He’d told them how Caitlin had arrived in the village just a few days after the wedding. He’d been there to fetch something for the Castle, and she’d cornered him, asking a million questions about the new couple. Since then, they’d apparently met often, though it took a week or so before Caitlin started to discuss a “plan”.
“She said she wanted to be with me, but that we couldnae be together without coin and a roof over our heads,”Henry had explained.“She said we could trick ye into takin’ her as yer mistress, M’Laird, and that ye’d lavish her with gifts and coin and her own residence. That’s where she said we’d live together. I’ve been a bampot, M’Laird. I ken that now, but… nay lass has ever looked twice at me. I thought, maybe, me luck had finally changed.”
Since that confession, Henry had been confined to the dungeons. Noah was not yet certain what he would do with the foolish man, but there was a part of him that pitied Henry more than hated him. As such, a more lenient sentence had been playing in Noah’s mind.
Mary and Scott had also been informed of the awful scheme, which was likely why the latter was threatening to loose arrows at Caitlin. After telling them everything, Noah had never seen his friend so incensed, for nothing ever angered Scott. Yet, the mere notion that he could betray his Laird, and with the Lady no less, had thrown him into a fit of rage that had sacrificed several vases.
“Throw me my robe,” Saoirse said, distracting Noah as he hurriedly dressed.
“Yer robe?”
She got up, standing there in all her bare beauty, and nodded. “I need nothin’ more. There’s nay need for arrows when ye have a weapon far more powerful.”
“And what’s that?” Noah grabbed her robe and tossed it to her.
Saoirse grinned. “Showin’ someone everythin’ they want and lettin’ them ken that they cannae have it.”
“Ye’ve been around Mary for too long.” Noah chuckled with a shake of his head. “When we met, ye were never vengeful.”
Saoirse donned the robe, fastening it loosely. “Och, it’s nothin’ so undignified as revenge. Think of it as more of a lesson she willnae soon forget.”
The sight of her so fired up and scantily clad, with the swell of her cleavage enticing Noah’s eyes, he paused in putting on his own clothes. Walking toward her, he shed his kilt and shirt and reached for the tie of her robe.
“Did ye nae hear Mary?” Saoirse said silkily. “We must hurry.”
Noah unfastened the tie and slipped his hands inside, relishing in the soft heat of her skin. “Let the beast wail a while longer. There’s a different kind of scream that my heart longs to hear.”
“Is that so?” Saoirse arched her neck back as Noah’s lips fluttered kisses along her throat.
His hands followed the contours of her waist and caressed the swell of her breasts, before pushing the robe off her shoulders. His mouth grazed the exposed skin, his tongue tasting the sweetness of her.
Unable to resist, he slid his hands over the rise of her buttocks and hoisted her up. Her legs wrapped around his waist, trapping him in the snare where he wanted to be. To think, he would have missed out on morning exploits such as this, if he’d kept his doors forbidden to her.
“I love ye,” he murmured as he carried her over to the nearby table.
She moaned against his mouth. “As I love ye.”
Sweeping the table clear of anything that wasn’t his wife, Noah lay her down on the varnished wood. A moment later, he slid inside her. Soft cries of passion filled the air, mere embers of the blaze that was to come. And Noah had no intention of being quick about it.
No matter what Mary insisted, he wouldn’t rush for anyone, least of all the woman who had almost taken this from him.
* * *
Flushed with the heat of their lovemaking, Noah and Saoirse stepped out into the courtyard with their fingers interlaced. The cool morning breeze caught the edges of Saoirse’s robe, causing it to flap in a most daring manner. Noah had tried to convince her to put on a dress, at least, but she’d only agreed to compromise on a nightgown beneath the robe.
Caitlin’s screeching had died down a while ago, or it might have been drowned out by the cries of pleasure coming from the marital bedchamber—Noah wasn’t sure. Still, he couldn’t hear anything more than a few grunts and curse words on the wind as he headed for the gates.
“Where have ye been?” Scott hurtled down the stone steps that cut down from the battlements. “Did ye nae hear all that caterwaulin’? I thought Mary had gone to fetch ye?”
“She did,” Noah replied, exchanging a knowing look with Saoirse.
Scott frowned. “And ye dinnae think to hurry?”
“It wasnae a moment for hurryin’.” Noah grinned and gave Saoirse’s hand a squeeze.
Rolling his eyes, Scott signaled up to the guards on the gate to raise the portcullis. “Do ye want me to close it behind ye?”
“Nay,” Noah replied, “but if she darts around me, ye have my permission to seize her and drag her to the dungeons.”