Chapter 11
His kiss was the only catalyst her body required to bloom and open like a rosebud in the sun.
When Meria felt his mouth brush against her lips, it set her body aflame with desire.
This had nothing to do with the fact he had just told her he found her beautiful: Meria had wanted to touch him with a desperate longing ever since he had removed his plaid and given her the chance to see the awesome masculine strength of his body.
Everything about Mister Callum Kerr’s body was different from her own.
Where he was hard and strong, she was pliant and soft.
The male scent of his skin was able to inflame her senses as she had never experienced before.
She found him intoxicating. It was no wonder that Meria felt her head spin when he held her in his arms and pressed hot kisses on her lips, cheeks, and eyelids because it allowed her to do what she had dreamed of doing for the last two days: run her hands through his tangled hair and push his face closer to her own.
It was not long before she parted her lips so his kiss could deepen and probe her more intimately.
The action only made Meria’s breath grow quicker with excitement when she imagined what his deep kiss might feel like in other places of her body.
Lifting up her chin caused him to lower his mouth to her neck, and when she pressed herself against his hard, muscular chest, Meria felt safe and cherished.
Nothing could harm her when Callum was near.
It might have been the warmth from the fire or the heat rising inside her, but Meria could not wait to rid her body of its coverings.
If the sight of her bare bottom had made him hot for her, she needed to know what the rest of her body could do.
Even better, she wanted to know what he could do to her.
There was no limit, no boundary to what Meria would allow Callum to do to her.
Every time he touched her, the center of her body increased its yearning for him.
Her breath began to come in short gasps; her back arched, and her legs wrapped around his thigh, almost forcing her hips to rock and rotate against the hard muscle.
He pulled away, but her eyes were closed, too intent on the sensation of her mounting excitement to care about his observation.
“Meria,” she heard his deep voice murmur her name, “I am at the end of me self-control, an’ I think ye are too.
Let’s catch our breath awhile before we jump over the edge. ”
Her pale eyebrows drew together, and she bit her lip, which gave her such a sensual and provocative expression that he nearly lost his discipline to hold back.
Then, like a little kitten, she leaned forward and gave his lower lip a wee nip.
“D’ye mean to tell me that I should wait to do this with the sixty-year-auld laird?
Because if ye do, I’ll bite ye harder.” She gave a small growl of disapproval.
He hugged her closer. “I will nae take yer maidenhead, lass. But for the reasons ye have already mentioned, I don’ think we should hold back from takin’ pleasure in one another.”
Meria raised her eyebrows, pushing herself a little bit away from him so she could look deep into his eyes.
“I kent that ye hated MacTavish as much as I have grown to hate his name! All this nonsense about a laird needing to have his name feared is a load of auld codswallop! Tell me the truth, and don’ let a lie come out o’ yer mouth now that we have joined ourselves together in a lovers’ embrace. Is MacTavish a beastly man?”
He was put on the spot by the question, and she felt his heart skip a beat as he resolved to tell her the truth. “Yer faither was careless to bond ye to such a man.”
Meria gave a crow of triumph. “Aye! An’ ye take me ever closer to this monster. Why, Cal? Why?”
He seemed torn. If hesitancy and regret were tangible emotions, Meria would have been able to reach out and touch them right now.
Callum was poised to say something to relieve her anxiety.
Waiting with bated breath, Meria stroked her hand over his chest, wishing the weather were warmer so that they could sprawl over the fur naked, intertwined, pressing their bodies together in such a way to make beads of sweat build up and run down her skin with a tickling sensation.
He groaned, tearing his eyes away from her stare. “When ye grow to love yer husband, Meria, it will nae matter how he rules his land or how others perceive him. All that ye will care about is how wonderful it feels when he puts a bairn in yer belly.”
She was frustrated by his answer, but her desire to have him caress her was far stronger than her disappointment in the way he skirted her question.
“I’m no’ sure I want to get straight to birthin’ right away,” Meria whispered.
“I have only seen nine an’ ten summers. Is there a way to delay the event while still feeling the pleasure? ”
Even with the dark fate of marriage to a mean stranger looming over her head, she could not allow the chance to experience heaven in Callum’s arms to pass her by.
She reached up and kissed that part of his face where the jawline joins the neck.
When his hard skin pricked her lips, Meria shuddered with excitement.
