A Warrior's Heart Read online

  Eyes glowing, Roran bent over her and kissed the swell of her belly with reverence.

  *

  Brighid knew the exact moment Roran realized the truth. His relaxed posture stilled; his eyes widened and searched hers. Yes, she answered with a look, cradling her belly suggestively.

  His questioning expression turned fierce, and barely a breath later, she was in his arms. She didn’t need to ask how he felt about it; it was all right there, in the tenderness of his touch, in the moisture adding a sheen to those beautiful eyes. A host of powerful emotions churned beneath the surface, no doubt fueled by the questions now bombarding his mind. Among the foremost would be When had she known? and Why hadn’t she told him?

  Later, she would explain how she had not known of the bairn prior to leaving Scamallhaven. Of how, with so much going on, the truth had not dawned until after she had left and was already well beyond its borders. Of how, at that point, heartbreak, foolish pride and selfishness would have kept her on the path to Donatirim.

  And hope that by such confession, he would find it in his heart to forgive her, as she had forgiven him.

  As tender as he was, a familiar heat began to build with Brighid. It was always like that with Roran. With but a glance from those eyes her body melted for him, but under his gifted touch, it surrendered to him completely.

  She shifted beneath him, needing to feel him on other parts of her body as well. Roran obliged, his touch no longer trembling, but hungry. One hand stroked down her thigh. When it came back up the inside, he coaxed her legs open. Brighid whimpered slightly as the feel of his hot breath eased its way over her belly, moving ever so slowly toward her center of need.

  For as large as he was, her knight-warrior moved with subtle grace, his form rippling in a symphony of lean flesh and muscles until broad shoulders pressed beneath the back of her upper thighs, baring her most intimate secrets to him. He paused, looking up at her, through the swell of her aching breasts, and Brighid’s breath caught on a gasp. Never had she seen such a look of feral possession on a man’s face before.

  She barely had time to process that thought before his mouth found her aching, throbbing center. Like a giant cat, he licked her. Slowly. Decadently. His tongue ran the length of her now-swollen folds, from her entrance, up and over the sensitive nub, along the lips coated with her slick heat. Then she felt the absence of his hot mouth for an eternal second before it reappeared at her entrance and began its exquisite, torturous journey once more.

  Brighid’s hands fisted in his hair, silently pleading him for more as she gyrated her hips, chasing down that elusive, glorious pressure. He laughed at her eagerness, rewarding her with a long, calloused finger penetrating her slowly. He circled and teased, lapping up the results of his ministrations, and again she was reminded of a large cat contentedly licking cream.

  Contented was not good enough, not when he was torturing her with such pleasure. As wonderful as it felt, she needed more. She needed to feel the hot, thick length of him stretching her; filling her until he was such a part of her that it was impossible to tell where he left off and she began. Words flowed from her lips, words of such a brutal and explicit nature that her hardened warrior groaned against her sex. Never had she made such demands from another, words of raw power that seared the air around them.

  In the span of a few heartbeats, Roran was naked, poised over her, his cock heavy and weeping against the entrance of her sex. Their eyes met. Blue to golden brown. And in that moment, everything else ceased to exist. He was her universe, her world.

  Without losing eye contact, Roran slid inside her, a slow, smooth stroke that seated him to the hilt. Her nails gripped his muscular back in encouragement; her legs wrapped around his hips to pull him deeper. He began to move, and she with him. Two people joined seamlessly in heart, soul, body and mind, moving together as one.

  Lost in each other’s gaze, they quickly ascended into bliss as one.

  They clung to each other, climbing together, resisting as long as they could in the perfection and profundity of their joining. And when they could no longer hold out against themselves, they came together, as one.

  It was all done silently, without a single word spoken between them, but in each other’s arms, they had both found all the answers they needed.

  Epilogue

  “Where is Sean?” Brighid worried, pacing about the anteroom of the great cathedral in her long, flowing gown, causing her attendants to flutter about in an attempt to keep her train smooth and unblemished. Her hand reflexively flew to the tight fit of her bodice, pulling at it uncomfortably. Had she not been so far along, it would have fit beautifully. As it was, she was perilously close to the limits of the fine fabric’s endurance.

  “He will be here,” Gavin said calmly. He half-stood, half-sat against the ledge, striving for the appearance of control and grace under pressure. Earlier, she had heard him discreetly confess otherwise to Kieran, admitting he felt anything but, because his pregnant daughter, only living heir of the king, was about to be married to a High Knight of the King’s Guard. Her heart had swelled when he followed that up by saying he would be strong for her sake, because he had missed being there for her whole life and would never again fail her.

  They had spent a good part of their return trip getting to know each other. Understandably, there were some awkward moments, but they were few and far between. Gavin McKinnon was a good man, and after only a few hours in his presence, Brighid could easily see how her mother would have been so attracted to him. Quiet and intelligent, Gavin reminded her of Roran in many ways.

  She cast him a grateful look, changing her direction to stand before him. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.

