"But I don't know how," Abigail admitted. No matter how much she wished she did.

She wanted to give him pleasure as he had given her.

"You believe I have a wealth of experience touching women?"

Possessive fury welled up in her, taking her breath for a second. "Don't you?" she asked, nevertheless.

"No."

Her shock must have shown on her face because he smiled. "Our clan believes that penetration is as good as speaking vows between two people."

"There is a long distance between touching and deflowering." Or so her sister had insisted.

Talorc shrugged.

She frowned. "What does that mean?"

"Perhaps I have touched a woman or two, but never with the intimacy of this moment."

"You'd better not have." She didn't know where the words or the ferocity came from, but she wouldn't take either back.

Talorc did not seem bothered. In fact, once again, he smiled.

She would have told him to wipe the smug look from his face, but he lifted her against his body and all her air left her.

"If you are going to wash me, do it now."

She did not know how he expected her to do so and said as much.

He rubbed his hardness against her once before releasing her on the other side of the pool, where she found she could stand without going under. "There."

She looked around for the soap but he grabbed her chin, making her look at him.

"Just your hands."

She nodded, equal parts terror and desire fighting inside her. Then she reached through the warm water and brushed her hand down his arm. She'd seen her mother do that to her stepfather when he was tired or upset. It seemed such an intimate act.

Something a wife would do for her husband.

But from Talorc's expression, she knew he expected more. She She wanted more. She took in a deep breath and then placed both hands flat against his chest. Skin hotter than the water covered hard muscles that felt like silk-covered granite under her fingers. wanted more. She took in a deep breath and then placed both hands flat against his chest. Skin hotter than the water covered hard muscles that felt like silk-covered granite under her fingers.

She used a washing motion but could not pretend that she was doing nothing more than a mundane chore. She trembled with the newness of touching another.

He made no move to direct her, allowing her to explore his torso in the guise of washing it. Neither spoke as she mapped his body with shaking hands.

She stopped with her hands resting against his stomach. "I want to touch you there."

He did not ask where "there" was; he merely nodded.

She did not move. "I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

It was her turn to respond with silence and a shrug. She could no more give voice to her fears than she could have stepped away from him in that moment.

"You have given me great pleasure these past two nights."

"You put your hand over mine," she reminded him. As if he could forget that tiny detail.

Without another word, his hands slid over hers and pressed downward. She let him guide her to the hard prick bobbing in the water. It jumped as her fingertips brushed along its length. He guided her fingers to curl around him and then moved his own hands to her hips, holding her in place.

The flesh in her hands was hot, hard and alive. So very alive.

She looked up into his heated gaze. "I feel like I'm holding the essence of your life."

Before she had a chance to feel stupid for saying something so ridiculous, he smiled a rogue's smile and nodded. "Many men would say that is exactly what you are doing."

"You said this would ... it would ..."

"Go inside you? Is that what has you worrying, wife?"

She swallowed and nodded.

"I'll fit as if you were made to hold me and no other."

"You're sure?"

"Aye."

"But ... It's ... You do realize there are small horses that would be pleased to be so endowed?" She had been raised in a keep after all; she'd seen more than one equestrian mating.

His head tilted back and she imagined his laughter boomed around the cavern.

She could not hear it, but she could feel the vibrations through his body.

She was not sure why he thought her comment so amusing. She found it much more worrying.

He shook his head. "I willna hurt you, lass."

"You're so sure? You said you don't have much experience."

"I am sure." And that clearly was supposed to be that.

And truthfully? Right now, she was less concerned with what was to come than the fact he had given her permission, nay instruction instruction, to "wash" him.

She moved her hands along the large prick and Talorc's eyes fell closed as a fierce expression took over his features. She let her hands learn him in a way she had not the previous nights in their tent. She explored the softness of the skin, pressing into the flesh to feel just how hard he was. It was like holding heated stone.

The massive warrior's body shuddered at her touch, and she could not help feeling as if she had accomplished something special.

Suddenly he lifted her from the water, breaking her hold on his manhood. "That is enough."

"You are clean?" she teased, shocking herself.

He gave her a heavy-lidded look that promised pleasure and something else ...claiming. "It is time."

She could not respond. She would not deny her own desire. For that would be a lie, but she could not force agreement from her tight throat either.

For the longest time, he simply looked at her. His eyes seemed to glow yellow in the torchlight. "You are so beautiful."

"Not like you," she choked out.

He jerked as if surprised by her words. But how could he be? The Sinclair laird was a study in male perfection.

Long black hair gleamed darker than the night around handsomely chiseled features that bespoke relentless strength and fierce pride. His big, well-honed warrior's body was only the physical manifestation of that strength. Eyes that continued to astonish her with their bright blue depths revealed an inner power she had seen in no other man.

They said Talorc could be nothing less than laird of his people; no other position would do for the man so clearly born to lead.

