Page 34 of Claimed Highland Brides

12

NUPTIALS

H is heart was beating rapidly as he watched her walk towards him in the tiny chapel on the grounds of Braenaird Keep. Her plaid gown with its white kirtle complemented her coloring so well that she resembled nothing so much as a woodland nymph, come to grace the mortal world with her presence for a while.

Before the ceremony, he had met with Daividh and the family solicitor in his study to sign his marriage contract. Everything had been laid out in excruciating detail including what he could and could not do with his dowry. For one thing, he could spend the proceeds as he pleased but he was not, under any circumstances, to transfer the properties to other parties.

That was going to be a problem.

His throat burned and he blinked rapidly, trying to inhale deeply, as she approached, a smile winking on and off her face. For a while, he forgot about his sister and what he stood to gain with this marriage. He forgot everything that wasn’t Jamesina—her cold trembling hands in his, her wide-eyed stare making him feel as if he was drowning in a deep brown pool of swirling sunlight. He smiled tentatively, squeezing her hands as they said their vows. When the priest produced a knife and cut through their palms, sticking them together and uttering Gaelic words that he asked them to repeat, Delwyn didn’t even flinch.

Then someone was slapping him on the back and there was a cacophony of cheering.

He laughed, unable to believe the bubble of happiness burgeoning in his belly. They led their guests to the heavily laden tables where everyone filled their plates with food.

Delwyn let himself enjoy the revelry, deciding that he could think about his sister in the morning. In any case, he had to wait for her abductors to communicate with him.

He danced with each of Jamesina’s sisters, as well as his bride. After an endless number of toasts from friends and strangers, Jamesina disappeared with her sisters while he was corralled by Daividh. Several unhelpful suggestions were made as to how he was to consummate his union and he tried his best to remain oblivious. Soon, the laird took him by the arm and led him to what he could only assume was their wedding chamber with much fanfare and lewd suggestions. Delwyn was quite embarrassed by the display but the men simply found that to be another source of amusement.

Daividh thrust him into the room, where he saw that Jamesina was waiting, with one last quip. “Now dinnae come oot until ye’ve bloodied the sheets!” he shouted with a good-natured cheer before slamming the door in their faces.

And then they were alone.

* * *

Jamesina turned to face her husband, having to remind herself to breathe. Earlier in the evening, her sisters had brought her to the marriage chamber, helped her out of her wedding dress, all chirping with excitement, and bathed her in lavender-scented water. Fiona sent the younger girls away before she and Freya dressed Jamesina in a lace and muslin shift for her wedding night. Freya brushed her hair until it shone with fiery glory, cascading down her back before nodding with satisfaction and stepping back. Fiona kissed her cheek and urged her to just relax and let nature take its course before leaving her alone to wait for her husband.

She smiled tentatively as Delwyn avoided her eyes.

“Well that was…something,” he said with a loud expelling of breath.

“Aye weel, at least they dinnae offer tae stay and watch.”

His eyes widened with alarm. “That is a possibility?”

She waved a hand. “Nay, they wouldnae do tha’!”

She folded her hands in her lap as the silence stretched between, the air so brittle it could snap after that last exchange.

He glanced at her and then away, hands studiously clasped behind his back as they stood on opposite sides of the bed, both unsure of how to proceed. He cleared his throat, looking down at his shoes and then up again. He met her eyes, his mouth stretching into a smile even as he swallowed almost audibly. “Would you...would you like to have a seat?”

She immediately sank down onto the bed, her breath shaky and knees unable to support her as she twisted her hands in her lap. She pursed her lips before risking a glance up at him. “Ye do ken how tae, er…”

“Of course!” he exclaimed, eyebrows quirking, “Usually I am quite…adept at this. But I have never been with a virtuous woman before and I am just trying to think how to start.”

She looked to the table by the bed, where a bottle of whiskey sat together with two cups and a plate of rolls. “Perhaps we can start by having a wee dram?”

Delwyn looked at the table as well. “That is a fine notion.” He moved towards the table and picked up the bottle, filling up the two glasses before bringing one for Jamesina. He held up his own cup in a toast. “Sláinte,” he said solemnly and she bit back a smile.

“Ye almost pronounced it correctly.” She grinned as she took a sip of her whiskey.

He smiled back before his mouth twisted and the smile turned self-deprecating. “Aye well, I’m learning.”

“Aye, ye are.” She saluted him with her glass before taking another sip, green eyes resting thoughtfully on him. “Would ye tell me something, Delwyn?”

He turned to look at her, eyebrows raised.

“Why are ye here really?”

He sighed, closing his eyes and then opening them again. Her eyes narrowed the longer he kept quiet.

“Tell me.”

He shook his head, looking down. “I never meant to end up here,” he said starkly.

