Warrior's Moon

Chapter 20

The wounds from earlier were nothing more than pink lines on Caelis’s flesh.

Shona stared at him in wonder. “You are healed.”

“It is the conriocht. When I shift into or out of that form, my body heals.”

“But not when you shift into your wolf?”

“Nay. ’Tis part of the gifts for the protectors of our people.”

“I am glad.” She worried less, knowing he had this amazing ability to heal from injuries. “Does it work even for grievous damage?”

“I dinna ken.” He prowled toward the bed, his wolf’s grace very much in evidence.

“Eadan said he will be conriocht one day.”

“’Tis a gift to look forward to.”

She nodded, the wonders of his Chrechte life paling in the face of the desire that had been burning between them all this time. Through every emotion laden word of their conversation, the physical need between them had not waned.

“I want you,” she told him with no shame.

“You will have me, now and forever,” he promised.

In light of what he had said, his vow took on deeper significance. And put her own strictures in question.

What had she wanted from him? To be able to trust. Somehow, in the past minutes as he’d made promises she needed to hear but had not asked for, he’d given her that.

Or perhaps it had been that terrible power of an incredible love at work, but she no longer doubted her place in her mate’s life.

He might not love her as she loved him, but he cared and he needed and he would protect her with his very life.

He would put the secrets of his people at risk for her and that was more significant than any mundane quest she assigned him to prove what he had already established.

His attention never straying from her, Caelis grabbed the fur he’d dropped earlier and laid it out on the bed, shifting her so she was on top of it.

Soft against her skin and thick, it gave additional cushion under her, but she got the feeling that his actions were not about comfort. There was special significance to this fur for him.

She did not ask. There were issues of greater import to address.

“I will marry you,” she told him. “I would like Audrey and Vegar’s marriage to receive the priest’s blessing along with ours.”

He stilled in his movements, his expression arrested. “I thought—”

“I did too…that you coming with me to Balmoral Island was necessary. It is not.”

“It isn’t?” Caelis sounded punch-drunk.

She shook her head. “I thought I needed you to prove something to me, to make reparations for the past.”

“But you do not feel that way any longer?”

“No. Your actions may have precipitated my parents’ loss of affection for me, but so did my own. Mostly, though, their actions were their responsibility. We cannot undo the past, nor would I. One thing I have learned is the capacity of my own strength, and that is a good thing.”

“Aye.”

“I love you, Caelis, Chrechte protector. My protector.”

“Mate. Mo toilichte. Mine.” His mouth came down on hers with a hunger that overshadowed anything that had come before.

She returned the kiss, pouring her love into and releasing the pain of the past through it.

Their tongues dueled while lips ate at each other and his naked body pressed against hers, the heat passing between them as if the fine lawn of her shift was not even there.

He pulled back, moving to kiss her all over her face, along her temple and down her neck. The entire time, he whispered words against her skin.

It was only as he caressed the sensitive skin behind her ear with his lips that she understood the words he was saying. “Thank you. Always mine. My gift. Thank you.”

The words and the fervent feeling behind them brought moisture to her eyes and a lump of deep emotion to clog her throat. She blinked away the incipient tears and swallowed her emotion, too happy with his response to let anything mar the moment.

Even her own ecstatic feelings.

Caelis brushed Shona’s shift up her legs, baring her alabaster skin to his gaze. The curve of her legs invited his touch, and the shadow at the apex of her thighs barely covered by the thin material drew his gaze and his hunger.

Hunger built to rapacious need by her words. She had promised to wed him, given him the gift of her love when he’d been sure that would never be on offer again.

The fact that she was so certain his own feelings did not match hers was not a conclusion he could gainsay. His actions had spoken too loudly for mere words to convince her otherwise.

“You are so beautiful,” he breathed.

She laughed softly, shaking her head in denial. “I am but a woman with all the marks to my body giving birth twice has left behind.”

