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‘No, I don’t want to take advantage of you, Maeve. You had a lot to drink tonight and I’m very sober.’
‘I feel pretty sober too.’ She sat up straighter, removing her warmth from my side.
Wrapping a hand around her waist, I tugged her to me and kissed her tenderly, my lips only just grazing hers. ‘It’s not because I don’t want to. It’s just not something I’m comfortable with. Tell me what happened?’
I pulled her down against me, shimmying down the bed until she lay on her side with me curved around her from behind. Her pulse ticked against my arm as she used it like a pillow.
‘I’m being pulled in two directions and it feels like my heart’s being spit down the middle.’
Her hair was still damp as I twisted a strand around my finger while she spoke.
‘I never meant to care for you, but I do.’
Arrows pierced me at her admission, one of joy, another of victory, another of fear. I wanted her to fall for me like I’d fallen for her, but it was bringing her pain instead of joy.
‘My brothers are idiots, but they are my idiots. I love them. I love Esther too, wherever the fuck she is. I even love my dad despite his misogyny. I don’t want to hurt them.’
A yawn stole over her as she whispered into the night. I turned out the lights before gathering her up against my chest, burying my face into the cleft between her shoulder and her neck.
‘We’ll figure it out, Princess. You deserve to be happy.’
‘I can’t live under your father’s rule, but I can’t leave you.’ I stiffened against her back at the mention of her leaving. The fact that thought was even on her mind sent a dreaded weight to my stomach. ‘I don’t want to leave. I’m stuck between the families, belonging to neither but also both.’
Her head tilted toward me as she looked over her shoulder. ‘I don’t doubt that you care for me too, but it’s not enough to rock the loyalty you feel toward your father. There is no good ending to our story, Cam.’
My heart ached. She was right. How could there be a happy ending? I should tear myself from my father, gather her up and take us far from Scotland. I had plenty of funds squirrelled away in multiple accounts that my father didn’t have access to. But I couldn’t abandon Katie, and it wouldn’t be fair to take Maeve away from ever seeing her family again. Living on the run, however well funded, wouldn’t be a good start to a relationship. The tension would likely tear us apart.
‘I see you Maeve. I see the way you fight against the life you were given, the way you strive for the life you deserve and fight against the bad. I want to be a part of your story. I want to be the man you come to and spill your thoughts, the man who protects you when you need it and lets you soar when you go out to conquer the world. You are so far from insignificant, you are strong and kind and beautiful and I want to be by your side as you explore that part of you.’
Maeve took a shaky breath, her back quivering against my chest as she did. ‘How can we when we are being crushed from all sides?’
‘I don’t know yet.’
Flipping over to face me, she reached up and caressed my face, her warm fingers skimming over my forehead and down my face to rest on my jaw. Long lashes dusted her cheeks as she blinked up at me through half-lidded eyes. My heart skipped a beat at the tender touch.
‘You are so beautiful, Cam, and I see you too. I see the big heart hidden under your sheets of ice. I see how you care for Katie, how you’ve grown tough to protect you both and how you’ve suffered terribly at your father’s hands to protect her. I don’t want to be another person you suffer for. I want joy. Happiness. Freedom. For both of us.’
‘We can have that together, no matter what the world throws at us.’
‘Will you kiss me until none of it matters?’ I swallowed the lump in my throat before leaning toward her and taking her mouth with mine. The tenderness in her lips hazed my senses as I lost myself in her taste, her tongue exploring gently as she pressed herself against me.
Digging my fingers into her damp hair, I tipped her head back for better access to her hot little mouth, deepening the kiss as she whimpered into me. Every nerve ending in me flared as she writhed against me, so delightfully needy. If only I could slip inside her and fuck her until with both forgot who we were.
‘Please,’ she moaned against my lips. ‘Make me forget him.’
‘No, Princess. I’m not going to fuck you tonight.’
‘Then touch me, give me your fingers. I need you.’
She needed me. Warmth shot through my veins and straight into my chest at her desperation to have me despite everything she’d gone through.
‘I need you to be the last person to touch me there.’
I growled as I flipped her back over so her back rested against my chest and her ass against my cock. She ground back against my straining erection, and I bit my lip to suppress a moan.
Her whole body quaked as I slipped a hand beneath her pyjama bottoms, my fingers going right to the spot she so desperately needed me. Her breath caught in her throat as I circled that most intimate part of her, bringing it to full arousal.
‘Cam.’ My name on her lips had me losing myself in her heady scent, licking and kissing and nipping at her neck as I reached lower until I found her wet centre. She cried out as I thrust my fingers into her, her cunt gripping at me as I slowly pistoned my fingers in and out of her. When she widened her legs by kicking one over my hip, I smiled into her hair.