“And yet, here ye are.”

He aimed a strained smile her way. “Yes, here I am.”

He moved to sit next to her in the bed, his brow furrowed in thought, leaning slightly forward, staring at his feet. Abruptly, he lifted his head and met her eyes. “I don’t want you to think I don’t want to be here. That could not be further from the truth. As unexpected as this adventure has been, you are, without doubt, the best part.”

Jamesina felt her cheeks warm as she leaned forward unconsciously, drawn to the utter clearness of his compelling blue gaze. She reached up and ran a hand through his inky locks. “I have wanted tae do tha’ for some time,” she admitted in a shy whisper.

He smiled, leaning forward and picking her hand from her lap and returning it to his hair. “Well, we just pledged ourselves to each other, and so you can do that as much as you like.”

The unexpected streak of happiness that jolted through her at those words had her back stiffening, and her eyes brightening as her fingers closed on a clump of hair, squeezing tight. He didn’t flinch, didn’t move his head, his rippling bright blue eyes holding hers in hypnotic steadiness.

She let out a breath in a long sigh, her lips parting. His eyes immediately dropped to them and she licked her lips in reaction. He made a sound somewhere between a groan and a whimper and suddenly his own lips were pressing into hers, his tongue asking permission to explore deeper. Her body relaxed as she submitted to him, her other hand rising to clutch at a second clump of hair.

“Jamie,” he murmured into the side of her mouth before he kissed her unforgivingly, relentlessly, his tongue tangling with hers in a dance as old as time. She arched into him, hands trembling with helplessness and fear, even as she offered her mouth to him, asking for more.

He tore his lips from her, his breath harsh and audible, searching her features for she knew not what. He must have found what he was looking for because he got to his feet and pulled her up. His hands on the laced bindings of her shift made her stiffen but only for a moment.

If they were to consummate their union, her clothes would clearly have to go.

Slowly, tentatively, her fingers inched up his strong muscled arms as light as the wings of a butterfly as his own worked on loosening the binds of her shift so that her breasts were not squeezed together like a voluptuous offering anymore.

He put his hands on her shoulders, pushing her shift off them so that it fell to the floor at her feet in a white puddle. Her lashes swept downward, hiding the shyness in her eyes as she stood naked before him. He gasped audibly and she could feel his eyes on her flesh like a burning brand. Her breath came faster as her hands trembled and she started as his hand closed over hers, raising it up to his lips. His breath ghosted hot on her flesh before the warmth of his lips pressed into her knuckles again and again.

“Won’t you look into my eyes, Jamie?” he whispered, and she trembled in reaction to his deep, rumbling baritone.

Slowly her eyes lifted to his and she let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Tentatively, she smiled at him.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered. “Or should I say, ‘bonny’?”

She let out a giggle, relaxing slightly. “Ye may say wha’e’er ye please.”

“Alright then, I shall say you are as bonny as the highlands of your homeland, your wide doe-eyes and fiery hair, the beguiling hills, and valleys of your body…”

She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her. “Oh are ye a poet the noo?”

“Your body makes me want to compose odes to it, certainly.”

That made her laugh out loud and she finally was able to forget her fear and relax in his gaze. He ran his hand down the sloping curve of her side, from just beneath her armpit to the sharp thrust of her pelvis.

“I want to perform sinful acts upon your person,” he whispered confidingly as he leaned forward and sucked a love bite into her neck. She shuddered, eyes fluttering closed as her hands scrabbled for purchase, not knowing where to land. A warm hand on the cheeks of her bottom had her tensing as he squeezed, hard, pulling her flush against him so that she could feel his arousal, even through his clothes.

“Y-ye have m-me at a disadvantage, sir,” she mumbled, pulling at his sark.

“Oh no my lady, you do.” He stepped back, toeing off his shoes even as he loosed the ties on his breeches, divesting himself of both breeches and stockings in one fell swoop. She gasped as his sark flew off just as efficiently and she was forced to contend with his stark nakedness.

Her eyes could not seem to unglue themselves from his long hard length and she wondered how all of that was supposed to fit inside her. Fiona had assured her that it would fit just fine but having been presented with the size of it, she was skeptical.

He pulled her to him and she stumbled forward with a gasp, blinking up at him apprehensively. He took advantage of her inertia by sucking her bottom lip into his mouth. He worried it for a while, causing disconcerting bolts of electricity to strike through her body as if she’d been struck by lightning. She whimpered and he let her lips go only to latch onto her neck, his hands everywhere on her body.

Deciding that she might as well, she embarked on her own exploration, reveling in the hardness of his muscles, so different from the soft warmth of her own. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist without thinking about it. His mouth took hers again even as he stepped forward and tipped her over onto the bed.