He knew what she meant. The fine lines where her body had stretched to accommodate her womb swollen with child, the way her heavy breasts hung more like tantalizing pendulums than ripe apples.

No, she no longer had the body of an untouched girl with only eighteen summers, but that did not detract from her beauty to him. In fact, the marks time and circumstance had left behind only intrigued him and reminded him that he made love to a woman, not a girl.

A woman who should be proud of the loveliness gifted her, in all its forms. “They are the scars of battle you should wear with the same pride I wear my own.”

She laughed, the sound dark. “That is a unique take on my imperfections. The baron could not stand to see them.”

“Idiot.” He’d hated the thought of her being happy with someone else, but had discovered that he despised the truth she’d been unhappy even more.

Caelis would help rid her of those memories, starting now.

He laid his hands over her thighs, brushing his thumbs along the inside and upward toward the red curls peeking from where he’d pushed up the hem of her shift.

Shona shivered, goose bumps of pleasure forming on the skin beneath his touch. “How can such a simple touch evoke so deep a pleasure in me?”

“We are meant for each other.”

“The mating bond.”

“’Tis not the only thing between us.” She had to at least believe that.

She might well deny his love, but she must believe he had feelings for her beyond his wolf being inexorably connected to her.

She did not gainsay him and the soft expression in her beautiful emerald eyes gave no indication she wanted to, either.

He would show her that while the bond drew them together, it was only the beginning, not the boundaries of their joining.

He pushed her shift farther up, uncovering glistening silky curls. “So pretty.”

“Pretty is not a word I think of when I see your nakedness,” she teased.

“Naturally not. I am a warrior, not a maid.”

The grin of mischief should have warned him what was coming.

“Now that I think on it, one part of your anatomy is very prettily shaped.” She looked toward the hard sex jutting from his body.

Laughter and the joy only she could bring bubbled up inside him. “You think my cock is pretty?” he asked with a shake of his head.

“Oh, yes.”

He spread his thighs wider so she had an unobstructed view. “It does not feel pretty right now. It aches.”

“Does it?”

“Aye.” And well she knew it, for all her sexy mockery.

“Mayhap I can help with that.”

He wanted her to, but he had plans and they did not include his sex being within touching distance of her small, feminine hands at the moment. “Later.”

“Caelis?”

“Let me have my way with you, Shona. ’Tis what I crave most right now.” And despite his voracious hunger to bury himself inside her, the words were nothing but truth.

And meant he was sure in a different way than she would take them, but she would see.

She leaned up on one arm and tugged her shift all the way off before falling back to her elbows, the pose pressing her generous breasts forward, the invitation unmistakable. “Yes.”

He could feel the smile curving his mouth and made no effort to stop it. “Your beauty is breathtaking.”

She blushed, her embarrassment a spicy scent between them, making him laugh.

“You will reveal your nakedness to me, but you turn berry-red at a compliment?” he mocked gently.

“You are the only one who has ever considered me beautiful.”

“Nay.” He was sure she was wrong. “But I am the one intelligent enough to tell you.”

She shook her head, long red silken strands rippling over her shoulders and against the mating fur he’d tanned and prepared six years ago for a mating ceremony that had never taken place. “Stubborn man.”

Though the ceremony had not happened, they had used the fur. Not that he expected her to remember.

“I have been called worse.” He ruffled the pretty triangle of hair at the apex of her thighs. “Are you blushing in other places, I wonder?”

She let her thighs fall wide with such trust that he wanted to shout his victory. Shona had said she did not trust him, but then she had agreed to marry him. He could infer her trust from that, but the truth of her heart showed in her actions. Whatever reservations she might still hold, she trusted him completely with her body. Six years ago, her doing so had cost her dearly. That she would offer him this gift again made his wolf howl with delight.

He carefully pressed her legs up and apart, to give himself an unhindered view of the flushed and swollen folds of her sex. Slick with moisture, her body begged silently for his possession.

