Chapter 37
Padraig peered over the edge of the cliff at something dark floating in the water. He strained to see before it sank beneath the water. A few seconds later, it surfaced once again, closer to the shore. “By God, it’s Cairren!”
Padraig eased his way along the shale path as Cairren’s face came into focus.
He knew when she spotted him because she kept her head above the surface despite the waves crashing into her.
As she drew closer, he saw her mouth move, but the wind and waves drowned out the sound.
He continued down the path with Lachlan, Henry, and Peter on his heels.
When he reached the end of the trail before it disappeared under the water, he lay on his belly, waiting for Cairren to be close enough to lift her out of the water.
She bobbed nearer until he heard her voice.
Muffled, it was still the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.
“Padraig!” Cairren called. She kicked and used her arms under water to pull her along as she strained to keep her head above water.
She’d considered rolling onto her back, but she wanted to see where she was going, not where she’d been.
She wasn’t interested in cracking her head into the rocks.
When she was where she thought the beach began, she tried to lower her legs and brush her feet against the ground.
It was deeper than she expected, and her head dipped below the surface.
She came up to the sound of Padraig’s panicked voice.
“Cairren!” Padraig screamed frantically. “Cairren!”
“I’m here! I thought it might be shallow enough to stand,” Cairren called back, but Padraig shook his head. “It won’t be. The tide makes it too deep. You’ll have to reach up to me. You might need to climb up the rocks until we can grab each other’s hand.”
“I can’t.” Cairren choked on a mouthful of water as she raised her hands in the air. “I can barely grip aught, let alone climb.”
Padraig couldn’t believe his eyes. His tiny wife had swum out of the cave and around the protruding cliff and rocks with her hands bound.
He’d never been prouder than he was as he watched her continue to swim closer.
He stood and pulled off his boots. He handed his sword to Lachlan before stripping off his plaid.
“She’ll need it more than me.” Turning, he yelled out, “I’m coming down to get you, Cairren. I’ll get you out.”
“Nay! The surf is too rough, and I think there are rocks down here. You can’t jump.”
“Then I’ll ease my way in, but I’m coming to get you, Ren.”
Cairren smiled despite being half-frozen when she heard his pet name for her.
Somehow it made things just a wee bit better.
She drew as close to the rocks as she could and treaded water as Padraig eased his way into the surf before dropping the last couple of feet.
He swam to her and pulled her into his arms.
“I’m going to kiss you breathless as soon as I get you on shore, Ren,” Padraig pledged.
“Aught if it will get me warm,” Cairren replied as her teeth chattered. With Padraig near her and rescue close by, she noticed the full force of the bitter cold.
“We’ll build a fire and get you warm. I promise. Climb onto my back and loop your arms over my head.”
Cairren followed his directions but giggled as his hands touched her bare calves then slid up her leg. “That tickles. But Padraig, I’m indecent. I cut my skirts short, so they wouldn’t suck me under. My legs are bare from knee down, and I have no shoes.”
“I wouldn’t care if you were naked if it means you’re safe. I’ll get you covered in my plaid sharpish.”
“Bah! I’d care if I was naked!”
Padraig marveled at Cairren, her sense of humor still plucky despite her condition. He looked up to the rocks as he reached them. “Get a fire going!”
“Padraig, you won’t be able to scale that with me on your back.” The cliff looked far higher above the water than it had at a distance. Even where Lachlan and the others stood waiting seemed too far.
“You’re my Ren. Just like the wee songbird.
You’re naught more than a feather on my back.
Hold on, little one.” Padraig found his first finger holds, his feet feeling for notches beneath the surface.
When he was certain he could make his first move, he pushed with his legs, reaching for the next finger hold.
He repeated the motion as Cairren clung to him.
He knew she squeezed her eyes shut and tucked her head to not have to look. “We’re almost there, little one.”
They emerged from the water, and Cairren wanted to cry with relief. But when Padraig didn’t move, she opened her eyes. She looked around and then over Padraig’s head. She realized the problem immediately. There was nowhere within reach that Padraig’s fingers could grip.
