Chapter 16
Callum looked over her flushed face. She still loved him.
His eyes dropped back toward the lips he wanted, which spoke.
“Forthwith, I wish you to know all of me as well in this bridge belonging unto trust, Sir Callum, Stirling’s defender of the Templars.
” Saint’s help him, he was struggling with being honorable.
“There is one other matter I have been less then forthright with you in our past.”
Ahem. “Aye, Nella?”
“I truly do not care for boar stew.”
“Stew?”
“Aye.” She nodded. “I tried to be brave when you proclaimed it was one of your clan’s favorites. Alas, the taste, ugh, I find the same as moss on a loch’s edges.”
Even if a bailey wall rose to the sky between them, it would not have halted his advance. He lowered his lips, stealing hers. The gasp on her tongue turned into a groan as he tightened his arms about her. If logic were a bird, it just flew away.
All the nights dreaming of her only to awaken bitter or sad or resolute at his dire fate, it was no more. He had a chance with her, a real second chance, and these were a rare find in life. Aye, even gates set by giants wouldn’t keep him from seizing this hope for happiness with her.
Her tongue darted gently against his as if a butterfly carefully searching a meadow.
A growl took his as he deepened their kiss.
A slip in time, this was all it was. In a blink they were back beside the burgh where he was hers and she was his.
He never got her permission to kiss her before racing in same as stallion on the Highlands.
Where was his honor as a knight at her earlier request?
Manners, knight, manners, discipline! Giving a fresh growl, he tore his mouth from hers, and both huffing moist breath against lips he whispered, “Forgive me, Nella, my manner is lacking.”
“I find your manner captivating, Sir Callum MacCade,” she replied. “I considered after the river you found me distasteful to look upon, thus the demand for me to take leave of your presence riding forth on Luss alone.” This was what she thought was the cause. He was daft!
“’Twas not the reason at all.” His palm lowered onto her hip, tugging her closer toward him.
She gasped when his arousal pressed her nether region.
“This. This was the reason. I simply could not remain stoic with you so close. Your scent, your feel, your breath upon my face. My mind was raging against my body while logic versus desire coursed my blood.” His eyes lingered on her lips before they darted at the door then returned to her.
“Do you worry for what Lady Alaina may think? This is the final shred in decency I hold from claiming what I yearn for, what I have always yearned for. Tell me, Nella. Tell me to take my leave and I shall try to endeavor your wish. If you long for me to stay this eve, I shall make you mine, not only for this moment but all the time to come. Consider greatly, for my control slips in haste.”
A slightly wicked smile crossed her features like the time she had snuck out to meet him in the fields beyond her sire’s bailey.
“Callum, the chamberlain, well, he has already walked by – twice. As for Lady Alaina, once she hears of this, she will be most pleased I have finally taken you for a lover.” Her lips rose slightly toward his then paused.
“Callum MacCade, for all time. You promise?”
Aye. “Always.” His lips covered hers.
The table was directly behind her. He lifted her carefully by her hips, setting her upon the oak as her arms wove about his neck. Brie and apple and mead; delicious as she. His fingers went for the ties holding the robe closed, but she pulled back with her hands halting his.
Looking up at him, she whispered shyly, “You first?”
“Aye.” He grinned then leaned back. Unbuckling the scabbard strap for the sword, he laid it over the chair. She reached for his mantle. Together they lifted it over his scalp, and the woolen hit the floor.
Thump. The chainmail tunic landed on the floor next.
He reached for his undertunic. A moan crossed the room by him while he lifted the linen over his skull from her fingers trailing over the ridges belonging to his abdomen, over the trenches leading to the throbbing between his thighs, then higher over his torso.
Over everything in her dominion, aye. His breath caught when the warmth from her mouth began a path in kisses over shoulder then down, brushing over his nipple while her hands ventured lower for his chausses and braise.
“Nella,” he groaned.
“Callum,” she called to him softly, his name feathering over his flesh on his torso from her mouth, “you are the most handsome sight my eyes have ever beheld.” His tunic dropped onto the floor.
