Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

A fter a few minutes of searching, he found Minna talking to the housekeeper, making arrangements for his accommodation. When she had finished, she looked up to find him watching her, and she smiled at him a little too brightly.

"I have assigned you a room," she told him. "The bed is a little softer than the one you usually sleep in. I will have one of the maids show you where it is."

"Can you show me?" His voice was husky, and as Minna looked up into the deep brown of his eyes, she felt as though she could have gazed into them forever.

"You should remember every inch of this place," she replied softly. "I am sending the maid with you in case you need anything." Minna dropped her gaze from his and nodded slightly. "But I will take you if you wish."

Gowan wanted to sprint upstairs in front of Minna, but he made himself go at a leisurely pace. He hoped that they would have all evening to spend together, to talk, perhaps to kiss and fondle, but he would not allow his mind to go any further than that.

He followed her upstairs, admiring the graceful sway of her hips as she walked in her tattered breeches, which were now absolutely filthy. Gowan's body was responding as it always did, and he was glad that his shirt had been pulled out from the waistband of his breeches to hang down over the front of him. He loved being a man - he had never been anything else - but sometimes, such as now, it was inconvenient!

Minna entered one of the best bedrooms, which she always reserved for important guests. It was a big room, lavishly decorated with beautifully framed oil paintings on every wall and hand-woven silk rugs on the floor. The bed, with its carved posts and cream silk drapes and bedclothes, was a work of art, as were the matching silk brocade curtains.

Gowan laughed when he saw it, and shook his head in wonder. "This room is exactly as I remember it." There was a catch in his voice as he spoke. "It used to be the room my grandparents slept in when they came to visit. They liked the big bed because their collie dog Sammy could sleep in between them."

Minna frowned. "On the silk coverlets?"

Gowan chuckled. "He had his own hand-woven woolen one. It was about two inches thick, but the silken ones were always dirty after he slept there anyway. I loved that dog, and my grandparents."

His voice sounded so sad and wistful that Minna felt wretched. Her family had ripped all this away from him.

"You have so many good memories," she remarked. "I am sorry my family took your home. It will be yours again now, and you can make more happy memories."

"Did you not have good times here?" Gowan asked. "Surely you had friends?"

"Only amongst the servants, villagers and tenants. I never liked people of my own class. Anyway, they always thought of us as usurpers and would not associate themselves with us." She sighed, then became brisk. "Is there anything else you need?"

"Yes." His voice was husky. "I need you." Then Minna found herself being swept against a hard, muscular chest as a pair of firm masculine lips descended on hers.

Minna moaned and gave herself up to heaven as Gowan's lips swept over hers, his tongue invaded her mouth, and he nibbled her bottom lip, causing a thrill of delight that shot straight to her core. Gowan had cupped the back of her head with his hand to make sure she would not escape, but she did not want to escape; she wanted to stand in his arms forever.

Minna made no objection when Gowan drew his lips away from hers and lifted her into his arms, then deposited her gently on the bed, before lying down beside her and pulling her gently into his arms again. He studied her face, taking in every inch of it as if to imprint it on his memory forever.

"You need me?" She echoed his words as she stroked his face. After two days of not shaving he was beginning to sport some golden bristles that rasped pleasantly against her palms, making her shiver with pleasure.

"I will always need you," he said lovingly, planting a gentle kiss on her lips. "I need you to stay here with me - forever. As my wife. Marry me, Minna."

For a stunned moment she was silent, then she smiled, a wide, joyous smile of pure happiness. "Yes," she murmured. "Yes, Gowan. I will marry you."

"And you don't mind this?" He touched his scar.

Minna kissed the puckered skin. "I love every inch of you, Gowan, including the scar. Anyway, it is not as bad as you think."

"Thank you." Gowan closed his eyes and gave a huge sigh of relief. "I don't know what I would have done if you had said no."

"You would have married a good woman and had children," Minna said. "And you would have been a good and fair Laird."