“Would ye like me to show ye how?” he asked her.
She nodded shyly. There were no words to describe how sensational it felt whenever he touched her.
She leaned her forehead against his own and stared into his eyes. For some reason, Meria took as much pleasure from looking at Callum as she did from his touch. The way he looked and how he made her feel was inexplicably linked in her mind.
“I want ye to show me as much as ye want, Cal. We are alone, we are warm an’ safe, an’ we need not show loyalty to anyone other than ourselves.
” She wrapped her legs around his thigh tightly.
“Ye ken what? I love these breeks! They give me legs the freedom to do whatever I please. ’Tis no wonder men enjoy wearing them in winter…
however little they leave to the imagination. ”
Meria felt him react.
“Ye wee hoyden,” Callum murmured, and she felt his mouth move into a lopsided smile, “ye excited me beyond all management of me masculine functions, ye ken? I have nae seen such a delicious female backside as yers in all me life.”
She hesitated. “Have ye been with many women, Cal? It hardly seems fair if ye have because I have not been allowed near a man since I became a woman.”
He shook his head. “Nay, Meria Calvin. Ye will no’ lure me into discussin’ me lack or surfeit of experience. Leave the past be. We have naught to gain by making comparisons.”
Meria had the vague notion that his words had a pearl of hidden wisdom, not because Callum might not want to discuss his previous lovers with her, but because they would find it awkward talking about the prowess of a man who had not yet seen seven and twenty summers, and her future husband, who was so past his prime that he was closer to the grave than he was to the normal age of when someone contemplates marriage.
She gripped his hands and moved them down.
“Callum…maybe I should nae be doin’ this.
I reached the point of nay return so quickly when we kissed before.
Let’s lie next to one another for comfort instead.
If I marry MacTavish as I am bonded to do so, I will rue the day for the rest o’ me life if I spend the many nights stretching in front o’ me comparing him to ye… ”
His lips drew together into a firm line, and immediately she knew she had hit a hard truth with her words.
She was destined to be Lady MacTavish; his life as an itinerant soldier—a roving rogue warrior for hire—was not likely to change.
Their lives were crossing now but would separate and split into two divergent paths in less than a week.
If Callum was to do things to her with his hard, strong body, things that a man past his prime could never even dream of replicating, it would tear Meria apart with hopeless longing and despair for the entire length of her marriage.
This realization—that they were doomed to part sooner rather than later—hung over the two travelers like a sharp sword above their heads.
For all her sulks and worries, it seemed to Meria as if her path lay clear ahead of her.
She could either run and leave her father and this man to face the consequences of their lax guardianship over her, or she must go ever forward to face her future.
She clung to him. “Cal…I’m scared. Something about me fate does nae feel right.
It’s as if we are meant to be together and the consequences be damned.
” A future where he took her maidenhead and they had bairns and lived together forever seemed so clear in Meria’s mind that she felt like a soothsayer, soothing her worries away with a series of brighter tomorrows.
He paused for a beat before returning her hug.
“Lady…sweetheart, let’s no’ make any decisions in the middle of the night, close by a fire on a warm fur with the image of our naked bodies so clearly etched into our minds.
Let us wait and see what counsel the morning brings with it.
Ye’ve had a dreadful scare, nearly been frozen to death by the biting winds, and now we are ready to take adventures with each others’ hearts and lips.
I have suffered the same reaction after battle…
it’s the temporary need to celebrate being alive. ”
That took her mind away from the need to make love as much as anything could. Meria settled back, nestling her head against the crook of his arm. “Tell me about some o’ yer battles, Cal.”
He was reluctant at first but then came to the same conclusion as Meria that warlike talk was the perfect antidote to the urge to make love.
He laid back with her head on his shoulder and told her tales of the sea raiders and pirates who attacked Castle Gray from the coast. He went on to describe the brigands and highwaymen who lurked along the roads to prey on hapless travelers, the bands of scavengers who moved from village to village like a horde of hungry insects, stealing crops and looting barns of their winter harvest. He had faced countless numbers of such men and felt no sympathy for them when his sword cut them down.
Meria, half-asleep, whispered, “I wish we had someone like ye at Calvin Estate, Callum… Faither always tries to negotiate his way out o’ trouble… But I think that sometimes we need to fight for what we believe in…”
This sweet sentiment made him hold her even closer to his chest.