Cradling her jaw, he raised her lips for a thorough kiss which left them both breathless. A tugging came next by her on the knot holding up his braise. One flick from his grip, the last two lower garments met the chainmail tunic. Her eyes grew after she caught sight in his want for her.
Ahem. She blushed while clearing her throat. “Stallion seems to be a most proper comparison,” she declared, then raised her eyes toward his. “You… you truly find me so desirable?” How could she doubt so strongly?
“Always.” She turned three shades more of rose, lowering her eyes again at his arousal.
Her warm palm found him. He rested his brow against hers when she began stroking him slightly.
“Nella,” he sighed, his own hands seeking the ties on her robe once more.
The stroking stopped. After she covered his fingers with hers.
“Callum,” she said, an unsure, almost frightened look haunting her gaze. What the hell had that bastard done to her? “I wish to stay covered.” She must trust him, or all was lost.
He looked at her uncovered legs. Start there.
Lowering onto his forgotten woolen garments upon the floor, he settled on his knees before her while she remained sitting on the table’s edge.
She didn’t speak when looking at him, the shadows from the firelight casting a glow over her features and catching the shine in her hair billowing down her shoulders like a tawny waterfall.
She was so bonny, why didn’t she realize this?
It had to be her past with that limp-loin bastard.
Well, this was a fresh start for them; he would show her how bonny she was – every last speck.
A dark inward grin appeared as he raised her calf onto his shoulder. His lips grazed a tender trail up starting at the knot upon her inner ankle then over her knee then inner thigh which was as soft as butter before he found his petaled treasure.
“Callum!” She cried his name when he began a determined path in casting every dark corner her mind held in doubt unto ruin.
Her one palm dove into his hair while the other began tapping onto the table, accentuating her cries for him. He gave all he had in reserve, throwing aside his own male instinct at immediately wanting to bury his manhood where he now coaxed her pleasure toward peak.
“Callum, aye!”
The inward grin met his mouth. She crested.
Her ragged breath matched his while he advanced, lifting the robe more, letting his lips explore the curves belonging to her hips.
His fingers sought the ties again in care while he stood.
It would be easy, so very completely easy, to charge forth, to lose himself in her.
No. She must reveal all herself to him first or this was all for naught.
He gave a tiny tug on the tie. She glanced down at the action, and he paused. “Nella,” he said, his voice raw, “I yearn to see all of you.”
A deeper blush took her cheeks while her palms moved to keep his still. “Callum, I… I am not so very grand as other ladies or lassies.” If he could rip that piece of swine shite from the grave and tear out his eyes anew, he would have at the look from shame written across her face.
He gently covered her hands with his over the tie, and the request left his tongue weighed by patience. “Nella, please.”
A long silence claimed the chamber with the exception from the pop in the hearth or whistle by a brisk gust which sailed through the arrow slit, washing over his heated flesh. Her hands lowered and her eyes raised and she nodded. It was time.
Years past he had found a doe trapped in the woods near Castle MacCade, tangled in the bramble, eyes wide by fear.
He had taken his time and seen the delicate creature set free.
His hands moved in the same deliberate reassuring movements as then upon his doe-eyed lady.
Slowly easing the thick woolen down her arms, he carefully tugged the linen bath sheet tucked above her breasts next.
A slight whoosh aired when the pieces draped onto the table, forgotten.
His eyes feasted on all offered. Breasts high with a compliment in taut nipples gave forth in a gentle slope on her ribs, leading toward her curls he had just savored within. She was… “Flawless, Nella.”
She lowered her gaze shyly, or was it shame? Warming his palms on his thighs, he then lifted them to cup her breasts. Perfection! A perfect fit. Her breath caught at the bold action on his part with her eyes snapping back up toward him.
He lifted the globes slightly in his grasp. They both gave a low sound as his thumbs stroked over the peaks several times. “Absolutely flawless, my Nella.”
“Callum,” she begged when he lowered his mouth taking the place of his hands, tasting both raised buds in flesh offered him, “make me yours in all ways. I ache and I know pain shall be present as you are my first. Yet I can wait nae longer. Now ’tis my turn to say – please.”