“I canna feel a thing save ye in my arms. Come, let’s get ye indoors, then I should join the search for the archer.”
Mary nodded, reaction finally setting in. She was glad Cameron kept an arm around her waist. She was sure only his assistance kept her on her feet.
In her chamber, she made Cameron strip off his shirt and she inspected his scar. “Thank the saints, ye didna tear it open,” she informed him.
“’Tis fine, Mary, my love. Healed and strong. Forget it.”
“How can I? The healer wouldha skewered ye if ye had reinjured yerself. Then I wouldha finished the job.” She placed a hand over it, as if to warm it with the heat of her palm. If only she could have healed him with her touch, he would not have suffered for so long.
Cameron groaned. “Ye could try, but if ye mean to kill me, I’d rather die another way.”
“Aye? What way? So the next time ye try such a fool stunt, I’ll see if I can arrange it.”
“Ach, ye can.Only yecan. I wish to die of loving ye, in yer arms, a hundred years from now.”
Mary crossed her arms and arched her eyebrows. “I see. It appears I have my work cut out for me.” She looked him up and down, taking her time about it. Then she grinned. “Perhaps I should get started now?”
“I must go…”
“Ye must stay with yer poor frightened wife. There are men aplenty searching those woods. If they find the hunter, ye can deal with him later.”
“We need to ken why someone was shooting at ye,” he objected.
She put a hand on Cameron’s chest and pushed himtoward the bed. “Ifsomeone was, ye mean. They stopped after I called out.”
He lifted his eyebrows and nodded. “Perhaps ’twas only a careless hunter.”
She wasn’t convinced he believed her, but right now, she didn’t care. She had something else on her mind. When they reached the bed, she shoved harder. He fell back and she fell onto him. “A hundred years sounds about right to me,” she told him and covered his mouth with hers.
Mary didn’t know if it was because they’d handfasted, or a reaction to her near misses with an arrow, but she felt utterly free and daring, ready to do anything at all. To be anything at all. Especially to be Cameron’s wife—and lover. He would not leave her now that she had her hands on him. She would not allow it.
Throwing her inhibitions to the devil, she kissed her way down Cameron’s throat, then bit his collarbone. His groan of pleasure spurred her on and she moved down his body, kissing and nipping and licking her way down his chest and belly. When she reached the waist of his breeks, she glanced up and found him watching her. She couldn’t resist teasing him. “Wondering what I’ll do?” She went to work on the ties. When Cameron tried to help her, she pushed his hands away. “Be still, husband.”
Cameron grinned and rested his head on his hands. With his elbows out, his broad chest looked impossibly broader, his normally flat nipples dark and tight above the corded bands of muscle defining his abdomen.
A trail of dark hair led her gaze down his belly. She was tempted to trace the rippled muscles with her tongue while she ran her fingers over his muscular chest, butdecided she’d rather torture him where she was. A wealth of hard, heavy male flesh waited for her here, too. She pulled the fabric aside and Cameron’s hips lifted in reflex, offering himself to her.
She grasped him in one hand, earning a groan that arrowed straight between her legs. He was fully erect, and she inhaled the musky warm scent of him. Not satisfied with using just one sense, she decided to taste and touched her tongue to his tip. Cameron cried out and reached for her. Mary took the hint and took him in her mouth, savoring the silky hot feel of him. He tasted of salt and musk, all Cameron, and she couldn’t get enough. She licked her way down his length, enjoying the sounds her husband made with each stroke of her tongue, before he pulled her atop him.
“I’ll finish too quickly if ye keep doing that,” he panted. “And I want to be inside ye. I need ye, Mary, my love. I feared I’d lost ye.”
Her heart filled her chest. “I need ye, too, Cameron.” She rucked up her skirts and lifted herself over him, then slowly slid lower, taking him into her body while she watched his eyes glaze over. She loved the look of rapture on his face, reflecting the pleasure he felt. The pleasure she gave him. She would never tire of looking at him while they made love. And never tire of pleasing him this way.
Cameron gripped her hips, lifting and lowering her.
She quickly caught the rhythm and took over, putting her hands on his shoulders, silently telling him she had taken control. He was so big and so strong, she liked having such power over him. And most wondrous of all, he was hers. No matter what happened in the future atRose, he would be by her side. She could face anything with him.
When they were done, Cameron wrapped her in his arms. “I meant what I said. I feared I’d lost ye today. Dinna ever scare me like that again.”
“I didna mean to.”
“I ken it. Ye never saw who shot at ye?”
“Nay. The first arrow came out of nowhere. I’d just bent down to show a plant to one of the lasses when I heard a thunk in the tree above me. I saw the second coming and dropped to the ground.”
She felt Cameron tense then heave a breath. “So close. God’s bones, Mary.”
“Well, they missed.”
