by Katy Baker
He released her and stepped back. “Ah, I’m sorry, lass. It all got a little...overwhelming.” He gestured at the space around them. “All this. It’s taking some getting used to. Everyone acts as though I’ve never been away, but I have, and I’m not the same person they remember.”
“No,” Thea agreed. “You’re a better one.”
“Do ye think?”
“I do. Blacksmith MacAuley is the best man I know but I’ve a feeling Laird MacAuley will be even better.”
He smiled and brushed his thumb across her cheek. “Ah, lass, ye a balm on my soul. I only wish Camdan and Finlay were here to see this. It feels wrong being this happy when I know their curse still holds them.”
Logan had questioned Irene long and hard about his brothers’ fates but the old woman would not be drawn, saying only that they had their own paths to tread. It was a source of great sorrow for Logan that he could not help them.
“We have to hope,” she told him. “You found a way to break your curse, who’s to say they won’t as well? Maybe one day they’ll both come home.”
Logan smiled. “Aye, lass. I’ll pray for that.”
“Come on,” she said, taking his hand. “We’d best get back, we’ve got guests waiting.”
He held her hand. “Just one moment. I find I’m enjoying being alone with my wife.”
He pulled her hard against him and kissed her. His lips were warm and insistent, his arms strong as they circled her. Thea felt herself melting into him. She kissed him back fiercely, wrapping her arms around his neck as arousal flared along her nerves.
“You know what?” she said breathlessly. “Stuff the guests. I find I’m enjoying being alone with my husband—and I’d like more of it, please.”
“As ye command, so I obey, my lady,” he replied.
He bent, grabbed her around the waist and behind the knees and lifted her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. Thea laughed and wrapped her arms around him as he carried her from the stables and round to the back of the castle where it was quieter and up the servants’ stairs to the laird’s chambers. Their chambers, she reminded herself.
He kicked the door open and nudged it shut behind them before carrying Thea over to the bed and laying her down. Somebody—Ailsa probably—had been in to draw the curtains and light the candles and the room was filled with a lovely golden glow.
Logan looked her over, his eyes drinking her in and she saw they had gone dark with desire. An answering tingle lit inside Thea. She grabbed his plaid and yanked him down on top of her, finding his mouth with hers and kissing him, her tongue tangling with his, her teeth nipping his lips.
Logan’s hand went behind her neck, expertly untying the ribbons on her wedding dress and then pulling it down to expose her breasts. He took one in his mouth, his tongue flicking the nipple until it went hard, eliciting a gasp of pleasure from Thea. She curled her fingers through his hair as he trailed his tongue across her chest, making her skin tingle with desire.
Giving her an impish smile, he reached down and slipped his hand under the hem of her dress. Thea gasped as his fingers traced a line up her inner thigh and she arched her back as he slipped beneath her panties and found her sweet spot, massaging expertly with the pad of his thumb.
Something like electricity tingled along her nerves and every cell in her body seemed to come alive with craving for him. She tugged at Logan’s plaid, wanting it gone, wanting to see every inch of his body, and he obliged by yanking it over his head and dropping it to the floor. She wriggled out of her wedding dress and undergarments and Logan gently caressed her hips as he lay down next to her, both of them naked now.
Thea placed her hand on his pectoral, over his heart where the tattoo used to be. Now there was only unblemished bronze skin. She looked up at him.
“I love you.”
Logan took her hand and kissed it. “And I ye, lass. More than ye will ever know.”
He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers and hunger raged to life inside her. She moved her knees apart and Logan swung atop her, curling his fingers through hers and pinning her hands to the bed.
“Ye are mine,” he whispered. “For all time.”
Then he thrust his hips and drove himself deep inside her. Thea cried out, a sense of completeness engulfing her as their bodies joined and his hot skin glided over hers. With a shudder Logan withdrew and thrust again, the movement sending a hot spear through Thea’s body. They began to move in time, their bodies finding a deep, pulsing rhythm that lit Thea’s senses. Logan drove into her again and again and Thea rose to meet him, each coming together pushing her further and further towards a peak of indescribable ecstasy. Logan’s movement intensified, his tempo increasing as their passion built, eliciting gasps of pleasure from Thea that began to build as the inferno spread through her body, along her nerves to the very extremity of her limbs.
She came apart. With a shuddering cry she arched her back beneath him, wrapping her legs around his hips as her climax swept her away. Logan groaned by her ear and his whole body shook as he reached his own peak, driving himself deep with one final piercing thrust and holding himself there for a long, eternal moment.
Slowly Thea regained her senses. She was breathing heavily and their bodies were covered with a thin sheen of sweat. Feeling the ecstasy ebb, to be replaced by a deep, all-encompassing joy, Thea wrapped her arms around Logan’s neck, holding him close. He pressed his forehead against hers and his hair fell forward to brush her cheek.
Finally, when his breathing eased, Logan lifted himself off her and lay on his side beside her, his head propped on his hand. Thea rolled to face him. He was watching her, a smile on his face. He reached out and gently brushed her nose.
“Thank ye, Thea.”
“For what?”
“For giving me a second chance at life. I feel like I’ve been reborn.”
She kissed him. “We both have. Our second lives start right here, right now.”
He threw his arm around her and pulled her into an embrace. Thea snuggled against her husband, the warmth from his skin seeping into her body. For the first time in her life she felt utterly complete.
“Although you do realize in your haste to escape you forgot to dance with Mary?” she said.
Logan groaned. “Oh Lord, she willnae let me forget it either.”
Thea laughed. “Oh, the hardships of being a laird.”
“Well, if I’m in trouble anyway, I may as well make the most of it,” Logan said. He rolled over and kissed her.
After that, Thea forgot all about their guests.
THE END
If you enjoyed Spirit of a Highlander, why not try the rest of the series? Irene is up to her tricks again and there is plenty more Highland adventure to be had! You can find the rest of the series here: click here
