Chapter 38
Eoghanan McMillan was an utter fool if he thought keeping her off McMillan land would protect them. Jinty had other ways to keep herself abreast of what went on in the castle, other ways to look for the perfect opportunity to take the boy.
She’d been right to think the boy was special to him. The warning in his eyes had been clear enough the day he’d seen her inside the castle. She’d known he suspected who she was. It didn’t matter in the least.
She watched them now; Eoghanan and his new bride riding away from the castle. They would be gone for days, the boy left in the care of his real father, a man far less threatening than Eoghanan. She’d continue to watch the child closely and, at the opportune time, she would take him away.
Eoghanan would return to find his new son gone.
*
“If ye look back in the direction of the castle once more, lass, I shall turn me horse around and we will go home.”
“I’m sorry.” I turned my head around and leaned back into him, kissing the underside of his chin. McMillan Castle was far from view by now but, for whatever reason, looking back toward the castle helped to ease my nervousness at leaving Cooper.
He’d be fine, of course. He stayed with his father at least two nights a week back in New York, but for some reason, I was irked by an unexplainable sense of worry. Whether it was the newness of our situation or the vastness of the castle and its endless ways for Cooper to get in trouble, I didn’t know, but it wasn’t fair of me to give Eoghanan anything less than my full attention.
“How much farther are you taking me?” I reached my arms up behind his head, gently massaging the back of his scalp while I leaned into him, just as I’d done the day I’d cut his hair.
He let loose a deep contented sigh of enjoyment. “Ach, Grace, as much as I love the way that feels, I doona think I can stay sitting up properly on me horse if ye continue that.”
Following our wedding, we joined the others residing at the castle for the gathering at a large celebratory dinner that lasted well into the wee hours of the morning. We’d collapsed so exhaustedly into bed that thoughts of binding our marriage vows through consummation hadn’t crossed our minds for a moment. Now, however, it was all I could think about.
“So why don’t you get off your horse for a bit. Seems to me like we’ve still got quite a ways to go.”
“Aye, that we do, Grace. At least a full day more which is why I doona understand why ye think I should get off me horse, ’twould only delay us further.”
I laughed against him, rather shocked at his daftness. It was the one thing constantly on the mind of any man and the moment it was so clearly on mine, he couldn’t take the hint. I shifted my bottom, rocking it into him a bit to emphasize my point. “Who cares if it delays us a little? I want to be…” I hesitated, trying to think of the word I’d heard once. “What is it that you all say? Tupped? I want to be tupped by my husband.”
The catch of his breath was instant and so was the slight pull on the horse’s reins. “Tupped is no a kind sort of reference, lass. Ye should be careful saying just what it is that ye want. I doona think ’tis that.”
I couldn’t tell whether he meant it as a challenge or he just didn’t wish to get his hopes up, but I reached behind him and pulled at the hair along the base of his neck. “I don’t think it’s really your place to tell me what I do and don’t want. I’m more than capable of figuring that out for myself. And right now…I don’t want to be cherished. I don’t want to be caressed or taken slowly…”
He pulled the horse to a stop before I even finished. “Right now, I want to be claimed by my husband. I want you to throw me up against one of these trees and take me so roughly that the only way I can sit this horse again is by sitting sideways.” He nearly choked on his own spit, and his breathing came ragged in my ear.
“I want my husband,” I emphasized the word, drawing it out and speaking in the most seductive voice I could manage. It sounded rather ridiculous to me, but it seemed to do the trick for him just fine. “To fu…”
Finally, he spoke, flinging himself off the side of the horse so that he could pull me off with him. “Ach, hush yer mouth, Grace. I doona even know what to say to ye. I have never in me life heard a lass speak such.”