The Handfasting (10 page)

A startling
feeling overtook him.  He was no longer falling in love with Emma.  He was
in
love with her.  It had just taken seeing that bastard touch her to make him
realize it.

Her blue eyes
locked with his.  He saw such hope there, such love and expectation. 

Gavin took his
hands and cradled Emma’s beautiful, tear-stained face.  She had been though
such an ordeal.  Thank God that he had been able to get to her in time! 

Using his thumbs,
he brushed away her tears.

 Emma closed her
eyes.  Being so close to Gavin unnerved her.  Did he know how it affected her
when he touched her like this?  Did he know that even his innocent touch
stirred feelings of desire deep within her? 

Emma opened her
eyes and received her answer.  The green eyes that met hers revealed something
that she had not expected to see.  Gavin’s eyes looked at her in a way that she
remembered from before.  He was looking at her tenderly.  He was looking at her
as if he loved her.  Emma could see in his eyes that he wanted her.  She sat up
on his lap and brought her fingers shakily up to his face.  Her index finger
trailed lightly over his jaw line, delighting in the tickling of his familiar
stubble beneath her fingertip.  Emma smiled slightly as her finger traced the
line of Gavin’s mouth.  She was feeling bolder now and she allowed her finger
to slowly trace along his bottom lip, knowing from the hungry look in his eyes
that her touch was arousing him.

Gavin could take
no more.  His hand went behind her head and he brought his lips to hers,
tenderly pressing them against her soft mouth. 

Emma gasped in
surprise and closed her eyes.  The butterflies took flight in her stomach and
the desire that she had for Gavin flared wildly as his lips touched hers.  She
had been waiting so long for this very moment.  Her hands found their way
behind Gavin’s neck and she clung to him greedily.  She opened her mouth and
flicked her tongue experimentally against his.

Gavin growled and
deepened the kiss, arching his mouth boldly over Emma’s.  She tasted so good,
so sweet as he claimed her.  He knew that he should stop, but he couldn’t force
himself to pull away from her.  His tongue pressed against hers, and was
matched with unabashed passion as Emma kissed him with equal fervor.

Gavin regained
control of himself and broke away from Emma’s mouth.  He looked down at her. 
She was so beautiful and his body responded to her kiss fiercely.  Her long
blonde hair was unbound and disheveled from his fingers running through the
silky tendrils. Emma’s lips were ruddy from the assault of his kiss.  He was
shaken from his response to her touch.  This small woman had caused him to lose
all rational thought, all control.  Hell, she was his wife!  She was his wife
and
he loved her.

His heart ached
when he looked at her now.  Her blue eyes held such expectation, such hopeful
anticipation.  Gavin could tell that she was hoping that he had remembered
something.  She was hoping that their kiss had sparked some remnant of a
memory.

He shook his head
slightly and watched as the flicker of hope drained from her face.

“I’m sorry, lass,”
he whispered as he bent down and kissed her forehead.

“I’m not,” Emma
whispered back, smiling deviously.  “I quite enjoyed that.”

Gavin laughed.  He
had been caught off guard by her unexpected sentiment.  “I quite enjoyed it
too,” he confessed, still chuckling.  “I’m just sorry that I doona remember.  I
could tell that ye were hoping that I might.”

“I was,” Emma
admitted.  “I hoped that…”

“Ye hoped that
kissing me would make me remember something,” he said, finishing her thought.

“Yes,” she said,
her face flushing with color as she looked sheepishly down at her hands.

“Nay, I didna
remember,” Gavin said softly.  Her disappointment hurt him. “But there is
something that I need tae tell ye,” he added.  Gavin’s heart thundered in his
chest as he fought to find the correct words to express his feelings.  “I’m
falling in love with ye, Emma,” he said earnestly, his green eyes searching her
face.

Emma smiled and
then bit her lower lip.  Her blue eyes locked with Gavin’s.  Happiness swelled
up inside of her as she turned Gavin’s words over again and again in her mind. 

“I’m falling in
love with you again too,” she admitted, realizing that the man she loved now
was not the same Gavin that she had loved when they were handfasted.  Gavin
Mackinnon had managed to steal her heart all over again.

 “Can we try that
again?  May I kiss ye again?” he asked playfully as he lifted her chin so that
her eyes would meet his.

