Chapter 36
CHAPTER 36
Keira’s cottage was bare.
She looked about her with mixed feelings as she took in the clear surfaces and her empty table. All of the herbs and spices that she had been unable to pack had been given away to members of the village.
She was ready.
It was finally time for her to move on with her life.
The last few weeks had been more painful than any she had ever experienced.
Being embraced by the village again had been blissful. She had felt like her old self again. But Noah had been on her mind a great deal.
She regretted leaving on the same evening that he had turned her away. She wished she had at least given Scott and Daisy a chance to bid him goodbye, but she had not had the strength. She had known that if she saw his handsome, chiseled face again, she would not be able to leave him.
“Ye are thinkin’ of Laird MacAllen again,” Scott said from the doorway. Daisy, who had been tying up some of the bundles for their journey, nodded in agreement.
“What are ye talkin’ about?” Keira asked.
“Yer face crumples in on itself,” Daisy said helpfully as she tied the final bundle and placed it with the others.
“It does nay such thing,” Keira replied stubbornly as Scott handed Daisy the leather-bound book Noah had gifted to her. Daisy placed it quickly inside her own pack.
“I thought ye finished that,” Keira said sadly.
“Aye,” Daisy said, “but I thought we could sell it. It’s a very fine book.”
Keira did not reply, trying not to let her worries overwhelm her again. In truth, she did not know much about the new world or how they would make ends meet, but Scott seemed to have no such qualms.
‘ Everyone gets sick, what world doesnae need a healer?’
She had not been able to argue with that but it still all seemed very surreal.
“Is it alright if we take Cuddy to the Blackwoods now?” Daisy asked, her little face falling as she asked the question.
“Aye,” Keira said, walking out with them as her brother and sister went to untie the donkey from the post beside their cottage. “He will be very well cared for by the Blackwoods, and the little ones will ride him into town. He’ll be much happier with them than he would be at sea.” Keira said, stroking Cuddy’s nose. He snorted affectionately at her.
“I will miss him,” Daisy said, hugging the donkey’s neck.
“I ken, flower,” Keira said.
Scott untied Cuddy’s rope and pulled gently as the donkey slowly moved forward. Daisy looked back as they made their way down the lane, and Keira held back her own tears at all she was saying goodbye to.
She went back into the cottage, shaking those thoughts away. She checked her list for the third time, ensuring that everything was in its rightful place and that she had not forgotten anything.
After she had been through the last bag and sealed it, she headed to her room. It was bare, save for one item she had deliberately left hanging by her bed.
The pendant of black glass that Noah had bought for her glinted in the sunlight from the window, taunting her with its beauty. For the hundredth time, she wondered if she should take it with her.
She picked it up, lingering on the fine chain and sharp point of the stone, still feeling that familiar comfort from its weight.
With a sigh, she hung it around her neck and placed it beneath her undergarments. It would not do to dwell on what she was losing. What she had never truly had.
I could sell it when we reach our destination, she thought, trying to convince herself that was the real reason. It might fetch a very fine price.
As she double-checked under the bed, she heard footsteps coming up the path. She knew it could not be Scott or Daisy back already, as they would be a good hour yet. It must be a customer. She still had a few things on hand for the last few hours before they sailed. She would always care for anyone who had made the trip to her door.
“Just a moment!” she called. “I shall be with ye—just tell me what the problem is,” she said as she bustled through to the front of the house.
“Heartache,” came a deep voice from the doorway.
She froze as she reentered the kitchen, staring at Noah, who was standing, limed in light, looking taller, stronger, and more handsome than she had ever seen him.
She caught her breath, unable to look away as he ducked beneath the front door and came to stand before her.
“Me laird,” she breathed, stepping into the kitchen, keeping the table between them. “What… what are ye doin’ here?”
His dark eyes were twinkling at her, but there was uncertainty in his gaze.
“As I said,” he replied, his large hands coming to rest on the back of one of the chairs around the table, “me heart hurts.”
She frowned, in two minds as to whether to order him to leave the house or help him.
But she was no fool. She could never deny him treatment if he needed it. It occurred to her that she had not given him instructions on the recipe for the tea she had made. Perhaps it had helped, and he wanted to ask how she had brewed it.
“Do ye need the tea I made ye?” she asked awkwardly, trying her best to keep her hands from shaking. His proximity was making her heart beat hard in her chest.
She busied herself with finding some of the ingredients she knew she still had in one of the bags but stopped as he came toward her, looming above her, his body only inches from her own as she stood back, looking up at him, feeling as though the ground was opening up beneath her feet.
“Nae. Nothin’ like that,” he said softly.
“Me laird?”
