Epilogue
The door opened without so much as a knock, and Rhea whipped her head so fast to look behind her that she feared for her comfort in the next several days.
Instead of seeing an attacker, though, she saw none other than Callum, bent over, desperately trying to catch his breath as if he had run to her chambers, a thin sheen of sweat covering his forehead.
His dark hair was pushed back, and his lips were parted as he tried to draw breath, his hand clutching the doorhandle like a lifeline.
Rhea hadn’t seen him in days. He had disappeared from everything—the breakfasts, the dinners, the courtyard. He had been nowhere to be found.
Then again, she rarely left her room if she didn’t have a task to complete.
She only went out to check in on the injured and their families, to ensure that they lacked nothing, and to have breakfast and dinner with the clansmen who expected her presence at the table.
Her presence, but not Callum’s. No one expected him to be there, and everyone thought he had more important things to do.
Everyone but her.
She knew the real reason behind his absence, and though she had told no one about it, the knowledge weighed heavily on her shoulders.
She was the reason. She was the one Callum had been avoiding, and no matter how much anyone tried to deny it, she knew it to be the truth.
Only now, he was standing before her like a madman, staring at her with wild eyes as he gulped in the air.
She didn’t speak. She didn’t know what to say to him, though her heart was beating fast in her chest, threatening to burst from her ribs.
There had been no alarm, no reason for her to think that something terrible had happened or that Callum had come there to warn her about something. And yet by the looks of him, she could only guess that something was terribly wrong.
When he finally caught his breath, Callum gently closed the door behind him and took a few steps into the room, but stopped far before he could reach her.
They stared at each other across the room in silence, Rhea’s heartbeat climbing to her throat. From the looks of it, he was miserable—his shoulders slumped, his expression pained, a grimace twisting his features.
Rhea didn’t know what to make of it. But she had come to know that it was better to let him speak on his own. He didn’t speak often, but when he did, he revealed more of himself than she could ever drag out of him.
“It has come to me attention,” he began, his voice low and careful, “that I may have been a fool.”
Rhea frowned, her brows knitting together. “What am I to do with this information?”
“What I mean is…” Callum trailed off.
He seemed to be tortured by his own words, his own thoughts, the mere prospect of speaking to her. It took him a long time to speak again, and she watched him, patiently waiting for whatever he was trying to say to her.
“I ken that I have hurt ye, Rhea. I ken that I have hurt ye very much and all. I can do for it is apologize. I… I’ve truly been a fool.”
A bitter laugh escaped Rhea’s lips before she could stop it. “I daenae ken what this is, Callum… but I do ken it isnae an apology.”
Callum froze, and for a moment, she thought that he would turn around and march right out of her room, never to speak to her again. That was how angry he looked, though she didn’t think her words warranted this kind of reaction.
But then his features softened again, warmth returning to his eyes. “Ye’re right,” he relented. “This isnae an apology at all.”
Rhea swallowed thickly as he approached her. He stood right before her and reached for her hands, taking them in his own and holding them lightly. His gray eyes were fixed on her, and just looking into them made her want to forgive everything he had done right then and there.
But she would not allow herself to be so weak.
“Forgive me, Rhea,” he said, and he sounded so genuine, so earnest that she almost caved in immediately.
“Please, forgive me. I ken that I have pushed ye away time and again. I ken that I’ve avoided ye, hurt ye, and done everythin’ in me power to make ye hate me.
But please… please, if ye still have any love for me in yer heart, ye would make me the happiest man in the world if ye gave me another chance. ”
Rhea had half a mind to accept his apology, but no more than that. He had hurt her, that was true. He had hurt her more than she thought a man could, and she didn’t want to fall into another trap, to trust him only to have her heart broken again.
But this wasn’t the same Callum who had avoided her for so long, who had grunted in response to anything she said, who had dismissed her time and again. She could see it in him. She could see the change, and she knew that he was telling the truth.
“I love ye,” he rasped, bringing her hand to his lips and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “I love ye, Rhea, and I promise ye, I willnae be a fool anymore.”
Tears stung Rhea’s eyes as she looked at him. She nodded a few times, a sob tearing from her throat, before she flung herself into his arms and kissed him.
It was a gentle, careless kiss. Their mouths collided at first and then softened, their lips moving against each other gently, with all the love they held and had not yet allowed themselves to share.
Callum’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her flush against him, and for the first time in her life, she felt whole.
“I love ye, Callum,” she whispered against his lips, feeling him smile.
When they broke apart, she returned his smile, a hint of mischief in her eyes.
“It’s been over a month,” she said.
Callum let out a low chuckle. “Indeed, it has. What shall we do about that?”
“I believe ye promised me something,” she reminded him.
“I believe that ye were the one who made the promise,” he said. “Ye said that after a month, ye would be mine.”
“I’ve always been yers.”
They gazed into each other’s eyes for a few moments.
Rhea could lose herself in his gaze now that it was so open, revealing his every thought and feeling. He had always been a closed book to her, but not anymore. Now he let himself shine through instead of trying to hide from her, finding no more fear in his feelings.
