Heart of Stone by Rebecca Ruger
Chapter Nineteen
“Calum!” Julianna cried. “You should not be here.” And with that, she dropped low behind Brida and Helen in the tall grass outside the gates of Blackwood.
“But what are you about, lass? We’re to start soon.”
Marta danced by Calum, tossing loose petals at him. “We’re flower picking.”
“It’s getting on twilight, girls. I’d rather you were all inside the gate now.”
“We won’t be long. Send Finn or Artur down to stand with us,” Julianna called out. “You should not see me before the vows. My sister Alice always said it was a bad beginning.”
“Sorry omen, indeed,” concurred Brida.
“Julianna, we’ve had our bad beginning, and we’re done with that now—”
“Please, Calum,” she cajoled, making her voice sweet, with a tinge of a whine.
“Verra well, but dinna go any further until one of the lads is here with you.”
“Yes, dear.”
At his departing chuckle, she threw out, “I’m practicing my wifely demeanor.”
“Needs work, lass,” he called back, his voice farther away.
“What’s wifely demeanor?” Helen wanted to know.
Julianna stood straight again when Calum had disappeared inside the walls of the keep. “My sister said it’s pretending to be sweet so that you get your way.”
Brida and Barbara giggled at this while Helen seemed to give some thought to the premise.
“Here you go, Marta,” Julianna called, having finished one more wreath, as all the girls wanted to wear flowers on their heads. Marta came running and stopped in front of Julianna, allowing her to place the crown atop her small head. “There,” said Julianna. “And aren’t you all so bonny.”
“I wish we had new gowns, though,” Helen said.
None of them did, not even the bride, though Julianna was quick to remind them, “I’d rather a house for all of us forever than a gown I might wear but one day.”
It was only a few minutes later that saw Finn ambling outside the gates. He smiled as he neared and took in Julianna’s appearance and her altered dress. She and Fenella had spent this afternoon giving the neckline of the plain blue léine a more feminine scoop, that it rounded modestly over the top of her bosom, And dear Brida, whose embroidery was exquisite, had sewn a trail of leaves and flowers in white thread very close to the new seam. Fenella, wonder that she was, had then presented Julianna with a sumptuous veil of gauzy cotton, which lie softly upon her head.
“Aye, and aren’t you a vision,” Finn said when he found her. “C’mon then, lass. Have ye given thought to your vows?”
“A bit,” she confessed. “But I need a few more minutes, Finn. I want a wreath of flowers for my own, which had been my original plan when we were set to wed at Kinclaven.”
“Go on then,” he said agreeably, throwing a pointing finger out toward the field beyond the taller grass.
Finn walked with Julianna through the thigh-high grass and wild flowers while the girls stayed close. This meadow was wide and flat that it saw so much sunlight, wasn’t thrown into any shade as there were no trees about. The grass, then, was more yellow than green and made even more so by the setting sun, bathing everything in a shimmery golden haze. Nature’s dust peppered the air all around, glittering and dancing as they moved through it.
“Ye nervous, lass?”
Julianna turned to Finn and shook her head with a beautiful tranquility. “I am only happy.”
“He’s a good man, lass. He’s no’ as bonny as ye, but ye’ll do well together.”
“He’s a very good man. But how is that so, Finn? How can he be good and honorable and wise if he were raised by his uncle, who by all accounts, is none of those things?”
She picked flowers as she walked, threading and tying the stems together, butterwort and the white heath bedstraw, intertwined with the blue and delicate flower of the meadow cranesbill.
“Aye, but his mam was alive until only a few years ago. She was something else, ye ken. She was strong and fair and aye, loved to laugh. But she dinna coddle him, dinna put up with any of his bluster. He adored her, was good to her.”
“That explains it then. Otherwise, I had to imagine that it must have been your influence, maybe Artur’s as well, that had made him what and who he is.”
“He was just always so sure of himself. His mam did that, too, put that in him. Was giving orders by the time he was ten, and leading men soon after, when his da’ was killed. Ye ken, some are just born that way, to lead, to serve, to hold things together.”
“The way he holds all of you together,” she supposed.
“Aye, but lass, I’ll tell ye now I’m about as pleased for him as I am for ye. You’re exactly what he needs, whether he ken it or not. Mayhap he gave it thought, taking a wife, mayhap he dinna. Never talked about it, dinna even say too much when we headed down to Kinclaven. But every great man needs that person at their side, to get on through life with. And she’s got to be strong as well, got to be kind and good and keep him grounded. And aren’t ye just perfect for the role.”
