Chapter 27
“Perhaps we can explore those depths a bit more,” he said softly as he carried her to his bedchamber.
He laid her down, his hands running down her sides in unconscious possession.
“Ye’re such a bonnie lassie,” he whispered as he dried her off.
She smiled shyly, her cheeks on fire. “Why, thank you, kind sir. You’re quite a handsome gentleman yourself.”
He chuckled softly. “And here I thought I was a mere barbarian.”
She grinned. “Indeed, you are. But who said barbarians cannot be handsome too?”
He loomed over her, his eyes hungrily raking over her frame, dark with desire, looking every inch the berserker she liked to tease him about.
She closed her eyes. “I hardly know what to do with myself when you look at me like that,” she whispered.
“Like what?” he asked, trailing his fingers between her knees.
She gasped, eyes shooting open, back arching, and she spread her legs without thought. “Like… you want to eat me whole. Your touch is so ticklish, yet you awaken my body, lighting fires inside me until I can do nothing but burn for you.”
He sat down next to her, tracing patterns on her inner thigh. “Is that so?” He leaned down and planted a kiss on her outer thigh. “Ye didnae tell me that before.”
“I thought you knew,” she panted, widening her legs. “I thought you knew what you do to me. Your hands are so sure,” she whispered. “While I hardly know what to do to pleasure you.”
He planted another kiss on the milky softness of her inner thigh.
“Yer touch is enough. Me lips on yer soft skin makes me melt. To be able to reach out and feel ye after all these months of restraint…” He lifted his head slightly so he could meet her eyes, a grin on his lips. “It’s heaven to me, Lilly.”
Butterflies fluttered in her stomach. She lifted her hand and ran a finger through his hair. “So what happens when I touch you?”
“The same burning desire ye describe is ignited in me a hundred-fold,” he said bluntly.
She blinked, rather taken aback by his honesty.
She sat up and raked both hands through his hair. “Touch me then. Kiss me. Let me touch you. Let us both combust until we reach that inevitable explosion.”
“Ye certainly do have a way with words, dear wife,” he said, before leaning down and burying his head between her legs.
She cried out and then whimpered as he tongued her sensitive nub and then slurped up her warm wetness. She might have been embarrassed about her body’s reaction if she were not already lost in the ecstasy of his touch.
Her hips rose, straining towards him in a feat of athleticism she had not known she was capable of. He continued to devour her with a dedication she admired, causing jolts of electricity to zing across her limbs. Sensation shot from one burning point to every inch of her body.
“God!” she cried out, canting her hips desperately, needing him more than air. “Please, please, please, please!”
He stopped feasting on her and grinned up at her. “Please what?” he asked.
She blinked at him in incomprehension, unaware of what she had said. “Kayden!” she whispered. “Please.”
His gaze grew hungrier, more predatory, and he swooped down again, burying his tongue inside her.
“Please, I must have you now. All of you,” she moaned, beyond caring about what he might think of her neediness.
She clawed at his shoulders, wanting him to come up to her. Eventually, he seemed to understand, rising so that he was looming over her.
She whimpered, lifting her legs and wrapping them around his waist even as she pulled him down to her chest.
“Kayden,” she moaned, before he took her mouth in a searing kiss, his erection pressing against her thighs. “More,” she begged, widening her legs.
Kayden took himself in hand and pushed into her. They both groaned long and low as he breached her.
Something inside her relaxed once he filled her, his balls nestled securely against her entrance. An exhalation of breath, a completeness she felt only when he was inside her.
“Kayden,” she said tearfully.
He kissed her eyelids, before peppering kisses all over her jaw and lips. His hips undulated, thrusting forcefully into her.
They both moaned, bodies moving together, their shadows thrown across the walls, like a beast with two backs.
“Mmm, Kayden.”
She reached up, pulling him down to her so he was covering her body with his, hips still snapping hard. Her arms wrapped around him as she held him close, wanting to feel him everywhere.
“Not enough,” she groaned.
He snaked his arms beneath her body, hugging her close. “I ken. I want to be so close to ye that we cannae tell where ye end and I begin.”
“Yes!” She arched her back, brushing her breasts against his chest as he thrust deep into her.
Her inner walls contracted, eyes blinking as the tension within her grew and grew, so near explosion that she could not draw in a breath.
“Kayden… please. I need to…”
His pace quickened as he slid one hand between them, a long finger seeking her sensitive nub. He rubbed it as he thrust into her, and she threw her head back, legs shaking as she cried out in climax.
