by Alice Wilde
Li gives my hand to Roan and then moves to stand next to Ero. Roan stares at me for a long moment, and then he lets go of my hand to remove a long strip of tartan cloth draped over his shoulder. I smile as he tenderly drapes it over my own shoulder and pins it at my hip.
“Are you going to say something?” I whisper.
“I can’t.”
I look up into his face and am surprised to find that he has tears in his eyes.
“Stop, or you’re going to make me cry,” I say, trying and failing to make the moment less emotional.
“Let us begin,” the priest says.
I can barely focus on anything except Roan, the priest’s voice a wordless hum in my ears. Roan’s mouth moves pleasingly in response to some question.
“And do you take Roan, heir to Clan Artair, laird, and peacekeeper of the land, as your husband?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have the ring?”
I look over at Ero, but he makes no move toward us.
“I do,” says Roan, pulling a ring from some hidden pocket. It’s silver with a single smoky quartz inlaid in it.
I glance toward Ero once again and he winks at me. Thank the gods.
Roan slips the ring on my finger.
“I now pronounce you man and wife,” the priest says. “God bless the laird and lady of Clan Artair!”
Cheers erupt from the people gathered.
“And now, on to the feast!” Neil says.
Roan takes my hand and we follow Neil and Fiona back into the castle to the Great Hall, where an enormous feast has been prepared. I have no appetite. Most of the food looks lovely, but there are a few dishes that I can’t help but wonder why they exist. Roan eats heartily and tries to offer me portions of whatever he takes, but all I can do is nibble at them. The cider is another matter altogether, though.
I gulp down the first mug of cider far too quickly, and then proceed to drink another before Roan can notice.
“Lass, there’s nothing to be nervous about, but we do need to keep our wits about us.”
“What makes you think I’m nervous?”
“It might be the fact that you’re chugging hard cider.”
“I didn’t realize it was alcoholic.”
“A family recipe. It’s pretty good, isn’t it?”
The cider is good, far better than any I ever had back home. I want nothing more than to down another mug, but I know he’s right. We do need to be able to think on the spot if need be. I’m starting to feel a little dizzy from the two mugs I’ve already had. I fill a glass with water and drink it. My stomach is still knotted, but not as badly as before.
The room grows wilder as the evening turns to night and everyone becomes more intoxicated. Even Fiona is laughing at something her husband has said. Just as I’m beginning to relax, I hear the scrape of wood against stone and look over to see Neil standing, holding a mug up in the air. He clears his throat loudly.
“Quiet,” Neil says. “Quiet! The time has come, as I’m sure many of you know. Roan and his wife have given their vows before you all, but they have yet to become one.”
A few shouts of excitement erupt around the hall.
“And,” Neil continues, “now is that time!”
Deafening cheers erupt through the entire room and I look nervously at Roan. He takes my hand and squeezes it reassuringly. People start to crowd around our table and we’re suddenly lifted into the air by the crowd of people. They carry us through the hall and to a bedroom I’ve never seen before. They toss us on the bed amid cheers, laughter, and lewd remarks before flooding out of the room to drink more and we’re left alone—except for Fiona and Neil.
“Before you take her, we need a vow,” Fiona says. “The blood from your maidenhood will not only symbolize your loyalty and purity as a wife and lady of Clan Artair, but it will also be what we take as a blood pact in regards to the vow you made earlier. If there is no blood, we will deem this marriage and your vow to us as false and untrue. Is this accepted?”
“Yes,” I say nervously.
“Good,” Fiona says. “You may begin.”
Fiona and Neil drink from their glasses but make no move to leave.
Roan clears his throat. “You can leave now.”
Fiona laughs. “You really don’t know how this works, do you, brother?”
“You’re going to watch?”
“It would have been our parent’s job if you had married and become laird when you were supposed to, but now that’s fallen on my shoulders.”
“That can’t be right.”
“If you can hurry up and give us the proof we need, we can leave you alone.”
“There’s absolutely no way I’m undressing or submitting my wife to that for your peace of mind.”
“There’s a reason for quilts,” Fiona says. “Now, please, I don’t want to stand here all night.”
Roan looks over at me apologetically.
“Ready, lass?”
Twenty-Five
Roan
I get up off the bed and lift Annalise off the quilt. She looks even more lovely today, and I’m almost sure it’s because I can claim her as my own now. Annalise looks up at me with her big eyes and I kiss her softly. It’s as if she’s melting in my arms. I reposition her on the edge of the bed and remove her shoes before turning down the quilt and placing her beneath it. I walk around to the other side of the bed and sit to unlace my shoes before joining Annalise under the quilt. This experience is already far worse than I had anticipated. I look up at Fiona and Neil. At least they’ve finally moved to the far end of the room to sit in the chairs by the fire.
“Sorry, lass. I didn’t know our first night together would be this tricky.”
“This isn’t our first night together,” Annalise whispers.
“You know what I mean.”
“Is there something different about tonight?”
“Unfair, lassie.”
“I know at least one of you is not doing this for the first time,” Fiona calls from her chair.
