Page 83 of Highlander of Steel
“But… with this peace treaty, ye can be free,” she pointed out quietly, confused as to why he was still standing with her if he knew everything. “The reason we got married doesnae exist anymore, and I daenae want ye to feel obliged to?—”
“Will ye cease that?” he interrupted, a touch more sharply than earlier, his other hand coming up to hold her face. “I’m nae obliged to do anythin’. And aye, the reason we got marriedstillexists. I love ye, lass.”
She blinked up at him, wondering if she had misheard.
“I loved ye, or kent Iwouldlove ye, from the moment ye came through the door of yer bedchamber and found me there,” he continued in earnest. “I kent ye would be mine the very second I threw ye over me shoulder and stole ye from that place.”
She relished the rough warmth of his palm against her skin and the light brush of his thumb across her cheeks—she couldn’t help it. All she wanted was to step into his embrace and hide there for a while, losing herself in him. But her guilt wouldn’t allow it.
“It willnae work,” she told him thickly. “What will happen if yer people object? What if they still cannae accept me, and blame me for everythin’ they’ve lost? I mean, what if we argue and ye findyerself resentin’ me later on? Will ye push me away, or throw me part in all of this back at me? I’ve spent most of me life feelin’ unwanted and unwelcome, Killian. I cannae continue to exist that way.”
Killian gazed down at her so intently that her heart began to race, her body responding to him despite herself. “Did ye nae hear me, lass? I love ye. I could never resent ye or push ye away. And me clan willnae either.”
He loves me.
“Ye cannae promise that,” she protested.
“Aye, I can.” He clenched his jaw. “Damn it all—how can I convince ye, eh? Is me confession nae enough?”
She was about to respond that she wasn’t sure if love was enough when he kissed the protest from her lips. His mouth pressed against hers in a passionate graze of urgent longing, his arm sliding possessively, protectively around her waist to pull her closer.
Ailis responded before she could stop herself, her mouth catching his with the same fervent hunger, the same desperate longing.
Thiswas why she had wanted him to leave, because she had known that if they got too close, she simply wouldn’t care aboutthe rest of it anymore. And if she ever kissed him again, she would never be able to send him away. No one was that strong.
All of that was confirmed as she fisted her hands in his shirt and rose on her tiptoes to kiss him more deeply, her body melting into his fierce embrace.
“Ye mean everythin’ to me,” he murmured against her mouth, before kissing her harder, his tongue dancing with hers. “I’ll never give ye up.”
Please daenae. Oh, please daenae.
She met the urgency of his kiss with equal fervor, wondering how she had lasted so long in her stubborn resolve. It crumbled with each press of his lips, each brush of his thumb, and each squeeze of his arm around her waist.
If he had laid her down right there on the mossy ground, she would have welcomed it. Indeed, she was so lost in their kiss and the press of his body against hers and the ragged saw of their breaths that, when he suddenly pulled back, it felt like her heart had been wrenched from her chest.
“Come with me,” he said roughly, his hand sliding into hers.
She hesitated, worried that the spell of his kiss would break. “Where to?”
“Do ye trust me?” He furrowed his brow, clearly wary of her answer.
For a moment, the world stilled, everything slowing down as if she were underwater again. Only, this time, there was no fear in it, just the most perfect wave of peace coursing through her veins.
With a smile on her freshly kissed lips, she held his wintry gaze and nodded, knowing that it was entirely true.
“I do,” she replied.
Indeed, that was the moment she realized that there was no one in the world whom she trusted more. So, when he said that his clan would accept her and that love was enough, who was she to argue?
33
The last time there had been peace between their clans, Killian had often ventured to the beaches in Ainsley. There was one in particular that he remembered with such detail that he could still feel the way the fine, white sand had brushed against the soles of his feet and crunched between his toes.
“Ye could have just said that ye were takin’ me to the same place I was goin’,” Ailis said with a wry smile, still holding tight to his hand.
He frowned down at her. “Ye were goin’ to the beach?”
“Aye,” she replied. “If I learned one thing from almost drownin’ atyerbeach, it’s that nothin’ clears a troubled mind as quickly as viciously cold water. When I thought ye’d gone back with yer braither, me mind was troubled.”