  “Now, there,” he soothed, putting his arms around her in a comforting embrace. For a man who had only held his daughter for the first time less than a month previous, he was quite good at it. He seemed to instinctively understand she was terrified of large crowds and had been prone to great mood swings in the last week or so. How much of that was due to his grandchild and how much to the thought of appearing before the whole of Scamallhaven, he wasn’t sure.

  “Doona fash,” he said quietly, rubbing her back. “Sean will be here soon, and then we can get on with all of this and be done with it.”

  Brighid smiled, knowing her father wasn’t particularly comfortable with all of this pomp and circumstance either. They were very much alike in that respect.

  “Where did he go?” she asked for the hundredth time. She didn’t really expect him to answer. Each time she’d asked, Gavin had shrugged his shoulders and averted his eyes, exactly as Roran and Aedan had each time she had asked them.

  Brighid simply could not understand why, once the spring rains had abated enough to permit them to travel back to Scamallhaven, Sean had taken off like a soul released from the underworld after he had promised to stand beside Roran at their wedding.

  Brighid did not want to get married without him present, and she knew that Roran felt the same way. Sean, rogue that he was, was one of the select few Brighid considered her family.

  It came as a great surprise when Gavin actually hinted at an answer. “I am not privy to the specifics, but I believe his absence has something to do with a wedding gift.”

  Tears instantly ceasing, Brighid looked up quickly into her father’s glittering and amused eyes. All traces of worry were erased, replaced with barely concealed excitement. “A gift?”

  “Aye,” Gavin nodded cautiously, “A gift.”

  “What kind of gift?” she wondered, her brows drawn together in concentration. “What could Sean possibly procure that the king himself would not?”

  “That is the question, is it not?” Gavin agreed with the hint of a smile.

  “Ye ken what it is,” she accused, narrowing her eyes and placing her hands on her hips.

  Gavin’s grin grew. “Och, yer mother had that same look when riled. Even in yer wedding finery, ye are as fierce as an
y creature I’ve ever seen.”

  Her hands went from her hips to cross over her torso; beneath her gown, her toe tapped impatiently.

  “As I already said, I doona ken the specifics.”

  “But ye ken enough te guess, didnae ye, clever sire of mine?”

  “Verily, my respect and admiration for Roran continues to rise. He might be the only mon capable of holding his own against such a suspicious and cunning female.”

  She snorted softly, but could not fully keep the corners of her lips from curving upward at his teasing attempts to change the subject. “Ye ken.”

  “Perhaps,” he said with a slight twitch of his lips.

  His attempt to keep her mind occupied and the contents of her stomach in place were transparent, but greatly appreciated. She was having a hard time of it lately, the morning sickness purging all but the blandest of sustenance within minutes of ingesting it.

  “But ‘tis to be a surprise, Brighid, my love. You would not want me to ruin the surprise, would you?”

  That was exactly what she wanted. In her experience, surprises were not generally good things. Certainly, her own royal wedding was a far different circumstance than her struggle for survival, but such wariness had been deeply ingrained over time.

  Thankfully, a very relieved looking knight chose that moment to poke his head through the doorway and announced that Sir Sean had returned and the ceremony would begin momentarily.

  Gavin pulled the veil over Brighid’s face and took her trembling hand in his. The walk from the back of the cathedral to the front was a long one, indeed, but thankfully, they both made it through without incident. When they reached the front, Gavin placed Brighid’s hand in Roran’s, and then dutifully took his place to the side.

  For several moments, Brighid was unable to see anything but the man before her. She had never seen Roran dressed in full regalia before, and it was an impressive sight, indeed. Clad almost completely in black, with silver and blue woven expertly throughout his tunic, he was, quite possibly, the most handsome man she had ever seen.

  It was only after Roran chuckled and squeezed her hand that she realized she had been gawking at him openly. She blinked once, then twice, as she fought to control the urge to simply attach herself to him right then and there.

  The ceremony itself was a blur in her mind. Brighid found she could not look away from the man who was binding himself to her. As he promised before God and his king to love, honor, keep and guard her for the rest of his life, she swore she actually felt her soul weaving with his. It was with her entire heart that she promised to do the same for him. And after a whole bunch of words that never quite penetrated her mind, she was in his arms and he was kissing her as if she was the only woman in the world.

  Afterwards, a grand celebration was held, the likes of which Scamallhaven had not seen for many a year. It would span several days at least. Thankfully, Roran had promised Brighid that after a few hours of required appearances, they would sneak away to begin their life as a married couple elsewhere.

  “You look absolutely breathtaking,” Sean told her later, lifting Brighid’s elegantly garbed form up easily in a friendly, informal hug. She smiled at him, glad to have him back safe and sound.

  “Thank ye, Sir Sean,” she said, affectionately returning his embrace. “Ye are mighty easy on the eyes yerself.” Like Roran, he was dressed in his formal knight’s attire, gaining more than his share of feminine attention. And, if Brighid had learned anything about the libidinous knight, he would take full advantage of it.

  Yet for as all of his good looks and fancy dress, she saw a decided weariness about his eyes, as if he had not slept in days. He hid it well beneath his devastatingly handsome grin and incorrigible attitude, which she had learned was more a mask than anything else. As one who had worn many such masks herself, it was easy enough to detect his.

