The following morning, after breaking their fast, Niall and Bella were wed in front of their king and countrymen. They stood nervously side by side. Her hands trembled so hard that she squeezed them together until they were numb, and beside her, Niall swayed enough times that she worried he might actually lose consciousness.

When it came time for the priest to say, “Ye may kiss the bride,” Bella had lost all sense of feeling in her hands and was pretty certain her lips were numb, until she felt the brush of his lips on hers. They were warm and somehow steadied her. Her trembling eased, and his swaying ceased. Bella melted against him then, reaching to grab hold of his shirt when he abruptly ended their kiss, leaving her unbalanced until he gripped her elbow to right her.

A fierce blush covered her cheeks then, and she turned to smile at her parents, seeing them beam with pride. Niall’s brother, Walter, was there also, nodding at them with approval, and when she met his gaze, he winked.

A feast followed, with dancing and games. She was too nervous to do either, and luckily, Niall agreed they should sit and watch everyone else anyway, though she had a suspicion he chose to refrain for other reasons. When the sun began to set, Bella was ushered reluctantly upstairs by her mother and sisters, who wanted to help prepare her for bed. The day had been such a whirlwind she barely had time to think. But now that she was in the quiet of the bedchamber she’d had since she was a lass, the reality of being a married woman set in.

They helped her into her night rail and a thin robe, kind enough not to comment on how cold her hands were, or on the shivers that passed through her. Not because she would have to go through with the marriage bed, but because she had no idea how to tell her mother it wasn’t going to happen. And what exactly would Niall expect? He’d not spoken to her about it. In fact, when she’d been brought upstairs, he’d promised to be up shortly. Why?

Her sisters took turns brushing her hair and giggling the whole time as they whispered. Finally, Bella took the brush and shooed them away. Their mother, taking note of Bella’s anxiety, pushed them out the door.

“Bella,” she started, leaning against the door.

Heat rushed to Bella’s face, and she was suddenly exceedingly embarrassed at her naivety. “Mama, ye needna say…anything about…” She shifted her gaze away, not wanting to even say the words marriage bed to her mother.

“Oh?” Arbella kept any surprise she might have been feeling from her face and tone.

Bella shook her head glancing down at where her hands were folded in her laps. “Niall canna… He is…”

“Oh…” Her mother blushed, speaking softly in her English accent and hurried forward to pick up the brush and run it through Bella’s hair that already crackled. “How do you know?”

With her mother no longer looking at her, speaking was a little easier. “I heard Princess Elizabeth say so. ’Tis why she refused him.”

“I see. And does your father know?”

Bella shrugged. “I didna tell him, but if the princess knows, I’m assuming most everyone must, aye?”

“Hmm. I did not know, and he did not mention it. I would think…” Her mother paused, a sigh on her lips. “Never mind.” Her mother waved away whatever she was about to say. “And this is why you chose him, because you fear the marriage bed? There is nothing to fear, darling.”

Bella thought her face might burst into flames, and she nodded and then shook her head, confused as to how to answer.

“Darling, your marriage must be able to produce children, to carry on the line.”

“Ye have Strath and Liam for that, and Niall has Walter.”

“Oh dear. Your father will not be pleased. We could arrange to have the marriage annulled if you wish.”

Bella shook her head vehemently and gripped her mother’s hands. “Nay, mother. Niall is not the only one who…canna. I am…” Oh, confessing to her mother about her lie was painful. “I am barren, mother.”

Arbella let out a nervous laugh and set the brush down. She put her hands on Bella’s shoulders, massaging gently. “Nay, my darling, you merely came into womanhood late.”

Bella shook her head, wishing her mother’s touch would calm her as it usually did. She turned to look up at her mother. “I was pretending. I have never had my woman’s courses.”

Lady Arbella blanched. “Oh, my dearest child.” Her mother tugged her into her warm embrace, and Bella breathed in her familiar, comforting scent. Like baked honeybuns and roses. She closed her eyes and felt tears gather but pushed them away.

“Dinna pity me, Mama, I couldna live with that.”

