“Ye are nae going ta swoon on me are ye, lass?” Angus teased a bit. “M’laird does nae want us touching ye overmuch.”
“Nay, I am fine.” He grunted and led her down the aisle.
Garrick stood impeccably still. He feared if he twitched so much as a muscle he might collapse. He could not take his eyes from her. The gown fit her lithe curves like a glove, leaving little to the imagination. Was he still breathing? He exhaled as he tested the thought and pulled in another deep breath. His dizziness left him as fresh oxygen filled his lungs.
As she placed her delicate hand in his, he said, “Ye surpass the stars this eve, me lady.” He kissed her fingers. His eyes shone with desire… and something else she could not name. They turned to Father Warren and began the ceremony.
Diedre sniffled as she gazed into the pool. Surprisingly, she was happy for her sister. She was glad that Seonaid was content with the man she had chosen for her. She just hoped that when she had her revenge on Garrick that he would not blame Seonaid. After all, she does not know that her father is the Fae king. He could not blame her...could he? That would be foolish. But then again, he was foolish enough to reject me. And I am perfect. Hmmmff! She stomped her tiny foot on the ground in irritation.
Lokai walked up beside her as she stood on the bank of the Pool of Vision. “How does your sister fare?”
Diedre gave a startled squeak glaring at him. “Must you sneak up on me all the time?”
He gave her an amused look. “If it were anyone else I would say ‘no’. But since it is you...yes. How else will I be able to keep you from mischief?”
Diedre gave an unladylike snort and folded her arms across her chest, turning her back on him in a huff. He wrapped his arms around her hauling her back against his muscular chest. Nuzzling her platinum tresses his shaft hardened with need. “You did not answer my question Princess.”
“If you must know, she just wed Laird Brodie.”
He stilled for a moment. Suspicious. “Did you have anything to do with it?”
“All I did was guarantee they crossed paths. The fates handled the rest.” She was not about to reveal to Lokai that she gave Seonaid the gift of thought-reading. She was born with the ‘knowing’. She was able to sense some things. But thought- reading was too dangerous to give to mortals...even if they were half Fae. Besides, it was a temporary gift. It would fade away soon enough.
“Have you told King Alred what you have done?”
“And what exactly have I done besides allow her a chance at a happy life after her first one was so miserable?” She turned her petulant face up to meet his azure eyes challenging him to deny it.
Lokai could see from her expression that she would never admit what she had done without a push. His voice rumbled into a growl as he met her gaze sternly. “I am referring to your hand in her first life which you admit turned out horribly.”
Diedre gasped and spun away from him. “I do not know what you are speaking about.”
“I think you do. You, also, recognize that no secrets are kept from the king for long. It would be best if he heard it from you.”
“He will be angry if I admit such a thing to him,” she all but whispered.
Lokai lifted her delicate chin with his finger, nodding. “Yes, he will. But he will be angrier if he thinks that you had no intention of telling him. Give him the chance to be magnanimous and forgive you your indiscretion.”
“I will think on it,” she smiled weakly.
He abruptly released her stepping back. “Do not reflect for too long. If you do not tell him by the time we are to wed then you will force me to do the deed. I will not enter into a union with deceit wrapped around it.” He did not like using intimidation but she had to confess to her father.
She looked taken aback. “You would deny me over this?” Her voice trembled.
He gave a curt nod… then vanished.
A single tear escaped her eye meandering down her silky cheek. What did she care? She had no wish to wed anyway. But the thought of wedding Lokai had pleased her after giving it some thought. So much so that his ultimatum gave her a strong case of remorse. She sighed deeply. I will give it some consideration. Perhaps I can discover a way to soften the blow. For certain I cannot reveal the thought-reading! Even Lokai would not forgive that. She disappeared from the pool to prepare for her wedding guests.
Seonaid could not believe that she was wed to the dark highlander who sat next to her at the table. She twisted the gold band studded with deep blue sapphires that surrounded her third finger. It had fit perfectly. As if it was made just for her. Coincidence? Not likely. She did not believe in coincidence. Fate perhaps? She did not know if she believed in fate...but she wanted too.
