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Lockhart pushed his horse to travel the last few miles. He had stopped at every inn between here and Edinburgh, inquiring about Grace’s whereabouts. Each innkeeper gave him the same answer. They never saw her or his family’s carriage. No matter how much coin he plied them with, they denied ever seeing her. It was not until he stopped at a tavern to eat that the tavern owner’s wife took pity on him.
It would appear another bag of coins had bribed everyone’s silence before he had ever arrived. Forces worked against him in the form of his interfering mother and her mastermind schemes. While he had made one blundering mistake after another with Grace, his mother set them on a course straight for scandal. Yet, he found no fault with her actions as long as they led him to Grace.
He was never one to follow the dictates society demanded of him. He may expect his family to conduct themselves in a proper manner when needed, but he never expected them to change themselves so their fellow peers would accept them. He only thought they needed proper discipline to curb their penchant for the trouble they constantly found themselves involved in.
It was the reason he wanted a governess for his siblings. However, his mother had held a different mindset when she hired Grace. She hadn’t brought Grace into their home for his brothers and sisters but for Calum instead. He had had an issue with Grace since the first day she arrived.
He had tried to convince himself that his reaction was because of how she disagreed with his every demand. But if he were honest, he had fallen off-kilter since the first time he saw Grace smile. As time continued, he wished she bestowed her smiles on him, instead of having to lurk in the shadows to catch a glimpse. Grace would not welcome him with a smile when he caught up to her. He was within reach of her. He only waited for her to retire for the evening.
“Sorry, me lord. We were only following ye mother’s orders,” Samuel, the carriage driver, apologized.
Lockhart signaled for the barmaid to bring more ale. “As long as Miss Penrose is safe, ‘tis all that matters.”
Samuel took a swig of the ale. “Aye. Lady Lockhart made sure we protected her well. It just breaks our hearts to hear her cry.”
Lockhart patted Samuel on the back. “No need to worry. I shall see to Miss Penrose’s troubles.”
Samuel nodded. “Ye a good man.”
Lockhart wasn’t in agreement, but he hoped to redeem himself.
Lockhart stood. “Have the carriage ready at first light. We will continue to Gretna Green and then return home. Please make sure you do not tell a soul about our travels. Trouble is afoot, and we must protect Miss Penrose at all costs.”
“Aye, me lord.”
Lockhart climbed the steps to the set of rooms abovestairs. One of his footmen rested on a stool outside of Grace’s room. The guard came to attention once he saw him. Lockhart placed his finger against his lips in a signal for his man to stay silent and handed him over a bag of coins.
“Treat the men to dinner and a few drinks in moderation,” Lockhart whispered.
The footman nodded before leaving. Lockhart trusted the footman to keep the other men from overindulging. He would take the post as guard for the evening. Not that he didn’t trust his men but protecting Grace was his only priority.
His mother had shown him the threatening letter Grace had received before she fled. When he questioned the other servants, no one had seen the letter before. Had one of his servants betrayed him? Douglas had confirmed Grace had received another letter before she left for the park. His mother had found it inside her nightstand. Cameron had mentioned how pale Grace had been before they left for town, but he thought her complexion was an aftereffect of her illness.
The letters explained her behavior. She thought she brought shame upon his family. When, in fact, it was his actions that had prompted the threats. He should have never pressed her to apologize to Lady Fyfe. However, one could not undo the past. He could only move forward and show Grace what she meant to his family.
Lockhart settled on the stool and rested his back against the wall. He longed to knock on her door and comfort her, but she wouldn’t welcome his company. She thought she traveled home to England to be with her family. Instead, his mother had trapped her to where she must accept him as a groom or find herself ruined forever. He only hoped Grace would forgive his mother. If not, then his life would become a constant troubled affair.
As the evening progressed, the noise from the tavern grew louder. Grace had stopped moving around an hour ago. Soon he heard her soft cries and understood what Samuel was talking about. He stood and pressed his hand against the door, wanting to touch her instead. When her cries changed to an earth-shattering scream, he charged inside, panicked that someone had tried to climb through the window to attack her.
