Redemption (Book Two of the Shipwrecked Series) by Jenna Stone Page B

possessively over hers.
    Breaking away from
her, he trailed his fingers lightly down Sarah’s cheek and ran his thumb
delicately over her lower lip.  Slowly and gently, he lowered his lips to hers
and kissed her tenderly now.  He showered her with his love, with his pent up
desire and worshiped her with his lips and tongue.  He could have kissed her
forever.
    “I love you,”
Sarah whispered as she broke away and cuddled against his broad chest.
    “And I ye.  Ye’ve
pieced my heart back together in a way that I never thought would be possible. 
Ye and Mairi have been the redemption that my heart needed.  I plan tae work
the rest of my life tae repay ye for that,” he said, smiling as he took Sarah’s
hand.  He brought the back of her hand to his lips and placed a light kiss atop
her knuckles.
    He stepped back
from her and dropped to one knee in the middle of the road.
    “Marry me, Sarah,”
he said, his gray eyes soft and burning with love.
    Sarah’s hand shot
up to her mouth.  This she had not expected.
    “Yes!  I’ll marry
you, Quinn,” she said, beaming as her heart flooded with joy. 
    “Ye make me sae
happy,” he said, rising up and capturing her lips in a tender kiss.  “Sae happy
and I want tae spend the rest of my life loving ye.”
     
    ..ooOoo..
     
    Sarah jostled
Mairi about softly, trying to wake the infant from her milk induced slumber. 
Mairi’s mouth was open and milk dribbled down her lips.  She had been hungry
upon their arrival at the cabin and she had drunk herself into a milky
exhaustion.
    “Mairi,” Sarah
whispered, caressing the baby’s face gently and trying to wake her.  When this
strategy failed, Sarah took her breast in her hand and offered the nipple to
Mairi, hoping that she might suckle in her sleep.  Mairi was out cold and Sarah
muttered in frustration as she threw her head back against the headboard.
    “Still haven’t
gotten enough of her?” Quinn teased from his chair in front of the fire.  He
loved watching Sarah feed Mairi.  It was such an intimate, sweet ritual. 
Watching the woman that he loved feed their child was so different than when he
had watched the Indian woman nurse Mairi.  That had seemed so wrong, so
contrary to this beautiful moment between a mother and her daughter.
    “I need her to eat
more!” Sarah huffed in frustration, as she unwrapped Mairi from her swaddle,
hoping to agitate her into wakefulness.
    “She’s had plenty
tae eat.  I ken that they fed her,” Quinn said, thinking back to the Indian
wet-nurse.  He had seen her feed Mairi with his own eyes and he knew for a fact
that Mairi had not gone without while she was with the Indians.
    “I suppose that
they did, but I need her to eat.  Now!” Sarah snarled in desperation.
    Quinn raised his
eyebrows in surprise.  He could not understand why Sarah was so insistent. 
Mayhap she had missed the babe so much that she needed the fulfillment of
feeding her from her own breasts.
    Quinn stood from
the fire and walked across the room to the bed.  He sat down next to Sarah, who
rolled her eyes heavenward and looked towards the wall.
    “Can I help ye try
tae wake her?  If this is sae important tae ye, will ye let me help?”
    “She’s out cold. 
I’ve tried everything,” Sarah said, exasperation heavy in her tone.
    “Why are ye
crying, sweetheart?” Quinn asked, reaching up to stroke her dark hair.  It
bothered him to see Sarah so upset.  He hoped that talking about whatever
grieved her would help.
    “They hurt,” she
said, glancing down at her engorged breasts that were shielded beneath Quinn’s
shirt.  She had taken to sleeping in Quinn’s shirts while he was away, loving
the comfort that his smell brought her as she slept.  “I need her to eat more
because they hurt,” she admitted.
    Quinn reached down
and carefully took the sleeping baby from Sarah.  He leaned down and placed her
in the drawer that she used for a crib, gently settling her blankets around
her.