Part 16 (1/2)
”Davina.” He was there, above her, his breath hot against her mouth. She opened her eyes to him, ashamed of her tears, and then astounded to see them in his eyes as well. ”I love ye, la.s.s,” he whispered deeply, running his fingers over her cheek. ”Ye will always be first and foremost to me.”
She believed him. Oh G.o.d, thank You, thank You, thank You. ”And you to me,” she vowed as he kissed her mouth, her chin, the swell of her breast, sinking a little deeper into her with each tender surge.
The pain increased as Rob stretched her, but still he pushed, plunging inside her with slow, salacious strokes that began to feel deliciously good. How could she ever be afraid of anything with this man? She trusted him fully, wholly, with her life, her happiness, and with her heart. She loved being in his arms, the feel of his hard body atop hers, covering her, cheris.h.i.+ng her. He was more than she ever could have dreamed of.
Her muscles clenched around him and he groaned with pleasure and buried his length into her.
”I hope ye want this life with me, Davina.” His voice was thick and heavy with need.
Yes, yes, she did.
He pulled his length almost free of her tight sheath and rose up above her. ”Because tonight...” He slipped his hand behind her nape and dragged her toward his hungry mouth while he thrust deep inside her, impaling her to him again, and then again. ”I want to get ye heavy with my bairn, and tomorrow”-he drove into her harder, faster, staring into her eyes as he shot the full bounty of his seed inside her-”I want to marry ye.”
Rob awoke from a dream and ran his palm over the soft indentation where Davina had fallen asleep in his arms. His dream faded and left the terrifying sense of losing her in its wake. He sat up in his bed, ready to take her back.
Darkness replaced the honeyed glow of the dying hearth fire. Silence clung to the thick stone walls and seeped deep into Rob's marrow, drawing his gaze toward the only source of light in the room.
She stood at the window. Her face, tilted toward Heaven, was bathed in the pearly caress of moonlight. His heart accelerated at the sight of her lost in his large tunic. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her hands unseen beneath his long sleeves, as the wind whistling over the hills lifted her pale tresses softly off her shoulders. Dear G.o.d, she looked so vulnerable, so alone, and so utterly beautiful standing there that he nearly leapt from the bed.
The need to go to her was maddening, but her silence was the comfort she gave to herself-the comfort no one else was able to give her. Rob was loath to disrupt it, though he wanted to be the one to offer it to her.
He whispered her name, unable to control his own mouth, or the need to follow her wherever she went.
Hearing him, she turned her head, granting him full view of her face as she smiled. ”I love when you say my name.”
”Aye?” Rob's voice pulsed along with his heart as he tossed his legs over the side of the bed. Standing, he drew his blanket around his shoulders and went to her. ”Callin' ye 'wife' is oot of the question, then?”
”Not if I have anything to say about it.” Her smile grew as wide as his when he reached her.
”Nor I,” he promised, stepping behind her and closing his arms around her beneath the blanket. He wanted to carry her back to bed and make love to her until the morning, but she returned her pensive gaze to the world outside his window. Where was she going? What was it that sometimes drew her away, leaving her so serious and withdrawn?
”I willna' let any harm come to ye,” he breathed across her ear.
”I know that.” She covered his hand on her chest with her own. ”I was just thinking about my father,” she said after a moment. ”I have done the like many times throughout my life. Wondering if he would know me, if he had ever felt the void at his feet where Mary and Anne played. It is foolish to dwell on such things, I know...”
”'Tis no' foolish.” He pressed his lips to the back of her head and closed his eyes, following her to a place where no one had trod before him, and loving her all the more for allowing him to come.
”Do you know how difficult it is to know your family exists, living their lives every day without you, without wanting you in it? I used to pray for him to come for me-him and my mother. But he never did. Later, I understood why, but it did not lessen the isolation. I filled my days with dreams of being someone else. Someone not vital to the kingdom. Just me-out there, living, loving, with no fear of tomorrow. I languished over how different my life would have been if I wasn't the daughter of the Catholic heir to the throne, until I finally hated that I was, and accepted my fate without a fight.” She turned in his arms, the shadows gone from her eyes as she looked up at him. ”And then you s.n.a.t.c.hed me from the ashes and stirred my dreams back to life.”
Rob smiled, pulling her closer. ”Ye've nae need to dream anymore, my love,” he said, kissing her mouth. ”I will give ye everything ye need, everything ye want, and more.”
He swept her up and carried her back to bed. This time, they made love slowly, curiously, as if they had their entire lifetimes to squander away on nothing more pressing than what made the other groan with delight, or smile in ecstasy.