It was a sight unparalled. “You are beautiful, even here.”

“You should not say such things.”

“Why not? If they are true.” He leaned down and pressed a tender kiss to her feminine nether lips.

Soft flesh gave against his own, the scent of her arousal such a strong aphrodisiac to him and his beast that a measure of ejaculate spurted from his aching cock. If he let himself even brush against the fur, he would come like an untried boy. Needing to taste, he flicked his tongue out and lapped at the fragrant juices. Sweet with the pungent flavor of her desire, the taste called to both his man and wolf on a primal level.

He moaned his pleasure against the swollen flesh and continued to taste, licking, laving and sucking with no thought but to share with her the pleasure he received at her submission to him.

She grabbed his hair, her fingers curled tightly around his warrior’s braids. “That is…what are you…you must…Oh, Caelis.”

His name ended on a wail as his tongue flicked her clitoris. Satisfaction burned through him. He would show her that she was safe with him now, in every way.

He knew the importance of his mate.

She writhed on the furs, her body pressing against his mouth, sounds of ecstasy falling from her lips with the steady cadence of spring rain. He drank every one in with the thirst only a man who had gone six years in the desert could feel.

Sliding a single finger inside her, his sense of victory increased as her body clung to the digit, her inner muscles gripping him with surprising strength. She wanted him inside her mayhap even as much as he craved being there.

Soon they would consummate their mating and marriage, but only when he had proven himself worthy of the honor. Not like six years before, when he’d taken prematurely that which he’d then proven he had no right to because he had not honored her gift, as was right.

Moving in and out of her with his finger, he licked and suckled at her nether lips and clitoris until she was rigid with the need to come. She babbled her need while her body jerked against his mouth with both demand and supplication. It would take so little to bring her to that point of ecstasy she so clearly wanted, but that would not be enough.

Not enough to erase old memories. Not enough to supplant them firmly and irrevocably with new ones. Not enough to show her how very much he esteemed the gift of her body.

He backed off, sitting back on his heels as he mentally planned her further ravishment.

“No,” she cried out, reaching for him.

“Shh,” he soothed, his hand caressing her thigh and his wolf crooning in his chest. “I will give you what you desire, in time.”

“Now,” she demanded.

He grinned loving this show of confidence. “Soon.”

He returned to her body, tracing those slim silver lines she had been so worried about with his tongue. She squirmed, making soft whimpering noises. He would show her just how enticing he found these marks of womanhood. He caressed her breasts as well, showing with his touch and mouth how much he enjoyed their curves and the hard berry-sweet tips.

She writhed against him, but he did not give into the urge to finish what he had begun.

He would bring her to the brink of climax, but she would only go over that precipice when he’d fed her a surfeit of pleasure. When he had created a new memory for her body that would supersede all others.

Shona responded to his every touch with a passion so beautiful, it took all of Caelis’s self-control not to come himself while he took his beautiful mate right to the edge of the pinnacle time after time.

When he finally brought her to climax, she screamed out her pleasure and the convulsions around his fingers lasted minutes not seconds.

Her body finally collapsed back to the fur, boneless, her eyes half-mast, shallow panting breaths coming from between her parted lips.

“That was amazing,” she gasped out between breaths. “How did you…Why did you…” She seemed unable to complete a thought.

That pleased him unutterably. “You are amazing.” And he was so hard he hurt.

“No. You…you are the incredible one. You took nothing for yourself.” The confusion in her tone and eyes was sweet to be sure.

“Giving you pleasure is a privilege I will never again take for granted.”

Her eyes glistened again, but this time the sight did not hurt him. “I want you inside me.”

“Soon.” When vows had been spoken between them before witnesses.

She needed that, even if she no longer realized it. Mayhap, he did as well.

“I said I would marry you.”

“Aye, and we will be married with a priest speaking his blessing over us.”

“Why do you not join with me then?”

“Because it will come after.”

She smiled at that, an expression deep in her emerald depths that said mayhap she was fully aware that waiting was what she needed.

