Eighteen
Days later, they’d settled onto a remote area of Menzies land, where to her surprise, was a small waterfall that emptied into a large body of water, with a river leading the moving water away.
“James…”
Katie had stopped urging her horse forward when she saw the site.
“D’ye like it?”
Katie turned her astonished eyes to him. “This is beautiful.”
His smile was wide. “I knew ye’d like it, lass. We doona ever venture here, other than for an occasional guard watch, for our main lands yield an abundance of crops for us.”
When they had arrived, James had set out to build a shelter for them. Fortunately, there’d been thick, tall trees where he attached broken leafy branches with rope. He’d explained that the leaves would protect them should it rain. It had been a few days since, and they’d settled into a pattern.
Katie sat at the bank, sewing pieces of plaid together, and avidly watching James, who was in the water catching fish.
“Missed that one?”
His hair was wet and loose around his shoulders. He laughed and looked up at her from where his gaze was fixated on the water, his head remaining downcast.
Katie noticed that he’d been laughing more as of late, as if by leaving his position as the laird’s son, he’d been given a reprieve from obligations that made his demeanor serious.
Katie’s eyes traveled down to his chest where his skin glistened from droplets of water in the sun. She’d never seen James unclothed in any way. The first time had been when they had first arrived to this part of his land. He’d taken off his shirt, and was left with just his kilt, as he was now.
He had muscles like the Highlands had hills. The man had honed an incredible body of muscles and brawn that she’d never seen before him.
The fluttering in Katie’s stomach hadn’t ceased since.
Was it passion?
Attraction?
She wanted to kiss him, and do more?
Katie wanted to be kissed by this man.
And loved.
In every way.
“I never miss, lass.”
She laughed. “Cocky.”
His grin was wider. “Aye. That I am.”
By the time she’d sewn two pieces of plaid together and was filling them with feathers, leaves, and flower petals, James had caught two fish.
“That looks like it will be comfortable for ye.”
She smiled up at him. “It isna for me.”
His eyebrows lifted. “For me?”
She stood up and walk towards him. “Aye. Why are ye surprised?”
“‘Tis nay often that anyone gives me or makes me things, lass, unless I need them and request them, such as clothing.”
Inches away, she looked up at him. On her tiptoes, she rose up and kissed his lips. “Ye need to expect it from me. I am yer wife, now, and I will care for ye, husband.”
A wide grin spread across his cheeks. “I believe that I’ll like that verra much.”
He moved forward and kissed her softly. The yearning was rising in him, and it took a great deal more than he’d believed it would, to control himself. The cadence of his heart thumped with the urge to make her fully his.
But he would not until she wanted to.
And he did not know if she ever would, but he didn’t care.
He was married to the woman who’d made his heart and soul awake.
He pulled away slowly. “I will start a fire and roast the fish. Sound appetizing?”
Her smile was warm. “My husband cooks for me? That, itself, is appetizing. Especially when ye only wear a kilt.”
James threw his head back and barked with laughter.
“Ahh, lass. What ye say…”
She kissed him again before turning to close the opening of the makeshift pillow.
That evening, they sat before the fire as they finished their meal. When he caught her smiling at him, he returned it.
“What has ye in good humor?”
“How could I be anything but with ye? But…I was just thinking that it was the best fish I’d ever eaten.”
He laughed. “I told ye…I have many aptitudes.”
“And obviously one of them is modesty, too.”
Throwing back his head, his laugh was guttural.
“Ye know, ye have the best laugh.”
“Do I?”
She nodded.
“Must be ye who brings it out of me, lass.”
She smirked at him but then grew serious. “Didna ye have the lasses at yer heels, James? I canna fathom why ye chose me from the endless lasses who line the walkway to yer keep.”
He grew equally as serious. “The true question here, lass, is why ye think that my choosing ye was a compromise, and nay my first desire in wife? Aye, lasses attempted to gain my attentions, but none were ye. None of them made my heart constrict at the thought of harm coming to them. None of them made my soul call out with the desire to unite with them. None of them packed a meal for a man they’d known for barely a moment. None of them were ye, lass. Ye are nay my first choice, second, or last. Ye are my only choice. I want no other.”
Katie moved over to him, and settled herself on his lap.
“May I sit here?”
James moved forward to inhale her scent. “Aye, lass. Would be a pleasure.”
She snuggled her nose into his neck, and turned around to look at the fire. His arms wrapped around her and they sat in silence, her head resting under his chin. Katie sighed and turned her head slightly, resting it more comfortably against him.
“I never thought I would be able to touch or be as close to a man as I am with ye.”
Her next sigh was sleepy. “Falling asleep in yer arms, James, is Heaven. I feel warm…safe…protected…” She inhaled. “Loved.”
“It is equally pleasurable for me, mo stòr, holding ye. I love ye.”
“Love…ye…Sweet…James…”
She fell asleep in his arms as he held her staring at the fire. He didn’t know how long they’d be there while their families engaged in war. Until the war ended, James was happy here with her and providing for her, on his land.