“I hope so. I will try. I wouldn’t ever want to disappoint him.”
“Ye will no’, I suspect. And if ye do, ye just flash those eyes at him, give him that smile, all will be forgotten.”
Julianna grinned and teased, “That’s some admirable fatherly advice, Finn. Thank you.”
“Aye, and you’ll truly be one of us now. All yer life, a MacKinnon. All these lasses now as well, by association.”
She stopped and concentrated on finishing off her circlet of flowers, her gaze suspended there where her hands worked.
“How do you feel about the plan to go forth, away from Caerhayes, to make our own path here inside Blackwood’s realm?”
“Och, but just ye asking has me wondering how ye feel about it? Does it scare ye, lass? Or were ye hoping on a fancy keep?”
She raised her gaze to Finn. He was very handsome with the golden sun reflecting off his weathered face and fine blue eyes. And just now, she noticed that he wore a fresh tunic and breeches, likely changed for the wedding.
“Finn, I’m not afraid of anything if I’m with Calum, and if we’re all together. And I don’t care about the size of my house. I haven’t a home to return to, really, with my stepfather as he is, and my sisters all wed and gone.”
“Aye, then that’s good, all right.” He shrugged then and narrowed his eyes at the setting sun, tucking his thumbs into his belt. “I’m getting old, lass, and Cal’s an old soul, ye ken, that we’re inclined to dream on the same things. So, aye, I’m looking forward to it. Something simpler.”
A whistle sounded from the open gait. Julianna and Finn turned at the same time, saw Artur waving them back and that Marta and Helen were already rushing back toward him.
“Ye got that finished then?” Finn asked.
Julianna nodded and fixed the wreath onto the top of her veil, looking to Finn for some indication that she didn’t look ridiculous. He smiled and stepped near, adjusting the left side with surprising gentleness.
“Aye, and now it’s perfect. Let’s get ye wed.”
“And have those sweet breads for our feast,” she said, tucking her hand into Finn’s elbow as they started back toward camp.
“Ye dinna have enough this morn when ye broke yer fast?”
“Can anyone really ever have enough sweetbreads, Finn? They have fruit and nuts in them.”
“Mayhap farming is no’ for us, then, lass. We might consider an orchard to keep ye in sweetbreads.”
***
JULIANNA WALKED TOWARDhim under the golden haze of the candlelight of the hall. Garbed in the blue gown that hugged her body as lovingly as Calum intended to do this night, she’d covered her head in a laurel of summer blooms over a thin veil, which fell softly over her shoulders.
Her gaze was only for him, though the entire hall was crowded with so many people. The green of her eyes was bright and crinkled in the corners in a reflection of the serene smile she wore. Holding Finn’s arm, she walked to where Calum waited at the front of the room with Gabriel at his side, who had solemnly proclaimed that he’d be pleased to act as officiant. Julianna stopped when she stood next to him. Calum returned her smile, having looked his fill, knowing he might be gray and old before he was accustomed to only the look of her, how it affected him. It wasn’t all about her loveliness, though. So much of her beauty, he understood, was wrapped up in how she looked at him.
A handfasting was traditionally intended as a betrothal, would usually bind a couple together for the length of one year. After that, the couple would say, aye, we are compatible and we shall wed; or nae, we are not meant to be married. Today, their handfasting would be for life, as was occasionally done. Calum had no intention of ever letting her go.
“Let us begin,” said Gabriel.
Calum and Julianna stood side by side, turned to face his friend.
Gabriel lifted the rope Calum had given him a short time ago. Out of the corner of his eye, Calum was aware of Julianna’s grin widening. He, too, had thought it appropriate that that rope that had originally bound them when she was his prisoner should also bind them for life. They lifted their hands as Gabriel first draped the rope over their wrists and then wound it several times, with some intricacy so that some of their fingers were joined as well.
Gabriel said, “As your hands are bound together, so too are your souls joined. Pray for your love to be as the stars above, a perpetual source of light. Pray for your union to be as the earth below, ever of a solid foundation.” With that opening, he nodded toward Calum.
Calum pivoted so that he faced Julianna completely, saw only her, and was immediately overwhelmed by the hope he found in her green-eyed gaze. He cleared his throat and spoke in unwavering tones. “I choose you, Julianna Elliot, to be only mine and I only yours. I pledge to cherish you and protect you always, to keep you ever at my side, be it in sunshine or in storms. I will honor you above all others, for you will be blood of my blood and bone of my bone. One day we’ll die, but first we will live.”
