The Magic of Highland Dragons (27 page)

“I must wed ye to me, Faith, in my way, the way of my people, my clan. I want to wed ye with an ancient ceremony, and one with far more meaning to me than any mere words spoken by a priest.” He sat up, pulling her upright to sit next to him. “And far more binding, too.” He tore a thin strip of linen from the edge of the sheet, and holding the end in his fist, he took her left hand, turning it over to expose her wrist. Then he placed his own left wrist alongside hers. Before she knew what was happening, he had reached for a small dagger on the table next to the bed, and used it to slice a thin line across both of their wrists. Faith gasped and instinctively tried to pull away, but he held tight to her arm, quickly pressing the two small gashes together and winding the linen tight around their wrists, his hand clasping her arm.

Shaking a little, she grasped his arm as he did hers, and looked up into his eyes. She saw that he was watching her with a fiercely intent expression, as if daring her to deny him this moment, deny her own destiny, or what was between them. She didn’t. She clasped her hand tighter around his arm, and she could almost feel their blood mingling where the cut burned and throbbed on her wrist, making them forever part of one another. He began to speak, in a low tone, just above a whisper.

“I take ye, Faith, as my woman and my mate. I vow I will always place yer life above my own. I vow to protect ye as my most cherished wife, to see to yer happiness, as it will be my own. I give ye my heart, to take into yer keeping, and I give ye my body, to serve and to please ye. I give ye my seed, that we may make new life from our bond. And I give ye my soul, to walk forever beside ye.”

His last words trailed off into a soft moan as he leaned closer to capture her lips in his. The weight of his body pushed her back onto the bed, and he followed her down, lifting their bound wrists above her head as he kissed her with more feeling than he could put into words. Then he slid into her, joining their bodies as he had joined their hearts. He lifted his head and closed his eyes, breathing out a shuddering sigh of pleasure. After a moment he opened his eyes again and looked down at her, thrusting harder and faster.

“I…will…never…let…ye…go.”

Faith felt the pressure already building within her own body, making her back arch, making her try desperately to get even closer to him. He held her captive, one wrist bound to his, her other wrist clenched tight in his fist. Her breath came in little gasps and sobs, which seemed only to fuel Bren’s passion further. He was pounding into her now, and she was floating in a haze of pleasure, her body no longer her own. Then she fell, faster, faster, sparks of light all round, blinding rapture, enfolding warmth. Her mind her own once more, she could feel him thicken within her, his muscles grow impossibly hard and taut. He began to shudder.

“Faith, oh God! Faith.” He collapsed down onto her, letting her feel his full weight for a moment before rolling slightly to the side and gathering her into his arms and kissing the top of her head. He would let her rest a little before he took her again. Perhaps even for a few minutes.

“Oh God”, Drust grumbled as Bren leaned in to kiss his wife again. “If the two of ye dinna stop looking so blissfully happy, I swear I’m going to lose the contents of my stomach!”

Bren was unfazed. “Jealous, are ye? Shall we find ye yer own wife, brother?”

“Nay!” Drust actually shuddered at the thought. “That’s the last thing I want, or need.”

“Suit yerself, though ye dinna ken what yer missing, little brother.” Bren grinned at him, taking another bite of his bread. “I’m taking Faith for a walk in the hills this morning. Ye can mind the castle, then, if ye’ve nay interest in spending time courting a wife.”

Drust muttered something under his breath about men being led around by the ballocks by a woman, but didn’t object outright.

“Is he all right?” Faith asked when they had walked some distance away. Bren had his arm protectively around her waist, as if he was prepared to do battle should anyone so much as look at her.

“Drust? Oh aye, that’s just the way he is. He’s always been the dark and serious one.” He gave a little laugh. “I swear one of these days some woman is going to knock him right on his miserable arse and then bring him to his knees, and I canna wait to see it.”

Faith smiled at the incongruous image of Drust on his knees before a woman. “I hope so. He seems… unhappy. I wish there was something I could do.”

