Chapter 19
Emma should have been filled with happiness on her wedding day, but instead, her heart was empty, and she was floating through the ceremony as though she didn’t truly exist at all.
There was a commotion that distracted her.
She turned, and much to her surprise, she saw Trevor rushing through the crowd.
At first, she thought she was dreaming and pinched herself. How could he have known?
It was a mystery that could be settled later.
David had already left her side and was storming toward Trevor.
The Englishman looked bedraggled. His face glistened with sweat, and he was panting.
Emma worried about him when David took a swing, but Trevor ducked and thrust a fist straight back into his face, catching David across the jaw.
The man fell backward, unable to steady himself, for he was unconscious.
Trevor ran forward and clasped Emma’s hand.
“I’m so sorry for leaving you, Emma. Please, you must believe me.
I have been a wretched soul ever since I left.
It’s been the biggest mistake of my life.
I have ridden day and night ever since I learned of your marriage, and I need to tell you the truth…
of how I love you and how I can’t live without you, of how I want to be beside you every day and I want to share my entire life with you. ”
Emma stared at him in shock. It was all so much to take in.
“How did ye know I was tae be married?” she asked.
Trevor glanced at Lyndsay, and Emma followed his gaze. “Ye?” Emma asked.
“I’m sorry for interfering in your life, but I wanted to make sure you had all the information before you made your final choice. I’ve seen how happy you can be. I would listen to what he says if I were you,” Lyndsay encouraged.
Emma turned back to Trevor. The pull on her heart was strong, but she had been wounded before, and it was a lot to ask to forget what had happened.
“Trevor, ye left…” she said, and all of her heartbreak was captured within those brief words.
“I did, and it was the worst thing I have ever done. I will never leave you again. I thought that…well, it doesn’t matter what I thought.
I was wrong. I’m here to make up for my mistake if you’ll have me.
I love you, and I don’t care what you want to do in the future or where you want to live, just as long as it’s with me.
Can you still see a future with me?” he asked.
Emma looked into his eyes. She thought her heart could never be repaired, but she could feel it coming together again inside, and all it took was Trevor in her life again.
She still hurt from what he had done, but she was not prideful enough to turn him away because of it, for it would only end up harming her in the long run.
She allowed her love to shine through and her heart to guide her.
“I can,” she said, and she was whisked away on a wondrous kiss. She felt as though she was floating before she heard a man clearing his throat. It was her father.
“Ah, sorry. Yes, I suppose I should make my intentions towards your daughter plain,” Trevor said, turning to Douglas.
“I think I know yer intentions. I just mean that since we hae gathered everyone here, we might as well get a wedding,” Douglas said.
Trevor turned to Emma, and they both nodded to each other.
They took each other’s hands and spoke the sacred vows that had bonded so many other people together over the course of history, imbuing their love with something ethereal and magical in the eyes of gods and men.
Emma’s heart lightened, and instead of going through the motions as she did with David, she felt every word form on her tongue and enjoyed every moment that presented itself to her.
Her wedding had been something to be feared, but now it was something to be enjoyed all because the love of her life had returned to her. She did not know what the future held, but she knew it would be happy because she would be with him.
The day had been a long one. The village had celebrated, although David and his friends had been surly and retreated to a dark place.
Emma cared not for them. When night fell, she and Trevor went into the barn, where Trevor had slept before.
The stars twinkled overhead and the moon was full and sensual.
Emma’s skin tingled at the thought of being alone with him.
They sank into their makeshift bed of straw and fell into each other, losing themselves in warm kisses and loving caresses.
His arms fell around her body, gently stroking her waist, while her feminine curves pressed against the hard, masculine angles of his muscles.
Their blood sang with passion, and the air sizzled with the heat from their bodies.
The kiss broke apart with a soft tremor of a moan. Trevor cupped Emma’s head in his hands and gazed at her as though she was the most beautiful thing in all the world.
“I never thought I would meet anyone like you,” he said in a low whisper.
“I could say the same.”
“I’m so sorry for leaving you. I wish I knew how to make it up to you.”
“I suppose ye hae all yer life tae try,” she said with a wicked smile, and this prospect seemed agreeable to him since he smiled as well. He held her close and pressed his forehead against hers.
“I want you to know that I’ll follow you anywhere you’d like to go. If you want to stay here, then I will abandon my life in London to join you. I only want to be with you. You are the most important thing in my life,” he said.
