He made her want to grit her teeth and fan her face in equal measure. His refusal to leave had infuriated her. His kisses had left her breathless and aching for more.
Even after a night of endless pleasure, she still wasn’t sated. Callum had awoken emotions and feelings inside of her that she’dneverexperienced. Not as a ghost, not with Hugh, not with anyone. But more than that, he accepted her as she was. He saw her as she was. Not as some terrible Black Bride, but a woman. A woman deserving of love and protection. If that didn’t make him noble of mind, then she wasn’t sure what would. As for his heart…
Tearing her gaze from the keep, she bit her lip. Callum’s heart was pure and true. Of that, she was certain. What shewasn’tcertain of was if she deserved it. Would it be selfishness or self-preservation to allow him to try to take her from his place? Was there even a difference?
Blood shall spill upon this stone, and all who came shall remain. As they were in life, so will they be in death, and the Caoineag will sing of their demise. Unless comes a man pure of heart and noble of mind, whose love shall free the maiden from her haunting cries.
“Ye look troubled.” The mattress rustled as Callum got to his feet and sauntered over to her. He was naked as the day he’d been born, and even though she’d learned every hard slab of his body during the night, a pink blush stole across her cheeks in the cloudy light of day when she beheld his…impressive…stature.
“I have been thinking,” she admitted, startling slightly when he placed his arm around her hips as if it belonged there and tucked her in snug against his side.
“Aye, I can all but hear the wheels spinning in yer head.” Nudging a curl aside, he bent his head and kissed the spot where her pulse fluttered weakly. “What thoughts are hiding behind those pretty eyes, lass?”
Taking a deep breath, she told him of her one and only interaction with theCaoineag. He listened intently, and when she was done–ending with the cryptic message that was as branded in her mind as ink upon the skin–he nodded.
“Then that’s it, isna it?”
“What is?” she asked warily.
“All ye need tae break the curse is true love.”
She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Isthatall? Well, then. I dinna know why I’ve stayed here all this time. How foolish of me. I should have fallen in love and excused meself half a century ago.”
“Ye canna fall in love with justanyone,” he said, looking mildly offended. “Ye need tae find yer person.”
“Yer person,” she repeated, stepping nimbly out of reach to cross her arms.
“Aye. The one that yer heart beats for. The one that makes ye rush through yer happiest dreams because waking tae their smile is better than any fantasy. The one that ye argue with just tae see their nose crinkle–just like that–and then kiss until both of yer toes curl. I’ll be the first tae admit, lass, that the Campbell men are unlucky in love. It’s why I havena gone out of me way tae seek it out. But then I found ye–”
“I believeIfoundye,” she corrected.
“–and I knew that I wanted tae spend the rest of me life proving the Campbell Curse wrong.” He gave an absent shrug. “What’s another curse tae be defeated?”
“What’s another curse?” Her voice rose an octave. “What’s anothercurse?Ye could be killed!”
“By all accounts, ye died more than a century ago and ye seem tae be doing fine.” His eyebrows wiggled. “Ye were more than fine last night.”
“Oh.Oh.” When her entire countenance suffused with hot color, she balled her hand into a fist and bounced it harmlessly off Callum’s naked chest. “Ye are the most aggravating, arrogant,conceited–”
“Me sister-in-law says that I’m charming,” he said with a frown that twitched in the corners.
“I’ve met cockroaches more charming than ye!”
“Persistent buggers, cockroaches.” Before she could move, he caught her around the waist and lifted her, kicking and squealing, into his arms. “Never leave when ye tell them tae.”
“Put me down ye–oof,” she exclaimed when he dropped her onto the mattress. The compacted straw temporarily knocked the wind from her lungs. Before she could roll off the side, Callum was on top of her, his hands around her wrists and his knees planted on either side of her hips.
“Ye were saying?” he grinned.
Mara blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Oh, just be quiet and kiss me.”
They made loveuntil Callum’s growling stomach made him yank on his trousers and go in search of sustenance in the kitchen. There wasn’t much, but he managed to find half a loaf of bread and a jar of honey. Slathering the sweet, sticky mixture in a thick layer, he groaned as he bit into it.
“Do ye know,” Mara said casually from where she was observing him in the doorway, “ye made that same exact sound when I put me mouth on–”
“What are we tae do about theCaoineag?” he interrupted as, this time,hewas the one who blushed.
Wicked lass, he thought with great affection. He liked that Mara could give as well as she got, and that she didn’t hesitate to strike a blow when it suited her. His future wife–for shewouldbe his wife when this was said and done–was a feisty one, and he’d not have her any other way.
