The Bard (Highland Heroes #5) - Maeve Greyson Page 0,51

have thought to ask such a thing. He reached up and brushed her hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “It has never been this way with anyone, ever.” He stroked her hair again, praying she would hear the truth and sincerity in his words. “I feel as though ye’re the missing part of my life I’ve been searching for all these years.” He took hold of her shoulders and gently rolled, settling on top of her while staying buried within. “I meant it when I said I had never told another woman I loved her.” With a soft brushing kiss across her mouth, he rocked into her. “I love ye, Sorcha.” He rocked in and out again. “And I’m crazed for ye as well.” A groan escaped him as she drew her legs up around him and squeezed. “And the wanting ye never leaves me. The need to touch ye. To taste ye. Join with ye and be one.”

Eyes half closed, she smiled as she arched and met him thrust for thrust, raking her fingers down his sides. “And when we’re old and gray, and canna do this anymore, what will we do then, my wondrous lover?”

Arms locked as he rose above her, Sutherland stilled. “We will still love. Forever—through this life and beyond. We shall always hold tight to each other, no matter what life brings us, ye ken?”

“Aye, mo chridhe. Most certainly, aye.” Eyes closing, she squeezed her legs tighter around him and bucked. “More, m’love, give me more.”

“Open yer eyes.” He moved forward with a hard thrust, then stopped until she did as he commanded. “I want to see our love in yer eyes as I fill ye with my seed and sow our first bairn within ye.”

Her eyes popped open and her lips parted. “Fill me, m’love,” she whispered. “Place our first child within me.”

“A son,” he growled as he drove harder and faster. “A son first, then next time a daughter.”

“Aye,” she cried out, then screamed as her pleasure peaked, consuming him with her spasming ecstasy.

Every fiber, muscle, and sinew burned as he exploded. Uncontrollable shuttering rippled through him as he emptied, then collapsed, rolling to the side to keep from crushing the most precious love of his life. He clutched Sorcha tight. “The words ‘I love ye’ are nay enough to describe all I feel for ye,” he said as he struggled to catch his breath. “My chest is tight with the need to shout ye’re mine for all time.” He pressed a kiss to her damp forehead and tangled his fingers in her hair.

“I’m glad,” she whispered as she brushed her lips across his. “For ye own my heart and soul just the same.”

Chapter Nine

“There have been no further attempts on yer life while I was away at Tor Ruadh?”

“Not a single accident.” Sutherland strolled along the top of the skirting wall beside Magnus. A warm breeze carrying the long-awaited warmth of spring tugged at his kilt. “Ye werena gone but a few days. Dinna fash yerself, man. I’m healed completely now and ready for whatever that sneaky bastard tries next.” Magnus fretted about things worse than an old woman. Sutherland appreciated his friend’s concern, but it wasn’t as though he wasn’t able to fight his own battles.

Magnus shot him a perturbed look. “With all that happened before I left, I felt I should return immediately rather than wait and travel with the others. I’ve lost all trust for this place. I dinna care how completely ye’ve healed. The fiend brought ye down when ye were hale and hearty, did he not?” He snorted as he shielded his eyes, peering upward and searching the horizon. “Besides, I had to get Merlin away from Ian and Gretna’s brood before he decided to forgo all my commands and only listen to those lads. They let him have entirely too many rats and spoil him with their coddling.”

Sutherland followed Magnus’s lead and squinted up into the brilliance of the bright blue sky. He pulled in a deep lungful of the sweet Highland breeze as he scanned for any sign of the falcon. The sunny day seemed to celebrate that all was right in his world. He was married to a woman whose passions and stubbornness matched his own. He hungered for her every waking hour, and she yearned for him just as much. A chuckle escaped him. Married. Him. Never had he thought the bonds of marriage would bring such a