Page 54 of Hold Fast

“Your wound! Ewan, put me down!”

“Not if God himself told me to,” Ewan said against her lips as he pinned her to the wall with his hips, grinding roughly against her.

“But—”

He looked at her with narrowed eyes. “I said, if God himself told me to put you down, I wouldnae do it.”

“AndIwillnae let you do something so stupid as to rip out all of those stitches,” she said as he buried his face in her neck. “Put me down this instant.”

He complied, but he grabbed her thigh and wrapped it around his waist on the side where he was not injured and continued to grind against her. The rough stones dug into her back and scalp, but she didn’t care. With her leg wrapped around his waist and nothing on under her gown and shift, the feeling of the rough wool of his plaid, the only thing that separated her center from his cock, made her desperate with need.

As Ewan broke away from her mouth to kiss across her jaw to her ear and then down her neck, the scratch of his beard followed immediately by soothing sweeps of his tongue, Una gasped for breath. She’d never felt this way before.Gone for the moment were the memories of Cameron and his clumsy roughness, which had made her skin crawl. Ewan made her feel as if she glowed white-hot everywhere his mouth and hands touched.

Una gasped as Ewan’s length, still concealed behind his plaid, pressed hard against her pearl. And then when he thrust against her again, she stifled her cry against his shoulder, biting down, feeling his muscle between her teeth, tasting the fabric of his leine. He groaned and dragged her face back to his, kissing her with abandon.

He was so close. So very close to her. If the fabric of his plaid parted, he could fill her in an instant. That thought sent frissons down to her toes, and she realized that, yes, she wanted that. She wanted that more than she’d wanted anything in a very long time.

As if he read her thoughts, Ewan broke the kiss, pressing his forehead to hers and breathing as hard as if he’d run around the curtain wall ten times.

“Una,” he gasped, sweat beading on his forehead, making her own skin slick.

“Ewan, please,” she breathed. “Please.”

“Una, are you—”

A sharp knock sounded on the door, echoing in the chamber. Ewan’s fingers dug sharply into her backside as he whipped his head to look at the door.

Una became suddenly very aware of her body in space—her leg wrapped around his waist, her gown bunched around her hips leaving her completely exposed below her middle, Ewan’s hips pressed into her core, anchoring her to the wall, the way their chests rose and fell heavily in unison.

She thought that maybe she should be ashamed of the position in which she found herself, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel that way. She wasn’t ashamed. She was on fire, and this interruption made her want to scream in frustration.

“What is it?” Ewan barked.

Through the door, a voice said, “There is a Cameron man downstairs demanding to see you. He says he willnae leave until you speak to him.”

Una felt all the blood drain from her face as Ewan turned back to look at her. The voice belonged to Kenneth. For Ewan’s own brother to deliver the message instead of David or a guard was troubling.

“You dinnae think…” Ewan whispered, his brows knit together.

A strangled sound escaped her lip and her leg dropped like lead in a pool. He held her close when her knees nearly gave out.

Ewan clutched her to his chest and said, “Show him to the Hall and give him a meal. Clear everyone else when they’re through eating. I’ll speak with him there.”

“Verra well,” Kenneth replied and then Una could hear his steps retreating down the hall.

When Ewan turned back to her, his face had a feral look about it. Una noticed that muscle twitching in his jaw beneath his ear, his brows still close as he stared down at her.

“I willnae let him hurt you,” he said through his teeth, gripping her upper arms in his hands. “I willnae let you go back.”

And then, with a crack in his voice, “I willnae let him take you away.”

CHAPTER21

Ewan delivered Una to Joan’s small chamber. He wondered if she still planned to move to the cottage in the morning. He would give her anything she asked for, even if the only place that felt remotely right in his mind was in the keep. But he couldn’t worry about that right now. That particular worry had been shuffled to the bottom of the ever-growing pile. At the moment, the only thing hecouldworry about was which Cameron man waited downstairs and what to do with him.

After Una had closed the door, Ewan practically raced down the stairs, his heartbeat thundering in his ears. “He willnae take her,”he thought.“I’ll kill him first.”

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw Kenneth and David standing near the door to the Great Hall.