Page 125 of Auctioned to the Cruel Highlander
His pace quickened, and he pressed his forehead against hers. She looked up into his face and saw his self-control cracking at the edges, and felt her own break entirely at the sight.
“Ciaran!”
He drove forward once more, and his breath came out in a rough, broken sound against her cheek.
Ava felt the force of her own release tear through her at the same time she felt him shudder and grip her hard, both of them locked together for one breathless moment before it broke and rolled through them in long, pleasurable waves.
For a long while, neither of them moved.
She could still feel him inside her. She could feel his heartbeat where their skin pressed together.
Slowly, her fingers uncurled against his back. They lay together for a long while after, the bed tangled, the room warm, their bodies still joined. Ava traced a line across his chest with one finger and felt him shiver beneath her.
“I love ye too,” she said.
His arm tightened around her at once.
She tilted her head up to look at him. “But only if ye daenae mean to send me away again after I give ye a child.”
Something in his face changed, then softened. “I couldnae even if I wanted to.”
The answer made something in her settle rather comfortably.
Ava let out a breath and then froze.
Ciaran looked down at her. “What?”
Her eyes widened. “Our marriage.”
He went still.
“It is over,” she gasped. “The annulment.”
For one second, they only stared at each other. Then Ciaran’s mouth curved for the first time since he had entered the room. “Then we shall get married again.”
Ava’s breath caught.
“This time,” he added, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face, “there will be nay blood on yer gown. And ye had better nae see me the night before, wife, or whatever ye are calling yerself until then.”
Ava laughed. A genuine laugh this time, soft and helpless and full of the relief she had thought she might never feel again.
“Ye certainly have a way with words, do ye nae?”
“That I do.Wife.”
Something about the way he said it made her laugh again.
He kissed her once more, smiling against her mouth.
EPILOGUE
ONE MONTH LATER
Ava stood stillwhile Isobel needlessly straightened the fall of her veil for what must have been the fourth time.
“If ye touch it again, I shall look as though I have been wrestled into it,” she complained.
Isobel grinned and stepped back at last. “I am only making sure ye are perfect.”
