Chapter 16
Sleep wouldn’t come. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t settle.
Emily kept tossing and turning in her bed.
To and fro as she tried to squeeze her eyes shut in the hope that it would make her fall asleep.
There were only glimpses of moonlight filtering in through the parted drapes, showing the dust motes in the air that she was tempted to count to distract herself.
Anything would be better than the uneasy, anxious feeling that kept surging inside her.
Inside her was a swirling tempest of emotions: anger, frustration, anticipation, lust, disappointment, and worry. Each one was taking turns as the most dominant emotion, and she was dizzy from it.
This wasn’t the sort of restlessness that warm milk or tea could fix.
With a huff, Emily slammed her hands down on the bed on either side of her.
This was madness.
She had no idea what her body needed, but she knew that it had something to do with Kaden.
She wanted to pick up where they had left off.
She wanted to know all the things that he had been hinting at because, as of right now, her knowledge was limited to what she had heard from her mother and the maids she had encountered in her life.
But they had always stopped talking whenever they noticed that she was listening. Every single time.
Despite the filth her first fiancé had spoken to her, she had never let him touch her.
She hadn’t been lying about that. Kaden was the only man whose hands she had ever welcomed on her.
Whose lips she had ever pressed her own against. And now that she had been given a taste of what she might be able to enjoy with him, she wanted more.
Maggie yipped softly, stirring from her sleep near Emily’s feet. Her small mouth opened into a wide yawn.
“Well, nay need to brag that ye are able to sleep,” Emily muttered.
In response, Maggie crawled on her belly up the length of the bed to nudge Emily’s hand. Emily tousled the fur on the top of her head and then sighed.
“I suppose there’s nay sense in just lying here,” she said, mostly to herself, before pushing up to sit.
She pulled her robe from where it had been hanging on the bottom of her bed and pulled it on, lazily tying the knot and sliding her feet into her slippers. She wrapped her arms around herself and turned back to Maggie.
“Maybe a little walk will help tire me out a bit?”
Naturally, Maggie didn’t answer. She merely tilted her head to the side.
“Do ye wish to stay here or come with me?” Emily asked, already knowing the answer without the need for the puppy to speak. “Well, come on then.”
She scooped up the pup and placed her on the floor carefully. Maggie wasn’t quite big enough yet to jump on or off the bed. Emily would have to fashion some sort of ramp or stairs for her if she didn’t grow up to be much bigger than she was presently.
“If nothing else, this will be a very good test for me to see if I learned anything about the layout of this place, hm?”
Without a care in the world, Maggie happily trotted after her as she left the room and started slowly down the darkened hallway.
It took her longer than it probably should have to locate the way to the gardens. All the practical crops were up closest to the castle, everything the kitchens would need, and the scent of herbs was heavy in the air as she started to walk.
Maggie paused to relieve herself briefly, and then they were off again. Emily had only managed to glimpse the flowers, as they were more toward the side of the castle, and there hadn’t been time earlier.
At least the moonlight was bright, the moon hanging nearly full in the sky as she slowly made her way across the grounds. The air was cold enough that her robe wasn’t quite warm enough, but the gooseflesh on her skin made it easier to ground herself.
She forced herself to focus on the plants, the design of the castle, the tree line in the distance, everything that she could in order to distract herself as much as possible.
She finally settled in the middle of the garden beds, sitting and letting Maggie crawl into her lap and curl up into a ball as she stared up at the moon. The stars were very obviously the same stars she had seen her whole life from her Reid Castle, but they looked different here somehow.
A cool breeze ruffled her braided hair, and she closed her eyes and tried to breathe deeply.
It was almost like her subconscious summoned him.
She heard Kaden before she saw him. The low grumbling and the thud of his boots made her open her eyes. Clearly, he was upset about something.
Was he also having trouble sleeping?
Though seeing the same clothes that she had attempted to rid him of earlier, she didn’t think that he had even tried to sleep yet.
He looked crazed. Perhaps angry? She didn’t call out to him as her instinct urged her to. She didn’t draw attention to herself because, after what had happened earlier, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to be seen.
She needed to apologize. She was certain that Kaden had misunderstood what had happened, and she felt terrible. But he also needed to apologize for dismissing her the way he had.
She had tried to imply to a man that she was owed an apology once, and it hadn’t gone well for her.
Maggie, however, wasn’t burdened with such thoughts.
She started wriggling and barking at the sight of Kaden. Her whole body shook with how hard she was wagging her tail. Emily attempted to hush her, to pull her back into her lap, but it was pointless. The fluff ball was off and running.