Great, as if tonight wasn’t difficult enough, the last thing I want to think about while I’m with Annalise is the mistake I made with a girl I didn’t love so many years ago.
Love. It’s far too soon to say that without scaring the lass, even if she is my wife.
“Get it over with already, Roan!” Neil taunts drunkenly.
I turn on my side and look at Annalise. She’s staring at the ceiling, her hands folded over her chest, twisting her wedding ring on her finger.
“Romantic, isn’t it?”
Annalise turns to look at me and gives me a nervous smile. I reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear. I don’t know why this particular action always makes me feel closer to her, but it does. Grabbing her around her waist, I pull her to me and we kiss.
It’s a gentle kiss, meant more to soothe her—and my own—nerves rather than excite us. But I can’t help enjoying it all the same. I run my hands over the silk of her dress until I reach the pin in the tartan sash. I remove it and slowly pull the strip of cloth from her, placing it on the stand by the bed.
“I honestly have no idea how to get your dress off,” I say in a low voice.
Annalise giggles, the tension in her body lessening slightly. “Perhaps, just this once, we don’t have to remove my dress.”
“Then how…Oh,” I say realizing what she means.
I take a deep breath, tracing the edge of her hip and thigh. Taking a handful of her skirt in my hand, I begin to lift her dress when I feel her hands brush over my kilt until they find the buckle. She pauses for a moment and then undoes it.
“Oh, so you want me to undress, but all I get to do is hike up your skirts?” I say, but I can’t keep from grinning at her.
“Obviously, unless you’ve suddenly grown breasts.”
I chuckle and roll onto my back but stop before I unlatch the buckle on the other side. Instead, I pull my shirt over my head and toss it to the side. Annalise’s eyes wander
over my body, and I can’t help but revel in the way she’s looking at me. She places a tentative hand on my chest and gently traces my torso with her fingertips, gradually moving lower until she reaches my kilt. She stops and looks up at me, and I place a hand on the kilt buckle and unlatch it, hoping to encourage her. God knows I need it. Not because I don’t want her, but there is something very off-putting about having your family in the same room.
Annalise peers up at me and I give her what I hope is a reassuring look, but she remains frozen in place. I roll onto my side and pull her body to mine, kissing her while my fingers caress her hair. Our soft kisses grow needier as the world fades around me. I pull one of her legs up over my hip, Annalise tugging at the quilt to pull it up over our shoulders. I slide my hand under her skirts and along the outside of her thigh, higher and higher, until I can clutch her arse and pull her body firmly against my own.
“Are you done yet?” Fiona asks, her voice grating on my nerves.
Whatever progress I had made toward hardening is lost. God, Fiona really knows how to ruin a moment. I almost wonder if that’s what she’s trying to do.
“Lass,” I whisper, “I’m sorry. I can’t do anything under these conditions.”
“What do you mean?”
I swallow, my mouth dry and uncomfortable.
“I mean, I can’t get hard with my family in the room. I don’t know how we’re going to follow through with this.”
Annalise breathes deeply and slowly exhales. I gasp as a rush of blood suddenly surges through my cock and I look down at Annalise in shock and pleasure.
Twenty-Six
Annalise
I’ve never seen Roan so uncomfortable. If only we could actually make our marriage official, this wouldn’t be so bad. No, actually, it might be worse. I’ve never made love before, but I have a feeling it’s even harder to pretend to do so when your body won’t respond.
I have to help him if we’re going to make this seem as real as possible. A fire starts between my legs at the thought in my mind. As nervous as I am, there’s no doubt in me that I want him. I breathe in deeply.
Exhaling, I plunge my hand beneath his kilt, taking his cock in my hand. He immediately begins to stiffen, and I take unexpected pride in that fact. Roan’s the first man I’ve ever touched in this way, and I have no knowledge of what I’m supposed to do next.
My action encourages Roan, and he starts to shift his hips so that his cock slides up and down in my hand until he is harder than I thought possible. The ache between my legs is becoming unbearable. I want him to take me, but my mouth has gone dry at the thought. True, I’ve never touched or seen a completely naked man before, but I didn’t know they were so large below their belts. I can’t even begin to imagine how it would feel to have him take me…or how much it must hurt. The thought only lasts for a moment. Roan presses his lips to mine and we kiss passionately. Roan suddenly yanks my skirts up above my hips as he rolls on top of me. There’s a look of intense desire on his face as I look up at him. One of his hands brushes against my stomach on its way down between my legs, Roan spreads my legs wider to position himself more comfortably and I gasp as his fingertips glide along my inner thigh. He pauses, watching my face, and then his fingers find me.
Roan’s finger splits me, but doesn’t enter. He grins at me.
“Glad to know you want me too, lass,” Roan says, gently kissing my lips and then my neck as his fingers slide gently up and down, growing wetter with every movement.
The ache in my body is almost overpowering, and then he touches me in a way that sends me over the edge, as though he’s pressed some magic spot on my body. I moan, my back arches, and my toes curl as wave after wave of ecstasy spread through me.
Roan stops what he’s doing and looks at me with surprise.