When he neared the bed, he found Grace thrashing around under the covers, caught in a nightmare. He searched the room and found it empty. Her cries had changed to whimpers. He retreated and closed the door. He swore he wouldn’t touch her until he wed her, but he wanted to ease her fears. Lockhart pulled off his boots and tossed his coat onto an empty chair. He slid under the covers, drawing Grace into his arms.
“Shh, my love,” Lockhart attempted to soothe her.
Grace fought to drag herself out of the nightmare that demanded her to stay and witness her demise. A calming touch across her back lured her to awaken, and warmth surrounded her, making her feel safe for the first time in days. Lockhart’s scent fooled her into believing he had arrived to convince her to return to his home. Grace sighed when lips brushed across her temple in a soft caress, and Lockhart’s lowered voice whispered endearments.
Her nightmare had turned into a peaceful dream, easing her back into restful sleep. But soon her dream turned into a fantasy when the calming strokes turned bolder, demanding her to open her eyes. If she did, it would break her heart to face reality. Calum would never hold her in his arms or kiss her again. The kisses they had shared would only remain a memory. She would indulge in them while her life spiraled out of control.
However, when his lips swept across hers, lighting her on fire, she knew she was no longer lost in a dream. Calum held her in his arms.
“Calum,” she whispered.
“Yes, love.” His lips trailed along her neck.
“You came.”
He raised his head, locking his gaze with hers. “I will always come after you.”
“Why?”
“Do you not realize by now how much you mean to me?”
Grace shook her head.
He cupped her cheeks. “I care for you deeply. So deeply I am in love with you.”
Before Grace could respond, Calum stole her breath away with a kiss, breaking down her defenses. She wrapped her arms around him and deepened the kiss. She wanted him to understand she cared for him in the same manner. There were no words to describe how she cared for Calum.
The kiss took a turn of epic proportions when it became a wicked dance of seduction. The stroke of his tongue against hers grew bolder but was still tender with each gentle swipe. His hands explored her body with the same care. Soft caresses traveled across her silky flesh in exploration. Her soft sighs echoed around them from the pleasure she felt at his touch.
He peeled the nightdress from her body, allowing his eyes to drink in her luscious form. Calum had spent the past week aching for Grace. Never again would he be apart from her. Even without claiming her body, a sense of fulfillment filled him while in her presence.
The faint light from the moon gazing through the window washed Grace in glory. She held her breath when he paused to trace his gaze along her body. Grace sighed when he palmed her breast and brushed his thumb across her bud. It tightened at his gentle touch. He lowered his head to tease her nipple with his tongue.
“Calum,” Grace moaned, sliding her hand through his hair.
He had to fight the need to slide his cock inside her sweet heaven at her touch and the sound of his name sighing from her lips in pleasure. However, he held himself back from the passion his body demanded he release. Worshipping Grace was the only demand he would meet that night.
Calum drew the bud between his lips, sucking with enough pressure for Grace to moan in need. He planned to enjoy every enticing inch of Grace and wouldn’t rush their lovemaking. He would not stop until he fulfilled his craving. Only he would never find his appetite appeased. He had never hungered for a lady like he had for Grace. She was the other half of his soul, and by morning, she would understand how much she meant to him. He would prove his love all night and into tomorrow morning. And every day that followed.
Grace’s fingers tightened against Calum’s scalp as his lips tightened around her nipple. However, it wasn’t the slight pressure that left Grace unstable. It was the bold slide of his hand between her thighs, opening her for an attack on her senses. She whimpered with the need for him to put her out of her misery. However, he teased her with each brush of his fingers across her curls. Soft touches across her thighs to a gentle sweep across her wetness. Only to retreat, to caress behind her knees. Then to flick his fingers against her bud until she thought she would weep from the exquisite pleasure.
Only to return to her breasts. He molded them to fit his palms as he trailed his lips back and forth between them to tighten her nipples into an unbearable ache. Then he took pleasure in soothing them with each gentle lap of his tongue. Grace ached with a need so powerful it left her spiraling.
“Calum,” she begged.