Garrick noticed her edginess as he offered her some mutton from their shared trencher. She shook her head. She was too nervous to eat. His men shared the private room where they took their meal, helping to ease the tension and celebrate their nuptials as much as they could. There were a few ribald jokes and much congratulations and well wishes. She was thankful that they made her feel welcome. She hoped that the rest of his clan was as accepting of her as these men.
Garrick laughed and jested with his kin in a light-hearted manner. He was aware of how they were handling his wife like they would anyone in the clan. Calming her apprehensions.
His wife. The saints surely cast their blessings on him this day. He reached over, positioning an errant strand of red-gold hair behind her delicate ear. She blushed as she reticently glanced at his intense expression. Ah! She was a bit skittish of the night ahead. Well, he has prepared for that, too. He could hardly believe his great fortune of discovering her...what. Had it merely been three days past? He scarcely knew her. Once again, where Seonaid was concerned, logic and reason scattered to the winds. But they had a lifetime to come to know of each other.
“Ye should eat, wife, ta keep up your strength,” he rumbled in her ear.
She shook her head. “I fear it will nae remain there.” She trembled as she felt his warm breath brush her graceful neck. Her heart fluttered an erratic beat in her chest at his proximity. She felt herself heating up from her toes to the top of her head.
“Do ye fear me, lass?” he murmured faintly.
“Nay...only the unknown. I do nae want to disappoint you, my laird.”
“Ye could never disappoint me, wife,” he responded huskily as he drew little circles on the palm of her hand with his calloused finger.
Tiny shivers of delight danced across her skin raising chill bumps up her arm. Her breathing became labored as her emerald eyes began to darken with desire. She felt her nether regions dampen with each stroke across her palm as she began leaning into him. She jerked upright as Angus cleared his throat.
“Ye must be fatigued, me lady. Come. I have a surprise for ye in our room.”
He shot Angus a warning look as he opened his mouth to make a poor jest. Angus’ immediately clamped it shut and raised his cup in salute as they bid the men good eve.
“A bath!” she cried gleefully. She threw her arms around Garrick’s neck hugging him tightly. He returned the embrace with a chuckle.
“Tis blessed I am if ye are so simple ta please. Twill save me a fortune through the years.”
Seonaid smiled self-consciously as she stepped back a pace. She turned her head to him and teased, “You will nae always get off so reasonably.”
Garrick struck his fist against his chest in mock despair. “Ye have shattered all me hopes and dreams, wife! What have I left to live for?”
Seonaid peered at him to ascertain that he was jesting and countered,” Children?”
He stilled. All humor departed as he gazed into her eyes, his desire searing a path through her pounding heart. “Oh, aye. Many...many bairns.” He sighed. “But first, your bath, me lady.”
She looked up at Garrick expectantly, awaiting his departure from the room. “Your water is growing chill, wife.” She quirked her brow.
“Aye, it doe
s.”
“Then do nae ye think ye should disrobe?”
Her mouth fell open. “In front of you?” He nodded with a smile. “Now?” He grinned.
“Twould be me preference.”
“Well, it would nae be mine!”
“All the same, wife, tis how it will be. I aim ta bathe ye so nae more harm is inflicted ta your wounds.”
“‘Tis sinful!”
“Nay. We are wed. There can be nothing sinful in what we do together.”
She was shocked! No retort would come to her mind as she realized that he was right. She could have gone off on a rant if he had not stated everything so matter-of-fact. Damn his cool, calm logic. How do you argue with that? Frustrated, she turned allowing him access to her laces.
As each layer of clothing was removed he felt his shaft grow harder… to the point of aching by the time she was completely bare. Her bruises were already commencing to fade from her midriff. The cut on her temple was healing well, the swelling practically gone. His gaze traveled to her full breasts, aching to suckle her salmon colored nipples, down past her bruised ribs to a small waist he could almost engulf in his hands. Her hips flared just enough for child-bearing, her legs long, silky and attractively muscled. Her feminine parts were concealed with a forest of dark fiery red curls.
