Auld Lang Syne Read online

  Callum scoffed. “Yer the one cryin’.”

  “Happy tears,” I reminded him. My hands smoothed over the thick wool of the tartan. “These are happy tears.”

  Callum made a sound that said he wasn’t convinced, but he pressed a kiss to my hand all the same and led us out onto the sidewalk where we joined the throng of revelmakers on their way toward the town square, where the Hogmanay celebrations were well underway.

  I was struck by the sheer amount of people and excitement of it all. There were so many smiling faces, drinks being served from a long tent running the length of the square, a band playing on a grandstand for the dancers making use of the beautiful dance floor…

  A bonfire crackled at the far end of the square, and my eyes widened in awe at the sight of people dancing and twirling balls of fire over their head.

  “They’re dancing with fire?” I asked, pulling him toward the dancers, who swung fire from chains with an ease and confidence I would have been hard-pressed to mimic if our places had been reversed.

  “Aye, they go all out fer Hogmanay. I prefer the bonfire.”

  “Come on,” I said, pulling his hand and nodding toward the dance floor. “Let’s try normal dancing first, hmm?”

  Callum faked a great sigh and wiped at his brow. “Thank god. I thought ye were gonna make me juggle fire just now.”

  “Would you have?” I asked, slipping my arms around his neck and leaning into his strong embrace as he led me around the dance floor to the lively tune the band played.

  He grimaced. “For ye? Yes.”

  I beamed at him. “I like knowing that.”

  “Och aye, dinna take advantage of having me wrapped ‘round yer pinky,” he said, giving me a pained look.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “Hullo, you two!” Agnes’s voice sang out beside us, and we turned to look at her, startled by her sudden appearance.

  “You got it all delivered!” I exclaimed, happy to see her—surprised, but very happy.

  She winked and threw her arms around the two of us. “I told ye, lassie. The fey would handle it, and so they did.”

  Callum shook his head but said nothing and kissed her cheek. “What mischief are you planning on getting into, hmm?”

  “Fire dancing, lad! I just wanted to tell you both you looked lovely.” She turned to me, her eyes moving over the tartan I wore. “Those colors look good on ye, Del. Ye make me proud, ye do.”

  I sucked in a breath. This woman had wasted no time in becoming one of the most important people in my life, and I was thrilled to be able to give even a small measure of those good feelings back to her.

  I hugged her close and kissed her cheek in a mirror of Callum’s gesture. “Thank you for having me. I’m glad the fairies told you to invite me.”

  Agnes glowed at my words and patted my cheek. “Yer a good lass. The best my boy could ask for. I love ye.”

  A long beat passed as we stared at each other, our eyes brimming with tears, and when I sniffled Callum groaned and ran his hands through hair. “Please dinna cry. If there’s two of ye bawlin’, I’ll go mad.”

  Agnes rolled her eyes at him and blinked back her tears with a toss of her head. “Dinna fash yersel. I’m off to dance!”

  She waved to us as she swept off toward the fire dancers.

  I shook my head in awe as I watched Agnes take up a chain that had a ball on the end. She lit it and a moment later saw her twirling in tandem with a confidence that stole my breath. “She’s amazing. That is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”

  Callum raised an eyebrow. “Ye gonna try that next year?”

  “Maybe. Could be fun, right?” I asked with a shrug.

  But I could, if I wanted, try my hand at fire dancing. At least I could once I’d figured out the safety logistics of such an undertaking...but I could if I wanted. The freedom of my new life was still too new for it to feel normal, and I was giddy at the realization.

  I could do anything I wanted. See anything I wanted. Be with anyone I wanted.

  And right now I was doing all three.

  I had chosen my place in Scotland, and had found my way to the one person I wanted to be with more than anything in the world.

  I laughed as Callum spun me in time with the music. He filled me with such hope and excitement for the future that I knew I’d made the only choice I could have.

  To be his when he was so clearly mine.

  I had my Highlands holiday to thank for it.

  Plus a little fairy magic.

  Epilogue

  “C’mere, lass.”

  Callum’s husky voice made me turn from the fireplace. He held his hand out to me, green eyes a shade darker now, more reminiscent of a lush forest at twilight than fresh-cut grass and sunlight. I slipped my hand into his and let him draw me close to his warmth, cradling the whiskey glass in my free hand to my chest.

  “Did ye enjoy yersel tonight?” he asked as we swayed, bodies pressed flush against each other.

  I nodded, dropping my eyes to the fire, the only light in the room—Callum’s bedroom, to be specific—and smiled. “I can honestly say it was one of the best nights of my life.”

  Hogmanay in Scotland was unparalleled to anything I had experienced before. There was so much happiness, good energy, and well-wishing from complete strangers; I felt safe, loved and content, all wrapped in a bubble of good cheer. It was hard not to be hopeful, not with the jubilant townsfolk heralding in the New Year with song.

