by Vonnie Davis
“I ken that. All I ask in return is that ye tell a wee lie.”
She made a step in his direction before her eyebrows dipped into a V. “I dinna lie.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Well, help me weave a story then. Colleen had this vision of how my proposal should go. I was to wear golden satin breeches and gold shoes with heels and buckles.”
A snort escaped Kenzie, which he chose to ignore.
“I was to toss a pillow on the floor”—he motioned to the pillow, still bearing the imprint of his knee—“which I did. But ʼtis the satin breeches and buckled heels I need help with.” He gave her his most disarming smile, hoping he could charm her into telling a wee fib.
“Och, so I’m not to tell her ye wore a pink towel around yer naked hips with yer pecker tenting it like a wee toad under a blanket?”
His hands grabbed her narrow waist. “A ‘wee toad,’ is it?”
She glanced down at his resting pecker and chuckled. “Aye. One tiny toad. Fried, died, and laid to the side.”
He smacked her firm backside as she entered the bedroom. She yelped and slammed the door in his face.
He tossed his hat onto the sofa and hurried into the bathroom to take his shower. While the hot water sluiced down his back, he rubbed the rose-scented soap over his arms and chest. How long would it take him to convince Kenzie his feelings were real and permanent? He’d hoped the diamond would be enough, but now he wasna so sure. Between her worthless husband and his own actions, they’d torn her to shreds emotionally.
Then there was this problem of Fauste. Bryce would have to come up with a plan. How could he protect her from someone who could change shapes? He snorted as he rinsed the shampoo from his hair. Hell, he’d been dealing with shape-shifters all his life. The devil-loving bastard would come to this house, looking fer her. Matheson Lodge would be the safest place fer her to stay. Effie too.
Now, to convince her to move there until he caught and killed Fauste. He banged his forehead once against the green-tiled wall of the shower. His woman wasna one to be pushed around. The miscarriages and beatings had changed her. She was a survivor, and, damn, but he was proud of her.
Without a doubt, he’d have to be one sneaky bastard to get her to move into the safety of the castle-turned-lodge. Could he convince her that their wedding plans could be better made there? Nay, she’d never fall for that. She’d want something small and intimate, if he kent her shyness.
Maybe he could talk Effie into moving back into the castle while some repairs were done here. Like new plumbing or insulation, or window replacements. He’d have to pay fer whatever renovations Effie decided on, but Kenzie’s safety was worth any amount of money. Once they were safely ensconced in the lodge, he could arrange fer delays in the job to keep both of the women there until he had a chance to take care of Fauste. Aye, that sounded doable.
A dim light sat on a little stand on his side of the bed, shedding enough illumination to keep him from knocking his shin against the bed railing. Kenzie’s back was to him when he lifted the blanket to crawl in. She sniffed once, leading him to suspect she’d been crying. His heart nearly ripped in two. She’d been through a lot today—hell, her whole life. The bed dipped as he settled in. “At moments like this, I wish I were an artist.”
She sniffed again and reached for a tissue from a box on the nightstand next to the lynx planter he’d given her. “Why?”
“So I could paint yer bare shoulders glistening in the moonlight beaming in the open slats of the window blinds. ʼTis a sight I shall carry in me heart forever.” His fingertips trailed over the soft skin of her shoulders before he planted several kisses across her alabaster body. She had skin a man dreamed of touching, from her scalp to the soles of her feet.
Her hand disappeared for a couple seconds as she shoved a crumpled tissue under her pillow. “Well, I wish I could paint smells.” She grabbed his arm, brought it against her nose, and inhaled loudly. “Fer I’d paint a bouquet of roses right about now.”
He flipped her over and forked his fingers into her long curls. “Och, would ye, me sweet future wife?” He bit her chin, and she slapped his shoulder amid a giggle. “Roses are a male flower, ye ken, with all those masculine thorns.” He slid one arm under her neck and wrapped his other at her waist so he could roll her until they lay on their sides, face-to-face. “Will ye tell me all Effie told ye tonight? The more I ken, the better we can work together as a team.”
In the muted moonlight, her green eyes rose to lock on his. “A team?” Suspicion laced her words.