Emma was touched by his words. “Actually, I was hoping that I might join ye back tae London. I dinnae know if I want tae spend my entire life in England, but I would like tae learn more about the land of my ancestors and tae see what it’s like.
Besides, it would be selfish of me tae take ye away from yer job,” Emma said.
Trevor kissed her again, and this time, she could feel all the forceful intent behind it.
His hands moved of their own accord around her young, supple body, pulling aside the lace that held her dress together.
She shrugged it off, exposing her rounded shoulders and the generous curves of her breasts.
He let out a long exhalation at the sight of her body, and he looked as though he was in a dream.
He shifted his position to pull away the dress completely.
His hands ran down the middle of her body, teasing her nipples.
Shivers passed through her, and a haze fell around her eyes as she fell into a kiss with him again, peeling away his shirt, for she wanted things to be even between them.
She ran her hands along his bare chest, feeling the muscles and the scars.
“I know I’m probably not the kind of man you imagined yourself marrying, but—” he began.
She interrupted him by placing a finger upon his lips.
“Ye are better than any man I hae ever imagined because ye are real,” she said. She took his hand and kissed his palm and then pressed herself as close as possible to his body, almost wishing that she could melt into him.
One of his powerful hands cupped the back of her head, and he kissed her.
The other hand crept down her body. He enjoyed her breasts for a while and then delved deeper, causing a sensation of pleasure to tremble in the core of her body.
When he touched her most intimate area, she gasped and her entire body was seized by a hot, yearning pleasure that had lain dormant inside her for so long.
Her eyes fluttered shut, and as his fingers explored and danced and curled, ribbons of pleasure swirled out of her and through her, as though she was cocooned in this glorious and incredible light.
As she felt the scars upon his body, she ignored them, knowing there was plenty of time for her to learn the truth about his past. For now, she only wanted to enjoy him—all of him—as her hands fell down to the battering ram that protruded from his body.
Her throat tightened and her heart skipped a beat when she was exposed to the full manliness of him.
Her skin was flushed, and she rolled back, falling to the warmth of the straw as his fingers slid inside her, reaching her innermost area, causing havoc within her mind and her soul.
Emma’s head lolled from side to side as the pleasure crashed through her.
It sounded like a sweet song at first, as though a summer’s breeze whistled through her body.
Soon enough, the wind became tumultuous, and it was a hurricane careening through her, sweeping through her in this intense cascade of wild emotion.
She was quite certain she had never been as alive as she was in this moment, and it was all because of him.
Every beat of her heart was thunder. Every touch of him caused a myriad of sensations to run rampant within her, as though some animalistic force was taking over.
His breath was hot, and her kisses were ardent, and the entire world was a blur, as though it had spun and spun and she lost sense of all direction.
She shuddered; it felt as though honey had been poured throughout her body, leaving her sticky and warm and sweet.
The whispers of a moan were still on her lips as her body continued to thrum as Trevor passed over her like a shadow.
His arms cradled her, and his lips embraced her.
The heat of his body made sweat prickle on her skin, and she was cocooned in an inferno of passion.
Pain blurred with pleasure as he plunged himself inside her.
It quickly gave way to exquisite delight that danced under her skin.
Deep, hot breath washed over her as he moved his powerful body, every muscle taut and every part of his masculine strength focused on that one area of him, that one part that was inside her.
She could feel it throbbing and swollen, pulsing inside her, taking her virtue and her innocence, tearing it apart and leaving something behind that was even more beautiful and even more precious.
Emma’s toes curled and her back arched under the weight of him.
She clung to him, digging her nails into his back as she lost herself to the rhythm of the night, surrendering herself to the motion of his lust. His strength was unmatched and his passion knew no bounds.
Their hands clasped together and she felt his fingers tighten around hers as she shuddered again, trembling as his body tensed.
The ecstasy built up in him to the point where she could feel all the tension gathered.
All that was left was to release it; it came in a thundering explosion that left her reeling, and she drowned in the bliss of everything he had given her.
They lay in the barn in silence for a while afterward.
Emma was dazed, still coming to terms with the power of his love.
Through the roof of the barn, she could see the stars twinkling, and it was as though the future was waiting for her.
All she had to do was reach up and take it.
A smile played upon her lips as she nestled into him, almost surprised that the straw hadn’t caught fire based on the heat of their bodies.
She had always been searching for a place where she belonged, only to realize that it wasn’t a place at all.
It was a person, and now she had found him.