Right now those eyes glowed with striations of gold that sent pinpricks of sensation down her spine.

Strangely, she found that incredibly alluring rather than frightening. This man had authority over her life as only her parents had before him. He was so much stronger than either her mother or stepfather. His personality and form should intimidate, but she felt inexplicable safety. In this moment, Abigail did not worry Talorc would use either his mental or physical power to hurt her.

No, his intent to give her pleasure was undeniable. Baffled by the truth but unable to deny it, she craved the experience. Of all the scenarios she had entertained in her worried imaginings before leaving her stepfather's keep, none had included her being attracted to her Scottish husband. Even in her most closely held dreams, she had not let herself imagine desiring Talorc, wanting to be claimed by him-much less needing to claim him, too.

But he was everything desirable.

Each of his muscles was sculpted as if honed by the most talented of artists. And had they not been? Surely God had given her husband more than his share of masculine beauty as well as inner power only a select few in history would ever know.

"You are amazing to me," she admitted, not sure her voice was working.

He said something she could not understand.

Fear that she did not want in this place washed over her. "Please. I don't ..."

Please don't talk. Please don't expose her secret before revealing the full mysteries of the marriage bed. Could she not have one time of normalcy in her life? One thing not marred or ruined entirely by her affliction?

"It is Chrechte."

Relief did not cancel out the fear that had become too much a part of her, but it was still welcome. "I do not understand Chrechte."

"You wouldn't."

"What did you say?"

"I called you an angel."

"An angel?"

"Aye. When Cait and I were children, my mother told us angels were beings with hair the color of spun gold and beauty to rival our own blessed Highlands."

"You see me that way?"

"'Tis the only way to see you."

"Oh."

"I also said you are mine. My angel."

"Oh." She would not ... could not ... deny that.

He lowered her until they were eye level. "Now you say it."

"I am yours." Though she would not call herself an angel.

He spoke again in the ancient tongue. Then in Gaelic, "I belong to you."

She didn't wait for him to instruct her to repeat the phrase. "You belong to me." At least until he knew her damning truth.

"I promised to protect you during our marriage ceremony and you promised to accept my protection. Now I promise to keep you as my mate for our lives forward."

Why did it seem he spoke the word mate mate with a finality not even with a finality not even wife wife could embody? Could the lifetime promise be real? Or were even Chrechte vows subject to her defect? "I promise to protect you to the best of my abilities and to be your mate for as long as you want me." could embody? Could the lifetime promise be real? Or were even Chrechte vows subject to her defect? "I promise to protect you to the best of my abilities and to be your mate for as long as you want me."

He frowned at her addition, or was it her caveat? "Now it is time for the Chrechte blessing. I will speak it as both pack leader and your husband."

"That sounds nice." Better than the priest's hasty blessing as Talorc strode with her from the chapel.

He carried her from the pool and stood her on the furs. Then he dropped to his knees and tugged her down in front of him. Kneeling, they faced each other. His expression was so intent she could barely breathe. He tipped his head back slightly and said something, as if issuing a command. She did not understand, but he did not look at her expectantly, as if she should.

Then she thought she knew who he had spoken to as two warriors came into her sight. They took a stance behind Talorc as she realized they had not come into the cavern alone. All of his soldiers now stood in a circle around her and Talorc. None of them wore their plaid, or anything else.

She should be mortified-both by their nudity and hers, but she wasn't. It felt inexplicably fitting-as if she had been born to this obviously ancient Chrechte rite. It helped that none of the men were looking at her. They had their backs to her and Talorc, their heads tilted as if looking toward the heavens.

Each of the soldiers had a simplistic indigo marking of a wolf on his left shoulder blade. Talorc had that tattoo as well. Was that their Chrechte marking?

Her gaze slid from the big soldiers to her husband. He was looking at her with a patience she had not expected from a man who had declared it was time for them to consummate their marriage. He put his hands out and she laid hers in them.

He nodded and then began speaking.

The blessing went on for long moments in the language she had no hope of deciphering. Nevertheless, a sense of well-being grew inside her with each word he uttered. She did not know what the blessing entailed, but she could tell from the serious expression in Talorc's glowing eyes that it was important to him.

He stopped speaking, but neither of them moved. The air around them was completely still, indicating the soldiers had not moved either. They were all waiting for something. She could feel it. But she could not guess what it was.

He tilted his head back like his soldiers, drawing her attention entirely to him. His expression had turned feral, his eyes glowing once again with that strange light. Talorc opened his mouth and she thought he howled howled.

Unable to hear it, she could not be sure. Whatever it was, she felt a mystifying need to share the experience. Without conscious thought, she reached out with one hand and laid it on his chest so she could feel the vibration of sound through her fingertips. He was was howling. howling.

Truly. Just like a wolf.

And she thought the others were as well, their heads thrown back, their arms reaching high, palms out. The air shimmered with the sound she could not hear, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up and goose bumps rise on her exposed limbs.