Chapter Three #3
She nodded. Then, the hand that was cupping her face wound itself in her hair as Cam pulled her to him, depositing the sweetest of kisses on her tender lips.
He’d only meant it to be a brief kiss, a foretaste of the woman he was becoming increasingly infatuated with, but she tasted so good that he kissed her again, this time with more force.
Isadora collapsed against him.
His kiss was hot, delicious, and crushing. He was holding her so tightly that she could barely breathe, but she hardly cared. She didn’t need to breathe so long as Cam was holding her, his mouth against hers, tenderly suckling her lips.
She’d never known such a kiss in all her life.
“I hope it is a dream easily reached,” he said against her mouth, “for I feel as if it is already within my grasp.”
He pulled away to look at her, his hand still holding her face, but Isadora was gasping. He’d managed to suck the air right out of her.
“If ye kiss me again like that, it might be closer than ye think,” she whispered.
He did, pulling her fiercely against him. His mouth was on hers, his hands in her hair; he was gently prying her lips open with his tongue so he could feast on her. Isadora simply went along with him, letting the man do as he pleased, because everything he’d done so far had felt wonderful.
She was a willing student.
Somehow, she ended up straddling his lap, her long hair covering his shoulders.
Her hands were on his face, holding him fast to her lips as she began to take on the aggressor role.
She ended up kissing his dimpled chin, his jaw, and his cheek before he stopped her, pulling her back so he could look her in the face.
“I want ye tae come with me tomorrow and meet my grandfather,” he said huskily. “I want ye tae come tae Netherton. Will ye come?”
She was flushed from his kisses. “Why?”
“I told ye. I want ye tae meet my grandfather.”
“I met him yesterday when he followed ye intae the vale.”
He flashed a grin. “I meant officially. So he knows yer name and ye have a chance tae meet the man.”
Isadora was coming to realize what he meant. He wanted her to know his family, and perhaps to have his grandfather’s approval for courting her. It was the second time the marriage implication had come up and she sat back, still on his lap, and looked at him seriously.
“Why do ye want him tae know me?” she asked.
“I thought I’d made that plain.”
She thought on that. It wasn’t because she didn’t want to know his grandfather, or even marry him, but more because if she came to know his family, he would want to know hers.
That truth would come out, the one she’d been trying to hard to avoid.
Perhaps it was unavoidable, in any case, because if the man wanted to marry her, and she wanted to marry him, he would have to know sooner or later.
She had to admit that she was dreading it.
“Ye have,” she said softly, reaching out to touch his stubbled face.
“And it’s not that I’m not agreeable. But it’s as I said before…
there is good deal of hatred in the Highlands.
Let us have the rest of this day just tae ourselves, tae speak on things that dunna involve families or clans.
Let’s speak of us, of our hopes, of the future.
I dunna want tae let the rest of it intae our world yet. It’ll come soon enough.”
He tried not to appear disappointed. “Whatever ye wish,” he said. “Tell me of yer hopes and the future, but I want ye tae meet my grandfather soon. He raised me after my mother died and the old man is everything tae me.”
She ran her fingers through his blond hair. “I promise I’ll meet him,” she said. “But not today. Let today belong tae us, what is left of it.”
He nodded, taking her hands in both of his and kissing her fingers. “It has already been a good day,” he said. “I wish I could stay with ye all night, but I’m sure yer brothers would come looking for ye and then I’d be forced tae defend myself.”
She snorted. “I thought ye werena a warrior.”
“I’m not, but I can defend myself if I must.”
“If ye plan tae make this a permanent arrangement between us, I’ll have tae teach ye tae fight. Ye’ll need tae know if ye’re tae be around my family.”
“If it makes ye happy, I’ll learn.”
She grew serious. “Would ye?”
“If it means that much tae ye. But ye aren’t going tae send me tae that fight school, are ye?”
She cocked her head curiously. “What fight school?”
“The one ye told me about those years ago. The Ludus Caledonia.”
“Ye remembered?”
“I remember everything.”
He said it with a glimmer in his eye and she grinned. “I’ll not send ye away from me,” she said. “I’ll teach ye myself.”
“But not today.”
The moment grew romantic again as he kissed her hands and she shook her head to his statement.
“Nay,” she muttered. “Not today. Today belongs just tae us and nothing else.”
Cam liked the sound of that. Pulling her down to him, he kissed her deeply as the gentle song of the brook created a fragile bubble around them that could never be broken. At this moment, there was nothing else but the two of them, the smithy from Netherton and the warrior lass from the hills.
From that moment on, they belonged to one another.
Only you, Cam had told Isadora.
He meant it.