  We’d held hands and sang Auld Lang Syne, as loud as our voices were able, before the bell chimes signaling midnight sent everyone in separate directions.

  “They’re heading off to be first-footers. That or to welcome ‘em,” Callum had explained as we walked to his home.

  “But what about your first-footer?” I had frowned, thinking of the checkboxes a first-footer needed: black bun, shortbread, whiskey, salt, coal, and a dark-haired man, all of which we were short on. “Don’t you need gifts and—”

  “Dinna fash. Yer the best first-footer I could ask for.” Callum had kissed me, his fingers moving up to squeeze the back of my neck as we stood toe-to-toe oblivious of all the laughing people moving around us like a river. “Yer all the good luck I need.”

  It had been hard to argue with his soft words, and before long we were in his home, a tidy rowhouse a block from the press. We’d been having a whiskey together when I’d felt the subtle change in energy. The easy conversation we had been enjoying shifted until I’d felt short of breath each and every time his hand brushed mine or our eyes met.

  I’d been collecting myself by the fire when he called me to him, and now here I was trying to control my breathing and not lose my head over being in his arms.

  Though, would it be so bad to lose my head over it? I bit my lip and looked back up at him to see him smiling down at me.

  “What?” I asked, my voice coming out breathy.

  “Just enjoying being here with ye,” he said, and I licked my lips. His eyes tracked the movement.

  I wanted to make this man lose his head over me.

  I tossed back the contents of my whiskey glass and set it down on the table beside us. Callum arched an eyebrow. “Needing liquid courage, are ye?”

  I slipped my arms around his neck. “Kiss me,” I said, my eyes dropping to his mouth. I expected him to have a retort, to say something at my sudden order, but he didn’t. Instead, he did exactly as I asked and he kissed me. Slanting his mouth to mine, he licked the seam of my lips, asking for entrance, a request I granted with a moan. His rough hands moved up my sides until his fingers trailed, as delicate as a butterfly’s wing, up my neck to cradle my face as we kissed.

  “Callum,” I whispered, pulling at his coat. I pushed back from him to look him in the eye. “You said you were going to take your time with me.”

  He nodded, chest rising and falling quicker as his eyes roved over me. “Aye, I did.”

  “Is there time enough now?” I asked.r />
  He reached for me. “Aye, there is. Is that what ye want me to do now?”

  I let out a shaky laugh. “Yes, god, yes. Please.”

  The heat of his touch warmed me through the tartan I still wore over my shoulders. “I cannae deny ye when ye ask so nicely, now can I?”

  I shook my head. “No. It wouldn’t be civilized.”

  Callum hummed and trailed his fingers down and into the folds of the tartan. “Especially with you wrapped up in my colors like a Christmas present come late.” He undid the pin holding the tartan in place and set it on the table beside us before he unwrapped the tartan from my shoulders with a shake of his head. “Seeing you wearing my colors tonight...I dinna think I’ve ever wanted a woman more.”

  “Callum,” I said, my breath hitching when he let one corner of the tartan slide down my shoulder. It was a simple gesture, but with him doing it, I felt my insides go molten.

  “Lovely lass,” he whispered, kissing my neck and shoulder. And finally, blessedly so, he set the tartan aside and moved his hands to the zipper at the back of my dress, dragging it down. “I need to feel you,” he said as the dress pooled around my feet.

  There was an urgency, a senseless want, that drove my hands in their quest to undress him. But he was reverent in his touch, mapping out the planes of my body as he helped me step out of my shoes, and then lingerie.

  At last, his body, all lean muscle and tattooed skin, stood bare to my touch.

  “Del,” he sighed, head tipping back and eyes closing at the first touch of fingers on his chest. I dropped a kiss to the skin my fingers had just touched, pulling a groan from him. “Dinna stop,” he begged, walking me backward until my knees bumped the edge of his bed. I paused, lifting my eyes to his when he pushed me no further.

  I lifted an eyebrow at the look of his face. “You don’t stop either,” I told him, giving him a slight nip.

  “Aye, Del,” he rasped, hands coming to clasp my waist. His breath was ragged, the only sound save an errant cheer from those still enjoying themselves outside and the crackling and popping of the fire. I moved against him, canting my hips toward his hard length pressing against my thighs, so close to where I wanted it but still so far away.

  “Then have me,” I said, breaking the tenuous silence that had fallen around us, heavy like a first snow.

  We surged forward, bodies coming together with a crash. We moved together in a dance that left every nerve in my body singing. A fire blazed in me when Callum kissed me, his rough hands petting and squeezing my flesh as he kissed my breasts. He dipped his head lower and caught my nipple, making me gasp and arch when he suckled, teeth nipping me before his tongue soothed away the pain.