“I just want you to be happy, and…well, being able to lie with your husband…”

“We will be happy, even without that. I know it in my heart. Please dinna tell Da. Dinna annul my marriage. I wanted him, Mama. Please.”

“All right.” Her mother pressed her hands to Bella’s cheeks and swiped at the tears that dripped. Before she could say anything more, there came a knock at the door and the sound of men singing. “Your husband has come.”

“Make them go.” Bella was quick to wipe the rest of the tears away with the sleeve of her gown. I dinna want them to…stay.”

Though it was customary for the guests to put the groom and bride to bed, since there would be no consummation, and Bella did not want anyone to know that, her mother agreed.

Niall came into the room towering over everyone and grinned at Bella with pride. “My beautiful wife.”

“My handsome husband.” She blushed from the top of her head clear to her toes, and smiled like a bride who was excited about what was to come next.

Lady Sutherland shooed all the men from the room when they tried to squeeze in.

“Good night,” her mother said with a soft smile.

She closed the door and their singing passed down the hall. Bella was relieved for the reprieve from a time-honored tradition. Neither one of them needed the crowd to witness the embarrassment of a husband and wife who could not consummate their marriage.

Well, it was best to get this over with. To rush through the formalities and go to sleep. Perhaps a goodnight kiss would be hers to have. They’d not had a moment alone to kiss beyond the brief press of lips at the ceremony, or since the day before when they’d hidden in the trees. “There is no need for ye to sleep on the floor,” she murmured.

Niall raised a brow. “The floor?”

“Aye. I had assumed that was what ye’d do.” She wrinkled her brow in confusion. “But since neither of us can…” She waved her hand toward the bed. “Then what harm can it do for us to share a bed?”

“Neither of us can what?” Niall raised a brow, looking so incredibly handsome and roguish at the moment her knees knocked together and her belly fluttered.

Bella cleared her throat, trying to sound completely unaffected. “Have children.”

“I’ve no proof, not like ye, lass, but what does having children have to do with it?”

No proof? Were the whispers she’d heard untrue?

She swallowed hard around the lump that had formed in her throat, trying to concentrate as she watched Niall unpin his plaid and belt. The fabric of his plaid slowly unfurled, leaving him to stand in his leine, the shirt coming to just above his knees.

He sat on a chair and started to unlace a boot.

Bella rushed forward and knelt before him, as she was certain a wife should, and took over the task. He smelled clean, as though he’d bathed right before coming to her. In fact, his hair was still a little damp, droplets sprinkling on her hands. An image of him bathing, muscles rippling as water sluiced over his skin, suddenly invaded her thoughts. She bit her lip at the wicked contemplation and the sudden tightness in her chest, and a shiver seemed to make her skin come alive. Where did that come from?

“I heard what Princess Elizabeth said to ye…” Why did her voice have to come out so squeaky?

“About?” he prodded.

Bella tugged off one boot, marveling at the sheer size of his foot. It was easily twice as long as her own. She started to work on the other as he untied the garter around his upper calf and let the hose sag down his muscular leg. She’d have to be blind not to appreciate the beauty of his body. Again, that racing in her heart, the prickles along her skin. And…what in blazes? There was a tingle between her legs, her breasts, too. Her nipples grew taut, and she felt…breathless. And hungry. But not for food. She longed for him to touch her. Wanted to climb into his lap and kiss him. Hard. And with tongues.

“About ye not being whole,” she finally managed to say through the tightness.

Niall raised a confused brow. “My arm?”

“And your…” Her gaze fell to where his shirt gathered at his middle, where a bulge had begun to appear. The place where a man had his…

“Ah. Ye thought me to be missing my—“

She was quick to cut him off, already feeling faint, and certain him saying that would push her over the edge. “Ye needna say the word. But aye, I believed ye to be…barren, too.”

“Did ye now.” Humor danced in his eyes and laced his words.

“Aye. I thought that was why ye didna mind having a barren wife.”

Niall grinned. “I assure, ye, lass, I am still a whole man where it counts.”

