The MacGalloways: Books #1-3

Chapter 25

25

C harity awoke, her body curled in the arc created by Harry’s protective form. Last eve, after her bath, she had donned her clean shift and they had kissed and rubbed their bodies into a frenzy. Then, while they’d slept, she had felt him hard against her, yet he had not tried to take her. Nonetheless, two things he said warmed her through to her very core:

“ I want to be the first and only man who ever lies with you. ”

And:

“ Never think for one moment that I do not love you. ”

Because of those words, this morning she saw the world in a completely different light. Harry was an earl. She was in possession of a large dowry. It didn’t matter if he was penniless or not. No matter that her kin had spirited her away from scandal, everything had changed. Aye, she did owe a duty to her family, and that was to marry well. Who were they to determine if one earl was better than another? She had lost this man once, and she was determined not to lose him again.

Ever so quietly, she rolled over and faced him, kissing his lips and trailing sweet pecks along his jaw. She kissed his ear and the tender skin beneath, drawing a satisfied moan from the sleeping man. She shifted her hips forward and brushed against him. His manhood was hard and rigid, bringing a flood of yearning between her legs.

His eyes lazily opened. “Are you trying to drive me to madness, woman?”

She traced her finger along his bottom lip. “Nay, I’ve a completely different motive in mind.”

“Oh, do you now?” he asked, rolling to his back and pulling her atop him. “How is your wrist?”

“It doesna hurt too much.” She held it up and twisted her hand to and fro. “The swelling has gone down quite a bit. Besides, I feel no pain when I’m with you.”

He smoothed his hands up her arms and pulled her down for a kiss.

“I have something I must say,” she whispered in his ear.

“Something that absolutely cannot wait until we break our fast?”

“It canna wait another moment.” She pushed herself up and gazed into his sleepy eyes. “I love you with all my heart. I’ve loved you since the day I walked into the butcher’s shop and found you with your sleeves rolled up, baring your brawny arms. My confession made, I do not want to leave this chamber until I have your answer.”

“To…?”

Charity’s heart pounded so forcefully, it was difficult to take a breath. “Will you marry me?”

Those whisky eyes grew round, his lips forming an O. “I want you to be my wife more than anything, but first I must speak to His Grace and seek his approval.”

“But Marty is in the north of Scotland, two weeks of hard riding up the North Road from here.”

“That very well may be, but he’s the man who told me never to lay eyes on you again, else I’d be facing the barrel end of his musket.”

“He said that before everything changed.” Charity grasped Harry’s hands and cupped them against her heart. “You dunna understand. The Season will soon be coming to an end, and Mama will force me to marry Lord Percival. You havena time to traipse all the way to Scotland.”

A tic twitched beneath his eye. “I’d never sit idle whilst you married another.”

“If you feel that strongly about being my husband, then first marry me the Highland way.”

“I beg your pardon? There’s only one way to wed a woman and that is in a church.”

“Unless you’re a Scot.” Charity slid her shift up to her thighs and rocked her hips ever so slightly. Aye, he was hard and ready for her—ready to join as husband and wife. “In the old Highland ways, when a man claimed a wife, he took her to bed and sowed his seed, claiming her as he spilled.”

“How do you know this?”

“My father kept an ancient journal under lock and key. In Scotland we need no special licenses. If we join together this day and pledge our love, no self-respecting Scot can challenge our bond.”

When Charity ran her soft cleft along his cock, Harry’s eyes all but rolled back. He’d been hard for days—hard as an iron rod since he’d kissed the woman when she was wearing breeches and dressed as a newsboy. “Are you certain you want to do this?”

She unfastened the top buttons on his falls, her breasts heaving beneath her shift, the circles of her nipples shadowed under the fine holland cloth. “I do want it. I want you.” She swirled her hips. “Forever.”

“It might hurt the first time.”

“I ken, and I’m ready, no matter what the pain—I want you this day and always.”

Before Charity completely unbuttoned his falls and this moment was over before it had begun, Harry gently took the woman into his arms and rolled her alongside him. He then knelt beside her, taking her hand between his enormous palms. “Lady Charity MacGalloway, I have never in all my days met a woman who is as astounding as you are. At Huntly, you happily took in women who had no place to turn. You care ever so much for your family—and I know what they think and feel is important to you. You supported me when very few others did, and you made me a handkerchief I’ll never go a day without.” He drew her hand to his lips and kissed it reverently. “I am in love with you, and I cannot imagine living another day without you. I face you as a man with nothing to his name aside from a few sharp knives. You have every reason to deny me, but I pray you will not. Will you be my wife?”

Her smile was radiant enough to lighten the entire room. “Aye, I’ll marry you this day, m’lord. Because you are a man who has the strength of an oak and the character befitting a fine and loyal Highlander. You have captured my love, and only you.”

He squeezed her hand and kissed it again. “With your consent, I shall marry you in the Highland way as you have described. But you have my promise that once we receive your family’s blessing, we shall have a grand wedding—one fitting of the eldest sister of a duke.”

