Page 124
I gather her close, helping her right her bodice and smooth her skirts as best we can. Before she can protest, I sweep her clean off her feet and haul her over my shoulder.
She lets out a startled yelp that turns quickly into laughter, her hands bracing against my back as her world tilts.
“James Sinclair!” she scolds, though she sounds entirely delighted. “Put me down this instant!”
“Not a chance,” I say, tightening my hold around her legs.
She kicks in protest, skirts rustling wildly.
“If anyone sees us like this, I’ll have to pretend you abducted me.”
“If that’s the story ye prefer, I’ll happily play the villain. They’ll have to learn to mind their own business,” I reply, already striding toward the path.
The hollow falls behind us as I break into a run, her laughter spilling over my shoulder while the wind snatches at her hair.
“What about our things?”
“Leave it all,” I call back over my shoulder, grinning like a madman. “I’ve waited months for you. I’m not wastin’ another minute.”
Ellen’s fingers tighten in my coat.
“Then ye’d best run faster,” she says.
I hurry toward the quarter house, body thrumming with unquenched fire, the promise of what’s coming pulling me onward.
Ellen
The door of the quarter house bursts open with a crack of wood against stone.
Cold air rushes in behind us as James storms inside, laughing, carrying me over his shoulder like some victorious raider returning from battle.
I’m near breathless from laughing. “Ye’re drunk on marital power already.”
His hand comes down in a sharp yet entirely playful smack against my rear.
“James Sinclair!” I yelp, half scandalised and half breathless with laughter. “Put me down now!”
“And let my new wife escape?” he says, sounding deeply offended by the very notion. “Not a chance,” he says, not even slowing.
The room tilts wildly with every step he takes across the floor. My hair has fallen loose, my skirts twisted around my thighs, and my bodice is barely laced together from our tryst in the hollow. I must look an absolute disgrace.
And yet I can’t remember the last time I was this light, this unguarded, this happy.
He finally stops at the far end of the room.
The house smells of old smoke that’s sunk into the bones of this place. A narrow bed waits against the far wall, its blankets neatly folded, the hearth beside it dark and empty.
James shifts his grip.
“Ready?” he murmurs.
“For what?”
He eases me down the length of him. I brace my hands on his shoulders, expecting the floor, but my body skims his on the way down, and a quiet moan slips free when the contact against my nipples sends a sharp, aching thrill through me.
By the time I’m upright on my feet, neither of us is laughing.
His hands come up to cradle my face, and he kisses me.