“Julianna,” Gabriel prodded softly then.
Her voice was sweet and softly given, the vows made without hesitation. “I choose you, Calum MacKinnon, to be only mine and I only yours. As I have given you my hand to hold, I give you my heart to keep. I will respect you always, have faith in your heart, and air no grievance outside of your ears. Above all this, I will love you beyond measure, beyond living, beyond death.”
Artur and Finn’s whispers carried to where Calum and Julianna stood.
“She said naught about any obedience.”
“Aye, but he ken that going into it.”
Grinning now, Gabriel then invoked a blessing from God, while Calum and Julianna made eyes at each other. She was on the verge of tears, her lips trembling as she stared at him. But she was also smiling so that he decided it was naught but her sometimes tremendous emotions that cloaked her now. Calum lifted his free hand and wiped away the lone tear that slid from her eye. He smiled encouragingly at her and favored her with his intense regard, promising her so much more than those simple words he’d given.
Gabriel continued, “These are the hands of shelter and comfort and love, so long as your hearts are one. May your days be good and long upon this earth. So may it be.”
Those gathered and watching repeated, “So may it be.”
She is mine now, always and forever.
Calum moved his arm, drawing their knotted hands between them and away, outward that he was able to draw her close and kiss her. He kissed her through and around her smiling.
A raucous cheer went up throughout the hall and from the rear of the room, the two villagers who owned and played instruments filled the air with music. With that, the simple but binding ceremony complete, Calum and Julianna slipped their hands from the tangled rope without unknotting it. Calum carefully tucked this inside his tunic. He kissed Julianna one more time, lightly now, before she was drawn away, first by Gabriel, who bowed with a knightly flair over her hand, adding his personal wish for happiness. The MacKinnons were not nearly as courtly or as proper, but took turns slapping Calum on the back and engulfing Julianna in huge bear hugs, some of which lifted her off her feet.
Artur and Finn even embraced Calum, the latter whispering happily to Calum at his ear, “Best move ye ever made, lad. I’m verra proud of ye.”
The feast that followed was magnificent and very generous of Gabriel and all of Blackwood. Calum and Julianna were feted as guests of honor by assuming the lord and lady’s chairs at the family table. They dined on roasted pheasant and smoked salmon and a host of other dishes, and Julianna indeed satisfied her sweet tooth. They visited with and accepted the well-wishes of Blackwood’s denizens and those from the village who’d come up to the keep for the feast. There was dancing and singing, some bawdy and some tender, and Calum was sure the younger girls from Murkle had never laughed and giggled so much as they did that night.
Calum and Julianna stood or sat side by side the entire night. Often his hand settled on her lower back and once when she was saying something to Gabriel, she set her hand onto Calum’s chest with a great and seductive familiarity, asking him to remember something. Later, he wouldn’t recall what she’d asked, but that she’d touched him so easily, so casually and intimately. He enjoyed the celebration in their honor immensely, but truth be told, he spent much of the evening wondering how soon he might sneak her off toward their bedchamber for the night.
***
CALUM HAD INSISTEDthat no one practice any of those raunchy traditions that saw the groom or bride carried off to their chamber for the night, and for this Julianna was thankful. They escaped quite effortlessly then, having bid goodnight to those closest to them. Julianna had hugged all the girls and bid Finn and the MacKinnons see the lasses off to bed soon. She took Calum’s hand and they slipped from the hall while the feast continued.
When Calum closed the door behind him inside the chamber she’d used now for several nights, Julianna ducked her head and bit her lip, hardly able to believe what was about to happen. Her stomach fluttered in anticipation and yet, she hoped she did not embarrass herself. She wondered if that were possible, with Calum. Maybe it was not.
“Dinna be nervous, lass.” He strode toward her, the soft light of the lone taper rendering him in shades of dark gold.
Julianna lifted her face to him. “I am not—well, yes, I am nervous. But not because of this—I want this, I have some notion that great pleasure is in my near future, but Calum, you know I can, that is, I get emotional....quite easily. And my sister Margaret told me that she knew she loved her husband before she married him but still, she hadn’t been prepared for making love with him, how she was so overwhelmed by that.”
It dawned on her—belatedly—that this might be awkward now, that she’d just put some gauntlet before him, that he must endeavor to overwhelm her with his passion and prowess. She felt bad and bit her lip, wishing the words back.
