Текст книги "Charmed by His Love"

Автор книги: Джанет Чапмен

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Текущая страница: 17 (всего у книги 21 страниц)

give herself to him beforeshe saw what was in the cave.

Because as he’d told her earlier, a man needed a little

encouragement from the woman he was hopelessly in love

with.

Christ, why wasn’t she saying anything?

“C-can we stop?”

He stopped so quickly she bumped into his back,

making him have to catch her even as he stifled a curse at

how pale she was. “What’s the matter?” he asked as he

tried to read her eyes in what stingy moonlight was filtering

through the trees.

“I … These new jeans are stiff and they’re … chafing me,”

she whispered to his chest. “And my feet are starting to

blist—”

He dropped a hand behind her knees and swept her into

his arms, not even trying to stifle his curse. “Just once could

ye simply askfor my help instead of being so goddamned

stubborn?”

She also didn’t stifle a rather impressive curse, or even

bother to mutter it under her breath. “I’m too heavy,” she

growled right back, even as she wrapped an arm around

him when he started up the trail again. “You’re going to trip

and break both our necks. No, wait; I forgot you can see in

the dark by magic.”

“It’s themagic,” he said softly, this time stifling a smile.

“There’s only one, lass, and ye seem to be forgetting what I

said about offending it.”

“I thought it was Providence we’re not supposed to

offend.”

“They’re one in the same. So,” he said above the sound

of the gushing stream as he stepped into the clearing made

by the glistening pool, “it appears ye don’t get a choice

after al whether or not we’re spending the night here.”

“I don’t?”

“It’s another mile to the cave, and then another mile

inside.” He skirted the pool, set her down on one of the

boulders at the bottom of the waterfal , shucked off his pack

and sword, then knelt at her feet and started unlacing her

boots. “So here’s the plan: I’m going to build a fire while you

strip off and go for a swim to soothe the chafing. Then,” he

continued despite her gasp, “I’l wash your jeans and give

them a good beating on the rocks and set them to dry on a

branch by the—”

“That water’s got to be freezing!” she cried before he

could finish.

He grabbed the hand trying to push him away from her

boots and held it in the water, smiling when she gasped

again. “It’s warm!”

He went back to taking off her boots, being careful when

he felt her foot flinch. “Isabel warned me you’re a warm-

water bass, not a trout. Speaking of which, if ye feel little

nibbles on your toes, see if you can’t sneak up on the lucky

buggers and catch us a couple of trout for supper.”

“That water’s too warm for trout to live in.”

He reached up and gently tapped the tip of her nose,

then straightened. “Not for a magical stream, it’s not.” He

stood up. “Just leave your clothes here on the rock and I’l

get them as soon as I have a fire going.”

“You promise not to peek?”

He turned away with a snort. “No.”

A boot hit him square in the back and another one dead

center of his chest when he turned. He caught the

sweatshirt that came at him next just as he saw Peg rol into

the pool wearing her jeans, her laughter stopping when she

slipped underwater.

Oh yeah, the woman definitely owned his heart.

And they weren’t leaving this mountain until she

understood what that meant.

The sting of her chafed legs having eased from lounging at

the base of the fal s to get the whirlpool effect, Peg lazily

floated in the shadow of a towering spruce as she glanced

across the moonlit pool at Duncan reclined beside the

blazing fire he’d made. Charmed, Olivia had cal ed him. But

to Peg he was an old-fashioned, sword-carrying, kiss-

stealing, scary-driving knight in leather armor, determined

to save her from a five-generation curse she desperately

didn’t want to pass down to a sixth.

But could she chance it would be different this time,

considering how high the stakes were? Then again, maybe

it already was too late for Duncan, because she wasn’t sure

if the curse applied just to husbands or if a man only had to

fal in love with a descendent of Gretchen Robinson to meet

a quick demise.

But then yet again, if she hadn’t personal y witnessed an

earthquake that had moved several mountains and split

Bottomless Lake wide open without cracking a window in

Spel bound Fal s and Turtleback Station, Peg might think

Duncan was at the very least delusional and at worst

insane. But she hadfelt the mountains moving and heard

the booming thunder, and she hadarrived home to find

saltwater spil ing into her gravel pit without so much as a

chipped dish in her cupboards. So a good deal of his

fantastical tale had to be true, considering the proof was

staring her in the face every time she looked out her kitchen

window.