“I care not for grand weddings or the like. If I have your love, then I am the wealthiest woman in all of Britain.”

Harry rose, placed his knee on the mattress, and gently pulled her shift over her head, holding back for a moment as he drank her in—all of her, from the thick waves of auburn hair to a feminine body with its deliciously soft curves. To think this woman wanted a scrapper like Harry Mansfield, and he wanted her to the depths of his soul. “This day when we join, I will be claiming you as my wife in the eyes of God.”

“And in the eyes of Scotland I will be yours and you will be mine for all of eternity.”

She reclined against the pillow while she watched him removed his shirt and unbutton his falls. In the blink of an eye, he knelt before her completely nude. “This is all I have.”

“And you are magnificent in my eyes.” Charity reached for him and pulled him between her legs. “I shall never grow tired of gazing upon you naked. You are hard and sleek and desirable beyond anything I’ve ever imagined.”

Harry nuzzled into her neck and chuckled. “I said afore you were a goddess divine, and I meant it. You are everything to me. Wherever we may be, if I am in your arms, I am home.”

He lowered himself over her and let his cock slide between her legs. Heaven help him, he was so ready to take her, he feared he wouldn’t last long. He rubbed himself along her cleft before he rolled beside her and smoothed his fingertips around her nipple. “I want it to be good for you,” he said, sliding the pad of his thumb down the center of her body, a bit of seed leaking from the tip of his cock when he reached the auburn curls concealing her sex. “Shall I go further?”

Charity’s tongue slid across her top lip. “Aye, I want you to take me. I want you to ruin me.”

His breathing grew ragged as he slipped his finger between her folds and skimmed the sensitive button. She opened a bit for him—showing him she was wet and ever so ready. But Harry wanted more. He wanted her to be on the precipice of coming when he entered her. Biding his time, he relished her every squirm and sigh, as she reacted to the strokes of his finger.

“Open,” he growled, encircling the tiny nub that had taken her over the edge last eve.

Charity thrust her hips toward him, her need already mounting. “But?—”

He pushed his finger inside her, making slow, leisurely, torturous circles. “Shh, and let me take you to Heaven.”

Pushing her hands into the mattress, Charity rocked her hips in tandem with the strokes of his finger—in and out, up and down, while flicking his thumb over that pink little button. “I need you now ,” she gasped.

“Soon,” he said, coaxing her need higher.

His thumb brushed while his finger continued to work inside, each swirl making her sigh with pleasure. Making Harry wild with the desire to plunge inside, the heady scent of her enough to make him come.

Grasping his arms, Charity tugged him over her with more strength that she’d ever shown when learning to box. “Och, we must make the bond!”

“Now?” he asked, his cock sliding between her legs.

“Aye, now,” she said, sinking her fingers into his buttocks and tugging.

Harry rose slightly and slid his member along her channel. “Is this what you’re craving, my lady?”

Charity nodded, her body writhing beneath him.

He kissed her lips, her jaw, her neck while pushing inside, her body stopping his head from going farther. “This is your last chance to stop me.”

Baring her teeth, she tugged his buttocks and forced him deeper.

She gasped.

“Are you in pain?”

“Give me a moment.”

Harry’s thighs shuddered as he fought his urgh to thrust. “Take all the time you need,” he croaked, trying not to allow the strain reflect in his voice.

But soon Charity was swirling her hips and urging him deeper once again.

Ever so slowly he slid into her, his eyes losing focus, his breath growing labored. “Dear God,” he gasped. “I will not last long. Are you still in pain?”

“Och, nay,” she said, urging him all the way to the hilt. “Oh my, oh my, oh holy my!”

Harry began to thrust, slowly at first, hoping he wasn’t hurting her, and ever so thankful when her hands began to dictate the tempo, demanding he thrust faster.

“Look into my eyes,” she said.

And he gazed into the sea in the midst of a tempest. He gazed into the dark blue eyes he had come to love. And as they focused upon each other, the love between them growing with every thrust, Harry could take no more. He bared his teeth and watched her come undone. “You are my wife. Say it now!”

The strength of their love surged between them, so powerful, he knew in the depths of his soul that they had formed a bond that would bind them together for eternity.

Charity grasped his face with both hands, her eyes glistening with tears. “I will be your wife and you will be my husband from this day and forever more.”

Harry dropped forward onto his elbows, thrusting into her deeper and faster than ever before. “I am your husband. We are man and wife, and no one but God can separate us.”

With his words, his seed pulsed into her, the intensity of his love taking her over the edge of oblivion. Thrusting her head from side to side, Charity shattered around him, while together they rode the waves of passion.

Once their breathing ebbed, Harry cupped her cheek, his entire body feeling as if he were floating. “I love you more than life’s blood.”

She slid her fingers up his back. “I love you more than you could possibly know.”

“And now I have the countess of my dreams.”

“Countess?” She laughed out loud. “I like the sound of that.”