Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
As Laura walked beside Bradley, her steps were light on the path, though her heart weighed heavily.
The castle loomed in the distance, its dark stones outlined against the pale sky.
Her brow furrowed as thoughts tangled in her mind, fighting for order and sense.
She kept her eyes fixed on the ground, avoiding the glances she felt he cast at her.
“Ye’ve nae said a word,” Bradley rumbled, his voice sharp with curiosity. “What thoughts are twistin’ in that head of yers, lass?” His stride never faltered, yet his tone carried an edge. “Tell me what gnaws at ye.”
Laura lifted her chin, heat rising in her cheeks.
“It’s ye that gnaws at me, Bradley,” she said boldly.
“One moment ye’re a brute, swingin’ yer sword with blood on yer hands, and the next ye’re fussin’ like an old nursemaid over me catchin’ a chill from the shore.
Ye drive me mad with yer ways.” Her voice trembled, half with anger, half with confusion.
His dark eyes flashed as he stopped in his tracks.
“Mad, ye say?” he asked, his voice low and dangerous.
“Then ken this, lass, ye drive me mad as well, but nae with anger. It’s desire that burns through me veins whenever ye’re near.
” His chest rose and fell sharply, as though the words had taken effort to release.
Laura froze, her lips parting in disbelief.
“Desire?” she echoed, the word soft yet sharp on her tongue. “How can ye speak so when ye treat me like a burden half the time? Ye’re impossible to understand.” She turned her face away, though her heart thundered at his confession.
Bradley stepped closer, closing the space between them until she could feel the heat of his body.
“Impossible?” he repeated, his tone rough with hunger. “Aye, I’ll grant ye that. For every time ye defy me, every time ye toss yer head and glare, I want ye in me arms until ye forget yer own name.” His hand shot out, gripping her wrist with unyielding strength.
“Bradley!” she gasped, though she did not pull away. Her heart raced as he tugged her sharply toward him. The world seemed to tilt as she collided against his chest, her breath catching at his hardness. She lifted her gaze to his, and her resolve crumbled under the fire she found there.
“I cannae stand it, Laura,” he growled, his lips brushing close to hers. “Ye plague me thoughts, night and day, with yer sweetness and yer fire. I’m a man lost, and it’s ye that’s undone me.” His words dripped with truth, leaving her no escape.
Laura’s hands pressed against his chest, but it was not to push him away.
“Ye’re maddened,” she whispered, though her own voice betrayed her longing. His warmth seeped through her, chasing away every shred of reason. For a moment she hated herself for wanting, but her heart silenced her mind.
Bradley bent his head and captured her mouth with his. The kiss was fierce, claiming, filled with all the tension that had brewed between them since the start. Laura melted into him, her body betraying her vows and her doubts. She lost herself, carried on a tide of fire and longing.
When he broke away, his breath was ragged, his face inches from hers. “Ye see, lass,” he rasped, “ye’ve cast a spell on me. I cannae fight it, nor would I if I could. Ye’re mine, Laura, whether ye accept it or nae.” His arms tightened around her possessively.
Laura’s lips trembled, her chest rising and falling quickly. “I daenae ken what to do with ye,” she confessed, torn between fear and desire. Her hands clung to his tunic as though she would fall without him. “Ye leave me without sense.”
Bradley gave a low, rough laugh that vibrated against her cheek. “Then let sense be damned,” he said.
Without warning, he bent and swept her off her feet, cradling her against his chest. “If ye’ll nae walk beside me, then I’ll carry ye, lass, all the way to the castle.” His eyes burned with fierce devotion as he strode forward.
“Bradley, put me down!” she cried, though the protest lacked strength. Her arms looped around his neck despite herself, holding on as the world spun around them. “Ye’ll shame us if anyone sees.” Yet her heart beat wildly, her body thrilling at his strength.
“Let them see,” Bradley muttered, his voice thick with desire.
“Let the whole clan ken that their laird’s wife has stolen his very soul.
Let them whisper, let them talk, I daenae care.
For I’d carry ye to the ends of the earth if it meant ye were in me arms.” His words rang with unshakable certainty.