“Aye. ʼTis what a marriage is—a team. Although I wager we’ll argue about who heads our team.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles before flipping it to plant a long, slow kiss to her palm. “I ken how ye like to be in charge, especially after Duncan ran yer life. I’m betting deep down ye fear giving up control.” He bit her earlobe and she gasped. “Yer a strong woman. Ye’ve had to be to survive. I respect that. In fact, I find it damn sexy.”
“Sexy, is it?” She kissed his neck in several places. “Och, ye are so full of blarney. But then ye are half Irish and half Scottish. While I’m half Romanian and Polish. I ken about me fake Scottish heritage, but very little about me Polish side and absolutely nothing about Romania. Bry, I dinna ken who or what I am anymore.”
There was despair in her voice, and it hurt him deeply to hear it, fer ʼtwould take him a long time to dispel her feelings of being lost in a world where most everyone knew their family and their heritage.
“I would feel the same way were I in yer spot. ʼTis a hellofa raw deal ye’ve been given. But as ye work through all yer questions and emotions, please remember one or two verra important things.”
“What?” She burrowed closer to him and entwined her legs with his.
“Ye are the woman I adore. Because of that, I will help ye face whatever ye learn.” He nuzzled his cheek against hers and kissed her temple. “Fer what affects ye, affects me.” His thumb rubbed her engagement ring. “I love ye, Kenzie Denune.”
“I’m trying to come to terms with all this. On the same day I learned about the nightmare of my true life, my dream about ye and me came true.” She exhaled a shaky breath. “Who kent ye could experience the opposite ends of the emotional spectrum within a couple hours.” Suddenly she trembled in his arms. “Fauste sounds like one scary bastard, doesna he? To think he was going to kill his son with no compunction just so he could drain Rune’s blood to continue in his evil ways.”
Tears shimmered like diamonds on her eyelashes in the strips of moonlight filtering through the wooden shades. He pressed kisses to each of her eyes. “I love ye. I have fer a long time, but I’ve also been damn stupid for a long time, keeping ye from me. We are due fer our lives to change. Allow me to keep ye safe, for I couldna bear to lose ye. Not now, not after ye’ve told me about Blaine and McKenna, and we’ve made love. Dinna ye feel the connection between us? The strength of it?”
“Aye. As much as it scares me, I do.” Her arms slid around his neck and her head rested against his collarbone. His hand slipped from her waist, and he began to slowly stroke her back. In the quiet of the bedroom, she shared all Effie had told her before she’d urged his bear to come inside. “Isna it odd that your da erased my memory and yet I can recall how Fauste smelled of sulfur and what his eyes looked like? I dinna remember a thing about me brother. We were twins. Shouldna twins have a special bond left over from the womb?”
“I was five, the same as ye, when Da erased yer memory. Some details of that day I recollect. Some I dinna. I had started shifting a year younger in age than me brothers had, and Da wanted to start teaching me things. He claimed me shifting so young meant I would fight a mighty foe one day. So me mind was full of battling Vikings, dragons, and the Loch Ness Monster.”
She kissed his neck. “A superhero?”
“Aye. In me childish mind. In reality, I think he sensed how sensitive I was and he wanted to boost me ego. He sought to make me aware of me
importance as a shifter. He explained to me the power of erasing someone’s memory, the responsibility it held. He told me ye and yer mother were running from a bad man.”
She leaned her head back and looked into his eyes. “Did he mention the bad man was me da?”
Bryce kissed her quickly on the lips. “Nay. But as he held his paws to yer temples, he told me he would allow ye enough memory to keep ye safe. He wanted ye to be able to identify this evil person, as he called him, if the bastard came near ye.” He nuzzled her neck. “I wish he’d allowed ye to keep something of yer twin, but I’m thinking he was afraid even a vague remembrance of your sibling would eat at yer soul. That ye would feel part of ye was missing.”
“At first I was angry as hell with him for erasing everything. Now I ken why. He was a wise man, wasna he? To allow me to keep two details about my da that would help keep me safe?”
“Aye. I recall his reciting Gaelic words over ye as he pressed his paws to yer temple.”
“Ye ken Gaelic. What did he say?” Her hand rubbed over his pecs and he tried not to allow her innocent touch to affect him. Tonight was about her emotional needs, not his physical desires.