But they didn't have a lifetime. Rob knew her father would come for her eventually, and now, knowing how badly Davina had always wanted him in her life, his fear that she would go with him to England to fulfill her destiny nearly overwhelmed him. Nae, he would take her as his wife and help her forget all she lost, give her everything as he had promised, and pray that the king never found them. Even if he did, James did not know her. He'd never visited St. Christopher's. There was no one left alive from the Abbey to identify her as the king's daughter. No one but Asher... and that would be remedied in the morning.
Chapter Twenty-five.
Rob wasn't in bed when Davina opened her eyes the next morning, but Maggie MacGregor was. She sat at the edge of the mattress, her bright blue eyes riveted on her groggy subject with a mixture of dread and intense interest.
Davina bolted upright, grasping for the blanket to cover herself. She felt her cheeks go up in flames as Maggie's gaze flicked over her bare shoulders.
”I... I...” Oh, dear G.o.d, what could she say? Sickeningly, she remembered what Maggie had called Caitlin MacKinnon. A trollop. Davina was worse than that. She was a l.u.s.ty, wanton wench who fell into a man's bed the day he brought her home. She wanted to weep-or pull the blanket over her head and pray Maggie would be gone when she peeked out again. What was she doing here, and why wasn't she saying anything?
”Where is Rob?” Davina finally managed, dragging the blanket up to her chin.
Maggie stared at her a moment longer before she sighed and shook her head as if she was having trouble of her own getting the words to come out of her mouth. ”He rode to Portree a few hours ago to fetch a priest.”
Relief flooded through Davina. Then he truly was going to wed her. She hadn't really doubted it. So far, Rob had kept his word on everything he'd told her, but she'd been afraid to hope that this was all real. That he was real. By tonight she would belong to a clan. She would have a husband, a sister, brothers, cousins, uncles, and... aunts.
”I know what you must be thinking of me,” she said softly, looking away from Maggie's penetrating eyes. ”But I vow to you that Rob is the first...” Her voice trailed off. Betrothed or not, she was still too ashamed to speak of her maidenhood aloud.
Maggie made a little sound, like a dull blade had just sc.r.a.ped across her heart. She pushed herself off the bed and began to pace in front of it.
”It does not matter what I think. Robert made that clear before he left.” She met Davina's shameful gaze and sighed again. ”I do not think poorly of ye. Robert is not careless with his affection as Tristan is. I know there is deep emotion involved here, and that is what distresses me.”
”Why?” Davina asked on a whispered plea.
Maggie cast her an incredulous look. ”Because ye are the king's daughter! Have ye fergotten that, gel?”
In truth, she had. For once.
”And if bedding and wedding ye were not bad enough,” Maggie continued, pacing faster, ”he thinks to deceive the king about yer ident.i.ty. He is going to tell him that ye are a novice named Elaine, and that ye claimed to be the king's daughter because ye thought Robert was the Princess Royal's enemy and ye had hoped to give her time to escape. But of course, she didn't.”
Davina quirked her brow at her, confused, but Maggie barely took notice enough to clarify further. ”Och, but my brother is going to skin him alive, if yer father does not do so first.”
Davina sat still on the bed as her world crumbled around her. Maggie was right. She couldn't wed Rob without it costing him his life if her father ever came here. Oh, how could they have been so foolish, so reckless? Even last eve she knew in her heart that she could never escape who she was. But crushed against his strong heart, she could pretend.... Tears streamed down her face and she swiped them away, not wanting Maggie to see her weakness. But still they came, until finally she covered her face with her blanket and wept.
”There now, sweeting.” Maggie hurried to her and pulled her into her arms. ”There's no need fer that.”
”I must leave here before it's too late,” Davina cried. ”Will can bring me to-”
”Will knows Robbie's heart and will never go against it. Nae, ye cannot go.”
”But I must. I won't let Rob die for me. I didn't want him to bring me here, but he would not be swayed.”
”Aye, that is my Robert, as stubborn as his father.”
”And then when I saw Camlochlin and met all of you, I was happy he hadn't listened. Oh, Maggie, what am I to do? I love him.”
”I know, child, I know,” Maggie soothed, wiping Davina's eyes, and her own, as well. ”Mayhap, all is not lost. King Charles gave Claire to a Highlander, after all.”
”His cousin,” Davina pointed out, wiping her nose. ”I am the king's daughter.”
”Nae.” Maggie cupped her face and smiled at her, concealing well the misgivings that plagued her heart. ”Ye are Elaine, a young novice who deceived my nephew out of love fer the king's daughter. I will make certain that everyone at Camlochlin remembers it well.”