She needn’t have worried. Calum was not made uncomfortable, showed no concern that he couldn’t overwhelm her.
The bare light showed a flash of his white teeth, with the smile that came. “Aye, bride,” he said, “but I’m no’ of a mind to hold back only to spare your overwrought emotions. I’m going to love you tonight as I’ve been dreaming on for weeks. I’m going to make you mine, only mine, from this day forward. And you’re just going to have to deal with it.”
“Thus, prepare to be overwhelmed?”
“Aye, brace yourself. Unless, you’re nervous for any other reason, aye, then I’ll proceed slowly. Is your back yet sore?”
“I don’t think I am nervous, Calum, and my back is fine by now. I’m rather wondering why you’re not making me naked. I understand that’s expected...or helpful. And I want very badly to see you fully unclothed.”
“Jesu, Julianna. You talk like that, bride, slowly has no choice but to fall by the wayside.”
“Very well, but do I undress you and you me, or do we simply remove our own clothes and come together?”
His gaping and pleased astonishment was visible to her. “I’m going to enjoy very much being wed to you, lass.”
“Me, too. To you, that is.”
“You just...you give so freely of yourself. You’re no’ ever afraid to put your thoughts and words and aye, even your heart out there.” This was given with some inscrutable tone.
“Do you...do you wish I wasn’t so...forthcoming?”
“Nae, lass,” he said somberly, his voice filled with pride. “But dinna ever tell me again you’re no’ brave.”
“I am brave when I am with you, Calum.”
“That’s no’ me that makes you brave, Julianna. That comes from within, and you ken that.”
She breathed deeply and turned her back to him, removing her veil and the crown of flowers, showing him the laces of the kirtle. “Would you untie me please?”
His fingers were warm and solid against her skin, reminiscent of that moment he’d first touched her like this, when she’d been so overcome by her jumbled nerves and racing pulse.
When he was done, Calum turned her in his arms to face him. “Look at me,” he coaxed, his voice low. “We are going to do this together, one touch at a time.”
He lowered his head and kissed her. It was gentle but for a moment, his lips quickly becoming more demanding, opening her mouth with his own, while his hands moved, out of her hair, down her shoulders to settled on her hips, pulling her against him. His tongue dove into and explored her mouth in a kiss that sent fire surging through her body. Somewhere in the chaotic tumult that was her mind, she wondered that she wouldn’t be made completely insensible before it was done; he’d but kissed her and her legs were weak, that she clung to him, her fingers wringing the linen of his sleeves.
He pulled back and moved his hands again, up over her shoulders, pushing at the soft fabrics, coaxing her kirtle and overskirt away and down. It was agonizing, how slowly he slipped her free of her clothes. A wave of heat stroked her, growing in multitudes as her breasts were bared and then her belly, until the pieces hung at her hips. Calum left them there for the moment, lifting his hand and brushing the aching globe of her breast with his palm.
Julianna gasped but held still, panting through her nose while they stood only inches apart that his heat was easily assumed and welcomed by her body.
“Have you thought about this? With me?” He wondered huskily, letting his palm slide up and down over her hardened nipple.
“I have, and only with you.” Her voice was not her own, the sound completely foreign to her.
Calum moved on to her other breast and that nipple offered the same welcome, tightening for him. Julianna shivered with delight. For hands so large and strong and calloused, his touch was as silk.
He bent and took her lips again. She had thought about this with him, but as her thoughts were limited to her experience—the heat and wonder of Calum’s kiss—she’d not ever given thought to tender versus feverish. Truth be told, she hadn’t known what to expect but that he would bring her pleasure.
But with this kiss now, she understood that Calum would love her as he lived, powerfully and with great intensity. The kiss was bold and wild, his tongue darting inside her mouth, his hands lowering from her breasts to slide her gown and kirtle completely away from her hips, that they dropped to the ground at her feet and she was naked against him.
Guided by love and need, and a growing frenzy to touch him, she began to tug at his tunic. Eagerly assisting, Calum broke their kiss to raise his shirt over his head. It wasn’t too dark to appreciate all his magnificent virility and she lifted her hands to him, wanting to feel all his beauty. Closing her eyes, she let her hands know him. He was solid and warm and surprisingly smooth, and a new clamoring arose inside her as she moved her hands over his shoulders and down across his chest. He stood there, allowing her to learn him. When her fingers moved lower and reached the waistband of his breeches, Julianna pushed at the rough linen, wanting gone anything that would stand between them.