“Ye once called me Noah,” he said, his voice rumbling between them, “will ye do so again?”
“Nay,” she said, taking a small step back. “I dinnae think so.”
“And if I asked ye to?”
“What is it ye want, me laird ? Because ye have made it clear, it isnae me.”
Noah groaned inwardly at the harsh quality of her beautiful voice. Her hair was falling behind her, and all he wanted to do was run his finger through it. She was wearing one of the dresses he had bought her, the black one he loved so much.
She looked so beautiful. Untouchable and perfect.
“Maybe I do need that tea,” he said softly, her eyes narrowed at him. “Me heart has been achin’ since ye left, like there’s a space where it used to be.” Unable to resist anymore, he raised his hand and tucked a wayward strand of that raven hair behind her ear. The familiar spark shot through his fingers as his skin touched hers. “It’s as though,” he whispered, “ye took me heart with ye when ye left. I have come to get it back.”
She swayed away from him as though she might faint, and his hands shot out to support her on instinct. She was leaning back, suspended in his grip, her eyes closed.
Eventually, they fluttered open again, and she stared at him in confusion.
“Ye told me we couldnae be together, that I wouldnae be happy.”
“I ken what I said. I’ve come here to beg yer forgiveness and to ask if ye’ll be mine, because I cannae be without ye. Nae for another day or night.”
Her hands came to rest on his forearms as he slowly drew her into him, that glorious hair hanging loose behind her as she examined his expression.
“Ye hurt me, Noah,” she whispered. “I told ye I wanted more from ye, and ye said it could never be. What changed?”
Noah smiled ruefully. “Me mind,” he said gently. “I believe it plays tricks on me and causes pain when it shouldnae, just as ye said. Me head kept tellin’ me I couldnae have ye, that ye’d be better off without me, and when ye left I realized that the only way I can be happy is with ye by me side.”
Keira gasped as he pulled her closed, raising her up as he lifted her from the ground, searching her face to see what she might feel.
“Tell me I am nae too late, lass. I was so afraid I dinnae deserve ye that I lost ye. I take it back, everythin’ I said. Ye belong in me arms, and I’ll never let ye leave again if ye just say ye forgive me.”
“And yer faither? All yer fears?”
“I love ye,” Noah said simply as Keira’s eyes widened even further. “And nothin’ is ever goin’ to change that. That’s all that matters.”
He lowered her down to the floor, and now her eyes were banked with tears again. He brushed them away as they started to fall and waited patiently for her to reply.
“I love ye too,” she said solemnly, “ye great fool.”
Noah’s heart was beating a staccato rhythm in his chest as he finally lowered his head to hers and claimed her lips with his own.
“Keira,” he whispered, kissing along her jaw and down her neck as she shuddered against him. “Keira.”
He pulled back as she panted against him, their eyes locked together as he looked at her. He spun her round, pressing her against the kitchen table.
“Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I’d not gone into the forest that day,” he said, “what I would have lost if I hadnae chosen to protect ye. I think I knew, even then, that ye would change me life.”
Keira smiled. “I think about that too. I was lucky to have yer help, or I might nae have survived.”
He narrowed his eyes as she giggled that wonderful giggle of hers.
“So that’s it, is it? Ye are lucky to have survived ,” he said, with mock fury in his tone.
“Aye, I am usin’ ye for yer castle, and yer protection, nothin’ more, just as ye asked.”
He groaned, resting his head against her forehead as he saw her answering smile.
“I shall never live that down.”
“Never,” she said happily. “Ye have been quite clear that this union is to keep me safe.”
Noah felt himself harden in his trews as he pushed her up onto the table, and her legs widened to accommodate him.
“Is that so?” he asked, running his hands over her body as he looked over her glorious curves, desperate to feel her against him once more.
“It is,” she breathed. “I think perhaps I shall need me own wing of the castle, seein’ as we are livin’ separate lives, and ye will nae be able to touch me without me permission.”
Noah growled, his lips coming down against her neck as he licked at her skin, scraping his teeth against the underside of her jaw as she gasped in his arms.
“Ye daenae wish me to touch ye, lass?”
“N—nay,” she stammered. “Ye must, och, god, ye must keep yer distance.”
He punched his hips forward as his hands smoothed over her back and her rounded buttocks, squeezing them as she arched into his chest, her head falling back, and he was finally able to run his greedy fingers through her hair.
“I wouldnae allow it,” he said darkly, “I would pretend I wouldnae touch ye, and then I would come to yer room and order ye to pleasure me, just as ye begged me to.”
She moaned as he took her mouth again, ravaging it with his tongue and thrusting against hers until she was a quivering mess beneath him, his hips rocking against her legs over and over again as her hands gripped his shoulders desperately.
