Page 37 of Forgotten Secrets (Secrets of the Heart 4)

“I would if I could, but I promised no’ to say a word.”

“You did?” He found it amusing that the queen of gossip was refusing to talk.

“If you tell me your secrets, I’ll tell you mine.” That should arouse her curiosity.

“I dinna care if ye have secrets,” she said, surprising him to no end. “I still want to marry ye and be yer wife.”

“You can’t mean that.” He pulled her against his chest and smoothed back her hair.

“I have been kent to be a gossip my entire life, and I’m tired of it,” she told him. “Recently, someone told me to use my gossipin’ for guid, but I dinna understand how I can possibly do that.” She looked up to him with wide, glassy eyes. “Do ye?”

“Nay,” he said, with a shake of his head. “I can’t say I know how to use gossip for good, but I assure you if I think of something, I will let you know.”

“Guid,” she said. “Will ye make love to me now?”

“Not before I tell you a little about myself. You see, I am not the kind, generous, protective, chivalric man you think me to be.”

“Ye are bein’ modest just like ye said my uncles were bein’ when they turned down the invitation to compete for the earl’s holdin’s.”

“I assure you, it has nothing to do with modesty.”

“Ye are no’ goin’ to turn me away, are ye, Bedivere?”

She looked so sad that it about broke his heart. “Well I –”

“I dinna want ye to ever forget me.”

“Nay, I promise I won’t.”

“Ye’re goin’ to leave me. I can tell.” Her body became tense and she seemed to panic.

“It’s not that I’m going to leave you, Morag. It’s just that with my past, I don’t think you’d want to be married to me.”

“Leave the past in the past and live in the now,” she told him. “If no’, there will never be a chance for a future between us.”

“What are you saying? That you don’t want me to tell you anything about myself?”

“Nay. I am just sayin’ that I dinna care who ye were in the past. All I care about is who ye are now.” With that, she reached up and kissed him hungrily, climbing atop his lap.

Morag’s words were like music to his ears. If she truly didn’t care about his past, then she honestly was the angel he thought her to be. He needed a new life, and wanted one desperately. And with Morag at his side, he felt as if he had hope again for the first time. Mayhap, with her light, the darkness of his blackened soul could be purged after all. If she could truly accept him for who he was, then that was all that mattered.

In heated passion, they kissed and all thoughts of breaking the betrothal left his mind. He ran his hands down her back, feeling her quiver under his touch.

“I want ye, Bedivere,” she whispered, throwing back her head, letting her long hair float on the surface of the water. She looked like a siren, if there were such things. Her body was warm and pressed up against him, making his lust for her out of control. He had to have her.

“I want you, too, Morag,” he said between kisses. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted a woman in my life.” His kisses trailed to her chest and his lips closed over one hardened nipple. Using his tongue, he swirled it around her nub causing her to moan slightly. Then to his surprise, she reached down and touched him under the water.

He groaned, trying to hold back, feeling as if he were about to burst. With both hands, he cupped her buttocks and spread her legs, bringing her over him, slowly sliding her down his hardened shaft.

“Och, we are doin’ it,” she cried out in excitement. Her innocence was like a breath of fresh air in his murky life. “I like it,” she told him. “It doesna hurt at all.”

“It gets even better,” he assured her. “But it is too cramped in here for me to pleasure you properly. I am going to take you to my bed.”

In one motion, he picked her up, her legs still spread around his waist. She giggled and held on to his shoulders. “Dinna drop me,” she said as he stepped from the tub, spilling water all over the rushes on the floor.

“I would never drop you,” he said, kissing the side of her neck as he brought her to the bed. Still holding on to her, he pulled back the blanket and laid her atop the sheets. “I think I am falling in love with you, Morag.”

“Bedivere, I feel the same way about ye.”

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