“Just ties, lass,” he said thickly, “that I’d sincerely love for you to unfasten.”
The ache in his voice told her his need and want matched her own, that she only knew shyness for fumbling around in the dark with the unfamiliar laces. He was patient, and helpful even, standing straight and holding back his kiss.
While she worked at the ties, he toed off his boots, doing so with a levelness that moved his hips barely at all. There was something extremely provoking and so very carnal about slowly learning how to undo his breeches, her fingers often meeting with the granite of his stomach, and then pushing them down, she being the one to make him naked.
“You wear no hose,” she said, noticing the lack as his breeches met her garments at their feet.
“Seemed a wee excessive for a wedding night.” She thought she detected some hint of devilry in his tone.
But then all thoughts left her. Julianna’s lips parted as she drank in the sight of him, naked to her incredibly curious gaze. She whispered with no small amount of chagrin, “I want to see you in daylight...or any greater light than this.” She was most curious about his manhood, projecting out from a thatch of curly black hair between his legs.
“Aye, and you will,” he murmured, taking her hand from where she’d laid it against his chest and drawing her near again. “This is but the first of a thousand times I will make love to you.”
Everything after a kiss, all she’d known from him thus far, brought her new and dizzying delight. Calum settled his fingers on her naked hips and pulled her flush against him, their chests and legs and stomachs touching. Reveling in the naked heat of him, her senses reeling at all this maleness pressed against her, Julianna whimpered. But the noise died when he kissed her again. She lifted her arms and wound them around his shoulders, clinging to his nape as he ravaged her mouth with his tongue.
Her breasts were crushed to his chest and his growing erection jutted formidably against her belly that she wasn’t sure her legs could support her much longer.
“Lie down with me,” Calum urged, coming up from the soul-shattering kiss. Dragging her hand away from his neck, he moved toward the mattress and brought Julianna down with him. “Lie back,” he directed when she sat next to him and when she did, he stretched next to her on his side.
For a moment, he only stared at her, looked over the length of her, from her face down to her toes and back again. He set his hand over her breast and brought the nipple to hardness again, watching her as she did him. The room was not so dimly lit that she wasn’t aware or made heated by the bold and dazzling promise of his gaze. But then his head followed his hands, his lips finding the flesh of her breast, his tongue scraping gingerly over her nipple. Julianna released a breath of unexpected pleasure. The reaction to his mouth over her breast was felt in so many parts of her, under his tongue and across her belly and between her legs, as if all these parts were connected.
Julianna lifted her hands to cradle his head against her, shifting, angling toward him, lifting her back to meet his tongue. His hands moved as well, his caressing fingers gliding along the outside of her thigh. Her body quickened as his palm stroked over her leg toward the center of her. When his fingers slipped between her thighs, the excitement was nearly unbearable. And when they moved over the curls covering her womanhood, she moaned once again as a moist, aching weakness pulsed to life beneath his fingers. His fingers grew bolder, delved deeper, that Julianna let her legs fall open to him, lost to the magic of his touch.
“Jesu, but you are so wet for me,” he whispered heatedly as he slipped one finger inside her, exploring her with smooth and tantalizing strokes, sliding in and then out.
She must be dying, she thought hazily, wasn’t actually sure she was breathing any more. His slick fingers had done that, had clipped the tether that had barely kept her grounded. Was it possible to die from sensual pleasure? Her hand flopped to her side and her head rolled while he learned her most secret places.
“That’s a glorious smile,” he said just before he leaned forward and laved his tongue over her swollen nipple once again.
Small, exquisite convulsions stroked every inch of her, and Julianna lifted her hips, rising to meet his fingers when they plunged and lowering her hips when he withdrew.
“Aye, that’s it, love,” he murmured against her breast.
Suddenly, Julianna was writhing with need, straining upward toward his fingers and his hand, where his palm was torturing the thatch of brown hair between her legs. A burning frenzy engulfed her and she sobbed, clutching blindly at him as she rocked against his hand and was shown a flaming rapture that she neither understood nor had been prepared for. She quivered with a moan, embracing the ecstasy as it washed over her until she was numb and motionless. Calum shifted and wrapped his arms around her, holding her trembling body, kissing her hair.
When she could speak, she tried to form a question. “Calum, what...?”
Another peck landed on her cheek before he loosened his hold, lying half atop her. “That’s one way to give and receive pleasure, lass.”
