Gift-Wrapped in a Kilt (Hot Scots #4)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Jamie raced down the stairs and straight to the ground-floor bathroom. She did need to pee but not as badly as she'd let everyone think. She'd needed to escape. Thanksgiving dinner had mutated into a right rammy between Rory and Gavin, and she had told Rory off. Sure, she'd stood up to him before, but not like this. And for too long lately, she'd let everyone else tell her what to do. The time had come to assert herself. To re assert herself.

Christ, what had she done?

After relieving her immediate need, she loitered in the enormous bathroom. The claw-foot tub took up most of the space. Everyone knew Emery and Rory had a poke in that very tub the morning after their second wedding, the public one they'd staged for their families though they'd been married for weeks already by then. The MacTaggart and Granger mothers had insisted on a real wedding since their first ceremony had taken place in a magistrate's office with no family present.

The families got an earful that morning.

Rory, the man who'd cherished privacy more than anything and despised making a spectacle of himself, had noisily taken his wife in the bathroom. He'd done more since, seeming to have no shame about where and when he kissed, fondled, or had a poke at his wife.

If Rory, the uptightest of the uptight, could overcome his past and find happiness, maybe there was hope for Jamie and Gavin.

She needed to tell him that — and more.

"Thought you needed a piss."

Jamie squeaked and whirled toward the doorway.

Gavin leaned against the jamb, a thumb hooked in the waistband of his slacks, his lips curved in that sexy way that made her tummy flutter.

"I did," she said. "Took care of it already."

"Good." He raked his gaze up and down her body, his gaze heating up and his voice turning smoky. "You're really hot when you get mad and yell at everybody."

Her tummy fluttered again, and her body warmed. "Not everybody. Just Rory."

"You told all of us to shut up, and you called me and Rory bawbags." His mouth quirked, his eyes sparkled golden in the muted light of the bathroom. "It was the sexiest thing ever."

"I'm glad you're here," she said, struggling to ignore the tingling between her thighs, spreading outward to suffuse her body. He shouldn't look so good, more edible than the turkey dinner. "Rory is an erse. A big, overbearing erse."

Gavin chuckled, low and deep. "I agree, but I'm beginning to think he has ulterior motives."

"Like what? Making me want to skite his face with my chair?"

He chuckled again and pushed away from the jamb to saunter toward her. "I'm not sure what he's up to, but I'm going to find out. First, I'm talking to Lachlan. Then, I'll talk to Rory and get him to fess up."

She held motionless, immobilized by his proximity as he halted centimeters from her, his face angled down so he could lock those glittering eyes on her. She clasped her hands over her belly. "You don't need to do that anymore. I should never have said we have no future if you can't get along with my brothers. I love you, Gavin, and I want to be with you no matter what."

"I love you too." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, then trailed his fingertips down her throat. "I get it now. Family is important, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to become a part of this one."

"But I'm saying you don't need to —"

He placed a finger over her lips. "I need to do this for me. I haven't been myself for a while, and that has to change. This might sound weird, but tonight, arguing with Rory, I felt more like me than I have in a long time. It felt… good."

She pulled her head back and rolled her eyes up to gaze into his. "You liked having a rammy with Rory in front of everyone?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh?"

Jamie let her hands float up to his chest, her palms settling over his firm muscles. "I'm yours, Gavin. You have nothing to prove to me. I've never loved anyone the way I love you."

He stopped blinking, his lips parted.

"I didn't understand," she said, "how much my break-up with Trevor had affected me. Not until we started having problems. I think I was using my brothers as a buffer between us, to keep you at a distance in case you left me the way Trevor did. If you had done that, it would've hurt so much more. I don't know if I could've gotten over losing you. I might have overreacted to the credit-card debacle, but I'd been expecting you to say something else and it hurt when you didn't." She'd expected a proposal, but she didn't want to say that and have him think he had to ask her today. "I started to worry you might be like Trevor, but that was my fears getting the better of me. You are nothing like him. You are a good man."

Gavin laid a hand on her cheek, holding it there for a moment before he dove his fingers into her hair. "I've never loved anyone the way I love you either."