“He told the spirits that his sleuth would look out for ye and that his family would love ye as if ye were one of us. He asked that ye be hidden within the strength and security of the Highlands. ‘God’s country,’ he called it. No matter what ancestry ye have in yer blood, ye are Scottish now. Ye belong to us, to me. We will keep ye safe.”
His lips covered hers, and he counted on his self-control to keep his kiss gentle. “I love ye. Now snuggle against me and sleep. We have a little magpie to take to the movies tomorrow. Fer that we will need our rest, believe me. Colleen will sap our energies. Good night, me sweetheart.”
“Okay. Good night, me man.” Kenzie rolled over and snuggled her firm arse against his groin. Sweet Jesus, she fit against him perfectly. He focused his mind on other things so his pecker would behave and not turn any harder than it already was. Things like pruning bushes, and weeding the vegetable garden, and planting his cock deep inside her. No. No, not that. I mustna dwell on that.
Her hand covered his at her waist and slowly slid it down her abdomen until it covered her bald cunt.
Bloody hell! She’s shaved just for me enjoyment.
She wrapped her fingers around his index finger and slid it between the shaven folds of her pussy, back and forth until it was covered with her wetness.
“Good night, Bry.”
Och, she was a sly one, she was. Honey dripping from her words like it did from his mum’s homemade pecan honey buns. How could he possibly sleep with his cock hard enough to break rocks and his fingers sliding in her bald, wet cunt? His thumb circled her clit while his fingers slowly journeyed from one end of her slit to the other. “Sleep well, darling.” He bit her shoulder as his fingers continued moving, working her into a sexual passion, if her amplified breathing was any indication. He stopped stroking her long enough to raise her leg a couple inches, and she moaned in protest. He slid his cock between her legs, began stroking her clit with his pecker’s bulbous head, and pushed first one, then two fingers into her. His fiancée nearly purred.
He placed openmouthed kisses all over her back. “Tell me what ye want to dream of tonight, me love. Tell me how I can fulfill yer fantasy.” While he spoke, his hips set a gentle rhythm so that his cock rubbed over her sensitized clit, deepening her breathing and increasing her moans. He was a heartbeat away from losing control. She felt so fukin’ good, and he had hungered fer her body fer what seemed like forever, even though it had been only a few hours since they’d been together this afternoon.
“I want…I want…” Her backside wiggled against him in a silent plea.
As much as it killed him to stop, he stilled. Giving her sex exactly the way she wanted it was damn important tonight, especially after all she’d been through. “Tell me. I canna read yer mind, sweetheart. Tell me what ye need, right now, right this moment.”
“I need ye inside me. I need ye to make me come. Now, Bry. Now!”
Her command mirrored his own desires. Desires so strong, he trembled with the want to be inside her. She was so wet with need for him, he shoved his cock into her and increased his movements. “Like this? Do ye want it slow and gentle? Or do ye want it fast and rough? Because I’ll give it to ye any way ye want. Just say the word, me bonnie woman.”
“Slow. Take me so slow I sense every inch of ye, every slide, and every thrill of yer cock moving in me. Take me on that slow, sweet ride only ye can deliver. Let me feel everything, Bry.”
Her request nearly sent his blood to boiling. He rose on his palm and slipped off of her, using his other arm to shift her onto her hands and knees. “Lay yer head on the pillow, sweetheart. I’ll fook ye just like ye want it.” He kneed her legs apart, placed his thighs between them, and entered her again. As soon as he set the pattern she liked, he entwined his fingers with hers. “Ye are mine. I will romance ye until ye marry me and then I’ll romance ye the rest of yer life. Och, fook, ye are so wet, so tight, so damn perfect.”
She met him stroke for slow stroke, her moans of pleasure as raw as his. With her face turned, he kissed her and then sucked her lower lip. The sweetness of their union was all that occupied his mind. “Bry, yer rubbing me G-spot. Dinna stop. Please, dinna stop.”
Hell, the roof of the house could blow off and he wouldna stop. Not if he was giving her this much pleasure. She screamed his name and spasmed so hard around him, he feared she’d snap his pecker off—but oh the delight, the ecstasy of her. Her internal contractions threatened to milk him. He pounded harder until his own release clawed its way from his spine to his balls and into her—into her. Into her with no condom. Bloody hell, she would kill him when she realized what he’d done.
