“I am glad since the clan finally feels like family to me,” she said and reached up to touch his face, the outline clear to her, and cringed when she felt it was wet. “I’m sorry. I was aiming for your chest.”

“I preferred you struck me higher than lower.”

Snow chuckled. “So am I, but,”—her hand went to rest on his chest— “I think we should go to our bedchamber and let me make sure not a single part of you suffered an injury or if you did, I would just have to kiss it and make it better.”

“I ache all over, wife,” Tarass said quite seriously, though he smiled.

“Then I will see to kissing you and easing your pain,” she whispered seductively.

Tarass scooped her up in his arms and whispered near her ear, “You’ll not get very far, wife, since you turned me hard already.”

Snow laughed softly and rested her head on his shoulder.

“You’re free to do as you please, Nettle. Lady Snow and I will be busy for the next few hours,” Tarass said as he walked past her.

Nettle smiled but had no chance to acknowledge him.

“Lord Tarass,” Rannock called out.

Tarass cursed beneath his breath, knowing Rannock was about to disrupt his plans and turned to face his friend. “Who dares disturb me now?”

“Abbot Bennett and Lord Polwarth are a short distance away.”

Chapter 26

Snow stood beside her husband on the keep’s steps waiting for the Abbot and Lord Polwarth. Her heart pounded madly in her chest and her stomach roiled with fear. She told herself not to ask the question she already had the answer to, but she desperately needed her husband to confirm it.

“You won’t let them take me, will you, Tarass?”

Tarass’s hand left hers to snag her tightly around the waist and yank her against him to rest his brow against hers. “You know the answer to that, wife, though I understand your need to hear it from me. I will let no one, not a single soul, take you from me. You belong to me as I belong to you. We are one and will always remain so.”

She sighed. “I do so love you, husband.”

“And I you, Snow, for now and all time.”

He kissed her, wanting to feel the tingle of pleasure he always got when his lips touched hers, whether the kiss was gentle or demanding, and feel the slight shiver in her body as passion flared in her, and know that she responded to his slightest intimate provocation so easily.

A bark from Thaw had them breaking apart.

“They approach,” Tarass said, taking hold of his wife’s hand snugly in his, letting her know he’d never let her go.

Tarass had never met Abbot Bennett and wondered if his wife was familiar with him. “Have you ever met Abbot Bennett?”