Liquid burst forth from within her as inner walls contracted and relaxed. His grunts in her ear only spurred her on, eyes squeezed shut as she shuddered to completion.
She whimpered, collapsing on the bed as Kayden popped himself up on his hands, his hips snapping fast and hard, causing zings and aftershocks to light her up again and again as he chased his climax.
She leaned up and ran her tongue over his erect nipples. He threw back his head and cried out, his hips snapping hard before he froze, his face contorted, mouth open as he spilled his seed into her.
Her walls clamped down on him, milking him dry as they both moaned. Collapsing on the bed, she watched as Kayden fell like a tree onto his side, his gleaming chest rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath.
She reached out and grabbed at him.
Kayden caught her hand before she could withdraw it, threading his fingers through hers instinctively.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
The fire crackled softly beside the bed, shadows shifting across the stone walls. Her breathing slowed first, then his, until the frantic urgency that had driven them both dissolved into a heavy, contented stillness.
He had imagined this moment a hundred times in darker nights—imagined regret, imagined distance, imagined that she would look at him differently once the last wall between them fell.
Instead, she looked… peaceful.
Her eyes searched his face, uncertain and hopeful all at once.
“Are ye well?” he asked quietly.
She laughed under her breath, the sound softer than he had ever heard it. “I believe I am more than well.”
Relief sank into him so deeply that it felt like surrender.
He propped himself up on one elbow so he could see her properly. Without thinking, he brushed a loose strand of hair from her cheek.
“Ye were brave tonight,” he said.
Her brow furrowed. “Brave?”
“Aye.” His thumb traced her jaw. “Nae just now, but earlier. With Sorcha. With me.”
She fell quiet at the mention of his sister, but she did not turn away.
“I was afraid of you for so long,” she admitted. “Not because you were cruel, but because you were distant. I never knew where I stood.”
His chest tightened.
“And now?” he asked.
“Now,” she said softly, “I know you stand beside me.”
The words settled over him like a promise he had not realized he needed.
He shifted closer, pulling the blankets higher around her shoulders. Outside, the castle had fallen quiet—no footsteps in the corridor, no raised voices, only the distant howl of wind along the battlements.
“What happens next?” she asked.
The question was simple, but it carried weight.
Kayden exhaled slowly. “Next, we rebuild.”
He thought of the clan. Of faces that had looked to him for strength while he himself felt hollow. Of Sorcha’s final breath. Of the thin line between vengeance and protection.
“The wells will be sealed tomorrow,” he continued. “Jacob is sending men to watch the lower paths. Nay one enters or leaves without permission.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “And the villagers?”
“They heal,” he said. “Thanks to ye.”
Her hand tightened around his. “Thanks to us.”
The correction warmed him more than the fire ever could.
Silence stretched again, but it was no longer strained. It was easy.
He found himself speaking without the restraint he usually wore like armor.
“I never thought I would want this,” he admitted.
“What?”
“Peace.” His gaze trailed over her face slowly. “Laughter in the hall. Someone waiting for me when I return.”
Her lips curled into a small, knowing smile.
“You always wanted it,” she said gently. “You simply did not believe you were allowed to have it.”
He did not argue. Instead, he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. It was a gesture that felt more binding than anything that had come before.
She shifted closer, resting her head against his chest.
“I want to build something here,” she said after a while. “Not just remedies for illnesses, but a place where the clan comes before fear.”
“Aye,” he murmured. “Tell me.”
Her voice grew animated as she spoke about a permanent apothecary, about training the village women in the healing arts, about her sisters visiting one day and seeing the new life she had built for herself.
Kayden listened, not as a laird assessing plans, but as a man learning the shape of the future beside him.
At last, she fell quiet, drawing idle circles on his skin.
“You are very still,” she said.
“I am thinking.”
“That is always dangerous,” she teased.
He huffed a laugh.
“I am thinking,” he said slowly, “that tonight is the first time in many years I feel… vulnerable.”
She tilted her head up, eyes searching his. “And does that frighten you?”
“A little,” he admitted. “But it also feels right.”
Her fingers slid between his again.
“I love you,” she said, without hesitation.
The words did not strike him like lightning. They settled into him like home.
“I ken,” he murmured softly. “And I love ye, Lilly.”
He pulled her closer, holding her not with urgency but with quiet possession, the kind that came from trust, not hunger.
Outside, somewhere below, a faint burst of laughter echoed through the castle. Life returning.
And at last, there was nothing left between them but warmth and breath and the steady promise of what they were becoming together.