Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
He snapped open a blue velvet ring box and revealed the most perfect engagement ring. The band was gold but matte instead of shiny, and it looked handcrafted. In the center of the band was a cluster of pearls in differing sizes and small diamonds encrusted in the gold beads that separated them.
“Jared …” I gaped at the ring.
“Every time I think about that wedding ceremony, I can’t stand it,” Jared admitted. “I can’t stand that’s the way you and I got married. Because we deserve so much more than that.”
I nodded, understanding.
“This time I want to marry you and have you know that you are marrying a man who will love you for the rest of his life.”
Tears slipped free as I kept nodding in agreement.
“Allegra Emma Howard McCulloch, will you marry me again?”
“Yes,” I sobbed happily. “Yes, of course, yes!” I lowered myself so I could kiss the living daylights out of him. “Why are you so perfect?” I laughed through my tears and his kisses. “You’re making it really hard to live up to.”
Jared chuckled against my lips. “You’ve got it twisted, baby. I’m just trying to live up to you.”
“And he says more perfect things.” I pushed him playfully, my gaze dropping to the ring. “It’s so beautiful, Jared.”
“I had an artist make it for you. I sent her pictures of the kind of jewelry you wear and she came up with this.”
I cupped his handsome face in my hands. “See? Perfect.”
“Let’s see it on, then.”
Grinning tearfully, I bobbed my hand in excitement so much, Jared had to hold it still so he could slide the ring down beside my wedding band. It looked beautiful. So beautiful I immediately jumped him.
Jared made a sound of surprise against my lips seconds before his back hit the deck. His laughter rose up over the loch as I peppered his face with kisses before swallowing the sound against my lips.
Straddling him, I kissed him hungrily as I reached between us for the zipper on his jeans. Jared grunted against my mouth as I slipped my hand inside his boxers to grasp him.
“Fuck, here?” His cheeks were flushed with excitement.
I nodded, suddenly desperate to have him inside me. “I want to christen my deck with your dick.”
He laughed, grabbing my ass. “Fuck, I love you.”
“I love you more.”
“Not possible.” Jared pulled my hand up and rubbed his thumb over my engagement ring. “Tha gaol agom ort, Allegra McCulloch.”
“Tha gaol agom ort.” I brushed my lips over his and pressed our hands down on the deck beside his head. “Let me show you just how much.”
And so there on the loch behind Caledonia Sky, we undressed to the witnesses of nature and made love on the land that had given us both so much. It was our home, yes. But a home we’d found in each other.
Looking back, I don’t think I was desperate to stay in Scotland just for Scotland. I think somehow my soul knew that the missing piece of me was here. In Jared. So I’d done whatever it took to stay. To find it. To find him.
I’d do it again. I’d climb any mountain, travel any road, cross any ocean, and bend any law to stay by Jared McCulloch’s side for the rest of my life.
After all, it was where I belonged.
***