She could only nod, mesmerized. Then his lips brushed hers, lightly at first, then more firmly as she rose to meet them. When her cheeks dampened with happy tears, Cameron kissed them away. He captured her glad cry in his mouth and gave back a moan that reached Mary’s toes and made them curl. Too soon, they broke apart, panting. “We did this!” Mary exclaimed.
“And about time,” the healer said, fanning herself. “Ye two wouldna lasted another day, or I miss my guess.”
Suddenly, everything changed. Mary was no longer her father’s dutiful daughter. She was Cameron Sutherland’s handfasted wife. Even if only for a year and a day, she was free of all the things that had bound her to Rose, all except duty. But she could bear that for a while longer if at the end, she got Cameron.
Chapter 16
Cameron waited impatiently while the healer unbound their wrists, gave them her good wishes, and departed. Finally, he and Mary were alone. Blessedly alone. He closed the kirk’s door and turned back to her. She stood, hands clasped before her, a pensive expression on her face.
“Ach, Mary, love, ye are no’ afraid of me, are ye?” The thought made his chest ache.
“What? Nay. I just—dinna ken what to do next.”
Cameron chuckled in relief and moved toward her. “Dinna fash.”He cocked an eyebrow. “I do.”
She took a step back, then straightened her shoulders and held her ground.
“There’s my Mary. Strong and resolute. I love that about ye, ye ken. And I willna hurt ye. If ye tell me nay, I will stop. I promise ye that.”
“That’s a pretty open-ended promise, Cameron Sutherland. What if I told ye to stop where ye are right now?”
Her tone was teasing, so Cameron played along and froze in mid-step. He didn’t want to remain separated from Mary by more than the span of his reach, but he had made a promise, and if he meant to gain her trust, he must stand by it. Even if it meant feeling foolish, standing as awkwardly as this, for as long as she wished. “Then I will stop, as ye see. But I would hope ye would soon change yer mind and allow me to move. I want to hold ye, lass.”
“Then do so. I want ye to hold me, too.”
Cameron gave her a reassuring smile, stepped forward and folded her in his arms. “Ye feel so good, Mary, my love,” he told her, running a hand up and down her back, soothing her. “But the kirk is no place for what I want to do next. Let’s go to yer chamber.”
“Our chamber,” she corrected.
They walked arm in arm back across the bailey and into the keep. Despite her wish for secrecy, apparently Mary had decided she didn’t care who saw them. Once inside their chamber, Cameron barred the door and turned back to her.
She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. “I canna think of another place I’d rather be,” she admitted. “I’ve wanted yer touch for so long…”
Cameron inhaled air redolent with Mary’s sweet scent, her body heat, and the banked fire in her chamber’s hearth. He planned to stir her to life as he would that fire—and very soon. “Then ye shall have my touch,” he promised, cupping her head. “And my kiss, and my love for as long as I live.”
“Handfasting is only for a year and a day.”
“I told ye once there was a kirk in our future. I meant it. Unless at the end of our year and a day ye wish to leaveme, we will never part. I will never leave ye, Mary. I canna imagine my life without ye in it, now ye are mine.”
“Then kiss me, Cameron. Make me yers in all ways.”
“Are ye certain lass? We can wait. If I get ye with child…”
“Then what ye promised will come to pass, and we will be together always. I want that, too.”
Cameron didn’t need to be told twice. He kissed her, gently at first, but then she nipped his lip, her teeth firm but short of drawing blood, so he deepened the kiss. Her mouth opened to him, and her tongue met his thrust for thrust, soft moans sending thrills of need straight to his cock. Cameron couldn’t help but groan when she pressed her breasts firmly against his chest. “Mary, my love, how I want ye.”
In answer, her hands slid between them and fumbled with his belt. He eased back and let her unbuckle it. The metal clinked when it hit the floor.
“Undo my laces,” she ordered, twisting around so he could reach the ties.
He made quick work of them, surprised when she stepped away, but gratified when she slid her dress from her shoulders and down her arms. Finally. she stood in her shift and slippers, gazing at him.
“Do ye need my help?” she asked.
He realized she waited for him to undress, too. The expression on her face told Cameron she recalled the many times she had helped him dress—or undress—while he was ill. And that bath… “Nay, lass. This time, ye only need watch.” He kicked off his boots and freed the remaining yards of fabric clinging to his waist, pressed into place there by the belt. In moments, he stood before her, clad only in his shirt, his erection tenting the front, making his need for her as plain as any man could make it.
But Mary wasn’t done. With her gaze on his lower half, she untied the ribbon at the neck of her shift and let it slip down her body, leaving her nude.
