Cam’s words echoed in her mind. I will never let you go. She wanted to tell him she felt the same way about him, but surely he knew.

His mouth captured hers. A demanding kiss that stole her senses. His tongue invaded and tangled with hers. It was a kiss like none other they had shared. Wild and savage yet beneath his passion she caught the faintest hint of desperation.

She pushed herself against him, still clutching his shirt, and tore her mouth free. She panted up into his face, intoxicated by the dark passion in his eyes and the primitive aura of possession that pulsed from him.

But dark desolation still seethed beneath the surface. Perhaps he didn’t know how she felt, after all.

“I’ll never leave you, Cameron MacNeil.” Her voice was breathless. She would tell him anything, everything, if it would ease that aching void she sensed within him. “You are everything I want in this life. Do you hear?” She tugged on his shirt for emphasis. “You are truly the man of my dreams.”

He stared at her as though she had just plunged a dagger through his heart. “Everything, Elise?” He speared his fingers through her hair and gripped her head. “Enough to consent to be my wife?”

Her heart kicked against her ribs and she forgot how to breathe. Without any warning and no finesse, Cam had just asked her to wed him.

There were no pretty words and outrageous compliments. He didn’t even smile. Anyone would think he had just imparted devastating news.

But she could see beneath his façade. She always had, even when she had denied it to herself. She gave a small laugh and tugged on his shirt once again.

Cameron MacNeil had asked her to be his wife. She had been right. This was the moment Bride had led them both toward. It didn’t matter that protocol had not been observed. She didn’t care that neither her mother nor father had approved the match.

She’d done her duty by the kingdom of Circinn when she had taken Ferelei, and her parents had accepted his lavish gifts in exchange. This time she would take a man of her own choosing. A man who had managed to break through the brittle shell she’d erected around her heart and opened her eyes to the true meaning of passion.

“I gladly consent to be your wife, Cameron MacNeil of Dunmar.” Her mother’s undoubted fury to the news Elise had wed another man would, she knew, be greatly appeased by the knowledge that man possessed royal blood. But Cam despised that blood and Elise would not insult his mother’s memory by alluding to it ever again.

The fierce glare on Cam’s face faded. He looked staggered by her acceptance and she laughed again as she wound her arms around him, delighting in the feel of his hard muscles beneath her hands.

How different this proposal was from her first, where her acceptance had been a mere formality. This night would remain in her heart forever. The night when Cameron MacNeil had pledged his life to her.

Unbidden a thought slid into her mind. Would he, in time, pledge his love to her?

How wonderful that would be. How rare and precious. But surely not an impossible wish. Not when Bride herself had ordained this match.

“Do you have nothing to say to your betrothed, my love?” The endearment came so easily, before she had even considered it. But the words were true. He was her love.

One day she would be his.

“Aye.” His voice was rough. “I swear I will do all in my power to make you happy, Elise. To ensure you never regret this decision.”

She smiled, but a distant thread of unease weaved through her. To be sure, Cam said the strangest things. It was one of the reasons he so fascinated her. But his last words haunted her nevertheless.

“Is this something you want, Cam?” She was almost afraid to ask the question, although she couldn’t imagine why she feared the answer. Why would he have proposed to her if he didn’t want her?

His hands skimmed down her throat. He hooked his thumbs into her shawl and slid it from her shoulders. Without breaking eye contact he loosened the ties of her bodice and she leaned back to give him easier access.

Finally he spoke. “You’ll never know how much I want this, my princess. God knows I’ve wanted this since the first moment I saw you after entering Ce.”

Her unease vanished and she tugged on his belt. “You did nothing but glare at me. I swear I thought you wished to murder me in my bed.”

With a smothered curse, he ripped her gown over her arms and it slithered to her feet. She dropped his belt to the floor and he removed his plaid with inelegant haste.

“It was never murder on my mind when I looked at you.” For the first time that night, he offered her a grin, and her heart seemed to expand at the mesmerizing sight. “I tried to fight it. You were my despised enemy but it made no difference.”

She sighed. “You have such a sweet tongue when trying to flatter a lady.”

He frowned, but it wasn’t a fierce frown. More a frown of confusion. “I don’t flatter. I don’t know how. You know that. I thought you didn’t care.” He pulled his shirt over his head and Elise licked her lips at the glorious expanse of honed flesh he displayed.

“I don’t care.” She pressed her lips against his heart and his hands splayed across her back, holding her close. She closed her eyes and breathed in deep, the scent of his body all the aphrodisiac she needed. “I don’t need pretty words. But I’m not your enemy. I never have been.”

“I know.” His words were muffled as he buried his face in her hair. “It was never you, Elise. Never you.”

She wound her arms around him and hugged him tight. His body was hard and unyielding, the body of a warrior. With him she was safe. Nothing else mattered. His manner was rough and for that, she was grateful.

He would never tell her charming lies simply to get his own way.

She trailed kisses over his impressive chest, lingering on the battle scars that scored his body. How wonderful it was to take her time to explore every ridge and plane, to run her fingernails over his taut backside and feel him tense with need.

