Page 58 of Bound to a Highland Beast
Shifting on the cloak to face him, Isabeau straddled his legs, her arms wrapping around his neck to pull him close, pressing their foreheads together. Slowly, never once breaking eye contact with him, she reached between them to take him in her hand and guide him to her entrance. Tiernan gasped, his manhood twitching in her grip. When she sank onto his length, taking him deep inside her in one, smooth rock of her hips, he cursed under his breath, trembling with the effort it took to keep his own hips still.
Tiernan’s hands found her hips, guiding her movements. The two of them rocked slowly against each other, holding each other close, their bodies intertwined from head to toe. Isabeau could feel him deep inside her, filling her to the brim as their breaths mingled between them. He was the only thing she could see, the only thing she could feel, her world narrowing down to this one single moment when they were becoming one. Nothing else seemed to exist outside of them. Everything else faded away until there was only her and Tiernan, until Isabeau forgot about everything that wasn’t him.
“I love ye,” she said, whispering the words against his cheek. The stubble there was rough. It suited Tiernan, though, Isabeau thought. It gave him an even more rugged look, adding to thatsharp edge he always seemed to have. “Promise me ye’ll always be with me.”
“I promise,” Tiernan said, wasting no time. “I promise ye,mo ghraidh.Naethin’ can take me away from ye. I love y, I love ye more than anythin’.”
That was all Isabeau needed to hear to calm her racing heart. As long as Tiernan promised her he wouldn’t go anywhere, she knew he would be there, by her side. Even if they faced the council when they returned home, even if for whatever reason, her brothers were opposed to them being together, as long as he promised her, then she believed him.
There was always a way, she told herself. Even when things seemed hopeless, there was always a way.
The slow, leisurely rock of Isabeau’s hips soon brought her to the edge once more, her flesh now overly sensitive, her body responding to the slightest of touches. Every time her mound brushed against Tiernan, every time she felt the drag of his manhood against her walls, every time he pressed his lips against her neck, his fingers against her buttocks, another wave of excitement coursed through her until it was all too much, the sensations building one over the other. When she sank down deep on his length, the angle pressing Tiernan’s manhood against a specific spot inside her, Isabeau was suddenly struck by her second climax, falling apart around him.
In response, Tiernan grabbed her hips with a moan, thrusting up into her a few more times before reaching his own orgasm, spilling inside her with a shudder.
Afterwards, the two of them sat there, still intertwined, still sharing the warmth of their bodies. Neither wanted to part, not even long enough to wash their clothes and head back to the path. Neither wanted to let the other go.
“I wish tae marry ye,” Tiernan said, and though it was something Isabeau already knew, hearing it again, like this, took her breath away. She was so used to Tiernan giving her reason after reason for why they couldn’t be together, it caught her by surprise. “I dinnae ken if it is possible. I willnae lie tae ye, Isabeau. I cannae bring meself tae believe that yer brothers will allow it. Ye may ken them better than I dae, but if there is one thing I ken, is that I wouldnae want me sister tae wed someone like me. But I love ye, I love ye,mo ghraidh, an’ I would dae anythin’ tae have ye as me wife.”
Isabeau felt the sting of tears in her eyes. Even now, even after everything they had been through together and everything Tiernan had done for her, he still didn’t consider himself good enough for her—which, as far as Isabeau was concerned, couldn’t be further from the truth.
She reached for him, cupping one of his cheeks with her hand, her thumb rubbing small circles on the swell of it. “I dinnae ken why ye insist on thinkin’ like this,” she said. “I love ye, an’ I think that is more than enough. Why should anyone else dictate what we dae? Tiernan, ye saved me life, time an’ time again. Ye’vebeen by me side this whole time. Ye’ve done everythin’ fer me an’ ye still dinnae think yerself worthy o’ bein’ me husband? How can ye say that? Who could be worthier than ye?”
