“There are only two people I can say who I trust without an ounce of doubt. You and my da.”
“What about my da, Arran, Raven?” he asked, curious that she didn’t count them among her most trusted.
“I trust them as well, but it’s a deeper, different type of trust I feel with you and felt with my da. The kind I never questioned, never doubted. A trust that would never fail me, knowing both of you love me unconditionally and would always be there for me,” she said, feeling that deep security now there with him.
He tried to tame the anger, aimed at himself, that bubbled up inside him. “But I did fail you.”
Oria sat up with a sudden jolt and a startled glare. “I don’t know how many times I must tell you this. You did not fail me.”
“I told you I would keep you safe and I didn’t,” he argued. “You carry that scar because of me. You were forced to wed another because of me. I failed you, Oria, and I sometimes wonder how you can love me.”
“You doubt my love for you?” she asked, shock sending deep wrinkles running across her raised brow.
“No. That’s just it. I’m amazed that you still love me after all you have suffered because of me,” he said. “I always knew you had a kind heart, but I didn’t know you had such a forgiving one.”
“There’s nothing to forgive, Royden. You didn’t fail me and not once did I ever think you did. You did what you were supposed to do that day, fight to protect me, your sister, your clan. And I’ve often wondered if I had made it into the keep with the other women would I have jeopardized their lives just by being there, since those men purposely came looking for me.” She rested her hand against his chest. “It’s useless to rehash what might have been if either of us had done something different. The one thing that never changed, that remained constant through it all, was our love for each other. Never did I question my love for you and never did I doubt your love for me. I always knew you’d come back to me no matter how long it took. And I intended to be here waiting for you.”
“A married woman,” he reminded.
“Burnell told me when we wed, and I could see it for myself, that he was ill and didn’t have much time left. When he lay dying he told me to stay strong that you’d return to me.” She turned a tender smile on her husband as she poked him in the chest. “You’re mine. You always have been and I’m keeping you.”
He barely broke a smile, but passion rushed to his dark eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to toss me back?”
“Never,” she said softly. “Though you said something to me once, a promise of sorts, and you haven’t kept it.”
His brow narrowed as he tried to recall. “Tell me and I’ll rectify it.”
“You told me that it was in this bed we’d make bairns together.”
He smiled, remembering that day. “Then it’s time I kept my word.”
Oria was off the bed in a flash and had her garments off just as fast.
Royden swung his legs off the bed and rested his one hand and the stump of the other to either side of her waist, then kissed just above her navel.
“You never deny me, wife,” he said, looking up at her.
She rested her hands on his wide, thick shoulders. “Why would I? I love you and I enjoy making love with you.”
He pressed his cheek to her flat stomach, then kissed the soft flesh again, loving her female scent that drifted up to tempt him. He looked up at her. “I’m going to plant my seed deep inside you and we’re going to make a bairn, wife, and in the months to come I’m going to enjoy every moment of watching you round with our child.”
His arm went around her waist while his hand remained at her side as he pulled her down on the bed. He stood and was out of his garments as fast as she had shed hers.
He laid down on his side next to her and he ran one finger gently over her face, like the delicate touch of a feather. When his finger traced across her lips, she tried to capture it in her mouth, but he was too quick. His finger remained faint on her naked skin, moving down along her slender neck, across her shoulders, over her firm breasts, teasing her nipple with the pad of his thumb until it was hard, solid like a pebble, and aching for his tongue. His finger moved to her right arm, tracing along it, barely skimming her skin and when he reached her hand his finger traced delicate circles around her palm, and she moaned from the sheer pleasure it ran through her.