He kissed her again, and it set something on fire between them. Suddenly, his hands were everywhere - her breasts, her backside, her thighs - all those parts of her that no man had ever touched before. He caught her nipples through the fabric of her shirt, then nibbled and suckled one of them, while twisting the other between his forefinger and thumb before changing sides. She should have been shocked, but instead she was squirming and moaning with pleasure.

Minna had never experienced anything like the sweet anguish he was putting her through, and now there was more as he unbuttoned the front of her breeches and slid his hand inside.

Gowan smiled triumphantly as he felt the slickness of her arousal under his fingers, but searched for another few seconds until he found what he was looking for. He reached for the little nub of hard flesh that he knew was her most sensitive spot, the one that would give her most pleasure, and saw her eyes fly open as she felt his touch.

Minna squealed as a jet of delight shot through her from her center to every other nerve in her body. She looked at Gowan, who was grinning as he moved his finger around and over her nub, sometimes pinching it until she felt herself explode into a thousand tingling needles of pleasure.

When Gowan knew she was satisfied, he pulled her into his arms again until she had calmed down, and she rested her head comfortably on his chest again.

"I never want to move," she murmured, snuggling closer. "Is that what I will feel like when you make love to me?"

"No," he replied, chuckling. "It will be better."

"Nothing could be better than that." she stated firmly.

"We shall see." Gowan said, kissing her again.

"What about you?" Minna asked. "Do you not need some satisfaction too?"

"I wanted you to be first," he replied, smiling fondly at her. "I will take care of myself later."

Minna had no idea what he meant, but she did not feel like discussing it any more.

They lay in comfortable silence for a while, then Minna yawned and sat up. "I have a hundred things to do," she told him. "And among them is finding you some clothes!"

"Good luck!" Gowan laughed. "I am bigger than anyone else I know. It can be a problem."

"Not to me." Minna said softly. "There is more of you to love."

Lorna was very skeptical when Minna told her about her upcoming marriage.

"Are ye sure this is a good idea, hen?" she asked doubtfully. "Ye have known him for such a short time, an' he is your enemy."

"Not any more, Lorna," Minna answered. She was climbing into her bath and as she settled down into the warm, lavender-scented water she smiled with pure contentment. "And with our marriage, we will forge an alliance so that there will be peace between our two families after all this time. My family destroyed that peace, and now Gowan and I are restoring it."

"But that is no' the only reason ye are marryin' him, is it?" Lorna asked slyly as she sluiced water over Minna's hair.

"No. I am marrying him because I love him, and because he makes me feel like the most special woman in the world. I belong to him, Lorna, and he belongs to me."

Lorna looked at her fondly. "Aye, well, hen, I know that feelin', an' he seems like a good man. I think he would have killed Jamie for ye today."

"I would do the same for him," Minna murmured, smiling as the image of Gowan's face floated before her eyes. "Ten times over."

When Andrew Darroch heard the news he was delighted. "Now our two clans can discuss forming an alliance," he cried jubilantly.

He laughed as he looked at the two of them. Minna and Gowan were sitting beside each other with his arm around her shoulder, and she was leaning her head against his chest. "I knew there was something between you two! ‘Just good friends' indeed!"

"You are, of course, invited to the wedding," Gowan said graciously.

Andrew Darroch bowed. "Thank you, M'Laird," he replied, grinning. "Flora, my wife, will be delighted, but a little disappointed. I think she has a wee crush on you!"

"And you don't mind?" Minna asked, astonished.

Andrew shook his head, laughing. "She always comes home with me. We have been together for twenty years, and neither of us is inclined to look elsewhere."

"I hope we can say the same in twenty years!" Minna said enviously. "And I hope we are blessed with many children."

"Six at least?" Gowan ventured.

"That sounds exhausting!" she remarked, giggling, then she frowned at Gowan, looking him up and down. "It has been an eventful day! Now we only have one problem left."

"And what is that?" Gowan asked, frowning.

"Finding some clothes to fit you!" Minna said ruefully.