Emma smiled at
him.  He was smiling her favorite lip-sided grin.  She bit her lower lip and
nodded.  There was nothing that she wanted more than to kiss Gavin.

Gavin felt himself
becoming aroused as he watched the beautiful woman who sat so precariously atop
his lap.  He could tell that she wanted him to kiss her just as much as he
wanted to kiss her.

“I suppose that
wouldn’t hurt,” she whispered boldly.  Her cheeks were still flushed
attractively as her eyes locked with her husband’s.  Gavin’s unexpected profession
of his love bloomed within her, overwhelming her with joy.

Gavin smiled and
brought his hand to her neck, burying his fingers in her silky blonde hair. 
His thumb rested on her neck and brushed absentmindedly over a small heart
shaped birthmark that was positioned just below her ear.  His eyes flashed
towards where his thumb moved back and forth over the sensitive skin of Emma’s
neck.

Recognition
flashed through his mind.  He froze in place, eyes fixed on Emma’s birthmark as
the smile faded from his face.

He remembered.

“Gavin?” Emma
whispered, her voice concerned as she watched the playful expression disappear
from his face.

“I remember,” he
whispered so faintly that she almost did not understand him at first.  “Lord,
Emma!  I remember this!” he said with a sense of wonder as his thumb caressed
the small birth mark on Emma’s neck.

Emma threw her
arms around Gavin’s neck and hugged him tightly.  She kissed his cheek and then
pulled away so that she could look into his eyes.  Tears had already begun
falling down her cheeks.

Gavin remembered. 
He remembered something about her.

“Is there anything
else?” Emma asked hopefully as she looked deeply into his eyes.  She saw such
happiness in his eyes, happiness coupled with relief.  Emma now knew that Gavin
had never expected to remember.

“Nay,” he said
softly as his thumb again found Emma’s birthmark.  He brushed her unbound hair
away from her neck and kissed her lightly atop the small heart shaped mark. 
“There’s nothing else, sweetheart,” he said softly.  “But this is a start.  I
remember how I used tae brush my thumb over this when I’d kiss ye,” he said
now, eyes intent as he looked down at Emma.

Emma captured his
chin between her fingers and pulled his lips to hers.  She kissed him tenderly,
her soft lips brushing against his.

Gavin’s thumb
continued to caress the small mark on Emma’s neck and he smiled against her
lips.  The memory was a small one, but it was his.  And any memory about Emma,
however small, was a start.

..ooOoo..

Gavin tossed back
the blanket and stood abruptly from the makeshift bed that he had made on the
floor in front of Emma’s fire.  He padded barefoot over to the four poster bed
where she slept.  His bed.

Emma’s hair had
fallen partially over her face.  She lay on her side, curled up in peaceful sleep. 
She looked like an angel and Gavin’s heart warmed as he looked at his
beautiful, sleeping wife.  She had been through so much and yet she had stood
by him.  Gavin smiled with admiration as he watched her.  She had firmly
believed that the power of her love alone would bring back his memory and in fact,
maybe it had.

Casting caution
aside, Gavin crawled up on the bed and settled himself firmly behind Emma.  He
wrapped his arm carefully around her and pulled her against his chest.  Emma
sighed softly and snuggled up against him.  It felt so right, so wonderful to
hold his wife like this.  Gavin buried his nose in Emma’s unbound hair and
inhaled deeply.  She smelled of heather and sunshine, exactly as he remembered
that she should.

Brushing her hair
back from her face, he whispered into her ear.

“Emma,” he said
softly, kissing the gentle curve of her earlobe.

She did not wake,
but a slight smile tugged at the corner of her beautiful mouth.

Gavin nipped her
earlobe playfully now.  “Emma,” he said a little louder now.

The only response
that she gave was pressing her delicate bum more firmly against him.  Gavin’s
cock pulsed in response and he gritted his teeth.  Lord how she affected him.

“Yer favorite food
is bread pudding, although ye tell people that it is Cornish game hen because
ye think that it sounds more refined,” he whispered softly as he placed gentle
kisses up the graceful curve of Emma’s neck.  “And ye’d rather have ale any day
over wine, but ye choose wine more often because ye think that it’s more
befitting of a lady,” he said as he trailed kisses over the sensitive skin of
Emma’s collarbone.

