“Is that a promise or a thre—oh!” She gasped, arching her back as he covered one firm, budding nipple with his mouth.

It seemed he had found a most interesting way to subdue her. Robbie spent several minutes keeping Catherine so busy moaning and writhing in pleasure that she forgot all about driving him crazy with her own explorations. He made delicious love to her breasts, then continued his mouth’s journey down over her stomach to the top of her panties.

He slid his fingers under the elastic and slowly lowered the thin lace, exposing more and more of her, drinking in the dew of her heated body. Her freed hands dug into his shoulders before grabbing his hair and guiding him on a savory journey from one sensitive spot to another. He slipped her panties down her long, beautiful legs and then off completely, and came back and kissed her belly button. He moved lower, opening her thighs and covering her feminine bud with his mouth, sliding his hand under her backside when she arched into him.

He could feel her tightening, straining toward her orgasm, and Robbie continued to pleasure her, reveling in the feel of her blossoming fire. He moved quickly, settling himself between her thighs, keeping his arms rigid so he wouldn’t crush her.

“Open yar eyes, Cat.”

His voice seemed to startle her, and her eyes flared with recognition as she came back to her senses. She reached up, grasped his shoulders, and smiled. “Yes. I certainly wouldn’

t want to miss anything,” she whispered, lifting her hips and wiggling until his shaft touched her entrance. “I’ve been told this is the best part.”

Despite his urgency and overwhelming need to claim her, Robbie couldn’t stop the laugh that broke from his chest. He lowered his forehead to hers, closing his eyes with a frustrated groan. “Dammit, Cat. This is serious business.”

She flexed her fingers into his shoulders and licked his lips with her tongue.

Robbie reared back and glared down into her sparkling eyes.

“Aye, husband,” she murmured in a guttural mimic of his brogue, lifting her hips just enough that he started to enter her. “Being in love is a most serious business.”

He kept his gaze locked on hers and slowly eased inside her, then retreated just enough to return even deeper with another careful thrust.

Her smile disappeared, replaced with a moan of pleasure, and her eyes widened as her fingers bit into the straining muscles of his shoulders. “Yes,” she gasped on an indrawn breath. “It truly is magic.”

“Aye,” he whispered when he became fully embedded inside her. He leaned down and kissed her smile, then started moving in a primordial rhythm that sent bolts of energy rushing through him.

And again, he felt Catherine tightening, straining toward fulfillment as she met his thrusts with eager and rather loud cries of encouragement.

He couldn’t stop looking at her. She was so freely and boldly giving herself to him, so unabashedly enjoying their pleasure, so vividly open with her response that Robbie lost the last of his control. He quit being careful and began feeling instead—every flex of her muscles sheathing him as he unleashed the full force of his urgency.

The cabin filled with blinding light, the flames on every candle flaring with simmering heat as the air charged with the pulsing glow of a magic so powerful that time stopped for the merest of heartbeats, only to start again with the explosion of their mutual fulfillment.

Catherine cried out, and Robbie actually shouted as the crashing waves of chaos took them over the edge of reality and into the realm of their consummated union—into that magical, wondrous world where two hearts start beating as one.

The pleasure lasted for what seemed like forever, and Robbie refused to move, instead holding himself rigid, deeply inside her as her lingering pulses continued to tighten around him.

Apparently, Catherine had more presence of mind than he did, for she reached up and trailed one finger down the side of his face, ending at his chin and gently pushing his mouth shut. She smiled—a warm, smug, I’ve-got-you-now smile.

“That really was the best part,” she whispered, lifting her hips slightly. “And definitely better than anything I could ever dream up.” She looked around the cabin flickering with candlelight, then brought her shimmering gaze back to his. “If I didn’t love you so much, I might be a little freaked out. Is this going to happen every time we make love?”

She cupped his chin in her palms. “Because it’s going to cost us a fortune in candles.”

Realizing he was about to collapse, Robbie rolled off her, bringing her with him and tucking her against his side as he stared up at the shadows dancing over the ceiling. “I truly hope not, little Cat, or I’ll be dead before my next birthday.”

She threw an arm and a leg across him, kissing his nipple before settling her head in the crook of his arm. He could feel her smile against his chest as she let out a satisfied sigh.

Then she suddenly lifted her head, looked at the table beside the bed, and started laughing. Robbie turned to see what was so funny and started them both shaking with his own laughter. There on the bedside table, leaning against a gently burning candle, were three packets of glow-in-the-dark condoms.

“I’m guessing it’s Cody,” Catherine said, settling back against him and drumming her fingers on his chest. “No, it’s Rick.” She tilted her head to look up at him and frowned. “I think there’s really a prankster lurking behind that quiet demeanor of his.”

Robbie captured her drumming fingers and kissed her upturned nose. “Do we need the condoms, Catherine? We really haven’t discussed adding to our family.”

She pulled herself up until she was straddling him again and slowly shook her head.

“No. We don’t need anything between us,” she whispered. “I could never have too big a family. You want a boy or a girl, Mr. MacBain?”

Robbie thought about that, looking up into his wife’s beautiful, glowing face as he tried to picture her pregnant. “Maybe six of each,” he finally said.

Which made her laugh.

Which made his toes start to curl again.

“I love you, wife.”

She gave him a smile that outshone the candles. “And I love you, husband.” One of her eyebrows rose inquisitively, and those maddening fingers of hers started walking up his stomach again. “Have you gotten your strength back yet?”

Every candle in the cabin suddenly flared again.

Chapter Twenty-five

Catherine would sayone thing about Scots: it didn’t seem to matter if it was eight hundred years ago or today, they certainly knew how to celebrate a wedding.

There was enough food laid out on several tables in the yard to feed a small nation. And the people! There were dozens and dozens of MacKeages and MacBains. Cousins had come from all over the country, towing husbands and wives and babies with them, to add their blessing to their marriage. Catherine was a bit overwhelmed to find herself in the middle of such a large family, considering she’d been an only child and orphaned at nineteen. Even Nathan and Nora were in a daze, inundated by hordes of children wanting to play and suddenly calling them cousin. Then there were the townspeople who kept coming up, welcoming Catherine to Pine Creek and wishing her well, almost to a person telling her that Robbie was the catch of three counties.

“That was a very big mistake you made, asking me to notarize a forged signature,”

Martha Bailey said over her cup of punch just before she took a sip.

“You knew it wasn’t Robbie’s signature?” Catherine asked.

Martha nodded.

“Then why did you notarize it?”

“Blackmail,” the judge said with a smile. “Marcus Saints told me there’s room for two more boys here.”

“We’re going to fill those beds with babies,” Robbie said as he walked up and wrapped an arm around Catherine’s shoulder.