On the plane, I frayed the hem of my skirt, the flight endless and my patience at breaking point.
Someone had tried to take Isla.
Lochie, not that he’d answered my calls, must be distraught.
I flexed my fingers, interlacing them and testing my strength. My only hope was that he wouldn’t have left before I got home. Please, Lochie. Wait for me.
We touched down, and I panicked all the way through arrivals until I got back to my car in the isolated car park. Then I sped into the pitch-black night, out into the Inverness countryside, heading home.
At the cottages, Lochie’s car had gone.
No one answered the door.
“Shite.” I grabbed my phone and called him, though with little hope of getting an answer.
Around, the yawning hillside and glen stared back at me. I had the acute sensation of being watched.
Then the call connected.
“Caitriona.” Lochie’s deep voice was pitched so low, stress plain.
“Where are ye?” I breathed.
“Castle McRae. Where are ye?”
I flew back to the car. “Be there in ten.”
I drove badly, skidding on the ice that had formed under the snow. Finally, I reached the castle.
My uncle generally locked the huge entrance door overnight. Not for fear of anyone coming in, but for good practice. I stood outside and hesitated before knocking.
Almost silently, it opened.
Lochie waited on the other side. Outlined by orange light from the great hall’s huge always-burning fire, he gazed down at me, his eyes dark and his expression unreadable. Then he gestured with his head for me to come inside.
I did, hugging my arms to myself for want of being able to throw myself at this man. For all I knew, he was packed and ready to leave in the morning.
I’d pushed him away. I only had myself to blame.
Lochie secured the door then made for the stairs, a glance back indicating I should follow him. We crept through the silent castle, up the first flight of stairs and to a guest room.
Lochie entered, and I trailed in after.
On a bed, Isla slept, her golden curls spread out across the pillow. I clasped my hands to my mouth to hide my sob and, without thinking, went straight to her, climbing onto the mattress. She turned into my body, and I hugged the small girl to me.
I stroked her hair and whispered to her sleeping form that I was home.
One fear diminished. She was here and okay. No one else had her. Isla was safe.
Lochie stood across the room, letting me have my moment.
At length, my frightened heart calmed, I kissed Isla’s forehead then eased away.
She needed rest, and I needed to talk to her da.
With a long arm, Lochie pointed out to the hall. My relief sank, replaced by nausea, but I did as asked and left the room. Outside, I trailed him to a pair of armchairs beside a window at the end of the corridor.
The half moon was our only light, but more than enough to have him reject me here and now.
“I was so worried,” I said, hushed. “Ma called me. I got on the first plane.”
“I know. She told me when I arrived back here half mad with fear.”
Water filled my eyes.
I loved this man. So much, I couldn’t contain it all inside. I’d thought this degree of emotion impossible, and now I wished it so, because nothing could hurt as badly as losing Lochie.
“When are ye leaving?” I forced out the question through a choked throat.
Hulking, bristling Lochie only watched me, no doubt trying to find a way to let me down.
“I assumed you’d already be away,” I continued. “Seeing ye here…”
“Seeing me here what?” he said on a dangerous tone. “Finish that sentence.”
But I couldn’t. No more words would come.
He waited a beat, then Lochie slid to his knees on the bare floor between our chairs and took hold of my arms in a fierce grip.
“Seeing me here brought ye hope? Hurts? All of the above? Tell me before I go insane.”
My instinct was to duck, to hide my face, but I couldn’t do that. He had to see me, to know everything. I held his glittering gaze.
“All of those things. I am terrified beyond reason with the thought of losing ye.”
Across his features, satisfaction merged with other, stronger emotions. His grip on me tightened. “Why?”
“Because I’ve fallen in love with ye.”
Lochie swayed, as if my admission had made him dizzy. Then he pulled me off my chair and against his body. “Thank fuck for that.”
He kissed me, hard, and with none of his usual control. I clung to him, submitting to the outpouring of passion, trying to find a way to take over so I could show him exactly what I’d discovered.
A door opened down the hall, and light spread over the floor. My mother emerged from a bedroom. She blinked at us, and Lochie placed me on my feet, standing alongside me.
“Ye made it,” she said.
Keeping Lochinvar’s hand in mine, I approached her and wrapped her in a one-armed, trembling hug. “What are ye doing here?”
“Your da and I took care of Isla this evening, then we stayed over. Neither of us wanted to let her out of our sight.” She pointed at the little girl’s bedroom. “I’ll go and sleep on the armchair in her room. There’s a bedroom free next door.”
Without waiting for more, Ma left us to ourselves.
Lochie gripped my hand and pulled me to the empty bedroom. He shut us in then turned to me.
