Chapter 14 #2
Kaden’s hand covered hers on the table, his thumb brushing over the back of it softly, making her heart flutter faster. It would be so simple for him to overwhelm her. He was easily twice her size, if not more.
Heat spread through her as she imagined what it would be like to be underneath him, to feel the weight of him parting her thighs, to run her hands over the undoubtedly scarred skin of his back, to hear him hissing in discomfort as her nails raked over his skin, but not letting it stop him from—
Emily blinked furiously and shook her head. “Nay, there is nay need for further tests.”
She pushed at the table to force her chair back, feeling like the ground wasn’t steady under her feet.
“Ye havenae been dismissed.” Kaden’s voice darkened as he spoke, curling deliciously around the letters.
“In fact, we daenae need to consummate the marriage any time soon. We have a whole year ahead of us, so perhaps it is best if we just keep our distance.” Emily barely recognized her own voice for how high-pitched and breathy it was.
No need to be this close to him at all, actually.
“It’s nae as if anyone would ken. Nobody would understand what is between us.”
Oh, she was rambling now.
She didn’t even make it all the way around the table before Kaden was following her.
A wolf stalking a rabbit.
He was closing the distance between them too quickly.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“W-we agreed, nay bairns until a year passed.”
Kaden smirked. “A bairn doesnae have anything to do with consummating, if ye ken what ye are doing.”
Emily was going to turn red and combust.
“Give me one good reason why I should contain meself.” He smirked, and heat spread through her once more.
It was too warm in here. Did he not understand how handsome he was? He was being cruel, pursuing her like this. She was utterly defenseless.
“Unless, of course, ye think it would be so terrible to be married to me.”
“Nay!” Emily answered quickly, too quickly. “Well, aye… aye and nay! Would ye please stop advancing!”
Kaden did not.
He reached out and hooked an arm around her waist, ending the ring they had been making around the long table.
He stole the breath right out of her as he managed to clear a section of the table with one arm and hoisted her up onto that now emptied space with the arm banded around her. Her bottom hit the table hard, her hands falling behind her to keep from toppling over.
Kaden pushed between her thighs, indecent as he loomed over her. “We have an arrangement, and part of that was to do yer duties. I’ll mind the bairns.”
“I can always change me mind!”
He was too close, keeping her off balance. Emily lifted one hand to his shirt and fisted it into the fabric to keep herself upright, hoping to balance between the two solid points, but it was hard to look anywhere but at his face. She wanted to trace the lines of scars up his neck and jawline.
She wanted so, so many things.
“Ye willnae,” Kaden said confidently. “Perhaps I want to claim ye as me wife right now.” There was almost a growl in his voice, subtle, just under the words. “Perhaps I want to take ye right on this table.”
His face was too close. His nose could have touched hers. Her chin notched upward, just enough to long for him to close the distance that their breath shared.
A rustle down by her side hinted that his fingers were toying with her skirts but not touching her. It was maddening to be held in suspense about something that clearly wasn’t going to happen.
Plenty of men she had encountered before had wanted to touch her. And they hadn’t been shy about voicing that desire. But she had never wanted a single one of them to touch her. Not until Kaden.
“Ask me,” he whispered, like he might shatter if she didn’t give in to him.
“I willnae.”
His smile called her bluff.
His hand danced along the outside of her thigh, the warmth of his palm seeping through her skirts. Her grip loosened on his shirt as she toyed with the idea of pushing him away.
Would it be so terrible to let herself have what she wanted for once? It was not as if he were taking her from her novel or attempting to convince her of some antiquated idea that women were only meant for the bedroom or adorning their husbands’ arms.
No, she could feel how badly he wanted this, just as much as she did. It was tempting to scoot closer to the edge of the table so that she might actually feel it.
It didn’t feel like a game or some fickle, fleeting thing. It didn’t need to mean anything.
He was right. She had promised to do her duty, and she could. She wanted to.
Oh.
Kaden’s head lowered, his warm breath skittering over the side of her exposed neck like the prelude to what might come should she swallow her pride.
It would be too simple, wouldn’t it? She could tilt her head, give him access… and so she did. Only he didn’t take the silent invitation for what it was.
Stubborn arse.
He chuckled, the sound warm and rich as he teased her, her skirts lifting under his ministration despite her never feeling the rough touch of his hands against her stocking-covered legs.
He was trying to drive her mad!
A shudder of anticipation ran down her spine, the sinking feeling of disappointment every time Kaden nearly slipped and touched her properly.
“Do ye have any idea of the things I can do to ye without even getting ye naked?”
Why, no, no, she didn’t. She wanted to.
“Please,” she murmured, unsure of what she was even asking for. To have mercy, to stop, to surrender, to lose control, to stop teasing her… she didn’t really know.
“Please, what?”
Her eyes flicked up to his, and her lips parted, at a loss for words. A strange sound escaped her, something pathetic and full of need. She tightened her grip on his shirt and tugged once so that he would lean closer.
He obliged.
Oh Lord, he was such a large man.
She tried to pull him even closer, but he was like a mountain, and she was unable to move him.
“If ye want something, Emily, ye need to ask for it.”
“A good fiancé shouldnae be so cruel!”
Kaden’s smirk widened. “Ah, is that what I am?”
“Yes! Please, Kaden! Please, kiss me!”
She barely got the last word out before he cupped her face in both of his hands, the groan that tore from his throat nearly muffled between their lips as he kissed her deeply.
He kissed her like air no longer mattered to him. The sort of kiss that a man freshly home from battle might give his lover. She was swept up in it, her body soft and pliant as she matched the pace of his lips, her tongue shy as it sought to deepen the kiss.
Kaden was only too happy to oblige.
He was everywhere and not enough at the same time. His hand slid into her hair, loosening the strands from some of the pins. She arched into his touch, wanting more as his lips trailed down the side of her neck.
She hadn’t even known that it was possible for her heart to race this fast in a good way. Emboldened, her hands tugged his shirt free from his kilt and flattened against his warm skin, before sliding over his waist and pulling him closer.
She paused when her fingers dipped into the grooves of a very old scar. She slotted her fingers there like it was meant for her, and chose to ignore the deep ache in her gut, knowing now that Kaden had been very young when this had happened to him.
Only she couldn’t shake it. It was the wrong thing to be thinking in the moment, and she knew it. He likely wouldn’t want her thinking about them at all, the reminder that he was different in this way from other men.
It was only a moment’s pause, just a heartbeat, but Kaden felt it all the same.
His lips stilled on her neck, and for a moment, she thought that perhaps they could ignore her lapse in sanity and push through it. But she could feel the tension growing.
She parted her thighs fractionally wider in invitation. “I-I want ye, Kaden.”
There. She had said it.
And yet he was pulling away from her.
Where was he going?
Kaden pulled her skirts back down and took a step away from her. She couldn’t tell what the emotion on his face was. But she knew he wasn’t looking at her.
She had ruined everything.
He shook his head once, pushing away the inner battle that he was so clearly fighting. “That would be all, thank ye, Emily. Ye can leave.”
His voice was cold, distant in a way she had never heard it before. Perhaps closer to the voice of the man who had tried to harm her.
She never wanted that voice used with her again.
“Kaden—” She stopped.
What was she even going to say?
She felt like she might cry. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she swallowed hard past the lump in her throat as she lifted her chin with pride that she didn’t feel at all.
“If that’s all ye wanted.”
He didn’t even move to stop her as she got off the table and walked away.