Page 39 of Sadie's Highlander (Highland Protector 1)

He wasn’t crazy after all and he’d also said he loved her. Damn, she so needed to hear that again.

“Did you really mean it?” she asked. “Did you mean what you said down there, before the Heartstone…talked…to me?”How pitiful am I? Begging a man to tell me he loves me?

Remaining silent but with a thoughtful look on his face, Alec gently released her hand and bent to the worn leather sporran belted to his waist and draped across the side of his lap. He worked the drawstring pouch open and reached inside. When he pulled out his hand, he held whatever he’d retrieved so that it was completely hidden in his fist. He scooted closer and took Sadie’s hand in his again. “I meant every word I said, and if ye’ll have me, I’ll spend the rest of m’days tellin’ ye how deeply I love ye. I swear ta ye, sweetling, I’ll even love ye past the grave.”

He opened his hand and held out the most beautiful piece of jewelry Sadie had ever seen. “Say it, Sadie. Say ye will be m’wife.”

“Your wife?” Sadie whispered. Joy, elation, and the desire to scream, cry, laugh, or do a hysterically happy combination of all three made it a chore to breathe and keep from toppling over.

“Aye,” Alec responded softly. “Say ye’ll e’er be mine.”

“Oh my God, yes!” She lunged forward, hitting his chest full force and knocking him backward among the pillows. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rained his face with kisses. “Yes, I’ll be your wife,” she cried, tears breaking free and rolling down her cheeks. “Abso-tivin-freakin-lutely, I’ll be yours.”

With a deep rumbling laugh, Alec rolled them until she lay beneath him. “Yer enthusiasm warms m’heart and soul.” He kissed her slow and easy, nuzzling her mouth as though savoring the taste of her. When he finally lifted his head, he shifted to the side and held the shimmering silver brooch above her. “I know ’tis not a ring, but when a MacDara pledges his life to his love, ’tis our custom to give our women these stones from Scotland.”

“It’s perfect.” Sadie was almost afraid to touch it, afraid the spell of the moment would disappear like morning mist at sunrise. Hesitantly, she took the brooch, cradling it in the palm of her hand and rubbing her thumb across the smooth surface of the almost glowing cabochon of agate. “It’s so beautiful,” she whispered, mesmerized by the bands of rich colors shimmering inside the delicate setting of silver knots and whorls. She clasped it to her heart and looked into Alec’s eyes. “Thank you so much…for…everything.” She closed her eyes against the torrent of emotions storming through her. How had she, plain, fat Sadie as they’d always called her, managed to win a man like him? “Thank you,” she repeated, opening her eyes and pulling in a deep breath.

Alec frowned slightly, cocking his head as his eyes narrowed the barest bit. “For what are ye thankin’ me?

Sadie shrugged, the joy in her heart beating back the painful memories and locking them away for good. “For loving me and making me feel beautiful.”

Alec carefully took the brooch out of her hand and stretched to set it safely on the table beside the settee behind them. Then he cupped her face in his hand and drew closer until the tip of his nose nearly touched hers. “Yer a beautiful woman. Tempting and easy to love.” He kissed her slowly, then lifted his head again. “And if I e’er hear ye speak as though ye think otherwise, I’ll be bendin’ ye over m’knee and warmin’ yer fine, delectable arse for ye.”

“Is that a promise?” Sadie asked as a delicious shiver pinged through her, fully arming all sensors for optimum orgasmic pleasure. She arched against Alec, yanking her leg free of the tangle of material and trailing it over his hip to curl it around his waist. “You know…these long skirts are about to get on my last nerve.”

Smoothing his hand up her thigh, then down between her legs, Alec chuckled as he teased his fingertips across her hot, wet opening. “Aye, that may be so, m’love. But I must say, they do make gettin’ to this lovely sweetness a great deal easier.” He dipped a finger inside her as he bent to kiss and nibble a fiery trail down her throat, across her chest, and over to her aching nipple.

Sadie ground against herself against his hand, clutching his head to her breast and arching into him as he sucked her nipple. “Would the chieftain and his lady make love like this? In front of the fire? In this sitting room?”

