Chapter 19
Morning in the keep came soon enough, and Dominik’s gut churned despite the absence of any physical ailment he could pinpoint.
He felt stiff and off-center, his steps slow as he made his way down the long corridors to the Great Hall.
He was meant to enjoy a morning meal, to converse with some of the clan, and carry out a plan to visit the inherited land once more with miners.
He would do those things, but…every step felt as if he had to summon the energy from some bottomless pit inside him. And why? Dominik knew precisely why. Because last evening was the best in recent memory. Hell, it had been the best he could ever think of, and
Dominik had been convincing himself that that reality could not be so since the moment he met Rose.
Rose.
As Dominik had walked away last night, he had seen the look on her face, heard the soft sobs that bled from under the door even as he hurried down the hallway.
It had been his doing, and while he knew—he knew—that their relationship was only a matter of duty…
Dominik could not be convinced to feel better about his actions.
Hurting Rose had been the last thought on his mind.
He couldn’t deny how much he had enjoyed himself, and not only because she was a gorgeous woman whose body felt like heaven itself against him.
And that much was undisputed. No, it was also because she had smiled at him.
They had joked. A growing understanding of one another had occurred, and Dominik could see plainly how much Rose cared about nurturing her new people and being the Lady they deserved. It was admirable.
So why then did he still have such trouble admitting to himself or her, for that matter, that he did care?
Marriage was a contract, a duty to the clan to provide them with what they needed.
But it was also a partnership between two people.
He’d never seen a particularly successful one in his own upbringing, but Dominik’s comrades and fellow warriors didn’t all fit that mold.
Many of his friends had loving parents who loved each other just as much.
It was only so foreign to him. Even Rose’s parents, though clearly in need of financial education, appeared to at least appreciate one another’s company.
“Ye’re daft. Focus on the matter in front of ye.”
“Excuse me?”
Dominik spun around, seeing Oskar standing just a few paces away from him. The Laird worked to school his expression, shaking away his tumultuous thoughts and indeed focusing on the matter at hand, visiting the land with the miners, and ensuring its usability as a copper mine.
“Has the carriage been readied for departure?” Dominik asked, decidedly ignoring any look of confusion or question on Oskar’s face, despite how he cocked a brow at him. “I wish to leave for the land with the workers as quickly as possible.”
“Aye, me laird.” Oskar nodded, very evidently not believing this was the sole matter on Dominik’s mind. “Will ye be taking yer wife along again?”
Nearly choking on his own saliva, Dominik forced himself to swallow, maintaining composure only because he had years of practice at his back, aiding him.
With a slight nod, Dominik remembered that Rose had indeed asked to come once more, just the other morning in fact.
He’d forgotten about her request, which he had granted, because of what had happened last evening. Because…
He had been so wrapped up in the experience that he’d forgotten as well that this was all meant to only be an act of duty.
“Aye. See to it that she is made ready to leave. I will see myself to the carriage.”
“Of course, me laird.” Oskar offered a short bow, his eyes still sparkling with that knowing cunning of his before exiting to ensure everything was ready for the journey out to the coast today, and Dominik clenched his jaw.
The day ahead of him was going to test him as no other hand, and he was thoroughly done with his man-at-arms being so very perceptive when it came to the Laird’s personal business.
As he stood there in the Great Hall, Dominik’s appetite was suddenly a thing of the past. While there was still time yet before the carriage would leave, he found himself walking straight out the main entrance to where it would be waiting, seeking the solitude of sitting in the empty interior until it was at last time to depart.
When the welcome sight of the coast made it into view, Dominik stepped down from the carriage and joined the workers from the clan as they dismounted from their horses.
The men stood around a small collection of gear that they brought along with them to inspect the land briefly.
They jested and smiled with each other, their mood light, and Dominik found his own lifting some as he saw them.
“Me laird,” one of them called out, bowing his head, “we’re truly grateful for the opportunity to be working the land for ye. The air is fresh here. A good sign.”
Rose quickly followed behind him, and the men lowered their heads at her arrival, their smiles growing even more as they took her in. The same man, Calum, stepped up, putting his hand over his heart.
“And to ye as well, me lady. The work wouldnae be possible without yer land.”
While it was true, Dominik was surprised that this small group of workers would take the moment to acknowledge such a thing. It touched him, and the constant worry over the clan’s approval of Rose lessened, an ever-present tension in his chest relaxing.
“That is so kind of you to say. I am thrilled that this arrangement can provide the clan with so much.”
“Of course, me lady. Come spring, I’m certain that we’ll be able to begin work on the land.” Calum nodded at her once more, then returned to his small collection of workers, walking with them toward the edge of this short drop-off.
In truth, Dominik was incredibly happy to see his clan warming to Rose, his English wife.
It would bode well for the continued prosperity of the clan, even if a more cynical part of himself told him that their approval did not matter so long as the council would relent in their constant nagging.
It was a war of emotions and thoughts, on one side wishing for Rose to be accepted, to be happy here, and the other telling him that he should not be concerned with such things.
The men dispersed then, taking their items to inspect the land some and see if the copper deposits found would indeed make for a valuable mining operation.
Dominik stood there in silence, Rose not far behind him.
The wind blew across them, bringing with it the smell of crisp, damp rain on the way.
Dark clouds hung overhead, and the distant din of the waves crashing against the shoreline offered subtle music to the stillness.
When a horse whinnied gently near the carriage, Dominik turned over his shoulder.
The ground beneath them was so soft here, his boots sinking into the soil.
Even the horses’ hooves were dirtier than they might have been during a typical trek through the Highlands.