Laura buried her face against his shoulder, half-hiding from the truth of what she felt.
Shame battled against the heat pooling in her chest, but she could not deny the way her body softened in his hold.
She should resist him, yet she longed only to cling tighter.
The castle drew nearer, its looming walls a witness to the storm raging in her heart.
Bradley strode through the courtyard with an unbroken stride, his gaze fixed ahead.
He paid no mind to the few startled looks cast their way, his focus wholly on the woman in his arms. Every step he took was filled with possession, as though each stride marked her as his.
And Laura, though her cheeks burned, could not bring herself to demand release.
By the time the great doors of the castle opened to swallow them, Laura’s heart was no longer her own. She felt trapped, torn between duty and the reckless longing he ignited within her.
Yet as he carried her across the threshold, one truth pressed heavily on her soul—Laird McCormack had claimed more than her body. He had claimed her spirit, and she feared she would never take it back.
She didn’t protest when he carried her through the heavy door of their bedchamber, the sound of it closing behind them echoing through the stone walls.
Laura’s heart pounded in her chest, her breath uneven as she clutched at his shoulders, the heat of his body searing through her.
He lowered her onto the bed with care, though his gaze burned with anything but gentleness.
The air felt thick with the urgency that had followed them from the shore to this room.
Laura’s lips parted as she looked up at him, her chest rising and falling in quick succession. Bradley stood over her, his hand dragging slowly across the curve of her cheek before sliding down to her throat, his thumb brushing the frantic pulse there.
“Ye ken what ye do to me, lass,” he murmured, his voice rough as gravel. His eyes darkened as he added, “Ye drive me mad, and I cannae hold back. I said on our weddin’ night I will nae force ye into anythin’, but ye must give a man a crumb.”
Her body trembled as his words pierced through her, and she lifted her hand to touch his wrist where it rested against her throat.
“Bradley… ye speak of madness, but do ye nae see what ye do to me?” she whispered, shame and yearning tangled in her tone. She felt her own skin flush with the truth she dared to speak.
“I’m undone beneath yer gaze, and I scarce can breathe. Though I am nae ready to lie with ye that way. What can be done?”
“There are other ways that I can please ye, lass, than to consummate our bond, just let me show ye,” he said.
With a low growl, he bent down and pressed his mouth to hers, the kiss fierce, demanding, leaving no doubt of his hunger.
Laura gasped against him, her hands curling into his tunic as her body arched toward him.
His tongue sought hers with desperation, the heat of him overwhelming as he consumed her.
She felt herself melt beneath his weight, yet burn at the same time. His hand slid over her shoulder, down the line of her arm, until he clasped her hand and pinned it above her head against the blankets.
“Ye’ll nae run from this, lass,” he breathed against her lips, his breath hot. “Ye’re mine, and I’ll have ye ken it with every touch.”
Laura shuddered, her legs tangling with his as fire coursed through her veins.
Her free hand explored him in turn, sliding across the hard muscles of his chest, feeling the rapid beat of his heart beneath his skin.
“Ye’re a brute, Laird McCormack,” she said, though her voice was broken by a tremor of want. Her fingertips dragged lower, brushing the ridges of his stomach as she felt his body tense at her touch. “And yet I crave ye.”
He drew back enough to look at her, his mouth swollen from their kiss, his breath unsteady.
“Say it again,” he demanded, his eyes blazing into hers.
Laura swallowed, her body quaking, but she did as he asked. “I crave ye.”
With a growl of satisfaction, he lowered his mouth to her throat, his lips and teeth grazing her skin as if he meant to claim her there.
She cried out softly, her hands clinging to him as every nerve in her body seemed to awaken under his mouth. His hand moved across her collarbone, tracing down to the swell of her breast, and she gasped as he cupped her firmly.
“Bradley…”
His thumb brushed across her peak, and her whole body arched into him, a sound escaping her lips that she could not suppress. He pulled her collar down and exposed that breast.
“Sweet saints,” he whispered harshly against her ear. “Ye are a beauty. The way ye answer me, ye’ll drive me to ruin.” He pressed kisses on her breasts, each touch setting her aflame.
