The Highlander's Time

keep on,” Iaen chastised her.
    “I can't help it. This is the best day of my life,” Jenny said. Yes, he was trying to teach her how to hunt. They both knew it was hopeless. She didn't have it in her to kill, even if she was starving.
    “Aye, the morn is fine, and the view is lovely.” Iaen turned his gaze to her face. “Are you glad to be free of the Keep at last?”
    She didn't mind spending endless hours at home, but she knew he did. Iaen was one of those guys who needed to ride across the land when the mood struck him. The fact he'd spent most of the winter with her showed her he was trying to make their marriage work. “I was thinking.”
    “Should I be afraid?” he teased her.
    “No. I was thinking I'd like a church wedding. You know something tangible to seal my place in the Clan.”
    “Milady, the Clan adores you as do I.”
    Her heart beat wildly in her chest. Reclining back on the sweet grass, she watched him follow her down. The emotion grew until it beamed in her smile. “I love you.”
    She played with his hair as he bent his head to give her a soul-searing kiss.
    “I love you, milady.”
    “Enough to die an old man in our bed?” She thought aloud. It was the only part of his personal make-up they hadn’t resolved. The memory of him telling her he’d rather die in battle was never far from her mind, especially when he had to be away from the Keep. It was like living inside a pressure cooker until he strode back through the Great Doors.
    “Jenny,” he growled a warning. “We’ve been over this afore. How I die isnae in your hands.”
    “But you’d prefer it to be sooner rather than later.”
    “I prefer not to harp on my demise.”
    “Promise me, you’ll always come home to me.” She knew she was being silly but couldn’t help herself. All her worries were growing in direct proportion to her love for him.
    “Jenny, I will forever be your Highlander. I will love you until I die and from beyond the grave. Whether I am taken from this world on the morrow, or I live to see my twilight years, there will always be us.” A sigh broke from his lips to wash across her face. “This isnae about me, lass.”
    “I know it isn’t.” It was the terror of waking up one morning alone, knowing she couldn’t come to him when she needed him, having him love her when her mood dipped so low she couldn’t scrape her emotions off the stone floor of their bedroom. Any future without him terrified her. Leaning up, she laid a kiss to his bewhiskered cheek. “Just promise you won’t die anytime soon.”
    “You wound me, milady. Do you think I cannae protect myself?”
    She would have thought he was being serious if he hadn’t flashed a smile. How many times had he told her to live for the happy moments and let the sad ones go? Too many to count. “Okay, I’m being a nitwit.”
    “Aye.”
    Reclining, her fingers twined in his hair. She giggled when he kissed her shoulder blade. “What about the crofters? Won’t they wonder what we’re doing?”
    “Aye.”
    “Is that all you can say?” Mortified when he began undoing the laces of her gown, she tried to push his hands away. Like that ever works . “Anybody could walk up on us.” She twisted her head to the side, inspecting the area for a clansman. True, the grass was high enough to protect her modesty, but for pity’s sake, anybody could stumble over them.
    He chuckled. “Methinks milady needs a distraction.”
    “Iaen stop.” Her laughter rang over the meadow when he tickled her. Another nest of quail went dashing for the heavens. “At this rate we’ll never catch supper.”
    “We’ll?”
    “Okay, you will never catch supper.”
    “I donnae need to. Elspeth packed enough food to last us two days.”
    “Then why did you bring me out here?” Fighting him was useless. It also served no purpose. He’d already gotten her gown open and was fondling her breasts. Her feminine folds turned slick as he wove his passionate spell over her.
    “To start a new tradition, one our sons can repeat when they marry spitfire sable-haired lasses.”
    She knew he was teasing. Or at least she hoped he was. “You ordered all the crofters to stay away from the meadow, didn’t you?” she asked, her body temperature climbing with each caress he gave her. The feel of his hand skimming up her leg shredded the last of her resistance.
    “Of course.”
    “Did you tell them why?” Gasping, she squirmed to get closer to him when his fingers brushed