Love Beyond Dreams (A Scottish Time Travel Romance): Book 6 (Morna's Legacy Series) (22 page)

“No. I was far luckier than she. Though ’tis a blessing we found each other in the end.”

I reached up to brush away a tear that pooled in the corner of his eye. He grabbed my wrist as I did so, slowly bringing my palm to his mouth so he could kiss it.
 

“Did she know all along who you were?”

“No. She dinna have any more reason to think it possible than I. When I found her dying in the woods, I told her that I’d remembered and that my name was no Craig but Orick, and she knew then. She meant to travel to our home, and ’tis there where I buried her.”

“I’m so sorry, Orick.” I leaned in and kissed his brow.
 

“Ye doona need to be sorry. I am sad for it and will be for some time, but I’m grateful she found me and that I was there for her when she died and was able to bring her home.”

 
The events of Orick’s life made my own heartaches seem quite trivial. He’d been through so much, so many different times, and still he lived with his heart open. He didn’t shut people out just because he was afraid of being hurt. I was a coward, and I was tired of it.
 

After all of the things he’d shared with me, I could try to gather the courage to do the same with him.
 

“Why have you told me all of this? None of it can be very easy for you to talk about.”

I could see by his expression he thought it an odd question.
 

“No, but most things are no meant to come easy. I’ve found the conversations that do are also often verra meaningless.”

I realized it was very much the way I lived my life, keeping only things that meant nothing close, so that I had nothing to lose.
 

“You’re so brave, Orick. Being around you makes me feel like such a coward.”

He reached down and tilted my chin up so I would look at him before he ducked and kissed me.
 

“A coward, lass? No ever have I seen signs of cowardice in ye.”

“It’s not in the things I do but in the way I allow myself to feel. My heart is a coward.”

“’Tis only that yer heart is slower to open. Just like the buds of the most beautiful flowers. Ye just need time.”

I moved into him so close that I could hear the beat of his heart in my ear. “Doesn’t it bother you that I haven’t shared anything with you—that you open up and I don’t return the trust?”

“Ye will when yer ready.”

I kissed him, slow and long and with enough fervor that we both came away from it breathless. “I will. I promise one day I will crack open like a clamshell, and you’ll learn more about me than you ever wanted to. But not tonight.”
 

CHAPTER 38

I was too shocked the last time I visited Cagair Castle during this century to take notice of the lack of people around it but, after being at Macaslan Castle and seeing the number of men and women who worked for him, it seemed odd. In fact, the closer we got, I realized it was seemingly vacant.
 

“Is there anyone here? Where are the workers or guards or maids that help Callum run this place?”

Orick shook his head as he dismounted then turned to help me off of Grock. I reached to pat the horse’s neck before I slid off him, bending to thank him for the ride. I’d grown rather fond of the beast and, to my complete surprise, my rear end, while still sore, seemed to be much more accustomed to riding than it had been.
 

“When Callum is away, he sends the rest away as well. He thinks if he gets to enjoy his travels so should the villagers that work so hard for him. He’s a fair man, if no a damned fool for thinking he could marry ye.”

I laughed and walked with him as we led our horses to the stables.
 

“Does he just leave it unlocked?”

“Aye. ’Tis so isolated that none will disturb it. And old man Tom comes up from the village each day to ensure all is well.”
 

 
I could almost see the relief in Grock’s eyes as he spotted his stall in the stables. He would be happy for the rest after such a long journey.
 

“Will Tom assume everything is not well when he sees us inside the castle?”

“No.” Orick took my hand as we walked out of the stables. “I’ll speak to him before it can cause him worry. Ye have a choice to make, lass. I dinna grow up in a castle, no before I fell in with the MacChristy’s nor after. To sleep in a castle makes my skin itch in a way I doona care for. Adwen suffers from the same affliction, though Callum’s adjusted to the castle well enough. When Adwen was laird here, I stayed in the stable house. ’Tis there that I feel the most at home.
 

“If ye wish to stay separately, I understand. I ken that we dinna have a choice on the way here, but I willna assume just because we are married that ye wish to share my bed. I can prepare a room for ye in the castle. Even if ye wish to stay together, ’tis up to ye where we sleep. If ye prefer the castle, ’tis there where we shall stay.”
 

Nights of sleeping in each other’s arms on the way here, nights of holding and kissing but not truly touching had me itching for sex in a way unfamiliar to me. I knew it must have done the same to him—he was just too polite to say so outright.
 

I reached for him, pulling his face into my hands as I kissed him and then wrapped my arms around him to speak into his ear.
 

“I do want to share your bed, Orick. I have wanted to since the first night you showed up at the back door in the rain.” I laughed, thinking back on my dreams of him. “Truthfully, I wanted to long before that. And the stable house is absolutely fine. I married the pauper, remember, not the laird.”

His breath caught, and he pulled me closer as his hands wound into my hair. He pulled my head back so he could kiss me once more. His lips moved skillfully over mine until my legs were shaky and my breathing came fast. When he pulled away, I could see the need in his eyes.
 

“Just so I doona misunderstand ye, ye doona mean sleep as we have done so before, aye? Ye mean…”

I nodded and reached down to tease him, gently running my fingers up his thigh.
 

“Yes, Orick. I think it’s high time we consummate this marriage of ours.”

CHAPTER 39

“Truly?”
 

He asked the question like he simply couldn’t believe it. His excitement was adorable.
 

“Yes, truly.” I laughed and kissed him once more. “It would no longer shame me since we are married. Orick, I want to be with you.”