It was just so very different here, and it drew so much of his attention to the woman who stood not a few feet from him, her differences just as stark.
Rose was English, while he was Scottish. Rose was a woman of high-class English living, one who frequented the ton’s events and engaged in women’s gossip of the city. Dominik was a soldier, a Highland warrior who had spilled blood and lived to see his parents die embittered to each other.
And yet they were similar, too.
They felt the pressure to ensure their family’s well-being, to protect those around them. They were both headstrong and loyal to those around them, both willing to do the hard labor it required to keep the clan running.
So then why was he still holding himself at arm’s length from her?
Every touch or brush of her dress in the carriage had been torture.
Even now with her standing so near him, all Dominik wished to do was to claim her, to at the least, pull her to his lips so that he could taste her.
The memory of last evening’s events lived brightly in his mind, infecting his waking thoughts as if he were trapped in a dream that would not let him go.
Rose’s stare flicked to his, but she quickly ducked away.
There was a glass sheen to them, abundant moisture that reflected the filtered light of the cloud-heavy sky.
She had not said a single word to him during their ride to the coast. Rose still had not spoken to him.
And he could not lie to himself and say that she was simply uninterested in talking.
She was upset with him, and, if he were honest with himself, a task increasingly more difficult—Dominik could understand why.
He’d just left. Dominik had simply exited the room after making love to her without so much as a moment of consideration for her. And he’d done it because he was terrified of how he was feeling.
Sighing, Dominik raked a hand through his hair, turning toward the coast and letting the salty wind blow across his face. He’d been a fool, and a callous one at that.
Rose appeared in front of him but was not looking his way. Instead, she knelt near the ground, digging her pale hand into the soil and picking some up. It smeared across the pads of her fingers, tumbling to the ground.
“Am I a miner too then?”
Dominik was so struck by the words that a snort tore from him, genuine laughter taking over and causing him to pitch back as he put a fist to his chest. Rose’s lighting voice joined in, subtle and weak at first before picking up to its full volume.
“It cannot be that strange of an idea.” Dominik blinked as he glanced at her, staring through tearing eyes. “Oh, very well then. I suppose it is.”
Despite the humor, Dominik could see the nerves in Rose’s eyes. She had been attempting to breach the silence with her joke, and it had worked—spectacularly.
“Ye would make a fine miner, I think. If ye were to learn the trade.” Steadying his breathing, Dominik stepped closer to his wife, offering a hand to help her stand. “I have seen what ye can do when ye put yer mind to it.”
There was a pregnant pause, a moment when Rose considered not taking his hand. He could see it all over her face, the emotion so readable in her large, beautiful eyes. She knew that she could rebuff him, leave him to know all the more that she was cross with him.
But she didn’t.
Instead, she took his hand, allowed him to help her back to her feet, and then slipped herself free of his hold without retreating. She was giving him a chance, and he would truly be the world’s worst fool if he did not take it.
“I apologize for nae saying anything before I left. For…for leaving like that at all.”
Rose’s eyes widened, then she gave Dominik a subtle nod. “Apology accepted. For now.”
Her cunning tongue got the best of him, and Dominik laughed again, shaking his head at the ridiculousness of the situation.
“Och, lass. I will say that I havenae laughed like that in ages. Nae since me friends graced the keep with their boisterous appearance.”
“And I will say that,” Rose swallowed, a light pink filling her cheeks, “it is good to hear you do it. A rare moment indeed and one to be enjoyed.”
Their stares held, and Dominik could understand immediately what Rose was saying.
He did not let himself be like this. He didn’t open up to her about what went through his mind.
She knew a bit about the past; about his mother and the strained relationship she had with his father and the clan.
Still, in truth, no one, not Rose or Oskar or any of his close friends—knew how that strain had affected Dominik.
Rose stepped away from the drop-off, and Dominik guided her a few more feet back toward the horses.
They stood as just the two of them, the workers well out of view or earshot, and the silence draped them once more.
Stares holding and holding, Dominik could not bring himself to see anything more than the woman standing before him and all she had done and proven about herself since her arrival.
It couldnae be all that terrible, could it? To give in to the sight of her? She is me wife, after all?
The thoughts were sharp and clear, these rationalizations for what he felt so intently in his bones.
Rose was the most stunning sight he yet to behold in his thirty odd years on the earth, Highland coast be damned.
Her being, the way about her, it all drew Dominik in, refusing to let him go from the moment he’d seen her.
And there they were, staring at each other on this scenic hilltop, wind blowing Rose’s fine hair around her face.
Her cheeks and the tip of her nose were a delicate pink from the way the chilled air circled them, her eyes dropped to his mouth before flicking back up again, and he could see from her the flutter of her pulse in her neck.
He wanted her. He wished for nothing more than to repeat what they had done, to experience that again and not leave her so abruptly this time.
Leaning in closer, unable to stop himself, Dominik’s fingers found the soft skin of Rose’s face. She trembled slightly against him, the cold or the uncertainty of his actions he did not know.
It was unbearable to stand so near her and not act, and so he did.
Urgent and hungry, Dominik pressed his lips to Rose’s. He breathed in the scent of her, drank in her taste, and in that moment, nothing mattered more to him than the exquisite feeling of his wife against him.
This was the heat of lust, the unyielding need that was spoken about in scripture and psalm. It was only desire, potent and all-consuming, but nothing more.
At least, that is what he would tell himself, what he would try to believe with all his might until the truth of his reality would no longer be contained.
But that was a problem for another day. For now, Dominik would kiss his Rose, and he would live in the moment for as long as the fates would let him.