Garrick groaned inwardly. How was he to survive her bath without being unmanned? “Me stars, Seonaid, ye are beauteous!”
She blushed profusely as she tried to shield herself with her hands. “Nay! Do nae rob me of this vision, wife.” He swept her into his arms as if she were a feather smoothly depositing her in the bath.
The warm water was heavenly, she thought as she lay back in the tub. The heat teasing every ache from her battered body as it soothed her nerves. Her eyes closed as the steamy liquid swirled round her.
Garrick shed his tunic and knelt beside her. He smelled the soap as he gathered some on a small linen rag. Heather. The innkeeper’s wife had provided it. It would suit her, he mused. “Lean forward so I may reach your back,” he said as he gently nudged her shoulder. She complied languidly.
His ministrations to her body was almost reverent as he worked his way around to the front of her carefully brushing over her bruises, down each of her silky limbs, across her shoulders to lave her full breasts with soap.
He removed the pins from her glorious auburn hair undoing the thick braid that was wound around her head like a crown. He gently ran his fingers through the red-gold tresses that pooled in the floor behind her. He loved her hair. The color was like none he had ever seen. Who was this wife that he had been so privileged to discover? He did not care. She was his now and heaven help anyone who tried to seize her!
“Lean up Seonaid so I may wash your hair. Then ye will be finished.” She did as he requested and was soon sitting before the fire wrapped in a large linen cloth combing the tangles from her hair.
Behind her, Garrick hastily shed his plaid and entered the tub for his bath. She giggled to herself as she grasped that he was going to smell like heather.
Her hands slowed their journey through her long locks as she contemplated the bedding to come. She was afraid. What if she displeased him in spite of his reassurances? Would he set her aside? Abandon her? She shuddered with dread. She did not comprehend why abandonment was such a great fear for her. Had something in her past caused this sentiment?
Garrick, detecting her stillness, asked, “What is distressing ye, lass? Do ye fear the consummation?”
She nodded. “There is pain?”
He ceased toweling himself in mid-stroke eyeing her for a moment. She glanced over her shoulder at his silence and quickly looked away blushing clear to her toes. He was a lot of man. Even more so naked. She attacked her hair furiously, attempting to eradicate the image that was seared on her brain. Why the sight of him flustered her so, she did not comprehend.
“Aye, mo cridhe, I am told that there be a wee bit of pain for the woman the first time. But I will be as gentle with ye as I am able.”
She discerned that he would. He has been constantly gentle with her thus far. She nodded, gnawing her lower lip. Garrick flung on his tunic and offered Seonaid a cup of watered wine as he procured the comb from her grasp. “I dare say twould be less painful than what ye are causing with this comb,” he chuckled as he took over the task.
She gave him a chagrined smile. The apprehension began to ease as he ran the comb through her fiery hair working out each snarl he encountered. The wine lulling her into a calm equanimity.
He pulled her heavy tresses aside kissing her tenderly on her graceful neck where it merged with her collarbone. Her breath hitched for a moment then released on a sigh as he slowly blazed a path to her shoulder and back again. He turned her in his arms to dwell in the depths of her emerald green eyes, mesmerized by the eddying gold and blue swirls running rampant as her passion began rising. “Your eyes are enthralling, Seonaid,” he murmured as he lowered his sensuous lips to brush against hers. Once again there was a jolt as sparks flew through their limbs.
“There is a tingling,” she breathed as his lips moved down her throat to capture a salmon-tipped breast with his warm lips.
“Aye,” he groaned as he drew the tip of her breast into his mouth suckling avidly. Her back arched as she cried out in pleasure. Her fingers plunging into his raven hair holding him in place. Her stomach tightened as liquid pooled in her virginal sheath. Seonaid whimpered as he released her nipple then gasped in pleasure as he claimed its twin. As Garrick abandoned her breasts, he rose, conveying her to the bed. He loosed the linen toweling from round her, tossing it to the floor. As she made room for him on the linen sheets, he stripped out of his tunic standing naked before her.
