Page 30 of Scot of Seduction

“I’m curious,” he confessed in a whisper.

“Curious?” she repeated. “Ye have just been badly burnt, and ye opt fer the word curious?”

“Well, if ye’re telling me sister ye care about me, then it must be true.”

Catreena blanched, leaning back as she realized that Tad had already been awake. He must have been lying there with his eyes shut listening to the pair of them.

“Ye bast –” She stood, intent on leaving him, but his hand caught her around the waist. With one quick and easy move, he pulled her back down onto the bed with him.

“Ye–!”

“Call me every curse word in the book ye like,” he said with a laugh, dragging her until she was practically straddling him on the bed. She fought him all the way, but when her hand accidentally touched his bandaged shoulder, he froze, his breath hissing through his teeth.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, lifting her hands and holding them in the air.

They both stared at one another, neither one of them moving toward or away from the other.

“How daes it feel?” she asked after a minute of silence.

“It hurts,” he said simply. “But I’ve been wounded before and lived tae tell the tale.” His eyes ran up and down his own arm. “From the job ye have done, I’d say it looks like I’ll be fine.”

His hand was now softly caressing the curve of her hip through her gown. Her stiff spine slackened, and she bit her lip, remembering the way his touch had driven her mad that afternoon.

“Ye frightened me,” she confessed in a whisper. “I have been so worried about ye.” That hand on her hip tightened, just a little.

“Me? I frightened ye?” His eyes narrowed. “Who was it standing beside a burning window as the window blew out?”

“I didnae ken it was going tae happen!”

“Ye frightened the hell out of me,” he snarled at her, his hand possessively sliding up her waist again.

“Dinnae touch me like that now,” she begged. He halted, though his eyes said everything. They told her silently how much he wanted to touch her again.

I want it too.

“Ye’ll be sore,” she said simply by way of explanation. He smiled a little, then nodded.

“Ilyssa was right about one thing, ye ken,” he whispered. “I’ll be a lucky man if ye will forgive me and accept a courtship.”

“Courtship?” she spluttered. She tried her best to get off him, to stand beside the bed, but his hand tightened around her hip again. “Ye dinnae understand allowing a woman tae walk away from ye, dae ye?”

“Only ye, Cat,” he said with such deep possession in his tone that her heart fluttered in her chest. Surprisingly, she found herself smiling at his words.

“Ye dinnae want tae court me, Tad,” she whispered.

“Ye’re wrong.” His fingers now splayed across her hip, touching as much of her as he could. Her breath hitched as she stared at what he was doing. “I’ll speak tae yer braithers. I’ll ask fer their blessing first.”

“Ye would dae that?”

“Aye. Once they’re done killing me.” He winced at the thought. “They may say aye.”

Catreena was breathless. She reached toward him, intent on kissing him, on living out this fantasy that perhaps Tad cared for her as much as she did him.

“Nay more other women, Cat,” he whispered against her lips. “Only ye, if ye’ll have me.”

“Tad, I –”

There was a knock at the door.