“I would take ye whenever I wanted,” he muttered, his fingers coming up to unlace her dress. “Ye’d refuse me, would ye?” he asked as he pulled the fabric away from her chest, wrenching her undergarments away from her and exposing her breasts.
“I think ye’d plead with me to go back on me word, ye’d tell me ye’d give yerself to me, just as ye did when ye asked me to make ye me mistress.”
Keira was desperate for his touch, unable to pull in a full breath.
Her head fell back as a wanton sound was wrenched from her throat as Noah’s mouth lowered over her nipple and sucked it into his mouth without mercy.
After an eternity, he released her, the peak now hard and pert as he rolled it between his thumb and forefinger.
“Maybe I’d refuse ye,” he continued, his hands releasing her as she watched him pull at her dress, lifting the layers of it away until only a strip of fabric covered her body at her waist. “I’d make ye wild with need before I finally had ye.”
“Please,” she sobbed as his fingers moved to her bud and massaged it as she shivered and jolted at the pleasure running through her.
“Are ye beggin’?” he asked.
“Yes! Ach, there!” she shouted, finally letting the pleasure overwhelm her.
His fingers pushed inside her, circling against her flesh until her legs came up to wrap around his waist. She lay back on the table, arching away from the wood as he pushed another finger inside her.
Before she could think or ask him for more, his head was between her legs, and his mouth lapped at the folds of her body as he thrust inside her until she was half mad with lust.
“Noah,” she panted, “Noah, I need ye.”
He finally released her, coming up to lean over her. He paused, watching her carefully, his hands gentling on her thighs.
“Are ye sure?” he asked softly. “We can wait. I’ll have ye as me wife, and I’ll worship yer body until ye cannae breathe.”
She shook her head. “I want ye. I need to feel ye.”
Kiera’s heart was bursting with love as she looked at him. Everything in her world aligning in a way she had never imagined possible.
He lowered over her, covering her lips with his own as she tasted herself on his tongue, feeling the long length of him brush against her body, and she moaned into his mouth.
“I love ye,” he said as he pulled away. “More than I ever thought I could love anythin’.”
He stood back and she watched as he untied his trews, exposing his long, hard length to her hungry eyes as he stroked it.
“Let me,” she said hurriedly, reaching for him, but he knocked her hand aside.
“I give the orders, oh bride of mine, and ye’ll stay still while I have ye.”
She shivered at his tone, the weight and authority in it stilling her completely.
Noah pushed her thighs apart as he lined himself up with her entrance and slowly pushed into her as she fought to stay utterly still.
She felt the blunt ache at the entrance to her body and held her breath, her eyes closing at the pleasure of it.
“Alright?” he asked, and she nodded as he slowly pushed further inside, little by little, pausing when she asked and moving only when she seemed comfortable again.
Finally, he was fully seated, the most perfect pleasure she had ever felt in her life. She looked up at him biting her lip shaking with the need for him to move. His expression turned to one of concern.
“Keira? What is it? Am I hurtin’ ye?”
“I cannae stay still any longer!” she cried desperately. “Ye have to move.”
And with a happy laugh of startled pleasure, he complied with her wish, pulling out of her and rocking his hips into her again as she arched wildly from the table. Her hands slammed down on the wood in ecstasy as he started a steady rhythm.
He came to a stop suddenly, as he leaned over her, and she looked down at him. Then she smiled widely as she saw his gaze had been caught by the sparkling chain around her neck. He followed the line of it between her breasts with his finger, to the dark pendant at the base.
Her eyes met his as his fingers traced the line of it as she sighed with pleasure beneath him.
“I want ye to wear this every time we are together like this, so I can remember who ye belong to,” he said and as she nodded, he thrust into her again.
She cried out as she neared her peak. He stood back, looking down at her on every thrust. His thumb moved downward to brush against the nub of her body as she finally froze as she felt her release tightening around him. In an instant, he lost himself against her, both of them riding the waves of pleasure to completion.
He collapsed down on the table, covering her body with his own and sighing contentedly as her arms came up to embrace him.
“I love ye,” he whispered.
“I love ye, too,” she replied, squeezing him against her for a long perfect moment. The sun was streaming through the tiny window above them, and reflections of green sea glass flickered all over the room as though they were back in the forest where it all began.
Keira stroked a hand over his face as he claimed her lips in a gentle kiss.
“I love ye,” she repeated. “But we must get up before me braither and sister come back and get the shock of their lives.”
With a happy laugh, he rose, pulling her up with him, and helping her to right her clothes as they waited to tell Daisy and Scott the good news.