“I hoped ye would come to me sooner. I told ye I wished to help ye, but the healer wouldna let me go to ye. Did ye no’ believe me?”
“I…couldna. What I thought to do…”
“Was a moment’s impulse, borne of the awful revelations about yer sister, and about the many other MacGregor victims. Of seeing me. What he’d done to me. It wasnaye, Jamie, but that.”
Jamie sank onto his heels before her. She pulled him into her embrace, and he rested his head on her shoulder, drinking in her scent and the warmth of her arms around his neck. “I’ve missed ye, lass, as much in these few days as in all the years since ye left Lathan.”
“And I, ye.”
He lifted his head and looked into her luminous eyes. “I couldna come to ye. I feared that fury would overtake me again.Willovertake me again. I wouldna harm ye for anything in the world, but I dinna ken whether I will be able to control the beast in me now it has escaped.”
“It’s over, Jamie. Do ye no’ understand that? The man who drove ye to such rage is dead. Yer fury burned away while ye were saving me. Ye need no’ fear the like again.” Caitrin ran her fingers through his hair. “Ye are my own true love, Jamie Lathan. I canna fear ye. I can only love ye. As I have since the day I first set eyes on ye. All this…” she said, and waved her other hand to indicate the room they were in and the keep beyond, “was simply meant to bring us back together.”
Jamie gave a rueful laugh. “There were simpler ways to accomplish that, my love, without all the misery of the last few weeks.”
“Aye, but ye needed answers, as did I. As did my da, it seems. In the end, much good has come from much suffering.”
“Will ye still believe that when ye look on the scars ye will bear?”
“Will ye? I care more that they dinna turn ye away from me.”
“They never will. Ye are more important to me than they could ever be.”
“Then it is as if they are no’ there.” She waved a hand, wiggling her fingers as if that would make them disappear into the air. “I would still marry ye, if ye would have me,” she continued as though such a pronouncement was as ordinary as asking for another bite of bread. But the uncertainty in her eyes gave the lie to her calm demeanor.
Jamie’s heart soared. He’d come here expecting to have to convince her to give him another chance. To negotiate for his own future, or to leave her in peace if she demanded it. For her to bring up a future together first, to hear her say she still wished to be his wife, made him feel stronger, and more proud than he’d felt since they’d arrived at this accursed place.
“Haveye?” He choked on the words, desperate to make them real. “I’d have ye here and now if I didna fear hurting ye. Of course, I want ye to wife. I’ve never wanted any other. Only ye.”
“Then latch the door, my Jamie, and we will see what I can do.”
“Are ye certain?”
Caitrin smiled. “As certain as I have ever been.”
Jamie did as she bade, but stayed by the door, studying her as she stood—slowly, but smoothly, without a grimace or a hesitation in her movement to tell him she still suffered any pain. He moved to her then and took her in his arms. “Ye will tell me if ye are the least…”
“Aye, love. Now kiss me and dinna fash. Ye smell so good. I want to taste ye.”
He had not lost her. Her kiss remained the sweetest Jamie had ever known. She’d waited for him to return to her, finally sending Kyle as her emissary to fetch the Lathan emissary. How Toran would appreciate the irony of that.
But now was not the time to think of Toran, or of anything else but Caitrin’s lips, her eyes, her skin. He loosened the top of her dress, pleased to find only a thin dressing covering the wounds there.
“Healing well,” she murmured against his ear then ran her tongue around it and down the side of his neck. Jamie sucked in a breath and then moaned as she began removing his clothes.
“Are ye truly certain?” he whispered into her mouth.
In answer, she stepped back and removed the rest of her clothing. Standing before him, bare except for the bandage on her breast and around her thigh, she promised, “I’ll manage.” Then she helped him strip.
He picked her up and laid her gently on the bed, before stretching out beside her, then he continued his gentle exploration of her curves. He didn’t care that his eyes dampened. His heart swelled with gratitude and joy. He had not lost her. She was his. The heat of her skin teased his senses and fired his blood. The smile that lit her face was for him, and him alone. He ran his fingers through her hair and saw an answering wetness gleam in her eyes. “I’m so sorry,” he breathed, “and so happy at the same time.”
“Ye have nay need to be sorry, my love.” She brushed warm fingertips down his neck, then tugged on his shoulder. “Come, let me soothe ye and bring ye bliss.”
She encouraged him by opening her legs, but he had other plans and pulled her atop him. “This way, ye can do what pleases ye,” he told her.
Her smile was part grateful, part feral as her gaze raked his chest. She positioned herself over him and then slowly took him into her body.
Jamie watched carefully for any sign of discomfort, but her long, low moan was one of pleasure.