"I won't leave you, Gavin. Even when I broke up with you, I couldn't stay away." She turned her face into his arm and kissed his wrist. "Calli didn't leave you, and I won't. Your parents didn't want to abandon you. Your wife sounds like a selfish twat to me. I hope you know I'm not like that."

"Of course I do," he said. "To be fair, Leanne had good reason to walk away. She's the kind of woman who needs to be taken care of, but she wound up taking care of me instead. She stuck it out as long as she could. I don't blame her, and wherever she is, I hope she's happy."

"She could have been kinder in the way she left you."

"Maybe, but I think she did the best she could."

"You're a good man, Gavin, to forgive her like that."

"It's time I let go of the past." He eased closer, his hand sliding deeper into her hair until his palm spread over the back of her head. "You're an incredible woman, Jamie. I know you won't leave me. I belong with you, wherever that is, and I want to become a part of your family. They accepted my sister without any reservations. I could've tried harder, especially with your brothers." He flashed her an impish smile. "I think your mom likes me, though. She called me gràidh . That's a good thing, right?"

Jamie gave him an impish grin in return. "It means darling in Gaelic. Mom must like you almost as much as Mrs. Darroch does. You're very popular with the women in the MacTaggart family."

"There's only one who matters."

He touched his lips to hers in a tender kiss rife with a deep longing and a deeper affection. In his kiss, she experienced his feelings for her, everything he'd held back before, and she couldn't stop from infusing her own emotions into the fusing of their lips.

She clenched her fingers in his shirt, plastering her body to his, craving more.

"Jamie," he whispered against her lips. "My sweet Jamie."

"Please," she breathed. "I need you."

He plunged his tongue between her lips, and the kiss exploded into a ravenous melding of their lips and tongues. The silken glide of his tongue intensified into powerful lashes, robbing her of breath and sanity. Liquid heat burgeoned between her thighs, bringing with it a heaviness that settled low in her belly and triggered a deep, hungry ache. He slung an arm around her waist to bind her to his body even as his other hand, already buried in her hair, clutched the back of her head more firmly. He slanted her head back, and she opened her mouth to him even more, without hesitation, relishing the sensation of his tongue penetrating deeper, the flavor of him arousing her so intensely she moaned and flung her arms around his neck.

Groaning, he whisked his hand down and dived it under her dress to grip her bottom.

He tore his mouth away from hers, looking down at her with surprise. "No panties? This is becoming a habit, eh?"

"I was hoping for a repeat of yesterday, and I wanted to be ready for it." She slipped a hand inside her bra, extracting a condom packet. "I came prepared."

He fanned his long fingers over her ass, tugging up until she balanced on the toes of her shoes. "You were sitting there all through dinner with no panties on. Damn, if you'd told me that when I got here, I would've dragged you into the nearest private room an hour ago."

"We're here now."

"Yeah, we are." He shoved his other hand under her dress, and with both palms on her behind, he scooted backward until he could kick the door shut with one foot. "Let's outdo Rory and Emery. Let's fuck in every room in the house, starting with this bathroom, and then move on to the outbuildings."

"Aye, let's do it."

He spun them around and backed her up to the wall. "Need a hand undoing my pants."

"Mm, I'd love to lend a hand." She snaked her fingers between their bodies, found the button of his slacks, and unhooked it. With two fingers, she yanked the zipper down with a sharp zzzzt an instant before the ripping sound of her fingers tearing open the condom packet echoed through the space. She rolled the condom onto him swiftly. As she closed her fingers around his erection, she murmured, "Want this."

"Yes, ma'am." He choked when she stroked his length. "You look like an angel, but you're a hungry little sex demon."

"Best feed me, then."

He hoisted her legs up to his hips. "Hold on to me."

Gazing into his eyes, darkened by passion, she knew she would never let him go. She locked her ankles behind his taut buttocks, her arms still linked around his neck.

With one punishing thrust, he consumed her to the hilt. "Ah… you're so hot and wet."

"You make me this way." She gasped when he pulled out partway, then drove his shaft deeper inside. "Only for you."

