HAPPILY, no one had come after them. During the night, the rain and the wind stopped, and the sound of thunder faded off to the east. Inside the cottage, the fire’s embers only flickered, and the air had grown cool.
The single blanket was not nearly long enough to cover Bamberg, and his feet extended a good few inches beyond the bottom. The two of them were squeezed into a narrow bed not even wide enough to support the width of his shoulders. Her elbow poked into his side, and her naked back was pressed against his bare chest. She was deliciously warm in his arms. He’d spent the night in his breeches, his good intentions intact.
Last night had been a first for her…and a first for him.
For her, it had offered the first experience of her birthright as a woman. For him, it was the wonderful realization that the angelic woman lying in his arms was going to be his partner in life, forever.
Bamberg knew when she awoke by the change in her soft breathing. He smiled and ran his fingers through the silky golden tresses draped over his arm.
It was nearly dawn. Grey light filtered in from around the door and the shuttered windows. He knew they should be up and dressed, for Dermot and Millie would certainly send a boat after them now that the storm had passed. He owed so much to his friends. He’d expected a few hours. They’d given him the chance for a lifetime of happiness.
Taylor placed a kiss on the arm she’d been using as a pillow before turning in the small space and facing him. “When are we to wed?”
He ran his thumb over her swollen lips and kissed her forehead. “We’re in Scotland, so today, if that suits you. Unless you’d like to have your family present.”
“I don’t.” Her answer was quick and definite. “You’re my only family from now on. You are my today, my tomorrow, and my future. You’re the only one I need.”
Bamberg pulled her tightly against him. Her words warmed his heart. He thought of their future and all the years they would have together, enjoying each other and all the places they’d go.
“And wherever you wish to go, I want to be there with you.”
She’d read his mind. “Someday soon, whether or not we are blessed with a child, I’d like us to live in Bavaria, if that is acceptable to you.”
“I’d like that,” she whispered. “But right now, I don’t think your mind is on travel or your estates in Bavaria.”
Some things could not be hidden when two bodies lay pressed together in a narrow bed.
Her fingers trailed downward over the hard muscles of his stomach until she reached the front of his breeches. The hardness and size of him must have startled her, for she immediately withdrew her hand. But an instant later, she sought him out again—timidly, slowly, feeling him, exploring him. A low groan of pleasure emitted from deep within him, and this appeared to give her the courage that she needed.
“I haven’t forgotten all the times you said last night that we have to wait to make love until we’re married.” She rolled him back and climbed on top of him.
“Then what is it you have in mind right now?”
“Doing to you a little of what you’ve been doing to me.”
Bamberg pushed the blanket off her shoulder and lifted his head to her breasts, taking her sweet flesh into his mouth. But she was clearly determined not to allow him to lift her alone into a state of bliss. Not this time. Coaxing him back to her lips, she seduced his mouth with her lips and tongue and with soft murmured cries in her throat. Before he could recover from that, she was undoing the buttons of his breeches.
Bamberg was lost the moment she reached inside and wrapped her fingers around him. All the strength and self-control he’d employed last night was gone. He’d never be able to hold back now.
“Hullo?” a voice called from outside the cottage. “Is someone here?”
CHAPTER 6
OLIVER PENNINGTON MCKENDRY came into the world in the wee hours of the morning with a healthy cry of protest after nearly twenty hours of labor. Immediately following the birth, Dermot and an exhausted Millie took a few moments alone, holding their infant son and admiring the perfection of the wrinkled face and hands and feet.
Soon after, the grandparents were allowed in. And shortly after that, the baby was taken briefly to the Great Hall to meet the other members of the Pennington family who were continuing to arrive. Aunts and uncles and cousins lined up to view the infant.
It was sometime in the middle of the day when Dermot and Millie looked at each other and remembered the friends they’d left out on the small island in the loch.
“After what I’ve done to her,” Millie said unhappily, “Taylor will surely never speak to me again.”
“No doubt,” Dermot agreed dolefully, before adding brightly. “But the silver lining in that cloud is that we’ll be drinking fine Bavarian wines until we’re old and grey. Bamberg will now be