“That was faster than I expected,” he says in a quiet voice. “I forgot this was your first time. How do you feel?”
“Don’t stop,” I say, my heart racing.
“I don’t intend to.”
Roan shifts his body, positioning his cock against my pussy so he can rub against me. I can feel my climax building again. Reaching up, I run my fingers through his curly red hair.
“Roan,” I moan.
“Yes?”
“I want you.”
Roan smiles and kisses me. “I want you too, lass.”
My nails dig into his back as he thrusts himself harder against me. Just as I’m about to come for the second time, Roan stops and reaches down to reposition himself to enter me. It’s only now that I realize how dangerously close we are to ruining everything.
“Wait,” I whisper tensely. “Roan, stop.”
Roan’s body tenses as he struggles to resist the urge to continue.
“What do you mean, lass?” Roan says. “Dinna fash, I’ll be gentle.”
“It’s not that,” I say. “I can’t let you go any further.”
“We have to, that’s how they’ll know we’ve done it. There has to be blood on the sheets.”
“I know.”
Ero must not have let Roan in on the plan. A convenient way to make this whole situation even less stimulating.
“I need you to continue, but don’t enter me.”
Roan frowns but repositions himself as he pretends to thrust into me.
“What’s this all about, lass?”
I lower my hands down between us and carefully remove the stone in my ring and twist it so the opening in the band faces down toward the bedding. I hope this works as planned. I have no way to see if any blood has come out onto the sheets from here.
Roan rolls off me. I can tell he’s dissatisfied, but there’s not much I can do about that right now. He shakes his head, and I know he thinks he must have failed.
“Finished?” Fiona asks. “About time.”
She stands and walks over to us, Neil reluctantly following.
I quickly replace the stone in my ring and tug at my skirts to cover myself before drawing my knees up to my chest. Roan sits up on the edge of the bed and wraps his kilt around his waist, facing away from me.
Fiona stands directly next to me and then grabs the quilt, yanking it down. Her face falls as she looks at the sheets, then she turns and storms out of the room.
Roan glances over his shoulder and then turns to face me, the color draining from his face.
“Everything seems to be in order,” Neil says. “Congratulations to the both of you. Perhaps you can actually enjoy the rest of your wedding night now.”
Neil gives us a knowing smile and then hurries from the room after Fiona.
“But we didn’t…Why is there blood, lass?”
“It was in the ring.”
“That’s why Ero was so insistent about the ring,” Roan says to himself. “Bastard should have let me in on your little secret.”
“I didn’t want you to know. It was better for you to be surprised, in case anything went wrong.”
Roan shakes his head at me and then laughs. “You little minx.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” I say. “And we’re alone now.”
“That we are,” Roan agrees, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “I think you owe me one.”
He leaps from the bed and crosses the room to bar the door. Turning around to face me, he walks deliberately and slowly back to me and I laugh.
“What are you doing?” I ask, my heartbeat quickening.
Roan doesn’t say anything as he undoes the first buckle of his kilt. I squirm in anticipation and excitement. His hands move to the other buckle, but before he can unbuckle it, there’s a loud knock at the door.
“Roan!”
It’s Ero.
Roan and I share a look with each other. We’ll never forget tonight, but not for the reasons we wish.
Twenty-Seven
Ero
Li goes back to his room soon after the wedding party drags Annalise and Roan off to their marriage bed, but I’m not about to leave them alone any longer than necessary.
I should know how easy it is to get carried away when you’re left alone with a beautiful woman who wants you. However much they may try to control themselves, tonight will be particularly dangerous.
I sit and wait down the hall, watching and waiting. The rest of the guests have already gone back down to the Great Hall to sup and drink some more. I can’t believe how slowly time seems to pass.
The door finally swings open, and Fiona storms from the room, and Neil not long after. The trick must have worked, but I need to be sure. I get up and stretch, slightly stiff from sitting on the cold stone floor. My pulse quickens as I cross to the door to find out what’s happened. I can hear them laughing inside.
I pound my fist on the door. “Roan!” There’s no answer. “Roan! Answer me.”
Footsteps approach and I hear the bar across the door lift. Roan cracks open the door. He’s shirtless, his kilt half undone. I push past him into the room and take a good look at Annalise. I’m not sure what I expected, but I’m relieved to see nothing seems to have changed.
“Did it work?”
“I never seem to have any problems,” Roan says.
“You know what I mean, idiot.”
“Yes, it worked,” Annalise says.
“Good, then we need to start preparing for our next leg of the journey. When are we going to leave?”
“I was hoping we could stay here for a week or two,” Roan says. “It would be nice to rest a bit and…enjoy a few things.” He says this with a glance toward Annalise and I know exactly what he means to enjoy.
“Li is already planning our next move. We should start packing at daybreak.”
“Ero, I don’t think a few days rest would hurt any of us,” Annalise says.
“Don’t let tonight’s festivities lull you into a sense of safety, princess. We got lucky with the way a number of things have turned out, but our luck could run out at any moment. I’m sure Li will agree with me when I say it’s best we keep moving.”