I held up a hand. “If ye intend to leave tomorrow, take me with ye.”
“No.”
He bore down on me, but the fear I should feel at his words didn’t come. “Why?”
“I always planned to leave. If a threat to Isla arose, I’d pack us up and we’d be gone. That threat happened today, so by rights, I should be away. But I’m not. I dinna want to go anywhere. We’re happy here. The hours prior to that, I’d been searching for a solution so we could finally put down roots.”
God. I swallowed hard and briefly closed my eyes, but I needed to hear this. To see him.
“Then after the call from the school, as I drove back, out of my mind with worry, I had a flood of reassurance from your kin. Cameron, Max, your parents. All took turns in guarding Isla. Said they would continue until the culprit was caught. Even in the middle of my worst nightmare, I had a flicker of reassurance, and it enabled me to get my head back to where I was. To the point I’d discovered about needing ye. Caitriona, so long as I have ye, this is home. Whatever the problem is, I’ll stand and fight, naw run.”
Emotion welled and overpoured, and my voice came out as a desperate squeak. “But ye rejected Gordain’s job offer.”
“I barely knew what I was saying. I’ll call him tomorrow. Anything else ye want to talk about or can I strip us and bury myself inside ye? I’m going mad.”
I’d already dropped my coat on a chair in Isla’s room, so it was a matter of seconds to shed my jumper and bra. In that time, Lochie was on me, hands at my waist, dragging my jeans and underwear down my body. He pawed at me, taking handfuls of my backside before hastening to shed his own clothes, all while admiring me in the room’s faint light.
He paused to collect his wallet from his pocket, then extracted a condom and rolled it onto his already hard dick.
Effortlessly, he picked me up, and I wound my legs about his waist, my bare breasts against his chest, his dick lodged hard underneath me. He backed me to a panelled wall, and our mouths met in a perfectly synchronised kiss.
The sense of acute alarm that had gripped me for days, weeks, maybe even months evaporated. Lochie sent my senses into overdrive. I’d never before met a man who so perfectly lit me up. His strength, his determination, his fit to me.
We were made for each other.
I never wanted to be apart from him again.
Our kiss continued, and our bodies moved together. Lochie rocked his hips against me. I reached between our bodies and adjusted my position until I brought his dick to my entrance.
Then so slowly, he filled me, sliding home.
“Fuck, Caitriona,” he muttered. “Tell me again.”
“I love ye.”
He withdrew and drove into me. I stifled a moan, vaguely aware of being within earshot of family.
Lochinvar jacked his hips again, then ducked to kiss my throat and neck. He pinned me to the wood with his hips then was free to grope my breasts.
“Missed ye so much. Never go anywhere again,” he growled.
I smothered my laugh in his shoulder, breathing him in, the masculine scent of the man who, against the odds, I loved. “Deal.”
Lochie changed his strokes, upping the pace. His hand drifted down to between my legs, fingers glancing over my clit. Then abruptly, he spun around and carried me to the bed.
On my back, I gazed up at him.
Lochie’s gloriously dangerous focus fixed on me, the effect thrilling. Now with the access he’d wanted, he pressed his fingers to my clit and rubbed in time with his thrusts. Then he dipped forward to lavish attention on my nipples, sucking one then the other into straining peaks.
His hands caressed my skin. His love woke my brain.
Lochie knew my body so well. In minutes, my breathing came fast, and I clamped my hand to my mouth, holding back my sounds of pleasure. Heat wound inside me, ramping up in intensity until I couldn’t stand it. There was no need to draw this out, only to connect at the deepest level lovers could. Working my hips in time with his, I jerked, my orgasm easy and joyous.
Sparks ran inside my veins. Fear and doubt swept away, lost to a rush of love.
Inside, I throbbed around his dick, mindless to anything but pleasure.
Lochie buried his face in my neck, crushing my willing body underneath his huge frame. He slammed once, twice, then shuddered, his dick pulsing hard.
He held me so tight.
“My love, my only love,” he murmured onto my skin. “Do ye have any idea what ye do to me? How crazy I am for ye?”
I did, because I felt it, too. Gathering him as close as I could get, I whispered the same back.
Then exhaustion took us both. Isla was safe, we were together and in each other’s arms. I had nowhere else I’d ever rather be.
Achirpy Isla burst through the bedroom door early. This time, I made no attempt to hide. In Lochie’s t-shirt, I reached for her and hugged her to me.
She perched on top of the blanket, beaming. “You’re back!”
“I missed ye both too much to stay away,” I replied.
Lochie’s arm, around my shoulder, tightened.
“Did ye sleep well?” he asked his daughter.
“Aye. Scarlet’s going to make me breakfast. Are ye coming down?”
