“Your secret is out,” Brogan teased. “Everyone will know now.”
“What secret?”
“That ye’re a minx.” He gently bit the fleshy top of her breast. “And that I love ye for it.”
* * *
“’Tis just over here.” Fiona jogged through the forest for the first time since injuring her ankle.
They’d been at Dòchas for two weeks, and she’d been waited on hand and foot by not only Beitris and Brogan but by her uncle Tam too.
Her uncle had also apologized for what he’d said about Brogan, and the two actually began to genuinely get along.
Nothing could have made Fiona happier than to see the two men tease each other over supper. She couldn’t wait for her entire family to come together again and meet Brogan, though that seemed a far way off.
Brogan grabbed her from behind, pulling her back against his chest, and he kissed her behind the ear. “But ye’re right here…”
She knew that tone in his voice, and it sent a shiver of desire coursing through her. Whirling in his arms, she kissed him thoroughly. “More of that later. For now, the box.”
Brogan gave a petulant groan, but followed when she tugged him by the hand.
At last they came to the spot she’d been to a thousand times or more over the course of the years.
“My tree,” Fiona announced, beaming up at Brogan. “I’ve never showed it to anyone save for…my friend.” She flicked her gaze back at the little nook that held the box, not wanting to say Aes’s name after what had happened with the letters.
“Your friend?”
“Aye. Another messenger like me. The letters are placed in the box, and that is how I receive orders from the prince when I’m no’ in his company.”
“And what if ye’re no’ close enough to the box to receive orders?” A gentle breeze wafted, splaying his hair onto his forehead, and she pushed it back.
Fiona shrugged. “There is always word of mouth. Secret messages have a way of being passed.”
“That is how some secrets get out.”
“Ye’re no’ wrong. ’Tis why I have such trouble with trust.” Her gaze locked on his. “But, Brogan, ye know I trust ye.”
“Then why no’ give me the name of your friend.” By the soft expression on his face, the way his fingers brushed her hand, she had an idea that he already knew the answer, but that he was waiting for her to just tell him outright.
“’Tis Aes.”
She waited for anger to cloud his features. For him to pull away. Maybe even for him to turn his back on her and walk away.
But Brogan didn’t. He only smiled and brushed his lips over hers.
In that moment of acceptance, Fiona’s heart lurched behind her ribs, and if possible, her love for him grew tenfold.
“I thought so,” he said. “I only wanted to hear ye say it. To know that ye trusted me with that. After what happened last time… I never should have—”
“I do trust ye, Brogan, else I’d no’ have brought ye here. No one else knows who Aes is, that he’s—”
Brogan pressed his fingers to her lips. “Ye dinna have to tell me all your secrets, Fiona. After all, ye’re in the prince’s confidence.”
“Aye, but…” She bit the tip of his finger teasingly, trying to figure out just what she could say and what should be left a secret. If she couldn’t trust Brogan, the man who’d become her partner, her lifesaver, her lover, then what was the purpose of living? He also had made a vow to protect the prince. Knowing Aes’s identity as A.M. wasn’t going to break the operation. “Let’s see if he’s left me a letter.”
She pulled a key from the chain around her neck and reached inside the hollow for the box. Relief flooded her to feel the packet inside. She’d worried that there would be nothing, and that after all this time away from the prince’s entourage, he wouldn’t have need of her anymore. Or worse still that he’d been caught, and she and Brogan hadn’t been there to protect him.
They’d still not figured out why she’d been taken at the caves, but Brogan had suspected it had something to do with his clan, given it was on Grant lands. The Glenmoriston Grants were supposed to be on his side. But he said he wouldn’t put it past bribery from his father. Honorable men couldn’t be bribed, and honorable men also didn’t abduct women in the middle of the night, injuring her guards in the process. With Cameron on the inside, no one had suspected the Grants would be ambushing them from behind.
“Incredible,” Brogan murmured. “I didna think there would be anything there.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I canna say. I’m no’ certain.”
She smiled. “I was worried about the same.” Fiona broke the seal on the packet, about to break her own rule of reading by the box. “Actually, I never read here. Let us go.”
She closed the box and tucked the packet into her bodice with the key. Taking Brogan’s hand, she led him to one of her favorite reading spots and tugged him down to the ground with her. The sun shone through the trees, a rare break from the rain. The sweet scent of forest fauna blew on the breeze, and her fingers danced over the little white snowdrop petals. She plucked one and brought it to Brogan’s nose, then slid it over his lips and down his neck.
“Ah, so ye finally have come around to my plan,” he teased, pushing her gently back and coming over her with his body.
Fiona laughed as they fell backward, the snowdrop forgotten as he nuzzled her neck, and her entire body felt as though it were coming alive. Perhaps the letter could wait just a few more minutes…
* * *
Brogan wanted to make love to his wife. Mostly because every time he looked at her, potent desire ran rampant in his veins. Mostly because he loved the sounds of her soft moans of pleasure, the way she broke apart in his arms. But also partly because he didn’t want her to open the letter.
The last few weeks alone with her had been a blissful escape from what was happening in the world, and he didn’t want it to end.
As soon as she opened the letter and received news or orders regarding the prince and the rebellion, they would both be compelled to leave. It wasn’t that he no longer wanted to do his duty by the prince; it was that he didn’t want to leave the cocoon of love they’d wrapped around themselves. For the first time in his entire life, he finally felt at home.
Fiona was his home.
Wherever she was, he felt settled and at peace. Despite the war waging all around the country. Despite death looming in every shadow.