Chapter Twenty-Two #2
even though she could hear Lachlan coming up behind her. “What is
this aboot?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” she
muttered, unblinking. She finally noticed the soldiers sparring
below. They were good, but not at Lachlan’s level. Her husband was
huge, but lightning-quick in his reactions. “You’ve been behaving
strangely ever since we left the Campbells. No talking last night?
Hell, no sex last night? Putting two guards at my door this
morning?” She clicked her tongue. “As I said, I could ask you the
same thing.”
He put his large, callused hands on her
exposed shoulders, but made no move to turn her away from the
window. “I dinna mean to offend you, my love.”
My love. His words got to her, made
her slump a little. Finally, Lachlan turned her around to face him.
“I vow it, wife.”
“Then what is going on?” she whispered. “Are
you embarrassed by my ability to defend myself? Are you angry that
I killed that eater instead of you?”
“Nay,” he said sternly, lightly shaking her
by the shoulders. “How can you think this?”
She shrugged, her feelings still smarting,
though not as badly as before. “I care about what you think of me,”
she admitted. “When you didn’t talk to me last night, didn’t even
touch me, then had Frick and Frack guard me like a child—”
“Frick and Frack?”
She didn’t feel like explaining the
old-timer reference. “Douglass and Cameron I mean.” Veronica looked
up, at last meeting his gaze. “I started to think I embarrassed you
or somehow emasculated you.” At his quizzical expression, she
explained what emasculation was.
“Nay,” Lachlan again denied. “’Twas never
aboot that. I am proud of you, Veronica. Verra proud. One of us may
have gotten bitten had you not reacted so quickly.”
“Then what’s going on with you?”
He sighed. “Dinna you ken it shook me?
Whilst you dinna make me feel emascul…whatever the
word.”
“Emasculated?”
“Aye, that. ‘Tis the eater that made me feel
thusly.”
“That’s silly, Lachlan. You had your sword
drawn. You would have beheaded her if I hadn’t intervened.”
“Mayhap not afore she bit me, or worse,
you. She—it—moved so fast.”
“Trust me, you would have been fine. I’ve
beheaded many eaters with my sword. If I can do it, you can do it
too. You’re a lot stronger than I am and your sword is much
heavier.”
“’Twas the first time I ever doubted my
abilities,” he admitted in a faraway tone. His hands fell from her
shoulders. “I dinna feel worthy of you and yet neither did I desire
for you to be left alone. I put the warriors outside the doors for
your added protection. Mayhap I overreacted.”
She reached up and grabbed his strong jaw
with her hands, forcing his head down to look at her. “Yes, you
overreacted,” she told him, her gaze softening, “but I get it now.
I just wish you would have told me all this last night.”
“Never in my life have I witnessed such a
thing as a woman returning from the dead. I should have reacted
with your quickness.”
“Oh please.” She snorted at that and
released his jaw. “You should have seen me the first time I saw
someone reanimate—come back to life,” she hurriedly explained.
Veronica found her first smile. “I literally pissed my pants.”
His grin was slow, but it came. “Truly?” he
asked.
“Yes, truly.” She chuckled at the memory. “I
was running, screaming, and peeing all at the same time. Completely
forgot I had a gun in my hand.”
They shared a laugh. Lachlan pulled her into
his arms and held her. He rested his chin on the crown of her head.
“You please me, wife.”
She closed her eyes briefly as she inhaled
the scent of him. “You please me too, husband.”
Silence.
“Then let me help you out of your bliaut,”
he said thickly. His erection poked against said gown. “What
happened to your circlet?” he asked.
“Circlet?”
“Aye, circlet. The jewelry upon your
forehead.”
At least now she knew what it was called.
“It’s in my chest of drawers.”
“Put it back on,” Lachlan purred. He closed
the drapes and began undressing her. “As soon as I get this
off.”
Veronica wondered if wearing a circlet while
nude was the medieval equivalent of wearing high heels while naked.
It must have been for when she put it back on and turned to face
him wearing only the emerald head bangle, his breath sucked in.
Before she could blink he scooped her up, carried her to their bed,
and placed her on it. Lachlan swiftly undressed before climbing on
top of her, settling himself between her thighs.
He sucked on her nipples first, his mouth
going back and forth from one to the other. Her head lulled
backward on a breathy shudder. “That feels so good, Lachlan.” His
hands kneaded her breasts as his mouth worked on her nipples. She
instinctively opened her legs wider, wanting him inside her. He
released one nipple with a popping sound before going to the other
and doing the same thing.
His breathing growing heavy, his head came
up and he gazed into her eyes. “I vow to make you feel verra good.”
Using one hand to guide his erection to her opening, a guttural
sound escaped his throat as he surged inside of her to the hilt.
She gasped, her hands wrapping around his waist and sliding down to
his buttocks. They continued to gaze into each other’s eyes,
fucking fast and hard, clinging to each other. Flesh slapped
against flesh. Moan matched moan. Lachlan impaled her deeper and
harder, again and again and again.
“I love you,” he rasped. When she opened her
mouth to speak, he thrust his tongue inside. As he passionately
kissed her, she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d purposely kept her
from speaking. Maybe he was afraid she wouldn’t have returned the
sentiment? She didn’t know.
All thoughts left her head as he fucked her
with primal force. She groaned into his mouth as he took her,
riding her hard. She squeezed his buttocks, driving him even
wilder. He broke the kiss on a growl, thrusting inside her over and
over and over, again and again and again. She came on a deep moan,
her pussy contracting from the force of it. “Lachlan.”
His thrusts became more primitive, more
animalistic. His breathing was labored, his heavy muscles
tightening. He fucked her harder and faster, driving deep into her
core. She fucked him back with everything she had, throwing her
hips up to meet his frenzied plunges. He rode her harder and
faster, giving her more and more of his stiff cock. He impaled her
once, twice, three times more and, growling her name, squeezed his
eyes closed as his entire body convulsed atop hers. He came long
and loudly, fucking her hard all the while. When he was done, when
his cum was deep inside her, he slowed his thrusts until they came
to a halt.
Rolling off of her and falling onto his side
of their bed, Lachlan pulled Veronica onto his chest as their
breathing returned to normal. She smiled against his skin, loving
the familiar scent of him. “Damn,” she told him, her voice a rasp.
“That was incredible. I’ll have to start wearing one of my circlets
a lot more often.”
“You bewitch me, woman,” Lachlan mused.
“I’m sorry.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Dinna be
sorry for I am grateful.”
She raised her head and grinned up at him.
“You bewitch me too. And I love it.”
They slept that night in each other’s arms.
No bad dreams or flashbacks. No fear or anxiety. No crying out in
the middle of the night, forgetting she was safe. Just a happy
peacefulness they shared together.
Veronica never thought she would know this
level of comfort and security, but was appreciative she did. She
dreamt of Lachlan and, more specifically, of the love she carried
inside for him.