He slapped his palms on the wall at either side of her head and pumped into her, fast and rough, crushing her to the wall. Her wetness made a sucking sound with each of his thrusts, in time with his grunts, the sounds mingling and reflecting off the walls. Flesh slapped against flesh. The fabric of his slacks scraped against her inner thighs, but the sensation only heightened her need. She bucked her hips into his pistoning movements, clutching him tighter with her legs, her every breath a harsh gasp.

Gavin stopped.

Jamie made a disgruntled noise, her thoughts clouded by a haze of lust. "What…"

Breathing hard, he grazed his lips over hers. "I haven't told you what I'm thankful for."

"Can we do that later?"

He pecked a kiss on the tip of her nose. "I'm thankful for you. Every day. You're the best gift I've ever received, and I will never take you for granted again."

She squirmed, feeling every inch of his rigid cock inside her, and her clitoris throbbed with the driving need to come. "Stop talking. Get back to fucking."

"In a sec." His mouth slid into a lopsided grin. "Will you marry me?"

"You're asking me now?"

"Uh-huh." He swirled his hips, grinding his shaft into her body, teasing a whimper out of her. "Will you marry me, Jamie?"

"Yes, aye, yes."

He grinned with all the carnal hunger of the sex demon he'd called her. "Thank you, babe. You won't regret it."

"I —"

She lost her voice and her breath when he pounded into her, pinning her to the wall and bouncing her body on his cock with each wild thrust. She couldn't squelch the cries that exploded out of her, and his throaty yells reverberated off the tile walls. Her climax struck so suddenly and with such power it ripped a scream from her throat even as her body gripped him, pulsating and milking his shaft until he came inside her, his release a hot jet of pure ecstasy.

"Gavin," she whispered, dissolving into him, gasping for air.

He let his head fall to her shoulder. "God, Jamie, you're amazing."

As her thoughts cleared, a realization spurred her to lift her head and push his off her shoulder. When he looked at her, she gave his cheek a halfhearted slap. "You bastard. Proposing to me in the middle of sex?"

"Yeah, I did that." He kissed her quick. "You wanna take back your answer?"

"No, not in the least."

She couldn't take it back. Marrying him was everything she'd wanted since the day they'd met.

A tentative knock rattled the door. "Um, Jamie? Are you in there?"

" Mhac na ghalla ," she hissed under her breath, then turned her head to shout at the door. "Emery?"

"Yep, it's me." Emery hesitated. "We're about to have dessert. Rory wanted to track you two down, but I had a feeling I should do it. I'm assuming Gavin's in there too."

Emery must've heard them. Nobody standing outside the door could've missed the racket they'd made. And bod an Donais , here she was with Gavin's cock lodged inside her while she talked to her sister-in-law through the door.

"Go on back to the great hall," she said. "We're coming."

A snort suggested Emery was stifling a laugh. "I'm sure you are."

Footsteps indicated Emery had left the vicinity.

Gavin disengaged from her body, robbing her of the delicious heat and firmness of him. He set her down on her feet and steadied her when her shaky legs threatened to buckle. Giving her bottom a little pat, he said, "Better get back to the festivities, hmm?"

He looked far too pleased with himself.

Then again, she must've looked equally satisfied.

She wilted into him. "You might have to carry me."

"Yes, ma'am." He disposed of the condom, zipped up his pants, threw the door open. Scooping her up in his arms, he carried her out into the hall. "Should I put you over my shoulder?"

"Don't you dare." She wriggled in his arms. "I was joking, Gavin. Put me down."

"Not yet."

He lugged her through the vestibule and took the steps two at a time — strictly to show off, no doubt. When they reached the threshold of the great hall, he deposited her on her feet.

She faced the family gathered around the table and saw… Rory smiling.

Not a grin or even a full smile. His mouth formed a subdued expression of knowing and self-satisfaction like he'd done something grand and nobody knew about it because he wasn't going to tell.

What was her brother up to?

Rory wouldn't let on until it suited him. His plans had something to do with Gavin, that much was clear.

Her fiancé slapped a hand on her ass and gave her a little push. "Hurry up. We've got news to share."