“But...I thought there was only one way.”
“Julianna, there are hundreds of ways to achieve that release.”
“You’re going to kill me, then, like this?” She could not refrain from asking.
He took it as it was meant to be, just her astonishment speaking. She picked out a grin in the dim light. And then he captured her hand and brought it to his still hard cock. “More pleasure here. Feel how hard I am for you, how much I want you, Julianna.”
“We’re not done, then,” she understood with renewed enthusiasm.
He shook his head as he closed her fingers around him. “Nae, love. We’ve only just begun.”
He showed her how to stroke him and whispered what he was going to do with her. She didn’t blush, couldn’t blush, even at his bald speaking, so much of her blood yet gathered at her core. The size and shape of him aroused her again. She hadn’t thought she had any life remaining but then he touched her breasts again, with his hands and his mouth, and his fingers slid inside her once more that soon she was moving against him, wanting to know everything with him.
“Don’t only tell me,” she begged, “show me. I want to feel you inside me, Calum.”
His raw and husky response stroked her already enlivened senses. “Aye, love, I need to feel you around me.”
Calum moved, settling his hips into the cradle of her open thighs, his erection seeking entrance. Julianna went wild with expectation and shifted beneath him to accommodate him. “Slowly,” he cautioned. “I dinna want to bring you pain, though there’s no getting around it.” He sank slowly into her, filling her, his hands fisted on each side of her head.
Julianna gasped again, breathless and amazed. But there was no pain, only fullness.
Calum bent his face low and kissed her savagely at the same time he shifted his hips back and surged forward, pushing through her barrier. Her cry was caught in his mouth. Tears sprang to her eyes. The fingers at his waist dug into his flesh. Aye, she’d been warned by her sisters about the pain of the first time, but each one of them had described it as naught but a twinge. This was more than a twinge.
“Give it a minute,” he rasped against her lips, otherwise unmoving.
Her panted breaths were blown against his mouth until Calum distracted her with another kiss. There was just enough space between them that the short hairs of his chest teased her nipples with even the slightest movement, causing Julianna to seek more. She moved her chest, which moved her hips. Calum growled low in his chest and lifted his hips, stroking smoothly and slowly forward again.
Julianna tensed, holding her breath, until she realized the pain was not as sharp now. He moved again, withdrawing with excruciating slowness before submerging himself deeply again. He did this again and again until the pain was forgotten, and a burgeoning ache grew inside her once more. When Julianna lifted her hips to meet him, he increased the tempo, alternately kissing her and fondling her in places away from where their bodies were joined. She knew now what would come, recognized already the growing desire inside her, and moved her hands down to cup his solid buttocks, silently begging him to seek more, go deeper, move faster until her world caught fire once again. She cried out this time, rocking her hips against him as her climax coursed through and over her. She wanted it to never end, wanted to know that divine feeling for hours and continued to move until Calum buried himself deep and stiffened, grunting and breathing some curse before collapsing against her while their bodies throbbed.
She was only vaguely aware of his voice murmuring in her ear, was only dimly conscious of the sheen of perspiration that made his skin slick. Her eyes were closed, unable to be open, it seemed. For long moments, they did not move, their fused bodies spent and sated.
Finally, Calum moved, but only to raise his arms to support himself while he lifted his face above her. He was yet on top of her, yet filling her so marvelously when he laid his lips in a reverent kiss upon her cheek.
“Aye, this feels like a fine appreciation, indeed,” he quipped softly, harkening back to her words to him when she’d first declared her love.
A short and airy giggle burst forth. His beautiful smile was so close. She hadn’t words for what she felt just now, couldn’t pinpoint each and every emotion that thrilled her and satiated her. Whatever the whole of it was, it was lovely and perfect and somehow made her weepy. She lifted her hand and laid it against his cheek, wished she could see his eyes clearly just now.
Calum continued to place small kisses about her face, on her other cheek and her nose and near her temple, where likely he encountered the saltiness of her tears. “Why do you cry, bride of mine?”
“I don’t know. I hadn’t expected... that is, I didn’t think it felt this—I thought it was more just a nice feeling, like you enjoy a person, are pleased with your match, hopeful for your future. I had no idea it was so...consuming.”
“Aye, it is that.”
“And powerful. And...it’s just unexpected.”
His voice was low against her lips. “My mother used to say you could no’ ken love until you met love. I never understood what she meant. No’ when I was young. But aye, I ken now.”