  He laughed and kissed her cheek before setting her back onto the floor. “Are you not going to nag and pester me for my tardiness? ‘Tis not like you, Sprite.”

  Brighid’s cheeks pinkened at the now-familiar nickname. He understood her almost as well as she did him; he knew exactly how to delve beneath the surface finery and touch the hidden parts she rarely revealed. It was like a well-played game of chess, each of them countering move for move. Despite their drastically different backgrounds, they were well matched.

  “Might I remind ye that ‘tis a princess ye speak with so boldly, and the bride of a High Knight?”

  Sean tried to hide his smile, but was not fully successful. “And a great pain in the arse. To me, you will always be the Sprite who managed to best every king’s man who ever crossed her path.”

  She laughed, intensely relieved that things had not changed between them. She needed that, or else she would never survive the next few months in her new environment. “What have ye brought for me then, my brother, ye great rogue?”

  His tired eyes twinkled. “Who says I brought you anything?”

  “My father,” she said, the words still sounding rather foreign upon her lips, but welcome all the same.

  “Some men cannot keep their mouths closed,” Sean muttered quietly, shaking his head.

  “Doona be too hard on him,” Brighid said. “He held yer secret admirably until just afore yer arrival, but he kenned how worried I was about ye and sought te allay my fears.”

  Sean paused, as if her words truly surprised him. “You were worried about me?”

  “Of course I was. ‘Twould not be like ye te come so close te missing our wedding unless ‘twas something of dire importance. At least it better have been.”

  His face held an unreadable expression, then he smiled and laughed. “Fair enough. And aye, ‘twas an important task that had me riding without thought of rest beyond need.” He looked over her shoulder and caught Roran’s eye. Putting both hands on her shoulders, he leaned down. “Close your eyes, Sprite, so that I might present your wedding gift to you.”

  Nearly bursting with excitement, Brighid squeezed her eyes shut so tightly Sean laughed again. He spun her around so that her back was to his front, then leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Open your eyes.”

  Brighid did. The anticipatory smile faded as her eyes rested upon the figures before her. Three figures, to be exact. Scrubbed pink, clean, and dressed in fine clothes, they grinned back at her.

  “Brighid!” It was the little girl who found her voice first, tearing across the space that separated them and launching herself into Brighid’s arms. “Ye look a right fairy princess!”

  Brighid wrapped her arms around Elsa as tears ran down her face. Coinin and Finn made their way over a bit more slowly, with hesitant, almost shy smiles.

  “Och, I nearly didnae recognize ye,” Brighid said through her tears as she opened up her arms to include them all in her embrace. “I have never seen ye quite so clean!”

  They all laughed together, holding on to each other tightly as if they feared someone might try to separate them. “Is it true, Brighid?” Finn asked, his light green eyes wide. “Do we get te live here with ye now?”

  Brighid looked up into the face of her new husband and the knight who must have ridden day and night to find them and bring them back to her. Roran simply nodded, smiling.

  Brighid had never loved him as much as she did in that very moment.

  “Aye, ye do. And we will live in a great castle, and ye will meet King Aedan himself.”

  “The king?” Coinin gasped.

  “Aye.”

  “Come along,” said a buxom, motherly woman, attempting to coax the children away. Brighid recognized her as Nan, the nursemaid who, according to Aedan, had cared for Brighid’s mother when she was a wee infant. “Let us get you fed and put a little meat on those skinny bones, shall we?”

  They looked longingly at the banquet tables, heavily laden with more food than they had probably ever seen, then back at Brighid in silent question. She nodded. “Go. ‘Tis all right. Eat yer fill and then ye will tell me all about
yer grand journey with Sir Sean, aye?”

  Sean smiled and slipped away, leaving Roran reaching for his bride. “Ye are a wonderful mon,” she said simply, hoping that he could see the love she had for him, especially when words seemed so ineffectual. “Ye’ve given me a child, a husband, a grandfather, a father, and a family,” she whispered in wonder as she slipped her arms around his neck. “What can I ever hope te give ye?”

  Roran looked deeply into her eyes, pulling her against him as the rest of the world simply faded away. “You. Forever.”

  “Aye,” she breathed, her heart speeding up and pounding against the walls of her chest as her new husband lowered his head for another soul-melding kiss. “That I can do...”

  Thank You!

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  Avelyn McCrae is the somewhat naughty alter ego of Abbie Zanders.

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  Avelyn/Abbie

  Looking for your next good read?

  Like contemporary romance with some humor and sass? How about sexy alpha males with hearts of gold? Paranormal? Time Travel? Try something from Abbie Zanders: Contemporary Romance Dangerous Secrets (Callaghan Brothers, Book 1) First and Only (Callaghan Brothers, Book 2) House Calls (Callaghan Brothers, Book 3) Seeking Vengeance (Callaghan Brothers, Book 4) Guardian Angel (Callaghan Brothers, Book 5) Beyond Affection (Callaghan Brothers, Book 6) Having Faith (Callaghan Brothers, Book 7) Bottom Line (Callaghan Brothers, Book 8) Forever Mine (Callaghan Brothers, Book 9) *