“Will you…” She blushed again, her gaze dropping.

“What, mo gra? What do you want?”

“Not your heart,” she slurred without near the conviction she’d shown earlier when claiming he did not love her. “I want you to do what you did last night.”

He wanted that, too. So much. He moved up her body so he could rub his aching sex against her sensitized flesh.

She writhed, but did not push him away. “Yes, like that. Feels so close.”

“Aye,” he said across their mental bond.

“So intimate.” She pushed up against him despite her evident lethargy.

He would have agreed but he was too busy coming against her body just that quickly, his seed marking her again and causing his wolf to howl with triumph. They had wanted her too much and for too long to last once her pleasure had been ensured.

He collapsed beside her, his hold on her tight despite his sense of relaxation.

She cuddled into him. “I am not going anywhere.”

“Tomorrow, you leave for Balmoral Island.”

She tensed. “What? You are refusing me now?” she asked, though sounded like even she could not believe that.

Good. “Dinna be daft, mo toilichte. We will leave after we break our fast. The day after tomorrow.”

“We?” she asked, sounding both hopeful and still slightly worried. “Why the day after?” came out as a clear afterthought.

“How can you doubt it after what we just shared? And because your dearest friend is to be mated with the traditional Chrechte ceremony tomorrow evening.”

“I’d forgotten.” Shona’s fingers worried against his chest. “How could I have forgotten?”

“It has been an eventful day.”

“It has. And I don’t doubt you.”

“Good.”

“When did you decide to come with me?”

“As soon as you announced your intentions of going.”

She made a scoffing sound.

There had been no real decision to make. “I would trust your safety to no one else for the journey.”

“Oh.”

He surged up to lean over her, his warrior’s heart catching at the expression on her lovely oval face. “You will make yourself known to your family. I will state my intentions toward you to them. But heed my words, mate, no one—not even you, my dearest Shona—will keep you from me ever again.”

Her smile was like the sun coming through an unexpected break in a heavy gray sky.

Waking held tight in Caelis’s arms was much more comforting and enjoyable than Shona would have admitted, even to herself, the day before. It seemed so normal to be cuddled together under a fur, their naked limbs entwined.

She didn’t remember a fur being on top of them the night before, though. Hadn’t it been one of the Sinclair plaids on her borrowed bed?

Caelis must have moved the one he’d brought with him from beneath them to cover them, but she could not remember him doing so. Though she’d been less than sensate when he finally declared the time for sleep had come.

In the morning light coming in through the high window, she could see more details of the fur and she realized she’d seen it before.

And not just the night before in the hallway.

She pulled the corner of the fur up to look at the soft leather underside; sure enough, there was an S and C burned into the leather with an intricate Celtic knot joining them.

It was the same fur they had made love on six years ago. Tracing her finger over the lines of the symbols, she tried to fathom what it meant that he had this fur with him at the Sinclair holding.

The tension in the body beside her told her that Caelis had woken up.

She looked up at his long-beloved face. “This is the same fur.”

He did not ask the same as what; he simply inclined his head in agreement. “It is.”

“How?”

“I use it as my bedroll, always.”

“Even when you are going to another holding to bring back Uven’s daughter?” Though the proof was covering her with delightful warmth.

“Even then.”

“But why?”

“It is our mating fur.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Chrechte tradition is that special furs are prepared for the joining of a Faol and his mate.”

“But you did not make me your mate.”

“Oh, I did. Our bond was formed when you gave your body to me.”

“You really thought I would stay and that Uven would change his heart.”

“Aye.”

“You were stupid.”

“Aye.”

She smiled. “I love you.”

“You said so last night.”

“I thought you might like hearing it this morning, too.”

“I do.”

“Good.” Even if he did not love her, so long as he did not take her love for granted, she could find contentment with him.

She was certain of it.

She had lived with worse and could feel only gratitude her past would never be her present.