Page 87 of Tempting the Highland Devil
“I am so sorry,” he murmured after he tossed his sword to the ground and wrapped his arms around her to seal their hug. “I should have protected ye better, Yvaine, and I am sorry. I love ye… I love ye so much, and whatever Laird O’Neil made ye see was nay real. I would never betray ye like that, I would never…”
She hushed him with a sweet kiss to his lips, and Arran savored the moment as she slid her tongue into his mouth and deepened the kiss.
“I never believed him,” Yvaine said with a wide grin after she pulled away from him. Her eyes glistened with tears, and the warmth of her radiant smile made him sigh.
He stroked her cheek then her lips and shook his head.
“What would I do without ye? Ye have changed me, Yvaine. Ye made me a better man, and I love ye. I love ye with everythin’ in me, and I wish I had said it sooner.”
“Ye are sayin’ it now, and that is what matters,” Yvaine answered him then she leaned down for another hug and rested her head against his chest.
The solemn moment spanned out, and Arran began to feel the renewed rush of pain from his injuries as the surge of anger that propelled him earlier faded.
Killian marched into the hallway where they stood with most of MacGregor soldiers following behind him.
“Their laird is dead,” Arran announced. “Tell them to surrender, and we shall spare their lives.”
Killian nodded and as he headed out to make the announcement, Arran turned to Duncan.
“Thank ye, me friend. For everythin’.” Duncan smiled before they shook hands and hugged like brothers would.
When he faced Yvaine again, he did so with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Arran extended a hand to her, and she placed one in his before moving to walk by his side. They made it outside to see all of O’Neil men dropping their swords to the ground and falling to their knees.
Yvaine leaned closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. He tightened his grip on her hand and smiled down at her one more time. “Let us go home.”
* * *
Days later they lay in the safety of each other’s arms, enjoying the warmth of the evening, and the passion they just shared. Arran still kissed her body, and trailed his hands down the full length of hers. He wanted to have her next to him like this forever.
“There was nay a time when I dinnae miss ye while ye were gone,” he whispered to her when she rolled over to her side on the bed and stared into his eyes. “I love ye, Yvaine. I should have said it sooner, and I am sorry that it took me this long to realize it. I love ye…I am naythin’ without ye.”
A smile spread out on her lips as she touched his chin and gently stroked him there. “And I love ye,” she murmured in a husky voice before kissing his lips.
Arran’s heart swelled with joy, and he smoothed a hand down to her waist before moving it over her abdomen tenderly. “I want to be a family. It will be ye, me and the bairns we will have.”
Her face lit up with a wide spread grin and she questioned him in a faint voice. “Bairns? Ye want to have bairns?”
His throat clogged up, and in a split second, Arran recalled all that his father had done, and the memory of his mother too. “Aye,” he whispered to her. “I want to give ye anythin’ ye ever dreamed of, Yvaine. I believe that with ye I will be a good faither to them and a good laird to my people. And our bairns will all look like ye.”
He had never imagined this life, but now it was all he could think of.
Yvaine laughed while blinking away some tears, and he brushed them off before she could whisper a thing to him. “I love ye,” she confessed again, then laughed before latching her hands around his neck for another kiss.
Arran looked forward to every moment he would share with her for eternity.
EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER…
The bolting clap of thunder rumbling outside in the rainy night skies worsened Arran’s worry. He paced the hallway in front of Yvaine’s chamber, every muscle in his body tense as he winced from the sound of her wails.
“How much longer will this go on for?” Arran questioned his friend who had been in a very similar situation, too, some years back. Arran combed his fingers through his hair. “Childbirth is hard, and I never want her to go through this pain again,” he complained. He could not bear the sound of her crying.
Every servant in the keep went about their activities in a rushed manner that night as they all anticipated the birth of his first child.
Duncan placed a hand on Arran’s shoulder to calm him down when Yvaine cried out again.
His heart couldn’t take her cries anymore, and he tried to hurry into the chamber to meet her, but Duncan stopped him.