Peg smiled up at the moonlight showering the unusual y

tal trees surrounding the unusual y warm pool with soft

white light, and decided she liked Duncan’s idea of the

forest and mountains being God’s cathedral. As for his dad

and those other men traveling through time, and Mac being

from Atlantis, and Trees of Life growing right here in Maine,

if Duncan had told her al that stuff hoping to persuade her

to have sex with him … wel , he’d certainly caught her

attention. Of al the arguments he could have made, having

the power to break her family curse was the most potent.

Because not only would he be saving her daughters’

futures, Duncan would also be saving hers. And honestly,

she didn’t know how much longer she’d survive sleeping in

a smal empty bed every night before the part of her heart

not fil ed up by her children final y atrophied.

Peg glanced over at Duncan again, looking big and

strong and unkil able as he reclined on the mat and

sleeping bag he’d unrol ed on the moss next to the fire.

After, that is, he’d beat the jeans she’d tossed to shore

against a rock before spreading them on a branch—after

she’d watched him secretly peek at the label to see their

size. Now he was lying with his head propped in his hand,

pretending to be gazing at the fire like the patient man he

was even though she knew he was secretly peeking past

the flames in hopes of seeing something interesting.

When in the name of God had she fal en in love with him?

She’d caught herself being attracted to Duncan the day

he’d helped her butcher the deer, which to her dismay had

turned into desiring him when he’d stolen a kiss the night

his equipment was being sabotaged—which had then

turned into her desperately needing him sometime when

she hadn’t been paying attention, apparently. And if she

had to wait much longer to feel him inside her, Peg was

afraid she was going to be the first femaleto die of the

Robinson curse.

She’d thought, much to her delight, he was taking the

decision away from her down by the beach when she’d lied

and said she wasn’t wearing a bra. But the contrary man

had suddenly backed off, and then made her spend two

friggin’ hours watching the moonlight play over his broad

shoulders as he’d carried a sword that had to weigh at

least twenty pounds, and the heavy backpack, and

eventual y herup the mountain.

Damn, big strong men turned her on.

And real y, it’s not like he hadn’t been forewarned that

making love to her might kil him. So what was she doing

here in this magical place with this magical man—with no

danger of being interrupted and al the time in the world,

apparently—acting like some seventeen-year-old virgin

planning to give herself to her boyfriend on Valentine’s

Day? God, she’d been a romantic idiot when she was

seventeen.

Yeah, wel , she was twenty-eight now, a ful -grown woman

with four children, an empty bed, and a hole in her heart the

size of a house. And if she had to go through the worry of

letting a man see her naked for the first time again, she

real y couldn’t have devised a better setting. She might not

have a seventeen-year-old’s body thanks to three

pregnancies, and her boobs may be heading south and

she might have a few stretch marks, but moonlight and

water were great disguisers of imperfections.

Peg rol ed onto her stomach, quietly swam toward a rock

embedded in the sandy gravel shore, and folded her arms

on it to rest her chin on her hands. “I stil have that card, you

know. The one you gave me eleven years ago.”

He sat up. “Ye do?”

She nodded on her hands. “I’d forgotten about it, actual y.

But your tel ing me that it was you on TarStone that day, I

remembered slipping it inside the torn lining of my jewelry

box when I got home from the ski trip.” She smiled, knowing

the fire was casting enough light for him to see it. “And your

kiss did leave quite an impression on me. I had some pretty

erotic dreams for a virgin that winter.”

God, she’d swear his chest actual y puffed up.

“Are you going to make me try to catch these trout al by

myself,” she asked, “or come in here and help?”

The fire certainly cast enough light for her to see him go

stil but for the sudden flare in his eyes. “I didn’t bring a

swimsuit with me, lass,” he said thickly.

She shrugged. “Last I knew, red-blooded females

consider swimsuits just one more obstacle to get past.”

She reared up slightly and pushed off the rock to glide on

her back to the center of the pool. “Come swim in this

magical pool in God’s cathedral with me, Duncan.”

Why weren’t men the least bit modest? This one had his

boots and socks off in three seconds flat, unbuttoning his

shirt as he stood up, dropping his pants—boxers included

–and stepping out of them al without taking his eyes off

her. Peg’s breath caught when he skirted the fire with an

unhurried but deliberate stride and walked into the pool, not

stopping until the water was up to his waist and there was

only about ten feet separating them. Knowing that if she

gave him too much time to think through his plan of attack

that he might not attack at al , Peg dove under the surface

and swam directly toward him, knowing he’d assume she

was swimming away.