  “God, woman,” he panted when my hand caught his length and began to move in time with the gentle circles his palm pressed to my clit. I pushed my hips up, chasing after my own pleasure. My legs fell open as the tightly coiled core of me snapped and I cried out, fingers digging into Callum’s shoulders as my orgasm rocked through me.

  Callum kissed me softly, his hands gentling as he continued to tease out my climax until I shook beneath him with rekindled passion and need.

  “Callum, I need you.” I hooked a leg up and around his waist and clutched at him, my fingers clinging to his shoulders before sliding through his hair. I lifted my hips, needing the friction of his body against mine, needing him inside of me.

  Callum looked down at me with hooded eyes, hungry with desire—and something more, something that filled my heart and soul to bursting. “I love ye,” he whispered, dropping his head to kiss my neck and then finally my mouth in a gentle brush of his lips. “I love ye, Del,” he husked against my skin.

  My fingers curled against his neck as I took in a shuddering breath. “I love you too,” I whispered, my voice raw with unshed tears as I felt the head of Callum’s cock nudge up and against me.

  “I love ye,” he said again, guiding his hard length inside me with roll of his hips.

  I was gasping now, his thrusts stealing my breath and making me cry out at every jolt. “Oh, keep going, Callum. More.”

  He obliged and sped up, his thrusts taking on a rougher edge that had me squirming and writhing against him. He dropped his forehead to my shoulder, breath hot against my skin as he fisted a hand in my hair.

  I cried out, feeling my body coming closer to that familiar edge again. I was there on the precipice of our joined pleasure, and I opened my eyes to meet his burning gaze.

  “I love ye,” he told me once more, his hips moving at an erratic pace, which was more than enough to send me spiraling off the edge. A second later his hands tightened on me, and he wrapped his arms around my waist, yanking me tighter against him.

  “Del,” he cried, hoarse from our lovemaking, hands gentling on my skin, which had been made tender from his touch.

  I smiled at him, a dreamy look on my face as I shivered in the aftermath of my orgasm. I ran my fingertips along his bicep, eliciting a shudder from him as he came to rest beside me.

  “I love you,” I said, testing out the phrase on my tongue. It easily with him looking at me like I was something precious. He leaned forward, kissing my nose and caressing my cheek with the backs of his knuckles.

  “I dinna care if the fey brought you like Agnes claims. Will ye marry me?”

  My mouth dropped open at his words. “You want to marry me?”

  He chuckled, kissing me again. “Ye maddening woman. Of course I do. Yer on my heart now, Del. I don’t intend to let you go so easily.”

  My heart soared and I threw my arms around his neck, pulling him close. I kissed him slow and soft, our mouths coming together and moving in reverence against one another. “I’ll marry you, Callum. Yes. I’ll marry you.”

  “I’ve one condition for the wedding,” he growled out against my neck as he pressed me back into the bed and looked down at me.

  “What’s that?” I asked, already reaching for him, my mind on anything but our wedding day when I was already being treated to the honeymoon.

  “No fey at the wedding.”

  I pursued my lips at his words. “But Agnes said the fey brought me to you.”

  Callum’s brow furrowed and his lips pressed into a thin line. I was going to have to think fast if I wanted to head off a tiff between Agnes and Callum. I reached for him, fingers stroking his manhood and making him gasp.

  “Ye dinna play fair,” he ground out between clenched teeth. I hummed and kissed his neck, which prompted a sigh and a “Fine, but they are to sit with yer family during the wedding.”

  I perked up at his words, abandoning my teasing, and sat up. Now there was an idea. I could see my family and Agnes’s fey sitting together as a unified block of mischief. My family would descend on town with all the force of a tsunami. I laughed at the idea of them coming face to face with Highland fairies.

  It would serve them right. Both fey and my family alike.

  “It’s for the best,” I told him, “since they are more suited to one another than either of us.”

  His eyes widened. “Och no. Dinna tell me that.”

  “Och yes, because my family is now your family.”

  Callum let out a disgruntled groan at that, but I ignored him, my hands slipping back beneath the quilt to further explore. There would be plenty of time to consider the impact of relations between my family and the fey. For now, all my attention was on the man beside me, and our life, which stretched ahead of us ripe with the possibility of many New Years to come.

  Thank you!

  Thank you for reading Auld Lang Syne the first novella in my Highlands holiday series! I hope you fell in love with Del and Callum. The two are near and dear to my heart as is Scotland. Stay tuned for the next in the series!

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  About Rebel Carter

  Rebel Carter believes in magic and witty meet-cutes, and she hopes you do, too. Hailing from the South, Rebel has a deep affection for anything fried, battered, or smothered, and enjoys a mint julep or measure of whiskey when the occasion calls for it. She suffers from a severe case of wanderlust and has lived all over the world. Now she spends her days in the beautiful state of Colorado with the mountains serving as a daily inspiration to go after big dreams--her biggest of all is to write full-time.