Page 59 of A Promise of Love

She touched the line of his neck, up to where it met his jaw.

His skin was soft there, then turned rough with a day's growth of beard.

The tip of a finger brushed against his feathery lashes, as long and as black as a crow's plumage.

Two fingers brushed across his brow and down the arched expanse of his nose to that jutting chin with its cleft.

She reached up and placed a tender kiss there, right at the spot where it stubbornly faced the world.

She mapped his face with her fingers, and her wide, wide eyes .

She angled her head, clasped her hands around his neck and brought his mouth closer to hers. He lapped at her tears, and the roughness of his tongue brought a smile to her lips. A smile that soon vanished under the tender onslaught of his mouth .

"Alisdair," she whispered, "oh, Alisdair." It was a litany of love .

Her other hand entwined in the hair at his nape, but he needed no urging. He brushed his lips against hers, tasting the moistness still there, the salty remnants of tears and kisses. His tongue traced the outline and her lips opened spontaneously .

His hand brushed back her hair, that glorious mane of red and gold and brown which swirled around her face. He placed his lips on her forehead as if in benediction .

How they disrobed, she could not remember. It somehow did not seem important, the only reality in the world was the touch of his naked body against hers. She did not demur as he carried her to the great bed in the middle of the room .

They both knelt on the bed, equals in love. Her palms slid up his forearms and he cupped her elbows in his hands. They sat only inches apart , her

breath exchanged with his, his smile a broad echo to her own tremulous one. He did not imagine the pulse racing beneath her skin .

It would be hours until it was dark in the room, but she said nothing as he studied her, made no protest as his brandy eyes burned a path from shoulders to hip.

She was as avid in her own exploration, eyes and fingertips, as if searching for a sign that the weeks apart had changed him in some detectable way .

He placed his hand against her rounded belly, his eyes filled with wonder, joy , fear .

“You did not tell me." His fingers traced a path across her skin. His child .

“I did not know." She bent her head until her forehead nestled into the space between shoulder and neck.

“I am supposed to be barren, Alisdair, “ she whispered. ”I am not supposed to be full with your child.

" She leaned back and smiled at him. There was no more beauty in the world than Judith in love .

“It’s all the practice, Judith,” he said with a grin. “And being Scots ."

He leaned down to touch her breasts with his fingertips, and then his lips, and she moaned softly as he caressed the delicate curve beneath one breast .

His hands reached around her waist and slid down her hips. One of hers strayed to his back, feeling the taut strength of those firm, long muscles. He lowered his lips to hers and she traced the outline of their warm wetness with her tongue .

He spread her hair across her breasts, to where it ended at her knees. She stroked that pelt of hair on his chest and smoothed both palms across it .

He slid his hands up from her knees to the tops of her thighs. Where they parted, she was wet, and it was that wetness his fingers sought even as his tongue delved deeper into the grotto of her mouth. She leaned weakly into him, and he became her support .

He placed both hands on her shoulders and pulled her closer until her head was leaning against his chest. His heart was beating in hammer strokes against her cheek. When he pulled back, she protested, a slight whimper of negation. He only smiled and kissed the tip of her nose .

He left her then and she watched him as he walked to the other side of the room, not as curious as to his errand as admiring of his form. Was there ever a man more gloriously made? The bright sunlight would have exposed any flaw, but as she studied him, she could see none .

When he returned to his position on the bed, his smile was rakish .

"Would you like me to turn around, so you can complete your inspection ?"

"I've seen enough," she said, smiling softly, "and there is nothing I would change ."

"Be certain of that, my love," he said, his easy teasing replaced by a more somber tone, “I’ll not give you another chance." With one hand, he opened her palm, in the other he held Granmere's ring .

"Alisdair, what are you about?" she whispered .

“Something I should have done a long while ago.

Judith," he said gently, "there are four ways to wed in Scotland.

Since I do not see a Kirk nearby, and since we have already been wed by declaration, and lived together as man and wife, I feel that we must seal the deed again by marrying thrice over.

" He smiled. "Therefore, my sweet and lovely wife, we are performing the last way of marriage left us.

Declaration of intent followed by coupling . "

She smiled tenderly .

"Will you live with me and be my wife? Will you love me, my clan and my home? With no regrets and of your own free will?" he asked softly, the rasp in his voice betraying his emotions .

She nodded her head, her heart too full of love, and her throat too choked with tears to speak. He slid Granmere's ring onto her finger .

He lowered her onto the bed, and stretched out beside her, one hand gently resting on her breast, the other supporting his head. He did nothing else for a long moment, as if creating a space for her to breathe .

She wanted no respite .

She pulled his head down, trying without words to thank him for his tender care of her.

Small sounds, not quite words, punctuated their kisses, each soft stroke of finger, of mouth.

In those moments, they created a cocoon of comfort, bathed in yellow sunlight, a perfect delicacy of feeling, carved from life itself .

When her liquid warmth flowed around his fingers, Alisdair slipped slowly into her, filling her so full that he checked his movement to give her time to adjust. Judith had other ideas.

She clasped her arms around his hips and pulled him into her.

With his invasion, she became neither the conqueror nor the conquered. She was simply loving .

Each separate step of this dance of love had been ordained from the beginning of time, yet it felt fresh and new between them now.

He arched his hips back at the same time his tongue began to stroke hers.

She lifted her hips up against his, a tender tyrant, imploring him to fill her again.

A gasp slipped from her lips as he reached down with one hand and stroked her open wetness.

Faint tremors of need shook her as she clutched his back .

Her fingers traced weak patterns on his flesh, her mouth opened against his skin, tasting, licking, gently scraping with teeth and tongue.

He traced her full lips with one finger, then traced his handiwork with his tongue, savoring her winsome smile.

Her hands roamed from his wrists to his shoulders, to the corded muscles and their strength .

Through it all, he moved slowly, gently, coaxing her to soar with him, invading, relinquishing, moving, creating a sweet and unbearable feeling of need within both of them .

Why was it possible to feel his exhilaration as she felt her own, a thrumming that began in her core and sparked outward into a dozen small fires?

Judith gasped, crying out his name as she sank into oblivion for moments, unafraid, even now aware that he held her and protected her.

Aware, too, that he followed her into bliss, his own cry muted by their kiss .

His smile melted into hers .

"Alisdair," she whispered .

"Yes, my love ?"

"Although I admire most of Scotland's customs, and not that I doubt the finality of this sort of wedding, I'd just as soon settle for a parson ."

He chuckled, thinking she would be surprised at the arrival of the visitor from Inverness. The minister would be here in a few days, to celebrate their fourth, and final, bonding. No couple would be more wed than he and Judith .

She sighed finally, holding him close when he would have pulled away .

"Do not leave me, Alisdair," she murmured when he moved. Since he was intimately joined to her, he only smiled, and held her close. She raised her face and drank in the sight of him with misty eyes .

"Never, my love," he said gently, and she smiled at the way he framed that word, a tender and gentle endearment .