less of you.”