His muted bark of surprise confirmed her guess when

she popped up in front of him. “Shh, you’l wake the

squirrels,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around

him and pressed the ful length of her body to his, making

him suck in his breath. She touched her lips to his chest

and pul ed in his wonderful y male scent. “And I’m not into

having an audience.”

He cupped her face and tilted her head to look at him.

“You’re sure, Peg?”

“About what I’m doing? No. But about doing it with you?

Oh, yes.” She searched his eyes searching hers. “I loved

my husband with the heart of a young girl wanting nothing

more than to be a wife and mother. And now with a

woman’s heart, I’ve fal en in love with you. I real y didn’t want

to, since you’re a little more than scary sometimes, but I

think that’s precisely why it’s safe for me to love you.” She

gave him a tentative smile. “Because I definitely believe a

woman needs a big, strong, scary man to keep life …

interesting. For instance, I can’t wait to find out what that is

poking my bel y.”

Peg dropped her hands from his waist when he stil didn’t

move and wrapped her fingers intimately around him as

she cupped his scrotum with her other hand. Only he caught

her shoulders when she started to slip underwater and

hauled her back up against his chest with a warning growl.

And since she was final y the right height, and before he

could say whatever he intended to say, she wrapped her

legs around his waist and her arms around his neck and

stuck her tongue in his mouth.

Because real y, the man never should have admitted he

loved her.

She leaned away. “Wel , are you going to kiss me back

or not?”

“What, ye find yourself needing a little encouragement?”

“No, I need cooperation.” She leaned her forehead on his

and sighed. “Okay, if you real y were serious about wanting

me to start asking for help, there is something I’ve been

having a hard time doing … al by myself.”

“And that would be?”

“Wel , I’ve tried … um, pleasuring myself, but it’s just not

the sa—”

Peg couldn’t tel if his roar meant she’d better shut up

and prepare herself for his cooperation or if she’d just

unleashed the real y scary man who’d been driving her SUV

earlier. But her first clue arrived when his mouth came down

on hers in anything but cooperation; harsh, demanding, and

so ful of promise that Peg felt her insides clench in

anticipation. The next clue that she’d unleashed more red-

blooded male than she might be able to handle was when

she felt herself fal ing backward into the water, the weight of

his body pushing her al the way down to the sandy bottom

of the pool.

She was pretty sure warm-water bass could hold their

breaths as long as trout could—that is, until Duncan broke

the kiss and slid down and cupped both her breasts,

sucking first one nipple and then the other right there at the

bottom of the pool in four feet of water. Peg’s shout of

surprise released a good amount of air from her lungs, and

her moan ended with a frantic struggle to find a way to

replace it.

His hands spanned her waist and pushed her to the

surface, where she gave another shout of surprise when his

mouth pressed intimately between her thighs and his

tongue pushed into the folds of her sex. She went boneless

on a moan of pleasure, and would have slipped beneath

the surface again if he hadn’t been holding her. One of his

hands lowered to her hip so he could control her

movements and one arm slid between her thighs to lift one

leg, al owing him better access as he splayed a hand

across her lower back to keep her from fal ing over.

Peg clung to his shoulders to brace herself when he

found her sensitive bud and suckled, gently at first then

quite eagerly, making her insides clench again and her

mouth go dry in response. He was going to drown. She was

drowning in desire. His tongue drove into her and then he

suckled again.

She heard whimpering, raw and needy and ragged, and

Peg tugged at his head so he’d come up and breathe with

her. But just like the man in her SUV, he was relentless,

pushing wave after building wave of searing heat through

every cel in her body, until the world receded but for his

demanding mouth as it drove her closer and closer toward

release. His hand slid between her thighs again and Peg

cried out when he slipped two fingers deep inside her. Her

muscles clamped around them and she bucked forward,

climaxing with a cry of unbelievable pleasure.

She was nothing but a trembling, jerking,

convulsing, boneless mess when he final y surfaced, his

hands spanning her waist as he pushed her backward

towards shore. God, he wasn’t even winded, and she was

stil trying to catch her breath. Her back had barely touched

the sandy bank when he was pressing into her; no

hesitation, no request for permission, no testing her

readiness.

His penetration wasn’t careful, but neither was it rushed;

his mouth capturing her startled cry as he pushed deeper.

Peg clutched his shoulders bunched with undeniable

strength and turned her mouth away to suck in ragged

breaths as she tried to adjust to his invasion.

He moved his arms next to her head to hold her looking

at him, his eyes dark and intense and locked on hers as he

eased back and she relaxed, and he pushed into her again.

