Chapter 25 Robyn #3
The sensible thing to do was to agree, to watch him walk out of the room, and move on.
But all I kept thinking was, why did he put me in the room across from his if he didn’t want me anymore?
“I’m not the kind of person who allows herself to be bullied by the actions of others. This is what these people want.”
“Christ, Robyn, I’m not worth your goddamn life,” he snapped, running a hand through his hair as he turned from me.
“Oh, get over yourself, Adair. It’s about more than that. I refuse to be pushed around by these assholes. I do not make decisions based on fear. Ever.” I motioned to him as he turned back to me, glowering. “But clearly you do.”
“How dare you,” he said gruffly. “This person or persons are after me, but it’s the people I care about who are being tormented. Mac, Eredine … and now Mac’s daughter.”
Mac’s daughter.
I wasn’t a person he cared about.
I was just the woman he wanted to fuck but who happened to be the daughter of a person he cared about.
Message received.
“I put you in danger, and if anything happened to you because of me, it would destroy Mac. He’d never forgive me.”
Wow, the hits just kept coming. I laughed bitterly. “So if anything happened to me, it wouldn’t matter to you other than it would hurt Mac. Good to know.”
His anger dissipated. “I didn’t mean … but this was just sex. We agreed.”
“We did. And believe me, the more I get to know you, the more the attraction remains physical.” His eyes flashed dangerously, but I didn’t care if I hurt his feelings.
He was pretty adept at hurting mine. “But I guess, before this conversation, anyway, I assumed that even though our affair was casual, there was a level of care and concern for one another simply as two human beings.”
“Robyn—”
“But if all I am to you is something to stick your dick into, then, no, you are definitely not worth my life.”
Lachlan’s face darkened. “Something to stick …” He gave a huff of unamused laughter. “You always assume the worst in me, don’t you? You take my words and twist them.”
“No. I just listen to what you don’t say.” Suddenly exhausted and sad and disappointed, I waved wearily to the door. “Can you just leave?”
“What do you want me to say?” he bit out as he crossed the distance between us, leaning into but not touching me.
“That when Mac told me you’d been attacked, I felt like I was coming out of my skin, and if I find the bastard, I will kill him?
You have no idea the day I’ve had, Robyn.
Women I care about were hurt by men that I should have protected them from! ”
Confused, I shook my head. “Women? What—”
“And you”—he scowled ferociously—“making me feel like a piece of shit because I want to keep you safe. What the hell is that?”
God, he was such an asshole! “What the hell is that?” I yelled back. “It’s me, reacting to you being a total and utter coward! Ending something you want because someone threatened you. Ending something you need because you’re afraid of my father. And doing it like I mean nothing to you.”
“I’m not afraid of Mac. And I don’t need you,” he said flatly.
I smirked unhappily. “Blue Eyes, you need me more than anyone I’ve ever met.”
He flinched like I’d slapped him.
“I don’t want anything from you that you don’t want to give.
I’m not sleeping with you in the hopes of snagging myself a rich, famous husband.
Or because I see you as some kind of trophy or notch on my belt.
And I’m not going to put up with your shit or stroke your ego or do any of the things that you don’t need. ”
Lachlan studied me thoughtfully. “But you think I need you?”
“I think you need to lose yourself in someone who doesn’t want more than you’re willing to give.
To forget all the crap that’s going on outside these doors.
To admit that you care about me as a human being without being concerned I’ll think it’s a declaration of some kind.
” I shrugged as I confessed, “I lied before. I do like you. I admire you, Lachlan. I admire the way you look out for your family. I admire the way you care about Mac. Yes, you piss me off, but honestly, I couldn’t let you touch me if I didn’t like you.
I’m not that woman. I don’t do hate sex. ”
Something lightened in his expression.
“But it doesn’t mean I want anything more from you than sex.
So … there you are. My cards on the table.
If you want to let those fuckers tormenting you win, then on you go.
” I gestured to the door. “It’s over. Mac won’t let our affair come between you two.
I’m sure of it. But if you aren’t, I understand, and again, you can leave.
” My gaze dropped to his sullen mouth, my skin heating with the memories of what he could do with it.
“If you can get over all that and want to stay”—I looked into his eyes now—“then stay. But don’t stay if I’m just another warm body to you.