“Oh aye,” Alec rumbled against her skin as he shoved her gown down off her body, then returned his exquisitely skilled fingers to their task between her legs. “They’d make love in every room of the keep,” he murmured as he nipped and licked his way over to her other breast. “From takin’ her up against the walls of the highest turret to bendin’ her over the dining room table, a chieftain’s duty is to bless his keep with the satisfied cries of his lady.”

“Then we’d better get busy,” Sadie gasped as Alec replaced his wondrous fingers with his mouth, spreading her folds with his tongue and drinking deep while lifting her legs and draping them over his shoulders. “We’ve got several rooms to bless,” she shrieked as he sucked hard on her clit.

“Aye, love. That we do.” Alec lifted his head but a second, just long enough to look up at her and grin. “There’s over twenty rooms in this keep and but a few hours till dawn.”

Sadie groaned and clutched the pillows, shuddering into a tingling hot level of euphoria as Alec lowered his head again, licking and sucking her folds and nibbling at her clit. When he slid two fingers deep inside her, he took her bucking and thrashing into full orgasmic bliss. Somewhere in the fog of sheer ecstasy, she could’ve sworn he also said they needed to bless the stables too.

Hot damn.

Chapter 20

Sadie pressed a kiss to the brooch, then tucked it back into her bra, nestling it snugly in the cleft between her boobs. She wore the precious keepsake on a ribbon around her neck, never taking it off except for bathing—or while making love to Alec. After the night it had snagged in his short and curlies and the pin had nearly impaled him in a rather important spot, he’d forbidden the wearing of the brooch during sex.

A satisfied sigh escaped her as she typed the final paragraph to the last erotic scene she owed Delia. This one was entitled “Blessing the Castle.” She hummed out an appreciative sound as a wicked smile tickled a corner of her mouth. Alec had been extremelyhelpfulfor this particular piece. It was some of the best work she’d ever written, if she did say so herself. She saved the document to the memory stick, growing a bit warm and wet just thinking back over the past several days of in-depth research.

A sharp rap on the door rudely interrupted her erotic reverie and barely preceded Delia blowing into the room. Delia halted halfway across the area rug, her unnaturally narrow nose wrinkling with a condescending sneer as she looked around the cozy decor. “Not exactly the presidential suite, but I guess compared to whatyou’reused to…” Delia didn’t finish the sentence, just scowled at Sadie as though a foul odor filled the room.

“I happen to love it.” Sadie removed the USB stick from her laptop and held it out to Delia. “You’re just in time. Here are the scenes you wanted. Just let me know if you need anything else.”

Her sister needed to take the damn scenes and leave. There was just something about Delia standing in the middle of the room that had become the best home Sadie had ever had that irritated the living shit out of her. Delia didn’t belong here. This was Sadie’s Nirvana, and Delia popping in for a visit was like a demon intruding on a tour of heaven.

“Now that you mention it…” Delia rubbed her hands together and her overly crimson smile widened into an even more sinister sneer. “I do need something that only you can do for me.”

“What?” There was something dark about Delia’s tone. A nauseating chill flashed through Sadie, stinging across her skin and standing every hair on end. Something was about to go very wrong and if history was any indicator, Sadie would be the one to suffer.

“Don’t say ‘what’ like that.” Delia laughed a snickering, high-pitched hissing sound that grated on Sadie’s nerves even more. “You sound as though you don’t trust me.” Delia prissed around the room, lightly scratching her manicured nails across the back of the love seat like a cat searching for the perfect place to sharpen its claws.

Sadie blew out a disgusted huff and turned the chair to fully face Delia. Alec always said, “Meet yer enemies head on.” She did her best to concentrate on the warm weight of the brooch snuggled between her breasts. It was all she could do to keep from snapping that there wasn’t enough time in eternity to list all the reasons why she didn’t trust Delia. She still needed a paycheck to pay off some debts before she married Alec. She wouldn’t hang her burdens around his neck, even though she knew he’d gladly take them.

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