Page 40 of Scot of Seduction

“Anything ye ask fer.” His words were muffled against her skin. “Anything.” He rocked harder into her, but no faster. It was a pleasant sort of torture, constant pleasure, but not fast enough to reach the dizzying heights she had experienced that afternoon.

Hypnotized by what he was doing to her, she was barely aware of where her own hands traveled across his shoulders, his waist, his face, and up to his hair. They ended up kissing again, his tongue dominating her mouth as he thrust in and out of her.

“Tad,” she moaned as he pulled back, just far enough to look her in the eye. “I…” She wanted to tell him she loved him, that this was how much he meant to her.

“I ken,” he said in a husky tone when he moved that bit faster. “I ken, Cat,” he moaned. Then he bent over her, thrusting harder. “Me too.”

His movements and his words drove her over the edge. She writhed on the bed, her fingers raking across his forearms on either side of her as he continued to thrust inside of her, driving her through her climax. She was still dithering, still heady from the pleasure when he pulled out of her and found his own end. His length spilled between them as they reached their ends, moaning one another’s name.

When he collapsed over her, one of his hands exploring her breasts as the other reached down to cup her rear, he couldn’t stop whispering things to her that she loved to hear.

“It willnae be long,” he promised. “Bran may take ye away, but I’ll come tae ye. I’ll take any punishment they give me, Cat, but I’m nae staying away.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“All will be well.” Ilyssa embraced Tad tightly. He held her back, though he could not agree with her

Over her shoulder, he could see Catreena being ushered onto a horse by her brother, and Bran’s deathly glare.

“I’ll make him see sense,” Ilyssa whispered.

“Ye may overrate yer influence on him,” Tad murmured back.

“I’m his wife.” Ilyssa leaned back with a wink. “He has tae listen tae me.” Any levity she had tried to bring to this moment of parting though was lost in the cold breeze rippling through the castle courtyard. “He’ll see sense,” she said.

“Can ye blame him if he doesnae?” Tad looked past her to where Bran stood like a sentry guard beside Cat’s horse. Tad realized that Bran wasn’t even going to allow him to say goodbye to Catreena.

At least we had our own goodbye.

He had stayed with Catreena all night, sleeping beside her. He’d woken up in her arms, loving the feeling of having her close before they’d said goodbye and he’d crept back across the stone ledge and into the corridor of the castle, bypassing her door entirely.

“She makes ye happy,” Ilyssa murmured, taking Tad’s hand. “In a way I havenae seen ye happy fer many years.”

Tad blinked, shifting his weight between his feet. He and Ilyssa didn’t often speak of what was in their hearts, but he found himself tempted to do so at this moment. He knew that she would understand his sadness, in a way that not many other would.

“After our faither died, I felt like true happiness was impossible.”

“Dinnae be such a bampot,” she said, scoffingly.

“I’m serious,” his voice was dark. “I saw it happen, and it was me fault.”

“Tad, listen tae me.” She stepped toward him, strength in her tone. “It was nae yer fault. None of it was.”

Nothing will take away the feeling it was.

Then he lifted his head and looked toward Catreena.

“The last couple of days,” he whispered to his sister. “That sadness, that darkness, it has been easier tae bear.”

“Love lightens the shadows in our lives,” Ilyssa said with understanding in her tone. She stood on her toes and kissed Tad on the cheek, a loving action of a devoted sister. “Ye’ll have yer love yet, Tad.”

“Bran, oh, enough already,” Ilyssa spoke up when Catreena didn’t have the strength to do so anymore.

They had been riding through the mountains for hours and the weather was growing worse by the minute. The chilly gale wrapped around them all, buffeting them, sometimes drowning out Bran as he reprimanded Catreena once again, making the words travel toward her on the wind even more.

“She needs tae understand,” Bran barked back.

“Oh aye, she does,” Ilyssa said with a tone full of irony as she rode alongside her husband, leaving Catreena to ride behind, flanked by two of their soldiers. “Because Tad understood, didnae he? When ye and I bent the rules a little bit.”