Her nipples hardened as his chest hair brushed over them

with each stroke of his body, pushing, then retreating, then

pushing deeper into her with each thrust.

“Again,” he commanded. “So I can watch ye this time.”

Peg forgot al about breathing, admittedly a little scared

by his intensity.

“Again,” he repeated, obviously fighting to soften his …

request.

He leaned away—somehow without breaking his slow,

maddening rhythm—and slid one hand under one of her

legs to settle it over his arm, effectively changing his angle

of penetration. “Oh God, don’t stop,” she groaned, throwing

her head back, which in turn lifted her aching breasts into

his chest, each of his thrusts pul ing her closer to that

spiraling vortex of shattering pleasure.

She cried out when his other hand lowered, his

palm scorching her stomach as his thumb pressed into her

folds and found her bud. He worked her intimately against

the slick length of his shaft moving in and out, and within the

next heartbeat Peg crested again, her fingers digging into

his arms in a futile attempt to keep from flying in a thousand

different directions.

His thrusts stopped with him buried deep inside her even

as his thumb continued stroking her through the storm of

her climax, his gaze locked on hers as she convulsed

around him two, five, eight pounding heartbeats. Ten.

Twelve.

And then he exploded in motion, placing his elbows on

either side of her head as he drove into her again, his lips

brushing her forehead and his chest hair roughening her

super-sensitive nipples. And al Peg could do was cling to

him through his own climax, knowing with blinding clarity

that she was in real y big trouble.

With the both of them lying mostly in the warm water of the

pool, Duncan kept as much of his weight off Peg as he

could while remaining embedded deeply inside her,

considering every muscle in his body felt like lead as he lay

his forehead on the ground beside hers and sucked in

ragged breaths.

Her ancestor’s curse wasn’t going to kil him, but she

might.

Christ, he’d lost it completely when she’d asked for his

help with a little problem she was having; the picture of Peg

lying in her feminine room in a smal bed in the dark

touching herself igniting a firestorm in him that Duncan was

afraid wouldn’t be brought under control, much less

extinguished, in his lifetime. He’d taken her boldly when

she’d unwittingly brought forth his need to claim her in a

way that would leave no question in her mind that she

belonged to him.

He smiled at the sand, wondering if she recognized yet

that they’d only just begun. He slowly lifted his head to find

her big, unblinking eyes staring up at him, her soft, lush

chest heaving into his as her trembling hands pressed

against his shoulders on the misguided notion she could

hold him at bay. He pressed his hips forward, her eyes

widening with a gasped moan of surprise.

“I would have ye come again,” he said quietly.

“Are … are you serious?”

He slid an arm under her shoulders, which canted her

head back. “Again,” he growled, setting his mouth on her

throat and pressing his tongue to her pulse.

She shifted restlessly beneath him, her soft shriek of

alarm making him smile as he moved his mouth lower,

leaving a trail of quivering flesh in its wake as he pressed

his hips forward. Her second shriek ended on a moan as

he felt her dig her heels into the sand to lever herself into

his slow thrusts, and he heard her whisper, “Ohmigod,

you’re serious,” just as he felt her clenching around him with

her building climax.

Aye, if the lass had only suspected it before, before this

night was through she would definitely know she had fal en

in love with a demanding, never-say-die, very possessive

man.

Chapter Twenty-one

Peg opened her eyes to see the sun just peeking over the

top of the mountain, although its rays weren’t reaching this

far down yet, and she decided it was a good thing she

didn’t want to move because she couldn’t. Partly because

every muscle in her body had given up the ghost two love-

makings ago—she’d lost count of her orgasms—but mostly

because Duncan had her so tightly wrapped in his arms

that it was a wonder she could even breathe.

The man wasn’t scary; he was flat-out terrifying.

Relentlesswas too benign for what he’d been last night,

Peg decided now that her brain wasn’t suffering from

passion overload and she could think. Wel , think at least

semiclearly, because she wasemotional y as wel as

physical y exhausted. No, Duncan had been driven by

something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Intense.

Determined. Frighteningly focused. Real y, real y driven to

prove … something.

For the love of God, she hadn’t known a man could keep

making love after he came, much less that he could come

that many times in one night. She was chafed in more

places than just her legs now, and a little worried her skin

was so super-sensitized from being in a constant state of

arousal that she was going to have another orgasm just

getting dressed.

Assuming she could ever move again.