He loosened his tight hold on her fingers and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. At this precise moment, it was the most he could move. He kissed her neck in between taking huge gulps of air. Silent seconds ticked by while he waited for the explosion to hit.
“Bry…” She was holding her breath, a bad sign.
“Aye, sweetheart?”
“Why am I wet?”
Ah shit. He rolled over and laid his arm across his face. “Because I forgot the condoms. The ball cap is in the other room. I knew how upset ye were over all ye learned tonight, so I hadna planned on having sex. I left me hat on the sofa.”
“What did ye say? I canna hear ye.” She pulled his arm away and landed a fist in his eye.
Starlights flew and exploded across his vision. “Bloody hell!” He sat on the edge of the bed, the heel of his hand against his watering eye. “Ye were the one telling me ‘Now, now!’ Hell, I was only giving ye what ye asked fer.”
A pillow slapped the back of his head. “What I asked fer? You think I was asking fer a disease? How long has it been since ye were tested? I was checked in the hospital after me last miscarriage. Duncan hadna been faithful and was using drugs. I havena had sex since then. I doubt ye’ve been as celibate.”
“Dinna push me, Kenzie. I’ll not be browbeaten by some shrew.” Between the pain and the accusations, he was entering the pissed-off arena of moods.
She gasped and slapped his shoulder with the pillow. “ ‘Shrew,’ ʼtis it? Why ye heavy-hung, oversexed numpty, what if ye gave me some disease? What if I’m pregnant? The doctors dinna think I can conceive again, but the lynx tells me different.”
He stood and stared at her with one eye in the semidarkness of the room. “The lynx?” He planted his hands on his hips. “And just what medical school did he attend? Pussy Examiners Anonymous? Shall I call him ‘Doctor’ next time I see the feckin’ cat? Maybe instead of a collar, he needs a damn stethoscope hanging around his neck.”
Kenzie stood on the bed, her shapely legs wobbling on the mattress and the pillow weaving over her head, ready for another battle hit. “I trusted ye, and what did ye do?”
Before she could fall and hurt herself,
he wrapped his arms around her waist and carried her across the room. “I was tested a week after ye were widowed. When I decided to woo ye once yer period of mourning was over. There’s been no one since then. If ye want me to take another test, I will and have the doctor send the results to ye. I have nothing to hide, except for this black eye a sexy-as-hell woman gave me.” He fisted his hand in her hair, yanking her head back so their eyes met. “Should a miracle happen and yer carrying me bairn, nothing would please me more.”
“I trusted ye to wear a condom.”
He sighed, knowing that what he was about to say would only fire her up again. “Didna we have sex this afternoon?” She nodded. “And didna I wear a condom then?”
“Aye.” Her forehead wrinkled as she tried to figure out where he was taking her in this line of questioning.
“So, eight hours later when I shoved me pecker into ye, ye couldna tell the difference?”
She pushed against his pecs. “No, I was too aroused.”
“Well, hell, Kenzie, so was I. The minute I touched yer shaved pussy, I lost all sense. Bloody hell, ye had me so turned on, I couldna recall me brothers’ names. There was only ye.” He kissed her and lifted her legs around his hips. “Only ye. But get this through that pretty head of yours: I will not put up with yer hitting me. No man wants his wife taking a fist to him. Just as no husband should take a fist to his wife.”
Tears poured over her cheeks, and although he wanted to comfort her, he also needed to show her how a healthy relationship between a man and woman worked. “There are some things our marriage won’t contain, Kenzie. Hitting or violence of any kind. Cheating, for I’ll not share ye. Dishonesty, unless it is to protect. And putting anything or anyone before our family. Do ye ken what I’m saying?”
She nodded.
“I will not hit ye and ye will not hit me. I ken ye had to defend yourself with Duncan, but this is yer Bry yer dealing with now. We do not hurt one another. Hell, the world hurts us enough.”
His cock chose that moment to start to recover. “Maybe I better go get me ball cap. I have to tell ye, your bald cunt is a real turn-on.”