She rolled towards
him and reflexively threaded her hands behind his neck.  Gavin chuckled in
response.  He had known that she had been aching to touch him, yet had forced
herself to hold back.  She couldn’t help herself in her sleep.

“And ye sleep like
a rock,” he said, still laughing softly as he kissed the corner of Emma’s
upturned mouth.

Gavin looked down
at his sleeping wife with love and longing in his eyes.  How difficult this
must have been for her.  She must have felt so alone even though he was here by
her side.  He vowed silently to spend the rest of his life making it up to her. 

“Ye didna quite
tell me the whole story about how we met,” he said, smiling now as he realized
Emma’s omission.  He traced the line of Emma’s jaw.  “Ye forgot tae tell me the
part about how ye slapped me across the face right after ye kicked me in the
ballocks,” his chest shook as he chuckled softly.  “I can see why ye left that
part out, but do ye ken that I loved ye even then?” he asked, kissing her cheek
and running his fingers over the warm skin of her neck.

Emma’s fingers
toyed with the small hairs at the base of Gavin’s skull and she began to move
instinctively against him, even as she slept.  Gavin was now fully aroused and
he wanted his wife awake.  He yearned to cup her full breasts and to kiss her,
to assure her that he remembered everything.  He wanted to make love to his
wife and remaining still while she moved against him was exquisite torture.

“Emma,” he said again
as he moved his hand over her flat belly and cupped her breast.  “Wake up,
love,” he coaxed as he kissed his way up her delicate neck.  “I remember that
ye cried when we were handfasted.  Ye though that I might be killed and no make
it back tae ye.  It ripped out my heart tae see ye crying like that.  But I’m
here now, Emma.  Wake up,” he whispered lovingly as his lips settled lightly
over hers.

Emma’s eyes
fluttered open and for a moment, she thought that she was dreaming.  She had
heard Gavin’s voice, telling her all of the wonderful things that he
remembered.  Precious pieces of their life together that she had reconciled were
lost forever to him.  Her fingers slid over the bare skin of Gavin’s biceps and
she realized that her husband really was in her bed, kissing her now and
whispering his sweet memories in her ear as she slept.

“Gavin?” she
asked, confused as she struggled to wake up. 

“Aye, love,” he
said, smiling against her lips and rising up above her so that he could savor
this moment.  “I remember, Emma,” he whispered joyously as he looked down at
his wife.  “I remember everything.”

Emma smiled and
tears welled in her eyes.  She couldn’t find words to express her happiness, so
she pulled Gavin’s lips towards hers.  She kissed her husband with all of her
pent up emotions and ran her hands over his chest, across his shoulders and
down his back.  She wanted to make sure that she really was awake and be sure
that this was not just a wonderful dream.

“I love ye sae
much, Emma,” Gavin said sincerely, breaking their kiss so that he could watch
the joy play across Emma’s beautiful face.  She was breathtaking and she was
his.  “Thank ye for being sae patient and having such faith in me.”

“I love you too,”
she said, eyes misty with emotion as she looked into the handsome face of her
husband.  “God doesn’t put two people on this Earth to love each other this
much and then tear them apart.  I never doubted that you would remember,” Emma
said quietly as she caressed the side of Gavin’s face.  “I knew you’d remember,”
she said, smiling broadly now as joy bloomed within her.

“What’s my second
name?” Emma asked mischievously, seeking to test that Gavin’s memory really had
returned.

“Isobel,” Gavin
said confidently as he brushed his thumb over Emma’s lower lip.  “And ye hate
it,” he added for good measure.  “And when yer really mad, I call ye Izzy just
tae fire ye up,” he said teasingly as he kissed the edge of her mouth that had
just curled up into the hint of a smile.

“When did I give
you this?” Emma asked, capturing his hand in hers and tracing her finger over
the frayed red twine ring on Gavin’s finger.

“Ye gave me that
after we were handfasted.  Ye tied it on my finger the morning that I left ye,
right before we made love in that chair,” he said, his eyes glancing over at
the chair before the fire.  His cock pulsed as he remembered Emma astride him,
making love to him in that very chair.  “Is this inquisition over now?” he
asked, chuckling softly as he placed kisses down Emma’s neck and nipped
playfully at her earlobe.