He nuzzled her shoulder and Peg stiffened, and he

chuckled softly as she nevertheless moaned when his

thumb lazily brushed over her nipple.

“I swear to God,” she softly growled, “you say ‘again’ and

I’m going to hit you over the head with your own sword, and

not with the flat of it, either.”

“I doubt ye can even lift it, lass,” he said with another

chuckle, turning her around in his arms so that now her

naked backside was sticking out of the sleeping bag. He

kissed her forehead. “Did ye sleep wel ?”

She snorted, pressing her cold nose into the crux of his

neck, making him chuckle again as he palmed her exposed

backside and pul ed her up against his wide-awake front

side. “Insatiable,” she muttered under her breath, adding

another word to her growing list of his finer qualities.

“Excuse me?”

She patted his chest, a bit surprised that she could even

lift her hand. “I was just mentioning it was sunrise, so I

guess that means you have an hour to get me home like

you promised.” So I can send the boys to my mother-in-

law’s and collapse into bed and sleep all day,she silently

added.

“This sunrise doesn’t count, Peg,” he said, the humor

having left his voice as he tilted her head back. “We could

see a hundred sunrises from this mountain, but when we

cross the fiord it wil only be the morning after we left.

Monday morning.”

“But that’s real y not possible, Duncan. Real y. I need to

be home when my children wake up or they’l be worried

sick.”

He folded her into his embrace with a heavy sigh. “I told

ye it’s only going to seemlike you’re gone days.” He tucked

a finger between them to nudge her chin up. “My word of

honor, Peg; you’l be away from them for less than twelve

hours.”

He sat up, sitting her up with him, and chuckled

again when Peg scrambled to grab his shirt beside the

dead fire and immediately slipped it on.

He lifted her chin to look at him again, his expression

gone back to serious but his eyes stil showing a hint of

amusement. “I’d have thought we put any shyness ye might

have with me to rest last night, but I can see it’s stil

something we’re going to have to work on.”

He stood up, as naked and immodest as the day he’d

been born, walked to the pool, and dove in. Peg flopped

back on the bedrol and pul ed the sleeping bag up to her

nose with a sigh of relief—fol owed by a smile at the

treetops final y catching the first rays of a magical sunrise.

Oh yeah, based on last night’s experience, nothing could

kil Duncan MacKeage.

“The way I see it, ye have two choices,” Duncan said as he

dripped water from his fingers onto Peg’s forehead,

causing her to pul the sleeping bag up over her face with a

groan. “You can get up and get dressed so we can get on

with the day, or I can crawl back into bed with you and work

on that little shyness problem.”

It wasn’t her cute, wel -perfected scowl she was wearing

when she pushed the sleeping bag down to her chest; it

was an outright threatening glare. “Here’s a third choice:

After you get dressed, you can hike up the mountain and

then a mile down inside it and make sure your …

whatever,” she said with a negligent wave, “is stil there. If it

is, maybe I’l hobble up the mountain and a mile down

inside it, and then cram myself into the last twenty feet of

cave and get it for you.” That said, she pul ed the sleeping

bag back up over her face. “Go away, Duncan. Go catch us

a trout for breakfast or something.”

“I can’t,” he said with a chuckle. “The poor scandalized

buggers al jumped over the smal dam of the pool last night

when they heard ye carrying on like that, and Leviathan is

probably having them for breakfast. What was that?” he

asked when he heard her muttering something.

Duncan knew Peg was wanting an apology this morning,

or at the very least expecting him to inquire as to how she

was feeling. But he hadn’t been lying when he’d told her he

could be a real bastard sometimes, so he figured he might

as wel begin as he intended to go on. Hel , half the reason

he loved her was that Peg was the first woman he’d met

who could handle a lifetime of living with him.

He grabbed the edge of the bag and simply rol ed her out

of it, then picked up the growling woman and stood her on

her feet, pointed her toward the pool, and gave her a nudge

to get her moving. “Five minutes for a refreshing swim, five

to dress, and then we’re headed up the mountain even if

you’re barefooted.”

“What about breakfast?” she grouched as she hobbled to

the pool. “I haven’t had anything since supper last night.”

“I’l have something ready when you’re ready.”

She stopped with her toes in the water and looked over

her shoulder, saw him blatantly watching her, then waded

into the pool without bothering to take off his shirt.