“Hold my feet,” Lachlan instructed Peter and Henry as he laid on his belly. He hung Padraig’s plaid down the rock face. “Grab on, we’ll pull you up.”
Padraig grasped as high on the plaid as he could, twisting it around his wrist before grasping with the other hand.
When Lachlan began pulling hand over hand, Padraig assisted the efforts by walking up the rocks.
Cairren’s legs were locked around Padraig’s trim waist, her feet clasped together at the ankle.
She did all that she could not to pull Padraig backwards.
When they were within reach, Henry and Peter helped pull Cairren onto the path before tugging Padraig up.
“You’d do well to eat fewer meat pies,” Peter teased, but Padraig wasn’t listening.
He’d already yanked his plaid from Lachlan and wrapped it around Cairren.
Their mouths crashed together as relief and need swirled together, culminating in a searing kiss that left them breathless and clinging to one another.
Padraig lifted Cairren into his arms and carried her to the fire the other men had already started.
Padraig was relieved to see that the men had already hunted rabbits and were preparing them for the spit.
“Get the spare plaids from my pack,” Padraig instructed Henry.
Padraig looked down at Cairren’s blue lips and the blue veins that showed in her eyelids.
He needed to get her warm. When Henry handed him the two extra plaids, he carried Cairren among the horses and set her down.
He spotted a knife in a nearby saddlebag and used it to cut the ties from Cairren’s wrists, upset by the rope burns on her skin.
He whispered, trying to save her some embarrassment.
“You need to take what’s left of your gown off, or you’ll freeze to death. I need to get you warm.”
“I need help. My fingers don’t want to do aught.
” She turned her back to him, and he was tempted to slice through the laces, but he wasn’t sure if she would have to don the remnants of her gown again.
He tugged them free and helped her ease the gown and her chemise off before he whipped off his leine.
He swung two plaids around them and pulled her against his body.
“How’re you warm? How’s that even possible?” Cairren’s teeth chattered.
“I’m touching you. You heat my blood, little one.” Padraig kissed her again, his cock insistently pressing against their bellies. “What I wouldn’t give to be alone with you, Ren. I would worship every inch of you.”
“Just hold me for right now. I was so scared.”
“I’m sure you were, little one, but I have never been so proud of anyone. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.”
“Hardly. I’m not the one who’s ridden into battle.”
“But you have,” Padraig insisted. “Each time you stepped out of your chamber, our chamber, you were prepared to go into battle. I can’t imagine how you got out of the cave, but you did.
You never cease to amaze me,” Padraig murmured the last sentence against her lips before they once more fused their mouths together.
Holding the plaid fisted in one hand, Padraig used the other to explore Cairren’s body.
Her hands roamed over his, leaving trails of fire wherever they touched.
“They know I’m trying to get you warm, but can you stay quiet? ”
Cairren nodded as she strained on her toes to reach Padraig’s mouth.
He lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around him once more.
He slid into her sheath, and he struggled not to groan at how right it felt to bury himself inside his wife.
His arm wrapped around her waist kept her pinned against his body as they moved together.
When their pace didn’t satisfy either of them, he pulled the plaids so Cairren could grasp where the ends met.
With both hands free, he grabbed her bottom and rocked into her.
She laid her head on his shoulder, kissing his neck as he thrust over and over.
When her release swept through her, she clenched her eyes and her jaw to keep from crying out.
Padraig surged into her twice more before he stilled.
They held one another, Cairren wrapped around him like a bear on a tree trunk.
She never wanted to let him go, yet she knew she couldn’t stay with him.
Coupling only reminded her that it wasn’t just her life she risked.
She’d chosen what she thought was the safer option when she agreed to go with Duncan.
She thought she was less likely to die from an arrow wound if she capitulated.
She never imagined Duncan would try to drown her.
She was more convinced than ever that her home could never be Foulis.