Page 20 of His Secret Highland Bride

“You are already broken. I don’t wish to do more damage.”

“I may be a little raw, but I am not broken. That man doesn’t have the power to do so.”

He leaned closer so she could hear him when he whispered, “I know you are strong, and these injuries will heal and be easily forgotten. But for my part, I don’t want to cause you even the tiniest amount of pain, so we will continue on at this pace.”

“It will take forever for us to get home.”

Her last word struck him in the chest. Home. It may be their home for now, but at some point, he would need to move to the castle and do his duty for his clan. To accept his birthright as laird, whether he wished to or not. Would she gladly move to the castle and call that her home?

As she continued to fuss about his slowness, she unintentionally shifted against him in an enticing way. He knew she hadn’t meant to, but his body didn’t care what she’d meant and what she didn’t. All his body knew was that there was a warm, soft woman in his lap where there had not been for many, many long months. He searched for the feelings that should have accompanied the physical urge and found nothing but emptiness.

He had made a terrible mistake.

Chapter Eight

Lindsay leaned back against her husband as he reined the horse toward home, but she was anything but relaxed. She was married, and that meant a wedding night. She understood some parts about what happened between men and women but had expected her mother to tell her the details before her wedding.

Now she didn’t know what she was supposed to know before such an event. Would Shane be disappointed if she didn’t go about it the correct way? Lindsay was known to babble when she was nervous, and she didn’t think she’d ever been more nervous than she was right then. In an effort to keep quiet, she began shifting about in the saddle where she sat in front of Shane.

“Stop your squirming about, woman,” he said, sounding as if he were in a great deal of pain. She stilled immediately after feeling something stiff prodding her in her backside.

Unable to move around, she had no other choice but to speak. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

“You’re welcome.”

“Do you even know why I’m thanking you?” she asked after a moment.

She felt rather than saw him shrug. “For taking our riding at a slow pace so your head doesn’t become dislodged from your body?”

She laughed even when he didn’t.

“I was thanking you for caring for me. I was beginning to think no one did. Which sounds rather petulant, but I wrote to my parents to beg them to come for me, and they have not returned for me. Or sent word.”

“Are you known to spin tall tales?”

“Am I the boy who cries wolf, where the wolf is my uncle?” She shook her head. “No. Never.”

“I didn’t think so. As it were, your uncle turned out to be a wolf, indeed.”

“I’m also thanking you for what you did for the boys. Freeing them from that man will be the best thing for them, even if they might not realize it yet.” When he’d told her what he’d done, she’d felt a rush of relief that they’d be cared for. Shane said he trusted this Munro, so she did as well. It wasn’t as if he could be any worse than their own father.

“It was the right thing to do,” he said easily, as if everyone chose to do the right thing. Her experience in the short time she’d been with the MacPhersons was that not many she’d met cared about right or wrong.

“I want you to know I will care for you, too. I’ll make sure you don’t regret having married me,” she said quietly.

“I won’t regret it.”

She couldn’t believe her good luck. To have found a kind man to marry, rather than an ogre of a laird. When her father found out, he’d have no choice but to support the match, for he would not have found a better man to marry her.

Shane didn’t expect her to do all the chores. He hadn’t married her to have a servant, as her uncle had treated her. He had married her to protect her, which wasn’t the best reason, but it wasn’t for the exchange of cattle or land, so she was pleased enough.

“How can you be sure you won’t regret it?” she asked after warning herself to be quiet. Some questions one didn’t really want answers to. “You hardly know me. This marriage could turn out to be the biggest mistake you’ve ever made.”

He made a sound. Not one that made her think he didn’t agree with the possibility of their marriage being a mistake. Her worry intensified as they rode on, but she managed to stay still and quiet, if for no other reason than that she was terrified of what came next.

…

Shane was glad when Lindsay stopped talking and more importantly stopped wiggling around while her arse was settled on his cock. He didn’t think he’d make it back to the cottage otherwise.