Bren fixed her with a dark look. “Ye belong to me”, he growled. “Ye stay away from my brothers. From all other men, for that matter. I dinna want to have to kill anyone for touching ye, least of all a member of my family.”

Faith returned his murderous look with one of exasperation. “I didn’t mean it like that.” She would have some work ahead of her to temper her husband’s jealous streak a bit, but for the most part, she found she didn’t mind his possessiveness. It made her feel safe, cherished. But she wouldn’t let it get in her way, either. “Drust is my brother by marriage now. I want him to be happy, and I
will
help him if I can.”

Bren heaved a sigh. He wouldn’t always be getting his own way with his new wife, that was apparent already. It was but a small concession to make for all he had in return. He could let her have her way... in some things, as long as he had his way in the bed chamber.

“Drust blames himself, I think, for what happened to our mother, even though it was long ago now. He was only fifteen years old. There wasn’t any way he could have defended her against so many armed men. But he canna see it for himself.”

“No, there wouldn’t have been. He would have been killed.”

“I’ve told him so, many times, but he canna seem to let it go. I think he believes he should have died that day, and perhaps a part of him did.” He shrugged. “I suppose he has to work things out for himself. We have all tried to help, but he willna have any of it.”

“And what about Eian?” she asked gently. “Was he there too?”

“Aye, he was there, but he was verra young. He tends to past wounds in quite the opposite way; by drowning himself in women and excess.” He gave her a wry smile. “Seems the better of the two methods, if ye ask me.”

“Hmmph. And what about you, Bren?”

He looked away from her, staring at the path ahead, his expression growing distant as if he thought of the past. “Well, I didna have a choice in the matter ye ken. I was made Laird and Chief, and that was what I had to do. I grew up verra quickly, in that year. But it was nay hardship, really. It is what I was born to do, it’s in my blood, as it will be in the blood of my own sons.”

They walked for a moment in silence, and when they came to the top of a grassy hill overlooking the sea loch, Bren stopped and pulled her down to sit beside him. He put his arm around her, making her feel very small and delicate under the thick and heavy strength of his muscles, and looked out into the distance. The wind blew the soft waves of his hair back, showing the strong, square form of his jaw. She reached up to trace it with her finger. A part of her was still trying to catch up with all that had happened. A part of her still couldn’t believe that this beautiful man was now suddenly her husband.

“This is one of my favorite places to come, to be alone. I never thought I’d prefer to share it with someone else. I never thought I’d find ye, Faith. I didna even ken who ye really were, no’ even when I wanted ye so badly the verra first time I saw ye. I had nearly given up and resigned myself to bachelorhood forever.”

“I don’t understand, Bren . Why would you not marry someone else? Why hadn’t you married already?” She smiled. “Although I must say I’m most grateful that you waited for me.”

He pulled her down into the soft grass with him, and they lay on their backs, watching the clouds. “Because, as the story goes, there is only one true mate for each Mac Coinnach chief, and though not everyone believes the old lore anymore, I always kenned in my heart that it was so. I couldna wed another, for fear that I would be bound to someone else when finally I found my true mate. I couldna imagine a worse fate than that. Thank god for Dirc and his meddling ways. And for my brother’s complete disloyalty to his Chief. He had Eian take the ring from its place in the chest, and it brought ye home to me. I should have kenned ye at once, but I thought I couldna be that lucky. And I should have kenned ye were the one when ye made me so angry more often than not.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “I made you angry?”

He laughed. “Furious. I couldna control ye, and I couldna control myself either. Still canna. I think I shall often find myself furious with ye, Faith, because I think ye will try me at every turn.”

“And I think I’ll find myself furious at you too, if you plan on trying to control me”, she said sardonically.

“Then we shall have to spend most of our time together making amends to one another… in bed. I can be verra good at making amends, lass.”

Faith swatted at him, laughing.

