Chapter 31 #2
We wrangled our daughters into Gordain’s car, and I thanked my brother.
“Come fetch her tomorrow afternoon. Late is fine. I’m debating taking them up in the heli for a wee trip.”
I stared at him, aghast. My brother was a highly competent helicopter pilot, but my fear of flying had never left me.
“Or not.” He held up his hands. “I’ll wait until she’s older and can complain at ye until ye let her.”
Grumbling at my brother’s dopey grin, I kissed my daughter and watched her be driven away. Then, I jumped to my next task.
I had a house to get prepped and a lass to anticipate.
An hour later, the loch house was tidy and clean. Cait’s toys were in the toybox, rather than strewn all over the rug where she liked to keep them, and I’d set up candles all around the downstairs and the bedroom.
Scarlet wouldn’t be home for another two hours at least, so I hopped into the shower, ready to get on with stage two.
Excitement gripped me. Under the hot water, I was also getting hard imagining the night ahead.
“Ally?” Scarlet’s voice called from downstairs. “Cait?”
Fuck!
A laugh burst out of me. “Bathroom. You’re early!”
A few beats later, she appeared at the door. Then her eyes rounded as she took me in, her gaze travelling down my body. “Oh, hello. You’ve been having fun.”
“Getting in?” I asked.
Scarlet blinked. Then she shed her blazer and started on the buttons of her shirt. “Where’s Cait?”
“With Gordain.”
“For how long?” Her shirt flew, and her skirt hit the bathroom floor. She kicked the door closed.
“All night.”
Scarlet’s jaw dropped. Then she was naked, underwear discarded, and opening the shower’s glass door. “Did I ever tell you how smart you are?”
Then words were impossible, our kiss unstoppable. She slammed her mouth to mine, a powerful claiming charged by missing me. My blood ignited, and I grabbed her in a hard embrace then hoisted her slippery body into my arms.
It was all too easy to have her lining up directly with my dick.
When she worked away, which was far, far too often, our reunions went like this.
After she’d played with Cait, when our happy daughter slept, we’d almost fight each other with our need to get close.
We’d claw and tear at clothes, then sink into each other, breathless and fighting to show the other what we’d missed.
Now was no different.
My rock-hard dick throbbed, settling into her heat. Then, so slowly, I pushed inside, bare and barely holding it together. Scarlet keened, her mouth open against my throat. “God, I missed you.”
I gave her no more space for words, pinning her in place as she took my complete length. Then I rolled my hips, drawing out a couple of inches before surging home.
The race was on.
I fucked her, rocketing to get her off, pleasure blinding me. Scarlet reached between us and stroked her clit, my hands too busy with the task of holding us up to save her the job. Nothing got me harder than when she surrendered completely to me, taking everything I had.
We fit together so perfectly.
My pace increased, my rhythm steady, and my smile bloomed. I couldn’t help it.
Then Scar moaned. Around me, she tightened.
“Almost there,” I managed, keeping up my work, loving the task. “I’ve got ye. Come, lass. Come for me.”
She broke, yelling the place down.
Usually, we had to be quiet. Home alone, we could be as loud as we liked.
“Yes!” I howled, keeping up my strokes. I could go all afternoon. All evening, too.
“I love you,” Scarlet mumbled.
“Oh fuck!” I buried my face in her shoulder and came, too, groaning with the pleasure of it, her words my trigger. I stilled, gripping her arse and coming in a flood.
She bound me in her arms and hugged on while I saw out my aftershocks.
Done in, I sank to the floor of the shower.
Then I opened one eye. Scarlet was grinning at me.
“Glad I came home early?”
“Aye. Surprise me like that any time.”
She beamed now. “I’ve had the best day. I’ve got news!” Then she tilted her head. “There are unlit candles over every surface downstairs. Did I spoil a plan of yours?”
“Spoil? Naw, never. Interrupt? Aye, a wee bit. But it’s nae bother. Come on, let’s get cleaned up and get dry. Then we can share our stories.”
We finished our shower and donned the soft dressing gowns Callum and Mathilda had bought us for Christmas. Cait had a matching one, too, except hers had wee bear ears on a fluffy hood.
I led Scarlet downstairs and sat her on the couch, then I pulled the curtains and set about lighting the candles around the room. “It was meant to be dark as I didnae expect ye for hours, so just pretend.”
When I glanced back, she’d laid out on her side, her head on her hands. “I’m so, so lucky,” she said.
“No, that’s me. And that’s what I’m leading up to tell ye.” I reached the last candle, the room nicely aglow now, and joined my lass.
But instead of taking the couch, I sank to one knee in front of her. Then I pulled the small box from my pocket that I’d sneaked in there when we were upstairs.
Scarlet gasped and sat up.
“Scarlet Storm, I have loved ye since the first moment I laid eyes on ye, and I’m only glad that ye ever looked my way at all. I love ye endlessly. I need forever with ye so I have time to prove it.”
“Oh, Ally.” She clutched her hands to her mouth, eyes bright with tears.
But this wasn’t a typical proposal. I had two roles to offer, one for Cait, too.
We’d talked about this—her becoming a legal parent to Cait.
My full custody case had been wrapped up surprisingly quickly after she’d come to live with us permanently, but then we’d been hampered every time Scarlet needed to take her to the doctors, or anywhere that needed a parent’s sign-off.
Practicalities aside, I knew she wanted this.
I opened the case, showing her the pretty antique ring I’d found after endless shopping trips with one family member or another. I couldn’t spend a fortune, and I knew she wouldn’t want that, so the jewellery had to be perfect. In a small seaside town’s jewellery shop, I’d struck gold.
Truly. A deep-red ruby on a white-gold setting. It was designed for my lass.
“I want ye for my wife and as a mother to our bairn. Marry me, please?”
“Oh! It’s so beautiful! I mean yes! Ah!” She flew into my arms, knocking us both over.
I hugged her to me, holding her as close as I could.
“You’ll have the wedding of your dreams,” I whispered in her ear. “Everything ye want.”
“I don’t need a big wedding. All I want is you in a kilt, saying ‘I do’. And Cait with a little basket of rose petals. And our families. My dad giving me away. A really awesome dress.” She giggled and kissed me. “Okay, maybe I want a few things. But most of all, I want you to be my husband.”
In a swift move, I rolled us, putting her under me, then I grabbed her hand and spread her fingers. “Which one? This one?”
She laughed all the more, helping me slide the ring in place.
Then our mouths found the other, and our mirth settled.
“You’ve made me so happy,” she said, kissing me softly. “Now I have something to tell you.”
I lifted her in my arms and positioned us back on the couch.
Scarlet took my hand, her blue eyes earnest. “I’m moving my job to Inverness.
And dropping a day a week.” She paused at my gasp then continued, “I’m missing too much.
One day, you’re going to call me and tell me Cait’s taken her first step, and I’ll be two days late to see it.
I want a balance and I want to be a better mom. ”
“You’re perfect. I can’t believe you’re doing that.” My turn to laugh now. “I can’t believe you structured a whole organisation around me and Cait.”
“Don’t you know?” She shook her head. “I’m all for you. You are everything I ever wanted, and I am the luckiest person alive.”
It wasn’t true. That was my claim. I’d been the waster. The brother who never took anything seriously. I didn’t deserve either of them, I was sure. But, oh baby, I’d never look back again.