Kaden did not.
He reached out and hooked an arm around her waist, ending the ring they had been making around the long table.
He stole the breath right out of her as he managed to clear a section of the table with one arm and hoisted her up onto that now emptied space with the arm banded around her. Her bottom hit the table hard, her hands falling behind her to keep from toppling over.
Kaden pushed between her thighs, indecent as he loomed over her. “We have an arrangement, and part of that was to do yer duties. I’ll mind the bairns.”
“I can always change me mind!”
He was too close, keeping her off balance. Emily lifted one hand to his shirt and fisted it into the fabric to keep herself upright, hoping to balance between the two solid points, but it was hard to look anywhere but at his face. She wanted to trace the lines of scars up his neck and jawline.
She wanted so, so many things.
“Ye willnae,” Kaden said confidently. “Perhaps I want to claim ye as me wife right now.” There was almost a growl in his voice, subtle, just under the words. “Perhaps I want to take ye right on this table.”
His face was too close. His nose could have touched hers. Her chin notched upward, just enough to long for him to close the distance that their breath shared.
A rustle down by her side hinted that his fingers were toying with her skirts but not touching her. It was maddening to be held in suspense about something that clearly wasn’t going to happen.
Plenty of men she had encountered before had wanted to touch her. And they hadn’t been shy about voicing that desire. But she had never wanted a single one of them to touch her. Not until Kaden.
“Ask me,” he whispered, like he might shatter if she didn’t give in to him.
“I willnae.”
His smile called her bluff.
His hand danced along the outside of her thigh, the warmth of his palm seeping through her skirts. Her grip loosened on his shirt as she toyed with the idea of pushing him away.
Would it be so terrible to let herself have what she wanted for once? It was not as if he were taking her from her novel or attempting to convince her of some antiquated idea that women were only meant for the bedroom or adorning their husbands’ arms.
No, she could feel how badly he wanted this, just as much as she did. It was tempting to scoot closer to the edge of the table so that she mightactuallyfeel it.
It didn’t feel like a game or some fickle, fleeting thing. It didn’t need to mean anything.
He was right. She had promised to do her duty, and she could. Shewantedto.
Oh.
Kaden’s head lowered, his warm breath skittering over the side of her exposed neck like the prelude to what might come should she swallow her pride.
It would be too simple, wouldn’t it? She could tilt her head, give him access… and so she did. Only he didn’t take the silent invitation for what it was.
Stubborn arse.
He chuckled, the sound warm and rich as he teased her, her skirts lifting under his ministration despite her never feeling the rough touch of his hands against her stocking-covered legs.
He was trying to drive her mad!
A shudder of anticipation ran down her spine, the sinking feeling of disappointment every time Kaden nearly slipped and touched her properly.
“Do ye have any idea of the things I can do to ye without even getting ye naked?”
Why, no, no, she didn’t. She wanted to.
“Please,” she murmured, unsure of what she was even asking for. To have mercy, to stop, to surrender, to lose control, to stop teasing her… she didn’t really know.
“Please, what?”
