Up so high, the wind was chilly and Mary, standing beside the horse, wrapped Leith’s pilfered cloak tighter around herself. She then reached out and held the reins of Leith’s horse. They had taken it up the dark paths that Leith had said the horse knew better than he did.
She lingered back as he went to the edge of the cliff and tilted his head up to the sky. Turned away from her, his body, shrouded in darkness was still magnificent. With his head tilted up and his shoulders set in a line, she traced the shape of his broad back, down to his long legs. His hair was fluttering in the wind.
Quietness wrapped around them, briefly broken by the hoots of a melancholic owl. She was wondering why he was hesitating when his head tilted back and unhinged roar blasted to the heavens. Leith’s hands were curled into tight fists near his side when he shouted again. A flurry had a flock of night birds crying out and flying off, covering the dark sky in darker wings.
She heard his anger, his frustration and his pain in that primal call. Her insides ached for him. Leith’s hands clenched tighter, he threw back his head and shouted once more. The horse fidgeted in her hand and he was tugging his head but she reached out to soothe him.
Leith’s shoulders sank and but he did not move. Instead, he twisted to her and held out his hand. “Mary, come here.”
Not expecting that, she hesitated but Leith called for her again. She dropped the reins and went to his side where he shifted to place her before him. He dropped his hands to her hips. “Now ye do it. Yell out, scream yer anger.”
With the tables suddenly turned on her, she felt shy. “I do not—”
His lips were on the back of her neck, teasing the soft hairs and tender skin there, “Aye, ye do, now tell the world yer anger, do it, Mary. Ken of yer parents how they made ye feel. Why ye had to run.”
Her breath shuddered her chest before she closed her eyes and the feelings, she had closed up in her soul for her parents sprang forth. The dark feeling of anger, fear, and loneliness was a cauldron of repressed bitterness bubbling inside her gut like bitter gall.
She sucked in a deep breath then screamed. Her chest was on fire when she remembered the uncaring dismissal her parents had coldly given her and her scream was raw. Why Mother! Why Father! Why!
Her body was shivering with emotions when her throat closed up and she sagged back unto Leith’s shoulder. His arms were tight around her and she had to lean on him because her legs felt rubbery. He turned her in his arms and pressed her face under his neck. His hands rubbed her back soothingly.
“Ye were right, ‘tis does help,” he said quietly.
For a long moment, she said nothing, but she quietly asked, “Leith, what do you feel for me?”
His body stiffened before he hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face until he found her. “Ye dinnea ken?”
“I cannot,” she replied, as she laid her palm flat against his beating heart. “There are times when I cannot read you, your face is like a blank slate.
“Because I am the master of my emotions, Mary,” he said as he pulled her even closer. “A result of many years of conditioning. I feel things for ye,” he admitted finally. “Powerful things, things that scare me at times.”
“It scares me too,” she replied in a shaky whisper then laughed quietly. “To the point, I got jealous of Rinalda, I thought your relationship with her was too…well personal.”
His laugh rumbled against her chest as he brushed a tendril of her loose hair from her eyes, “How nice for ye to be jealous of me, I like that yer jealous over me, but there is naything between me and Rinalda. The only woman I want is ye.” he admitted, his voice dripping with desire.
“What about you?” she asked in wonder. “Are you jealous over me?”
“Nay,” he replied while kissing her left ear. “Because I havenae had the chance to be in that situation. I do suspect though that I’d be a beast if any man but me captured yer affections.”
Speaking of jealousy…
“I had a strange conversation with your mother today,” Mary admitted. “Well, not conversation as such as I did not speak, but she called me from the kitchens and spoke to me about marriage. Saying that she knew some reputable men who could marry me.”
Leith spun her. “What the devil? What did ye say.”
Despite his anger, Mary felt amused, “I did not say anything. I’m mute remember. I just signed that I was not interested.” Her arms were around his neck and his eyes eclipsed her vision. “I don’t want anyone else.”
“To be fair, ye havnae been with a man before,” Leith said cheekily.
Even more cheekily, Mary decided to tease him, “Is that permission to find ano—”
His kiss was rough, powerful and the heat of it was branding. He was searing himself into her without joining with her. His lips sent wild tremors running through her body again, stroking the embers of desire in her chest into a flame. He grabbed her hip and pulled away, “Nay, ye are mine. Nayone else’s, ye hear me?”
Rubbing her knuckles across his face she smiled at his possessive tone, “I believe you when you said you would be jealous, but be assured, it’s only you.”
Reaching up, she carried his face down to hers and they kissed softly, lovingly under the luminous rays of the moon. Resting her head on his chest she sighed, “This feels like something out of a dream.”
“Aye,” he said, his breath warming her skin. “A welcomed fantasy in the middle of the prolonged night terror I am in the middle of.”
They stayed there, on the edge of the cliff with cold air around them and