His nighttime visits to her tent had been scarce and fleeting, and he had never stayed until morning. Tonight she would show him how much he meant to her. Tonight she would leave him in no doubt that in order to make her happy all he had to do was be himself.

She kneeled before him, her hands cupping his firm arse, and gazed at his cock. His erection thrust upward, thick and proud and her mouth watered at the bewitching sight.

“Elise.” His voice was tortured and his fingers tangled in her hair. “No.”

“I’ve wanted to do this for weeks.” She tore her fascinated gaze from his shaft and looked up at him. He was staring down at her, an expression of desperate lust and disbelief etched on his features. A surge of thrilling power chased through her blood at the knowledge of how much he desired her. “I want all of you, Cameron MacNeil.”

“You have me.” He growled the words at her, as she had whispered them to him the first night he’d come to her tent. “You’ve always had me, princess.”

She leaned forward, never breaking eye contact, and his rod burned her cheek as she pressed against him. He swallowed and his grip on her hair tightened.

Slowly she moved her head until her open mouth nuzzled his rock hard flesh. The tip of her tongue licked and tasted and a strangled groan vibrated along Cam’s body. She smiled, her teeth grazing him, and she curled one hand around his hot length.

Her pussy quivered, wet with need. She wanted him inside her, stretching her delicate flesh with his rigid cock and filling her womb with his seed. But they had all night. Goddess, they had the rest of their lives to conceive a longed-for babe. She no longer needed to mourn the fact that Bride had not blessed her this moon time.

Bride had known there was no need for such haste.

She licked him from his root up to his glistening slit. His salty taste entranced her. She swirled the tip of her tongue around his swollen head, and his stifled groans of pleasure spiraled through her core.

She fastened her lips around him. His fingers bit into her head, forcing her downward, and he slid farther into her. For a second she tensed and her nails dug into his arse, before her muscles relaxed and she could breathe once again.

“I never thought to witness such a sight.” Cam’s agonized words caused her to look up at him. He was staring down at her, a wild light in his eyes, and tension throbbed around the chamber as though a fearsome storm brewed. “My aloof Pictish princess naked and on her knees before me.” He groaned and wound her hair around his fists, pinning her in place. It was savage and shocking and she loved it. “Your sweet lips wrapped around my cock. Suck me harder, Elise. God, that’s good. So fucking good.”

Her eyes fluttered shut as she savored the exotic thrill of his shaft inside her mouth. She sucked him hard, as he had ordered, and the echo of his tortured words continued to seduce her.

Her cheeks hollowed with effort and she abandoned his backside to cup his heavy balls. His grip on her hair became brutal. She milked his shaft, the friction of his cock against her tongue and lips arrowing straight to her swollen pussy.

The sound of his ragged breathing filled her head. His hips thrust, sinking his rigid organ to the back of her mouth. She groaned, squeezed his sac and tightened her grip on his root.

He fucked her mouth, pinning her head in place so she could not move. But she didn’t want to move. Every thrust filled her mouth and sent tremors of deprived delight spinning through her quivering core.

“Can’t hold on.” His voice was raw and his hard fingers pulled her from his cock. She let out a mewl of protest and fastened her lips around him once again. He gave a choked laugh and tugged her tight to his body.

His thrusts became frantic. If he hadn’t held her, she would have fallen onto the floor from his savagery. Juices trickled from her sheath and her clitoris trembled for release. He gave a strangled roar and stilled, his muscles rigid with effort. And then his seed pumped into her, filling her mouth and she swallowed desperately, wanting to take everything he had.

But it was too much. She gagged and instantly he pulled free and sank to his knees. Holding her close she felt him finish between them, the sweet warmth bathing her belly.

“Fuck.” His voice was uneven and he speared shaking fingers through her hair, pushing it from her hot face. His lips crashed down on hers, kissing her as though it had been years since they had last kissed.

He slid one hand between their sweat-slicked bodies and found her sensitive pearl. His finger circled, teasing her and she gasped her pleasure while he continued to ravish her mouth.

The pressure built, a wild storm of pure sensation. She arched against him and the friction became unbearable. His hand slid from her head, along her back and grasped her arse in a possessive gesture.

It was too much. Frenzied waves of pleasure consumed her. She was boneless, floating on a sea of bliss. Only Cam was her anchor, working magic with his mouth and his fingers as she slowly drifted back to reality.

An eternity later, she raised her heavy head from his shoulder and looked into his face. He grinned down at her, and the sight caused her heart to tug within her breast.

With Bride’s help, she swore she would find a way to make Cam smile like this outside the realms of lovemaking.

“We will wed as soon as possible.” He gathered her into his arms, stood, and strode to the bed. “I don’t want to risk anything delaying us.”

Did he mean the objection of her mother? She smiled up at him in sated contentment. If Cam wished them to wed this night, she would be only too happy to oblige.

“Nothing will delay us.” She trailed languid fingers along his roughened jaw. “You have my word.”