“And ye can…have children.”

“As I said, ’tis not yet been proven.”

“I see.” She chewed her lip, sat back on her heels and stared down at his feet planted on either side of her knees. “Ye’ll want to try then. With other women.”

“What?” He sounded exasperated, and she jerked her gaze back up to his.

“Ye’ll want to see, if ye can…with others…so your line…”

He cupped the side of her face and looked at her earnestly. “Lass, if I cared about my line, I’d not have married ye when ye told me ye couldna have children. I wanted to marry ye. And I’ll not stray from our bed.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Our bed… So ye expect me to…”

“To lie with me, aye.”

“But I canna. I am barren.” What was that breathy tone her voice had taken on? It sounded foreign to her own ears.

“That doesna mean ye canna lie with me, Bella.” He stroked the side of her face, and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from sighing.

“Just lie with ye. Beside ye.” She swallowed hard when the image of them lying beside each other and him turning to kiss her flashed before her eyes.

“Under me. Over me. Beside me… It doesna matter. I’ll have ye anyway.”

“Oh…” She did sigh then. “But why? If I canna have children…”

“Men and women dinna just lie together to make bairns.”

“Why else would they?” Again, she regretted not allowing her mother to give her further instructions.

Niall leaned down and brushed his lips over hers, and the tingles that were already forming on her skin sprang to life once more, making her shiver as he pressed hard, swiping his tongue over the seam of her lips. He trailed his fingers over her ribs, tickling her, but she didn’t want to pull away. If anything, she leaned in closer, wanting his touch.

“Oh my…” she murmured and then gasped at having said the words aloud.

With his lips still on hers, he whispered. “What did ye feel just now?”

“I felt…so many things.” Want so many more.

“Pleasure?” This he said with his warm mouth trailing over her jawline toward her ear.

“Oh, aye… I like this. A lot.”

He chuckled as he scraped his teeth over her earlobe, sending another tawdry shiver through her. “That is why men and women lie together, love, besides for making bairns. For pleasure.”

“Pleasure?” She tilted her head to the side as he trailed kisses down her neck. Oh, aye, that was what she was feeling. Her mind was a whirl of incoherent thoughts, but one thing came out loud and clear—she was enjoying his kisses and touch very much, and she didn’t want him to stop.

“Aye. I want to make love to my wife.”

Saints! Bella gulped, swallowing hard and finding it equally difficult to breathe. “I…dinna know what to do.”

A gravelly chuckle came from his lips where they toyed with her neck. “But I do. And I will show ye.”

“Oh…”

He trailed his hand down her spine and then circled around her ribs, and if she thought she felt heavy and weak before, that was nothing compared to now.

Niall reached around front and plucked at the ribbon tying her robe closed. The fabric gave way, and Bella shrugged it off her shoulders and let it pool on the floor behind where she knelt.

“We are really going to…” The words evaporated from her mind.

Niall grinned wolfishly, and that look of want in his eyes made her shiver all the more. “Aye, love. We’re really going to.”

Next, he tugged at the ribbons on the front of her night rail and slid a single finger down the opening between her breasts, making her shiver at the warm contact of his finger on her bare flesh.

“Your skin is so soft. Softer than mine.”

Without thinking, Bella reached for him and touched the exposed skin at his throat and unlaced his shirt to touch his chest. A sprinkling of hair covered the exposed skin, and his shirt fell open to form a V over his heart.

“Ye’re warm.”

He chuckled, the sound like a caress, then pressed her hand to his skin, stopping her from removing his shirt. “So are ye.” He bent to kiss her, speaking softly against her lips. “And before this night is through, we’ll both be verra, verra hot.”

Bella let out a whimper as he snaked his arm around her back and stood, pulling her up against his hard body while deepening their kiss. The feel of his linen shirt against her bare breasts was more sensual than she would have guessed, and she longed to feel herself skin to skin. But when she tried once more to lift his shirt, he stilled her hands. He wasn’t ready yet to reveal himself fully to her, she guessed, and she wasn’t going to push him, but would rather wait until he was ready.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, on tiptoe now, and press herself tighter against him, gasping at the heat of their bare skin and at the spark of need and hunger it caused.

