Page 83 of Highlander's Captive Bride
“Och, Daisy, the things ye do to me,” he panted brokenly, gazing deeply into her eyes as his body took her to the brink of bliss and sent her plunging over the edge. She was still screaming his name when his thrusts became more urgent, and he murmured, “Ye’re mine, Daisy, all mine,” into her mouth just as she felt him stiffen inside her. His body convulsed, seized by a wave of ecstasy.
They lay like that for a long while, both slick with sweat and panting, to catch their breath, staring into each other’s eyes and smiling in wonder. Daisy loved the feel of Bellamy on top of her. She loved to be able to run her hands freely over any part of him she liked, getting to know his body, all its scars, and all its power and beauty. She sighed with contentment, embracing him once more, her legs around his waist, her arms holding him tight.
He rolled over so she was lying on top of him. He ran his hands up and down her back, then cupped her behind and squeezed it as he gazed at her smilingly.
“D’ye ken, me bonny lass, since the first time I laid eyes on ye properly, in those woods, when ye tried to run away from me, I’ve wanted ye? I thought ye were the most beautiful lass I’ve ever seen, but I never thought ye could be mine.”
“Did ye really think me beautiful?” Daisy asked, thrilled and flattered by his words.
“Aye, and ye’ve grown more so every day I’ve kenned ye.”
She giggled, delighted. “I remember being so afraid when ye caught me that time, but when ye had me pinned to the ground and ye were looking down at me, in spite of everything that happened, I couldnae help thinking how braw ye were. The handsomest monster I’ve ever seen,” she confessed with a laugh. “I hated meself because I wanted to kiss ye even then.”
“Is that so?” Bellamy asked with a pleased chuckle. “Because I wanted to kiss ye, too.” He wrapped his arms around her and gave a deep contented sigh that she felt in her chest. “I dinnae think I’ve ever been so happy in me life as I am at this minute,” he confessed.
“Me neither,” Daisy said, resting her head on his chest in complete contentment. “I’m so glad I didnae have to leave ye, after all. Me heart was breaking at the thought of never seeing ye again. And Elodie, of course. When Dominic told me Violet had healed herself, why, I felt as light as a feather!”
“I’m grateful to the man. When I saw ye running back to me with a smile on yer face, I thought me heart would explode,” Bellamy told her, planting a kiss on her nose.
They reminisced a little longer, sharing their innermost thoughts about how they had met and how their love had grown in such strange circumstances. But after a while, both feeling pleasantly tired and fulfilled by their lovemaking, they snuggled up together under the covers, with Bellamy holding Daisy in the crook of his arm.
She thought he was asleep when his voice suddenly rumbled in his chest against her ear.
“Daisy?”
“Hmm, me love?” she replied sleepily.
“Would ye marry me?”
She frowned, thinking she must have misheard him. “What was that ye said?”
“I said, would ye do me the honor of being me wife?”
Daisy did not think she had ever moved so quickly in her life when she leaped from his arms and turned to face him.
“Did ye just ask me to marry ye?”
“Er, did I?” he teased, rubbing his chin as if in deep thought.
“Och, well, I must have misheard ye,” she replied, feigning indifference, going to lie back down again.
But it was not to be, for Bellamy pulled her back.
“Wheesht, woman, ye ken very well what I asked ye,” he said, kissing her face all over.
“Ask me again,” she wheedled, wanting to hear the words again.
“Lady Daisy Winfrey, would ye kindly do me the honor of consenting to be me wife?”
Daisy’s arms went around his neck, and she hugged him tightly, while his laughter shook her from head to toe. She kissed him squarely on the lips and said, “I will.”
EPILOGUE
Afew nights later, under the cover of darkness, a closed wagon rumbled out through the gates of Castle Murdoch. Inside was a subdued Nadia. She was bound for a lifetime of exile at St. Catherine’s Convent near Leonardstown, never to return to the castle again, nor have anything to do with her former adoptive family. No one was sorry to see her go.
In happier news, Daisy and Bellamy could not wait to be wed, so they picked a date for the wedding in early June.
“I want Jamie to be me best man and our knot bearer,” Bellamy said to Daisy one day when they were taking a walk after dinner.