Seonaid began to gasp for air. He was magnificent! All six-foot five of him. His shoulders were wide with well-muscled arms. He had a deep chest attesting that he wielded a sword often. His girth tapered somewhat then merged into his large, muscled thighs and solid calves. But what captured and held her eyes was the heavy, extended shaft between those thighs! Her eyes grew round as she looked up at him. “I think you are mistaken, my laird. Something that size will cause pain each and every time!”
He shook his head. “Nay lass. Your body will adapt, I swear.”
“Tis excessively huge! Twill nae fit!” She was adamant as she crept backwards on the bed.
“Have I lied ta ye yet, lass?” She shook her head. “Then trust me on this. I am nae speaking fictions ta ye now either.” He pulled her into his steely arms kissing her. His tongue played across the seam of her mouth prodding gently for entrance. She tentatively parted her lips and his tongue dove into the sweet, hot recess… mastering her senses and commanding obeisance. She surrendered...how could she not?
He bombarded her senses with wave after wave of desire till all cohesive thought escaped her. All she could do was feel… writhing beneath the onslaught of her senses. She was on fire!
Garrick was losing control. Seonaid’s mewling and moaning under his touch was shedding him of it. He had not once known a woman who was so responsive to his touch. His hand explored the crevice that hid her most feminine parts… caressing her pearl. Jesu! She is so hot and wet for me! He groaned as he pressed his finger into her tight sheath, working it around to stretch her sufficiently to receive him. I will be unmanned afore we join if I am nae careful!
As he worked his second finger inside her, she began wildly thrusting her hips. He heard her keening as her body shattered in an explosion of pleasure, her sheath grasping his fingers forcefully.
She began her descent from her pleasure plateau as Garrick settled himself between her damp thighs, the head of his shaft just inside her entrance. His cerulean eyes were black with desire as he commanded gruffly, “Look at me...look at your mate, mo cridhe agus anam… me wife.”
She raised her sated gaze to his lust-filled eyes. He thrust deeply and swiftly into her breaking the thin barrier as he roared, “Mine! At this moment till eternity ye are min
e!”
Seonaid cried out at the abrupt pain as he broke through and stilled, waiting for her body to adjust. He rested on his elbows, trembling with need as he kissed her tears away. “Twill nae hurt again, Seonaid. This I promise ye.”
“Tis improved now, Garrick.” She moved her hips slightly and found no pain. Garrick growled deep in his throat as he tried to restrain himself from losing complete control. His member was throbbing with painful need as he sensuously thrust his hips in and out of her liquid hot sheath. Her long legs enfolded his waist of their own accord as her body began to throb once again promising glorious release. Their tempo increased in harmony and as one they cried out their ecstasy.
Gasping for breath, soaked in sweat, Garrick murmured, “A ghealaich agus air ais.”
“What does that mean?” she asked languorously in his arms.
“Ta the moon and back.” He smiled at his bride. “That is where ye just took me.” He leaned over her kissing her swollen lips before he left the bed to retrieve a cleaning cloth.
When he returned, he spread her thighs and tenderly wiped away the virginal blood, then set the cloth aside. She watched him curious as to what he was doing.
Garrick glanced at her. “Did I hurt ye overmuch, wife?”
She shook her head. “Nay. I was just pondering what ye were doing with the cloth. I could wash out the stain if the cost is too dear.”
“Nay, me sweet. ‘Tis our proof.”
“Proof? Proof of what?” she asked naively. “And for who? I ken of nae need for proving anything to anyone.”
He returned to bed, settling his new wife in his arms. As he covered the both of them he enlightened her of the necessity. “I am Laird… and as such, I am required ta find me an untainted bride so the bloodline will be assured. Me clan expects it of me. It is a surety for our children.” He hesitated. “It will, moreover, be proof for your kin if we ever find them that ye are truly wed.”
Blessing The Highlander Page 5
