A moment ago, he nearly pulled her to him. Now he sought for something to say, to keep her near and not overwhelm her with the feelings that nearly took him down in that moment. “The, ah, ceilidh was a grand celebration,” he said, feeling awkward suddenly.
“We had much to celebrate, and wanted to show our thanks.”
A breath of wind sifted a few loose curls over her brow and cheek. He brushed that softness back. She watched him.
“Any man could have done what I did. And Evan Mackenzie was there too.”
“What you did took strength and courage. The islanders will talk of it for a long time.” She smiled. “Even now, while you stand here with me, they are spinning a legend about Dougal and the shark.”
“Dougal and the fat, placid basker,” he drawled.
“Still, it was brave. And—” Her eyes gleamed with quick tears that startled him. “You cannot know how much it meant to me. If you had not—we might have had a wake tonight.” Her voice quavered.
“Come here,” he murmured, taking her shoulders, pulling her toward him.
He felt her hesitate for a moment, then she melted against him and gave a soft little sob. He simply held her, rubbing her back, murmuring soothing sounds while she pressed her face into his shoulder in the darkness.
He felt sure she rarely leaned on anyone for support. Sighing into the fragrant cloud of her hair, he wrapped her close and felt her arms slip around his waist.
Just this embrace felt so good, as if he were needed, essential. It was new to him. He had faced danger and urgency oftenenough, but the other day, pulling Sean safely into his arms felt almost more important than any other danger or deed he had ever faced. And comforting Meg now—not knowing quite what troubled her—he felt that he belonged here with her. For her.
That sense of being needed had been lacking in his life. Growing up in a family devastated by tragedy, he had wanted to create safety and security for others. It was a way to counter what he had struggled with as a boy. Building lighthouses to save people sailing on treacherous waters was a way to do that. His skills were needed, but he had never felt necessary to someone for himself, not his skills or his inner mission to combat a problem common on the ocean.
Meg needed him. And he needed her. He hadn’t even realized why, or how much, until now. If she had needed him like this these seven years, he hurt to think of how she had felt. But he had found her now. Hope existed, if only he could make up for the rest of it.
More than need and being needed, another emotion brimmed in him. Love. It had to be that. He gave into its quiet and undeniable power, surrendered to its sureness and comfort willingly. Somehow it was the easiest and most natural thing he had ever done, as if he stepped into a room warm with firelight and quiet, lasting joy.
“Dougal,” she whispered, lifting her head. “I am sorry. Just—sorry.”
“Hush, lass. Whatever it is, we can fix it.”
Her eyes searched his. “Can we? I want to.”
“Then tell me, and we will see it through, aye?” He soothed a hand over her hair, slid his fingers into that soft golden wealth of curls and coils. She leaned her head to gaze at him, her eyes luminous, awash in tears.
Gently he tipped her chin with a finger and bent to kiss her, a soft, sweet brush of lips to lips. She pressed into his embrace,wrapping her arms around his waist, urging the kiss into a meld of mouths, breaths. His heart thudded. Cradling her face in his hands, he kissed her more insistently, breathlessly, until she clung to him and the starry sky overhead seemed to spin.
Wavelets rinsed over their feet, and she cried out with a teary laugh, stepping back, splashing. Laughing too, he bent to work off his boots and toss them higher on the dry sand, then pulled his knitted socks off after them and tossed those too. The sea washed cool over his feet. Meg laughed again and kicked off her shoes, tossing them after his things. She stamped her feet a little, chasing wavelets as they sank into wet sand.
Turning, she walked a little ahead of him, then took his hand to pull him along the sand into the shadow of the headland that separated this small, private crescent of beach from the larger bay beyond. The moon spangled the rolling sea as he went with her.
“I thought you needed to go back to wash dishes,” he said, chuckling.
“I will. I need to be out here for a while. Free,” she said. “I need to feel free.”
She walked backwards as she spoke, tugging on his hand, and he went with her, the sand soft and damp beneath his feet. Then he tugged her toward him, pulling her into his arms. Under starlight and the indigo sky, he kissed her as she curved her body against his, arms sliding around his waist.
A keen burning slipped through him, and he kissed her in full freedom now, deep and wild and thoroughly, sliding a hand up her back, the other pulling her to him at hip and waist until her abdomen pressed hard against his rigidness. He groaned low and let his hands move upward.
She turned slightly, allowing his fingers to trace over the swell of her left breast, where she tightened like a pearl for him. He felt her small gasp in his mouth, and he touched her otherbreast, ruching that willing nipple, feeling her sag in his arms a little. She opened her mouth to him, teasing him with her tongue as he teased her breasts, her hands easing over his waist, moving down, then behind him, pulling him against her.
He could not get enough of her. She was like fire to him, like the burn of the whisky in his blood. He wanted her intensely, could not think past that urgency. His pounding heart and throbbing blood dimmed all reason.
Part of him, blood and soul, remembered the night they had shared, and he wanted that back again, not for its incredible physical satisfaction, but for the depth of the passion he had known only in her arms.
He proceeded with care, partaking slowly of the luxury of her, of this, though his heart slammed and his body urged him onward. He framed the deep curves at her waist, and he felt her hands move up his back, shaping, clutching at his shoulders. She gave a breathy moan and curved herself against him.
When he felt that hot, irresistible pulsing of spirit begin between them, when his body throbbed and demanded, he could no longer hold back, and he pulled her tightly against him.