With his palm at her back, he started to scrunch up her night rail with his fingers, lifting the fabric slowly over her legs until her buttocks were exposed to the evening air.

Bella gasped, thinking at first to pull away, never having been so exposed to a man in her life, but Niall pulled his lips from hers, gazed into her eyes and said, “Do ye trust me?”

Slowly, she nodded, realizing that she absolutely did trust him. With all her heart.

“Take off your night rail. Let me see ye.”

Bella took a step back from him, slid a sleeve off one shoulder and then the other, letting the fabric fall around her feet. She stood there completely naked, firelight dancing over her skin, watching as his gaze devoured her.

Prickles of desire rose up on her flesh, and she trembled, but not from cold or from nerves, but with the need to feel him against her, to have his lips on hers, his hand on her back.

“Ye are so incredibly beautiful.” Niall’s voice was tight, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. “I still canna believe ye wanted me for your own.”

“I did, I do. More than a husband in name only. I like the way ye kiss me… I want us to…” She flicked her gaze toward the bed. “Have pleasure.”

Niall groaned and reached for her, sliding his fingers over her hip as he drew her back to him. He covered her mouth with his, kissing her deeply. Bella breathed him in, shocked at the contact and delighting in the clean, woodsy scent of him.

He backed her toward the bed, and when her knees touched the mattress, she sat down and scooted back as he covered her with this body. He rolled to the right side of her, her arm cradled behind his back. She drew gentle circles on his spine, wondering at the rippling muscles. Niall trailed kisses down her neck and along her collarbones. The backs of his fingers moved gently up and down her leg, over her waist, then up her ribs to her breast. He cupped the flesh and kneaded it gently, and she moaned, never having guessed that a man touching her would feel this good. His kiss traveled lower, mouth hovering over the opposite breast, tickling her skin, and teasing her tight nipple. When he flicked his tongue over its tip, she arched her back and cried out, not having expected him to do such a thing, nor expecting the sharp tremor of pleasure that went right from that spot to between her legs.

“I love the way ye respond to my touch,” he murmured before flicking his tongue out again.

“I…” But she couldn’t speak, nor could she even form a thought.

His fingers had moved from her breast to her hip again, and now he trailed them gently over her belly and down over her pubic bone and back.

She instinctively clamped her legs shut, but every time his fingers came back toward her center, she found her legs falling open, beckoning him to touch her in her most sensitive and secret of places.

Still, he taunted her, going back and forth as he laved at her breast and then kissed her hard on the mouth, building a tension and pressure within her until she finally grabbed his hand and pressed it firmly between her legs, gasping at the sensation that shuddered through her, at her own boldness and the feral growl that issued from his throat.

“Och, Bella… Ye’re so wet…”

Wet. Was that good? He seemed to think so. He slid his fingers between her folds and found a knot of flesh that pulsed and quickened every time he brushed the pad of his thumb over it. He kissed her again, murmuring against her lips about how much she pleased him. And she hadn’t even done anything. He moved back to her breast, sucking her nipple and pushing a finger inside her, and she arched her back again.

Moans and sighs escaped her, and she found herself completely surprised at her reaction to him and wanting more and more.

Niall’s fingers worked magic between her legs, caressing and sliding in and out, she writhed with his ministrations, her hips moving up and down of their own accord. Then that fiery tension that had been building and pulsating sharpened into a point, concentrated in her center and exploded outward.

Bella nearly came off the bed, eyes flying wide, fingers digging into his back.

“That was incredible,” he murmured against her mouth. “I want to see ye do that again.”

“Can I?” She breathed out.

“Och, aye, ye can. Over and over.” And he proceeded to show her, stroking her into a fiery passion once more until her body bowed on the mattress.

Except this time, he came over her, supporting himself on his elbow. “Wrap your legs around my hips.”