For a moment, Tiernan was silent, his brow furrowed as if he was in deep thought. It wasn’t easy for him to accept what she was saying, Isabeau knew—he had spent so many years thinking himself inferior, someone who was only good at killing and stealing and spreading chaos around him, that now it was difficult for him to believe he was someone else. But Isabeau didn’t care about his past. She only cared about the person he was now, the person she knew he would have always been had it not been for the circumstances that had thrown him into that kind of life. He hadn’t chosen to become a brigand; he simply hadn’t had any other choice.
When he didn’t speak, Isabeau pressed a tender kiss to his forehead. “Ye’re worthy o’ love, Tiernan. Dinnae fight it anymore. If ye’re fightin’ it, ye’re fightin’ me an’ I ken ye dinnae want that.”
It took Tiernan a long time to process what she said and for a while, Isabeau thought that she would get nowhere with him, but in the end, he nodded slowly, almost as if to himself. “Aye… aye, ye’re right. An’ I’ll prove it tae ye. I’ll prove tae ye an’ tae everyone that I’m worthy o’ yer love. I’ll dae anythin’.”
With a sigh, Isabeau pulled him close again, wrapping him in her arms. “Ye already have. Ye can rest now.”
A lifetime stretched before them. But in that moment, all that mattered was the present, the breaths they shared, the hold they had on each other’s bodies.
EPILOGUE
One week later…
Tiernan had used his skills one last time to secure him and Isabeau a fresh change of clothes each and a horse so they could make it back to Castle MacGregor. It had been a necessary evil, something he couldn’t have avoided no matter how much he may have wanted to—and wanted to he did, since he had promised himself that he wouldn’t let Beag’s last words get to him.
He was not a brigand anymore. Even if he would carry a part of that life with him forever, he never wanted to act like that again. He never wanted to take another life, to steal, to cause any more harm.
This was the last time, he told himself. It was the last one and it was necessary. He had told himself while doing it that he would make sure to reimburse the people he had stolen from as soon as he had enough coin.
The fresh clothes had helped them blend in and the horse had now taken them all the way to Castle MacGregor, the building appearing in the far distance like a crown jewel on its hill. The sight of the turrets, the curtain walls, the keep that seemed to stretch up to the heavens was painfully familiar, making Tiernan’s breath catch in his throat.
He would have never guessed he would miss a place so much. It had been such a long time since he had last had a real home, since he could call a place home. For years, he had roamed around the Highlands, from bed, to whatever room if he was lucky enough to even have one before getting on the road again for the next assignment, the next target. He hadn’t realized just how tired he was of it until now that he could see the castle in the distance—his home, the place where he could return to familiar places, familiar surroundings.
But for how long? Would this keep being his home once Isabeau’s brothers found out what he had done to her? She was optimistic they would welcome him into the family and be perfectly fine with the two of them marrying, even if they knew of his past, even if he wasn’t noble-born.
But Tiernan wasn’t as optimistic as he had been after their talk and during their trip; he couldn’t allow himself to be as optimistic. If anything, he was quite certain her brothers would throw him right out of the castle if not outright kill him, taking him straight to the gallows.
He couldn’t say he didn’t deserve it. If anything, he deserved nothing less for being so reckless, so selfish. He loved Isabeau,he truly did; but since he loved her and wanted what was best for her, he should have waited until they returned to the castle to even touch her arm. Instead, he had been impatient; he had taken advantage of the fact that they were alone, giving in to his desires and damning them both in the process.
Just before they reached the swell of the hill where the castle stood, Tiernan brought the horse to a halt, swallowing in a dry throat. The thoughts had overwhelmed him. The more he considered what might await them both in that castle, the heavier the reins felt in his hands.
In front of him, Isabeau shifted, turning her head to look at him over her shoulder. “Why did ye stop?”
Tiernan parted his lips as if to speak, but he soon found he didn’t know what to say. If he shared his concerns, Isabeau would be quick to reassure him there was nothing to worry about. But Tiernan couldn’t explain to her just how impossible it seemed to him to keep going, just how terrible the immediate future seemed. It was as though a dark cloud had come over him, obscuring everything but the worst-case scenario, which played over and over in his head, no matter how much he tried to push it out of his mind.