Stay because only my body will do. Stay because you need it to be me. ”
His silence was unreadable. We both breathed a little heavier, as if struggling to catch our breaths. But I had no idea what he was thinking.
And then his hand was on my nape, my body jerked toward his, and his mouth slammed down over mine.
I moaned into his desperate, hungry kiss and clung onto his shoulders as he swung me into his arms. Seconds later, I was on the bed and he was stripping me of my shoes and pajamas as quickly as he could.
His clothes were next, his face harsh with desire as he hurried out of his jeans.
“I’m clean,” he offered as he climbed over me, nudging between my legs with hot need. “Got a health check when we started this thing. You? Pill?”
I hesitated. Did I trust him enough for unprotected sex?
“Robyn?”
Looking deep into his eyes, certainty flushed through me. This man was one of the most overprotective guys I’d ever met. He wouldn’t endanger me. In any way. And he had just as much to lose by trusting me. “Me too. And yes, I’m on the Pill.”
He slipped his hands between my legs, and they gleamed hungrily. “Ready for me.”
“Arguing with you turns me on.” I snorted, not able to make sense of it.
Lachlan grinned as he braced himself over me. “Back at you, Braveheart.”
I raised my eyebrows, opened my mouth to query the endearment, but as he surged into me, all that came out was a cry of relief.
Yeah, this was what I needed. Wanted. Craved.
Craved.
Caressing my hands down his back to his ass, lust rippled in my belly at the feel of his powerful, muscular body beneath my fingertips. I wanted more. I didn’t want to be loved. After the night I’d had, I wanted to be screwed into oblivion.
Squeezing his ass, I arched into his thrusts, pulling him deeper into me.
It was fast, furious, sweat coating our skin as our bodies met with wild abandon. Lachlan came first, and the orgasm seemed to surprise him.
I barely gave him a chance to catch his breath before I used a grappling move to reverse our positions.
Straddling him, his expression still ragged with his climax, I undulated on him.
I lost myself, became this sensuous, uninhibited creature, displaying my body for him, touching myself until I knew he was ready again.
Then I rode him.
I rode him hard until he bucked beneath me in a hoarse yell of pleasure. Seeing him lose control took me over the edge, and I cried out his name like a plea.
Lachlan didn’t leave.
I’d expected after our animal passions were spent, he’d leave my bed and return to his own. Instead, he pulled me into his embrace as the clock on the bedside table told me it was nearing sunrise. I should have been exhausted. Only a while ago, I was. Now I felt wide awake again.
Letting him hold me, trying not to read anything into it, I noted his knuckles for the first time.
They were swollen.
His words from our earlier argument came back to me. Women he cared about were hurt by men today. My good cheek to this chest, I reached out to stroke a finger over his bruised knuckles. “What happened today?”
Lachlan heaved a sigh beneath me. Then he told me about Arrochar and Guy.
I tensed with outrage. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
“Unfortunately not.”
“Is she okay?”
“I left her sleeping at my place a few hours before I came back to the castle to check on things. She seems to be handling it well.” He rubbed a hand down my arm. “I asked her to think about training with you. Tonight proved unequivocally that you can teach her to defend herself.”
“I’d be happy to show her some moves.” I sat up to search his face. “Are you okay?”
“Shit day,” he admitted, concern open and clear for me to see in his expression. “But fuck, am I glad you can defend yourself.”
In other words … I was always more than a warm body to him.
“I said some things I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s done.”
“I’m sorry.” I stroked his chest.
“You were attacked because of me, Robyn. You’re not the one who needs to apologize.”
“I presumed some very not-nice things about you.” I began to move down his body.
He raised an eyebrow. “Where are you going?”
I smiled saucily at him. “Words are just words,” I whispered huskily. “An apology has more impact in action.”
As my lips closed around him, Lachlan arched his neck and hissed with pleasure. “Fuck, woman,” he panted as I continued to apologize with gusto. “On second thought,” he huffed, curling his fingers lightly in my hair, our hazy, desire filled eyes locked, “apologize away.”
When I was finished apologizing, Lachlan decided he owed me an apology too.
Coming down from orgasm, the beautiful Scot climbed back up my body and collapsed at my side. “Now I could sleep all day,” he muttered, snuggling in beside me.
I didn’t reply.
I was already drifting off, wonderfully satisfied, the horrendous events of the night forgotten in this mercurial man’s arms.