Laura’s hands gripped his hair as she pulled him closer, desperate to feel him against her.
“Then ruin me as well,” she pleaded, her voice ragged with need.
His gaze snapped back to hers, wild and feral, as if her words had shattered the last of his restraint. “Ye daenae ken what ye ask, lass.”
“I do,” she insisted, her voice steadier now, though her body trembled with anticipation.
She dragged her fingers down the line of his jaw, then across the taut muscles of his back. “And I’ll nae turn away from it. Show me this way of pleasin’ me without consummation.”
Bradley groaned low, his forehead pressing against hers as though warring with himself, then he kissed her again, deeper than before.
His hand roamed with urgency, slipping down her waist, tracing the curve of her hip, squeezing firmly as though he would anchor her to the bed. He pushed her skirts up high and quickly removed her underthings. A frenzy of untying ribbons and laces.
Laura felt his hands on her inner thigh. She gasped. A sharp breath of air as he removed the last of her clothing that exposed her silky black curls between her legs to him.
“Mm, ye are enough to drive me into madness. Look at ye,” he said.
“Do I… do I nae please ye?” Laura felt embarrassed in that moment as she did not know how she was supposed to look down there and she wanted to please him.
“Oh, ye please me greatly, lass. In fact, ye are good enough to eat,” he said with a smirk.
Then, he placed his head between her thighs. Laura felt the pressure on her soft mound.
She gasped at the possessiveness, her blood rushing like fire in her veins. “Bradley, ye’re… ye’re stealin’ all the breath from me.”
He lifted his head just enough to smirk darkly. “Good. I’ll take every breath ye’ve got.”
His kisses moved onto her sweet center. She had never known such a feeling as his tongue moved up and down and pulsed against her rosebud. Laura grabbed at the sheets, balling them in her fists. She didn’t know what was taking over her.
“Ye taste of heaven itself, lass.” He groaned.
Laura felt a throbbing low in her belly. She had the urge to squeeze her thighs together, but instead her body betrayed her and she opened them wider.
She didn’t know that a man could have such a skill to make her body feel so much at once. Her bottom wiggled into the bed as she felt like she had to flee him, but also enjoy it at the same time.
He shifted, pressing his tongue against her. Her body ached, every part of her aware of him, alive beneath his touch.
“Saints help me,” she whispered, her eyes closing as she surrendered to the sensations.
Then, with an explosion of ecstasy, she released. She moaned loudly and could not stop it even if she had wanted to. Her limbs trembled. A faint shudder rippled through her.
“Ye make me feel as if I’m burnin’ alive,” she whispered so quietly she wasn’t sure if he heard.
She lay there as Bradley licked her honey juices, making her feel desirable and shameful at once. She tried to push away the thought that she was being unclean, as this was no behavior a nun would do. Though she knew that she was a wife now, the sanctity still lingered within her.
“What has happened to me? I have given in to the wild,” she said.
She felt him move up her body, slowly and with care. Bradley’s hand cupped her face, gentler now but no less intense, his thumb stroking her cheek.
“It is nae wild, lass. It is a husband and wife doing as they should,” he said hoarsely, his voice breaking with the weight of his desire.
He kissed her again, softer this time, though it held the same raw urgency beneath the surface.
Laura clung to him, her heart racing as if it would burst from her chest.
“And what of ye? How do I please ye in the same manner?” she asked.
“Och, lass, ye cannae do such a thing. If ye do what I did to ye, I willnae be able to stop meself from claimin’ ye completely. To ken that I have satisfied ye will do for now,” he said.
“It will?” she asked, confused. For she had heard of men’s appetites from other women, and it had made her believe that their needs were more important than a woman’s, yet this man was proving otherwise.
“Aye,” he said.
The world outside ceased to exist, nothing but the two of them bound together in the quiet storm of the chamber.
His touch branded her, her body alive beneath every caress, her soul tangled with his in a fire that could not be extinguished.
Laura knew shame would come later, but in that moment, only desire mattered.
The Laird has claimed me, and I didnae resist it.