They kissed again, and she used his grip on her to drag him into her bedroom and toward her bed. Her knees hit the mattress, and she fell back onto the covers, pulling him along with her.
Callum laughed against her lips, never once breaking the kiss. She could feel his heartbeat through their clothes, the steady rhythm like a drum. It grounded her, keeping her in the moment, no matter how much her mind wanted to dredge up all her worries.
“Make me yers, Callum,” Rhea whispered. “Please… I’ve waited for so long.”
Callum nodded earnestly, his hands roving over her shoulders, her arms, her hips, then back up to her breasts as he began to undress her.
She arched into his touch. She had missed it so much, and she had thought that she would never feel it again.
Now, every touch of his fingers was another flame, setting her alight.
Soon, her clothes were on a pile on the floor, and so were his. He did not tease her, and she was grateful for it. They had waited too long to feel each other, and their hands were urgent in their grip, desperately clutching at each other as if they both feared the other would drift away.
Callum kissed her lips, her neck, her collarbone, his lips soft and dry against her skin. When they found the swell of her breasts, she gasped, her lips parting in a moan.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, and her hand slid into his hair, her fingers carding through the dark strands as he drew her nipple into his mouth and sucked on it.
She could hardly believe that the moment had finally come for the two of them to consummate their marriage.
A part of her felt like this marriage was brand new, like it had only just begun when Callum had returned from the war.
But at the same time, their connection felt so old, as if she had always known that she would be his.
Her core pulsed with anticipation. Molten heat coursed through her veins. The slide of his skin against hers was unlike anything she had ever experienced before, so intimate and so gentle that it threatened to drive her mad with desire.
They had a different rhythm now. Every other encounter they had had not been rushed, not exactly, but filled with eager passion. Now, though still eager, they took the time to explore each other, to run their hands over skin, to map each other’s bodies.
Rhea wanted to learn every inch of him. She wanted to know his body as well as she knew her own, to claim him, to keep a part of him always within her.
When he reached between her legs, his fingers teasing her folds, he found her already wet and wanting. She couldn’t hold back her moans as he teased her again and again, pressing against her nub and demanding her pleasure.
“Please,” she said, breathless. “I’ve waited long enough, Callum. Take me. Make me yers.”
She didn’t have to ask again. With a groan, Callum slowly slid inside her, only going as far as he thought she could handle. The sensation was odd, foreign, but no less pleasurable, and she surrendered to it immediately.
She wanted more. She wanted everything he could give her, and she was determined to have it. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she urged him to go deeper until he was buried inside her to the hilt.
Above her, Callum groaned as he began to thrust gently, carefully.
“Ye’ll tell me if ye wish to stop.” It was not a question, but a command.
“Daenae stop,” she gasped.
She never wanted him to stop. She never wanted this to end. She had never thought that she could feel so connected to him, as if they were truly one, their bodies merging until they didn’t know where she ended and he began.
Sweat pooled between their bodies, the slick slide of their skin more erotic than Rhea could have thought. Every thrust, every moan and gasp from Callum’s lips made her shiver, pressure building deep in her core.
Their coupling was more intense than their previous encounters, and though she had experienced similar pleasure from his hands and his clever tongue, nothing compared to this.
“Ye have nay idea what ye do to me,” Callum panted, bracing himself on his forearms so he could look down at her. His hand cradled the top of her head, and the tenderness of the gesture made her heart swell with such love that she thought it would burst. “Ye’re the bonniest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Callum!” she cried out at a particularly hard thrust, pleasure spearing through her.
It was as if he could hardly restrain himself, as if he wanted nothing more than to lose control and claim her in a wild, animalistic way. And yet he kept his thrusts slow, all while drinking in the sight of her beneath him.
“I want to see ye fall apart for me,” he said. “Come now. Show me how good it feels.”
Rhea didn’t need much more coaxing. A few more thrusts and she climaxed, wave after wave of pleasure washing over her. Warmth spread through her entire body, all the way down to her toes, and she trembled, her breath coming in short gasps.
Callum kept thrusting deeply into her, working her through it, whispering sweet nothings into her ear. She clung to him, her arms and legs wrapped tightly around him, her eyes squeezed shut.
Eventually, he began chasing his peak, thrusting into her harder and faster until she reached a second climax, this one softer, slower, like an afterthought. Her inner walls clamped down on him, triggering his release, and he spilled deep inside her with her name on his lips.
Afterwards, he rolled onto his back and pulled her with him. She curled around him as they lay there, trying to catch their breath.
The room was quiet. The air was warm. Callum’s fingers traced idle shapes on her skin, from her ribs to her thigh, caressing her softly.
Everything they had been through seemed so distant now, and yet Rhea knew it would still haunt them for a long time. But there, in Callum’s arms, in the quiet of the room, she couldn’t bring herself to worry about any of it.
All she could do was imagine the future—a future with Callum by her side, with those they loved; with children, many of them, brightening the castle with their laughter.
There could be a hundred wars, a hundred enemies, but he would always return to me.
The End?