She did as he asked, feeling the plush tip of something hard press to her still-pulsing center. The part of him she’d believed he didn’t possess. And oh, how he possessed it. She reached between their bodies and stroked a finger down the long, velvet hard length of him.

Niall’s eyes bulged, the muscles in his jaw clenching. “God, lass, if ye keep doing that, I’ll not last a breath. ’Twas hard enough watching ye writhe from my touch.”

“I want to see ye do the same.”

“Oh, sweetheart, I will. Guide me in.”

She swallowed, suddenly nervous again. “How?”

“Slide the tip of me between your folds.”

Bella did as he instructed, gasping at how it felt when the head of his erection stroked over her sensitive flesh. As she guided him from that knot of flesh downward, he pressed his hips forward, notching himself at her entrance.

“Good, lass. Ye can take your hand back.”

“But I like the feel of ye.”

He grinned down at her, catching her lips and kissing her deep, his hips pushing forward, the tip slowly entering her. She kept her hand wrapped around him, their hearts pounding against each other.

“This might hurt,” he whispered, “but only for a second, and I promise it willna hurt again. Do ye trust me?”

Bella’s eyes flew open at the mention of pain, and she gazed into his eyes and nodded. “I trust ye.”

“Move your hand. Hold on to my shoulders.”

She did as he instructed, holding to the muscles of his strong shoulders beneath his shirt tightly, her legs clutching his hips. Keeping their gazes locked, he surged forward. There was a pinch of pain as he passed through her maidenhead and filled her up, stretching her. The discomfort was not acute, but she still felt invaded and wanted him to move away. All pleasure seeming to evaporate with that one plunge.

“Are ye all right? Did it hurt a lot?”

She blinked, realizing tears had gathered in her eyes, and she contemplated shoving him off. But already the pain and discomfort seemed to be easing. “Not too bad.”

“Tell me when it stops hurting.”

“Already it fades.” And it did. She shifted, getting used to the size of him, and she felt a spark of that heated tension that stirred in her when he touched her with his fingers, only intensified.

“Och, sweetheart, ye feel so good. I’m going to move.”

She nodded, and he pulled out of her slowly before pushing back in. Bella had thought when he touched her with his fingers that she’d never felt such pleasure, but with him inside her, there was a whole new amount of euphoria that threatened to consume her.

“Feels…good,” she murmured between gasps of pleasure.

“So good.” Niall kissed her again, an erotic tangling of tongues. A possessive, demanding kiss.

Bella was a quick learner, lifting her hips to meet his thrusts. She braced her legs higher around his hips, stroking her hands up and down his back, tugging his shirt up so she could touch his bare skin. Even daringly, she roved her caress over the hard, yet soft swell of his buttocks. The man was a god.

That same tension spiraled into her center, threatening to unleash its power, and Bella gave herself over to it—to him. Niall led her to a magical place that had pleasure coursing through her, around her, over her. She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, could only feel.

She cried out at her release and felt him shudder over her as he, too, rumbled his pleasure.

When the trembling within them subsided, Niall rolled to the side and tugged her with him. She lay in the crook of his arm as he drew circles on her back and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“What did ye think?” he asked, a measure of uncertainty in his voice.

“I think I canna believe anyone would say ye couldna…or didna have…”

Niall chuckled. “I pleased ye then, lass?”

“Oh, Niall.” She leaned up on her elbow and kissed his chin, not daring to tell him she was now more certain than ever that Princess Elizabeth was a great fool. “Ye pleased me verra much. Taught me even more. And did I please ye?”

“More than I could have ever dared hope for.” There was a light in his eyes that she’d never seen before, and it warmed her through and through.

“Are we allowed to do that any time we wish?” she asked, eager to join with him once more.

“Aye,” he winked, pinching her bottom. “We are married, after all.”

Bella squealed. “Then I wish to do so again.”

In one move, he climbed over her, parting her legs. “And I will endeavor to make your every wish come true, Bella.”

Warmth spread through her at his words. Oh, but the world seemed to be complete at that moment.

Bella sighed, leaning up to kiss him on his very beautiful lips. “And I ye.”