I smiled at how Scottish she now sounded, and how natural it felt waking up with her da.
“In a minute,” he replied softly. “Go on ahead.”
“Okay.” She bounced up and was gone in a flash, closing the bedroom door behind her.
Lochie rose on an elbow and gazed down at me.
“Does she know what happened yesterday?” I asked.
“No, and I dinna want her to find out.”
“Agreed.” I shivered. “She’s safe here. My parents will watch her like a hawk.”
We both watched the other for a long moment.
He brushed a thumb over my cheek. “I’ve made so many mistakes with ye.”
“Ye haven’t.”
“I did. I should’ve told ye from the start that I liked ye.”
“I probably would’ve run a mile. I had no idea how I felt until I left.”
Lochie’s careful gaze betrayed strong feelings. “How did ye realise?”
“It broke my heart to not be at your side. The pain of it eclipsed everything. I think the only way I could love was to find my other half. You’re everything to me. I’m only sorry I couldn’t tell ye earlier.”
He ducked and kissed me. From the second our mouths touched, I lost myself in him. All I could feel was Lochie’s love, coaxing my own to life. His lips persuading mine that this was good.
Not that I needed the encouragement.
I broke away to palm his cheek, then I stared him straight in the eye. “I love ye.”
Lochie’s gaze burned.
He leapt from the bed and strode to the door, his boxers tented with a ready erection. Flicking the lock, he turned back to me, single-minded determination and fever in his moves.
“Do ye have a condom in your purse? I dinna have any more here.”
I nodded and pointed at my bag on the floor. Lochie found the foil packet and suited up.
I threw back the blanket and welcomed him onto my body. Lochie settled into the cradle of my hips then slowly pushed inside me.
Wet and so willing, I gasped at the intense pleasure of his big dick stretching me.
“Need ye,” he said, his voice tight with strain.
“I need ye, too.”
Digging my fingers into his hair, I brought his mouth to mine for another kiss. We moved together, slowly screwing ourselves awake and reconnecting once again.
I’d never thought this possible, but I’d landed in an acutely happy relationship, and I intended to do everything I could to show Lochie how much he meant to me.
His huge heart. His devoted ways. His protective instincts. It all added up to a rare kind of man.
The only man who could have awoken my cool heart.
He’d been right in the fact I was obsessed. That extreme emotion had kickstarted my slumbering sentiments, and I was never going back.
In no time, I was panting, scratching Lochie’s powerful shoulders. He drove into me, increasing his pace, my pleasure his sole focus.
Then with a surge of passion, I splintered and came. Lights glimmered in my vision, and utter love shone from my heart.
Soon after, he stilled and groaned, his own climax reached. Then he dropped onto me, heaving in heavy breaths. He hugged me hard.
“Love ye, too. Always. More with every minute that goes by,” he said into my ear.
Noise in the hall had us shuffling apart, though I wanted to stall. I had more words to say, beyond love, and into further entirely unchartered territory.
But the world waited, and after a quick shower, we were ready to head downstairs.
“Your family stood up for me yesterday,” Lochie said, outside the castle’s guest bedroom. “I owe them an explanation and I need to work out what to do next.”
“We do,” I corrected.
A smile tugged at his lips. “We? Fuck, Caitriona. So much has happened, I dinna ken which way is up. I spoke to Blair yesterday, and I went to Liv’s prison. I needed to know if her family were the ones behind the hoax calls. I think now one of her brothers was the man at Isla’s school.”
I dusted my hands together, forcing away the shiver of fear. “We need a war council, and everyone here is going to clamour to be in it. You’re part of the family. Isla, too. There’s no going it alone anymore.”
He stopped and kissed me, hunger in his moves despite our highly satisfying start to the day. I smiled against his lips and led him on.
At the top of the stairs, I regarded the people below in the great hall. Mathilda and Callum, my aunt and uncle, sat by the fire, talking. Da paced, Wasp, his twin brother, keeping time with him. From the dining room, Isla’s laugh tinkled, echoed by my mother’s.
“Hey, everyone.” I waved, descending with Lochie. “After what happened yesterday, we need your help.”
Da and Uncle Wasp spun around, instantly ready. Callum and Mathilda waited.
At my side, Lochie stood tall. “Cait just used the term war council. It’s accurate, as I’m in the middle of a battle and need a strategy. And hands to aid me.”
Every family member nodded, as ready as I was to leap to Lochie’s assistance.
This was why I loved being a McRae, and now I got to share that with the man I adored.
Da stepped forward. “Get your arses down here then. There’s bacon cooked and coffee on. Fuel up, give us your facts, and we’ll see about that battle plan.”