Bren rolled to his side, propping his head on one hand and tracing the delicate line of her jaw with the other. “I want children, Faith. I want lots of children.”

“Do you then?” She smiled.

“Aye.” He looked down at her, his eyes growing darker with emotion. “I want strong sons to carry on my name and my legacy, and beautiful daughters to coddle and spoil.”

“You want a lot.”

“Aye, I am a most greedy man. I also want ye by my side forever and naked in my bed whenever I command it. Which will be often.” His face grew more serious, his gaze almost demanding. “And I want ye to forget any life ye had before I first set eyes on ye. That is when yer life truly began, in the moment ye first saw me.” He ran his thumb across her bottom lip. “As did mine.”

She turned toward him, nipping at the pad of his thumb. “And what do I get, then, out of all this? After all, I’ve given up my entire way of life to be with you. I’ve given up grocery stores and television and rock and roll. Not to mention toilet paper and hot showers, which are the two things I think I will miss the most.”

He reached for her, pulling her over on top of him as he rolled to his back, a devilish smile curling his lips. “I dinna ken what any of those things are, lass, but none of them are better than what ye have here: the use of my body, whenever ye like, for yer own pleasure, and mine by happenstance.”

“Hmmm… then hold still. I want to use you, to see if you are worth it.” She took hold of his wrists, stretching his hands up above his head. “Stay just like that. Promise.”

He laughed. “I promise.”

She bent and feathered a kiss over his lips, then over his neck, nipping lightly at the pulse beating there, making it go even faster. She moved lower, lifting his shirt and flicking her tongue over his nipple until he hissed in a breath. She ran her hands back up over the hard contours of his chest and kissed his mouth again, pulling away just as he tried to deepen the kiss, and tracing his lips with just the tip of her tongue.

“How could it be that only a few weeks ago I wanted to run from you, and now I would give anything to spend every moment in your arms?”

“If I had kenned the truth of things, I would have forced ye to wed with me that first day Dirc brought ye to the castle, and then sorted out all the rest later. I wanted ye so much. Even as I made the vow to ye that I wouldna touch ye against yer will, I vowed to myself that I would have ye in my bed, sooner rather than later.”

“You have me now. I guess you’ve won.”
“Aye. But I think… I want to ken… Well, Dirc told me how ye had been sent away as a babe, to a place across the sea, and five hundred years from now. What was it like there? What was yer life like Faith?”

“Lonely”, she answered honestly. “It was very lonely for the most part. It was just my mother and me. I never even knew… where she was really from. I had no idea that I hadn’t been born there like everyone else. She died when I was only eighteen. After that I was completely on my own.”

“Perhaps that is part of the reason ye are so brave.”

She shook her head a little. “No, I never felt brave. I just went on. I just survived.”

“Ye have the courage of ten men, lass, but ye dinna have to be brave, anymore. I will protect ye. I can be brave enough for the both of us.”

That was fine by her. Though it was a little frightening at times how quickly and completely he had utterly devoted himself to her, it was also a great gift. She was no longer alone. And she wanted to give him something in return. She grinned as an idea occurred to her. Something she had never actually done, but heard enough about, in great detail, from her college roommates, that she felt she could probably write a book on the subject.

She looked at him with pure wickedness flashing in her eyes, then straddled his chest, lowering her mouth slowly to kiss him hard and deep. He moved his hands to reach for her, but she pushed them away.

“Mmm mnn, you promised. Don’t force me to tie you up.”

He groaned as if in agony, and she moved lower, tracing a path down his chest with her tongue. He let out a low moan, and she smiled against his warm skin. This was the powerful and dangerous warrior she had been in awe of, and yet she had him at her complete mercy right now.

Bren held his breath. His hips raised of their own accord, silently begging her mouth to move lower. Would she? No woman had ever taken him in her mouth, and he had never asked it of them. But he had heard it was… she took him in her hand and he lost the thought. And then her tongue …
oh god!
She teased him with her tongue for several long moments before finally taking him deep into her mouth.