He groaned and held my face tightly in his hands, looking at me with an enthusiasm I’d never seen from him before.
 

“And I ye, lass. Can ye wait a short while? I havena been inside the stable house in a long time. I doona wish to bed ye amongst the cobwebs and filth. Allow me to clean it and prepare a bath for us.”

“The both of us?” Orick was astonishingly tall and his home rather small. “It would have to take up half the room to hold the both of us.”

He winked and pulled away from me, eager to get started. “Aye, it nearly does. I shall hurry as fast as I can, Gillian.”

“Okay. I’ll just wait over on the castle steps.”

He smiled and watched me as I walked over to the steps.
 

I had a penchant for being able to sleep anywhere. I was slumped over and out within five minutes.

*
 
*
 
*

When I woke, it was to the touch of Orick’s arms slipping underneath me so that he could lift me from my napping roost on the stone steps.
 

“Oh wow, my sleeping and snoring is just exactly what you needed to get your engine revving, I bet.”

He pursed his lips together in confusion. “I doona ken what ye mean. Yer snoring doesna bother me, truly. Ye’ll be wide awake soon enough. Come inside with me.”

He carried me through the doorway and then set me on my feet. Everything inside was spotless and perfect. A fire burned in the corner. A comically large tub sat near it, filled three-quarters of the way with water so steaming I couldn’t imagine how he’d heated it all. The bed was turned back and comfortable looking, and on a small table, he’d laid out cheese and ale for snacking. My pulse quickened at the mere sight of everything, and my heart warmed at the thought he’d put into it.
 

“How long did I sleep?”

He shrugged and smiled at my reaction.
 

“I doona know. I was glad ye slept, though, for I felt badly for taking so long.”

“Don’t. It’s wonderful.” I smiled as I felt him step toward me, his front touching my back as his arms came around my waist, and he bent so that his chin rested on my shoulder.
 

“As are ye.” He nibbled at my collarbone before dragging his sweet kisses up my neck as his breathing escalated and his hands started to roam over my front.
 

I gasped as his hands gripped at my breast, and I reached behind me to start working on my own laces. Seeing what I was doing, he pushed my hands away so that he could undo them for me. His hands moved quickly down the laces, but once the dress was loose, he paused.
 

“Turn toward me, Gillian. I want to see ye.”

I did, pulling at the fabric near my waist so that it would drop. I still had my hair pulled up from the ride but, as the dress dropped, Orick reached behind me and pulled my hair loose, running his fingers through it so that it draped around my shoulders.
 

“Yer hair, lass. ’Tis a thing of beauty, just like every bit of ye.”

I stood naked before him. Quickly I grew cold from standing in the open, and he pointed to the tub as he started to disrobe himself.
 

“Get in and I’ll join ye.”

I enjoyed this side of him. While he was always confident, I liked to see him state so plainly what he wanted. In this moment, he wasn’t thinking about everyone else. I found it insanely attractive.
 

The water felt amazing as I slipped inside. It was so deep I had to sit on my knees to keep from going under. If I wanted to relax and lay back in the water, I would have to do so on Orick’s lap. Although, I suspected that’s why he filled it as full as he did.
 

“I’m afraid once you get in here the water’s going to splash over the side, and you’ll have to hold me up so I don’t drown.”
 

I watched as he removed his shoes first, then his shirt and finally his pants. I’d always thought the expression ‘
the size of the shoes shows the size of the man
’ was probably a bunch of hogwash—not in Orick’s case. I swallowed and looked down at my thighs in the water to keep from showing my nerves.
 

He didn’t seem to notice and, once he was naked, stepped into the tub behind me, sliding to his bottom and reaching for me to pull me securely onto his lap. I lay back against him as he kissed my neck.
 

“Doona worry about drowning, lass. I’ll hold ye right here.”

He reached over the side for a rag and wet it before running it up and down my front, the roughness of the rag scratching my skin deliciously. The touch of it seemed to tease me until finally I could take no more. I wanted his hands on me, in me—I wanted him to send me spiraling.
 

“Touch me, Orick. Just drop the rag and touch me.”

I felt what my words did to him, and the rod in my back only heightened my need for him. He obliged me quickly using one arm to hold me against him as his other hand dipped beneath the water, reaching in between my legs to massage me there. I panted and writhed against him, climbing as he quickened the pace of his fingers.
 

When I peaked, he groaned into my ear, standing from the tub as he grabbed a blanket to wrap us in. He pulled me up with him, turning me so that I would wrap my legs around him as he carried me to the bed.
 

He said nothing. He didn’t need to, our bodies responded to each other in a way words never could.
 

We fell roughly onto the bed. The weight of him sent my breath out in a sudden rush before he lifted himself for entry. My legs opened on instinct. With our bodies still wet and my center still ready, he plunged into me with so much force that I cried out from the size of him.
 

“I’m sorry.” His words were choked, painful. “I canna pull out from ye, lass.”

He’d mistaken my scream for pain. While it had hurt, I didn’t want him to stop for a moment. It hurt so good.
 

“I don’t want you to.”

That was the only permission he needed, and he took me like a man who’d gone a very long time without such intimacy. I reveled in his need for me, in the desperate urgency of his every move. He carried me upward with his passion, and together we crumbled and shook against one another.
 

CHAPTER 40

Gillian thought he was sleeping. Orick could tell by the way she didn’t move a muscle while she whispered to him beneath her breath. Her feet stayed wrapped around his legs, her arm draped across his chest. The only thing that moved besides Gillian’s lips was the wee pup that lay curled between his legs, but he didn’t dare move himself for fear she’d stop talking.