He raised his head, piercing her with the wicked desire flaming in his eyes. “Yes, my love?”
Grace thrashed her head back and forth on the pillow, unable to articulate her needs with the words he desired to hear. In time, he would teach her how to express her needs with words. For now, her innocence shined through and fueled his need to fulfill the desire coursing throughout her.
He licked her nipple while sliding his hand back between her thighs. His fingers sank into her wetness, coating them with her desires. When her eyelids flickered closed and an erotic moan whispered in the air, he sank his finger deep inside her and slowly drew it out.
Her eyes opened wide at his bold stroke, so he added another finger to push her response past sweetness and into bold declarations. While he would spend a lifetime treasuring Grace, he also wanted the fiery temptress she had never held herself back from when she argued with him in the past. Her innocence endeared her to him, but underneath, she held the passion to match him in the bedroom. He only had to coerce it to the surface to engage in a battle until satisfied bliss claimed them both.
When his strokes grew bolder, drawing her to the surface of her desire, he pulled back again. His hands coasted across her body, learning every inch of Grace. So when he closed his eyes in sleep, a vision of her would be forever imprinted on his soul.
Grace arched into him as if begging for him to push her past the pinnacle of what she needed. He returned to her lips, and Grace wrapped herself tighter around him and met each bold stroke with her own. Her legs entwined with his, and her wet core pressed against his cock. The heat singed him to forget anything but the need to savor her sweetness on his tongue. He was a weak man whose patience to draw her out of her shell evaporated by the scent of her musky need surrounding them.
Calum slid down Grace’s body with her hands clutching at him in fear he would abandon her in her present state of unabashed need. However, her doubts vanished like a whisper in the wind when his tongue slid against her wetness with the gentlest of licks. She clutched at his shoulders, unsure if she should shove him away from the decadent display of his advances or continue to melt at the illicit pleasure she found from his wicked tongue. The deeper she sank into the mattress, the more she realized she could no longer deny how she felt about Calum Lockhart. He possessed her heart and soul from this moment forth.
Calum moaned against Grace’s pussy the second she abandoned all her reserves. Soon her fingers glided through his hair, urging him to take her over the edge. She raised her hips, pressing her core into his mouth. And he answered her demand by savoring her juices with one bold stroke of his tongue after another. Each swipe left her whimpering with her need to surrender. His fingers glided in and out of her pussy while his tongue teased her clit with the slowest of flicks. Soon, her nails dug into the back of his neck as she unraveled beneath him. He quickened the pace with rapid succession as her honey coated his tongue.
He needed to be inside her now. His patience no longer remained in his control. The need to claim Grace dominated his senses. He ripped off his shirt and tore at the buttons on his pants, shoving them away from his legs. From this moment forward, he would never deny his love for Grace Penrose.
Grace reached out for him, and he lowered himself into her arms. She touched her lips against his in the softest of caresses, her hands gliding up and down his back with languid regard. She wrapped herself around him as if it were the most natural act she had done multiple times before. Not the first time. Their bodies melded together as one as he slowly slid inside her. He captured her gasp at his invasion and slid deeper, relishing the thrill of claiming Grace as his. It was a moment he had waited an eternity for. Soon Grace wrapped her legs around his waist and moved in time with him.
Their gazes stayed locked together while their bodies swayed in time to the beat of their hearts. Each brush of her nipples against his chest sent Calum reeling with another forceful demand to slay his need between her legs. To claim all she offered to him.
“Promise me you will never run from me again,” Calum rasped.
Calum pressed inside her deeper and swiveled his hips at his demand. However, it was not a demand but a call of desperation to trust him whenever she held any doubt. The anguish in his gaze showed he suffered from the same emotion of them being apart as she did.
Grace brushed his hair off his forehead. “Only if you promise me the same.”
Calum’s answer was to give Grace a tender kiss as he slid in and out of her with the same tender care. His need had shifted with their promise to each other to draw out the passion between them into a tidal wave of rippling pleasure. He took them to the heights of unspoken promises and sent them over the edge into a sea of promised love.
With hopes of forever.