Duncan turned to hide his smile, squatting down to

straighten their bed. Christ, the contrary woman turned him

on. He packed up anything he intended to leave here at the

campsite—which was just about everything—then went

about gathering firewood to save himself from having to do

it in the dark when they got back. Satisfied he’d done his

manly duty of providing heat and shelter for his woman’s

comfort tonight, Duncan dropped a fistful of granola bars

beside his sword, then took the wrapper off one and

moseyed over to a rock near the waterfal . He sat down to

munch away as he watched Peg sitting under the gushing

waterfal , letting it pummel the muscles in her back.

Oh yeah, he could be a real bastard sometimes. “Ye

have two minutes before we’re walking up the mountain.

Can you real y get dressed in that amount of time?”

“Look, I’m a little tender this morning, okay?” she

muttered, not even bothering to open her eyes. “The

mountain’s not going anywhere.”

“You know, ye could have simply asked me to stop last

night.”

That opened her eyes. “I just had to say stop?” she said

in a strangled whisper.

He nodded. “But the truth is ye never asked, and you

seemed to be having so much fun, I didn’t darestop for fear

of disappointing ye.”

He saw a blush creep into her beautiful face even as he

noticed her hands braced on the rocks bal ing into fists.

Granted, he’d pushed her beyond what Peg may have

thought shewas capable of last night, but even if it had

kil ed him, he would have stopped at the first sign she was

in distress. But he hadn’t wanted to stop because he’d

wanted to make damn sure lovemaking wasn’t something

she’d even think about doing all by herselfever again.

“One minute.”

“Fine,” she snapped, standing up and wading out of the

water. “Oh, here, let me give you your shirt,” she said far too

sweetly, pul ing it off over her head and slapping it against

his bare chest.

She then turned on her heel and, apparently over her

shyness, walked toward the sleeping bag where he’d left

her clothes. Duncan decided she looked damn fine for a

mother of four children. He took another bite of his granola

bar and watched her dress right there in plain sight beside

the sleeping bag, noticing she started to put on her bra only

to immediately pul it down off her breasts and toss it on the

bag.

He’d have to remember those two lovely ladies were

obviously a little tender and find himself a new favorite spot

on her body to explore tonight. He took another bite and

slowly chewed, remembering that her backside had fit his

hands quite nicely.

She pul ed her sweatshirt down over her head, then

glanced toward the pool—specifical y the lower end—

before looking at him. “I … um, I lost my panties in the

current of the fal s last night when I slid out of my jeans. Is

the pair you shoved in your pocket the only pair you

brought?”

He took another bite of his bar and nodded.

“Did youbring a change of underwear?”

He nodded again, chewing to hide his smile when her

face darkened, then used what was left of his bar to point at

the backpack—even as he felt himself growing hard at the

idea of her wearing his boxers. “They’re in the bottom

pouch.” Only he jumped up and strode over to her when he

remembered what else was in that pouch, realizing she

was going to get that apology after al . “I’l get them.”

“Too late,” she said, pul ing out the box of condoms.

Except instead of throwing them at him like he expected,

she tossed the box on the ground with a snort and stood up

holding his boxers. “You in the habit of making love to a

woman without a condom?” she asked as she slipped first

one leg and then the other into the shorts and pul ed them

up under her sweatshirt.

He took hold of her shoulders when she started to bend

down to get the jeans. “I swear to God, Peg, I had every

intention of protecting you last night.” He ran a hand through

his hair, then rubbed the heat creeping up the back of his

neck. “My only excuse is that I went … I was a little …” He

blew out a sigh. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

She must have read his sincerity, because her face

softened and she patted his chest. “Don’t worry; I’m not

going to get pregnant. I had my tubes tied after the twins.”

He saw her cheeks flush with heat. “So I can’t ever have any

more babies,” she whispered, her gaze dropping to his

chest. “If I ever wanted to … remarry, the man would never

be able to have children of … his own.”

Duncan pul ed her into his arms. “Ah, lass; any man

would be privileged to share the four ye have now. But

there’s something ye need to know, Peg. Providence

decides when a soul’s needing to be born, and if it decides

youshould be its mother, you wil get pregnant.” He lifted

her chin to smile down at her. “The only foolproof way to

prevent a baby is abstinence.”

“Then why did you even bother to bring condoms?” she

asked softly. “They’re less reliable than what I had done.”

“We can’t stop the inevitable, but we can postpone it

sometimes. Ye remember my tel ing you about Laird

Greylen MacKeage? Wel , he had seven daughters,” he

continued when she nodded. “And although I’m fairly certain

some of them had lovers before they married, I do happen

to know that each of Grey’s girls got pregnant the very first

time they made love to the men they were destined to marry