Emily had to scramble to catch up with her as Maggie ran at full pelt towards Kaden. She was barely a blip of white and brown in the lush green grass, but it stopped Kaden in his tracks.
For a moment, Emily was worried that he might kick her away. Instead, he chose to stand perfectly still as Maggie danced up on her hind legs, attempting to coax him into picking her up.
“Sorry! I tried to catch her! We were—we…” Emily trailed off, because she didn’t have a good explanation. She shouldn’t have to explain herself in the first place.
Kaden turned his focus from the puppy to her. A cold shudder ran down her spine that had nothing to do with the cool evening breeze.
What had happened for him to look at her so coldly?
“Come with me,” he demanded, the scent of whiskey oozing off him as he roughly grabbed her by the shoulder.
Her history told her that it was never a good idea to go somewhere with an angry man.
“Kaden, stop it,” she protested, attempting to dig in her heels so that she was not so easily moved, but her slippers did not help. He wasn’t hurting her, but it was uncomfortable.
“Stop it right now! Unhand me!” she tried a little louder.
But he would not be swayed. He kept pulling her along, a now-distressed Maggie following after them, confused as to why they smelled so uncomfortable, no doubt.
Kaden didn’t stop until they were hidden by the shadow around the side of the castle, where there were no windows or anyone to look at or down on them. He seemed like he was about to speak again, and she took advantage of the pause to wrench herself free from his grasp.
“Ye cannae just grab me whenever ye like! I daenae care for that!”
It was only because she cared for and respected Kaden that she was willing to ask him to stop. Only this once. If he tried it again, he was going to finally meet the woman who had sparked all of those rumors about her.
Kaden attempted to grab her once more, a look of determination on his face, and she smacked his hand away. He wasn’t so easily deterred. Whether it was the drink or whatever it was that had put him in this mood, she didn’t know.
Emily didn’t see what choice she had other than to slap him. So she did. Or she tried to.
There was no reason that a man as large as he was should be able to move as quickly as he did. He snatched her wrist, and when she tried to slap him with the other hand, he efficiently caught it too and used both as leverage to back her against the cold brick wall of the castle.
The darkness swallowed them both as he pinned her to the wall with his body. And then he kissed her.
This kiss was so different from the ones before it.
This kiss was desperate, like he needed to remind himself that she was real and touching him.
He kissed her like she was air and the only thing keeping him rooted to this earth, all-consuming as she tasted the remnants of whiskey on his lips.
He claimed her with that kiss, pressing against her firmly.
Emily knew that she should push him away. She ought to knee him or tell him how unacceptable this was, but clearly the rational part of her mind had abandoned her entirely.
Eventually, he broke the kiss and pressed his forehead against hers, loosening his grip on her wrists. “Tell me nay one else has touched ye.”
Was that what all of this was about? Where had that even come from? She thought that she had made herself perfectly clear. What had changed since then?
Kaden looked genuinely worried. It was hard to make out his entire expression from how close his face was to hers. She lowered her arms between them, her hands resting gently against his chest.
“Nay one has touched me,” she answered truthfully. “I’ve never wanted anyone to… Only ye.”
The pleased, guttural groan that escaped him was something she wanted to remember forever.
With just a few words from her, Kaden seemed to melt. He leaned into her, kissing her softly, like she was some delicate thing, softer than a man built like him should have been capable of.
She didn’t know if this was some sort of test or if she was supposed to beg or hold him, but she didn’t care either. Kaden’s kisses turned fervent as they trailed down her jawline and left a hot trail to her neck, where he licked and sucked the skin like he couldn’t get enough of her taste.
He wrapped her long braid around his wrist, using it as leverage to angle her head the way he wanted so that he could have better access to her neck. His free hand dropped to her thigh, lifting her robe and nightgown until he could reach bare skin. Her knees almost buckled when he touched her.
If he could touch, then so could she.
Her touch was hesitant at first, not wanting to have a repeat of earlier. But he seemed to have forgotten entirely about that. She started at his shoulders, feeling the muscles there and the way they curved over to his strong arms.
Then he shifted. His hand found her waist as he lowered himself to one knee, the one on her thigh sliding higher where nobody other than herself had ever touched her before. Even then, there had been only a few times that she had allowed herself to explore that part of her.
Not that her fingers would ever compare to the feel of Kaden’s lips on her. The night air was cold against her skin as he bared her hips to his gaze, glancing up with a hungry look in his eyes.
He kissed the top of her thigh, his hand sliding around to cup the back and lift her legs, parting them.
He kissed her higher, the warmth of him sending butterflies of anticipation into a wild fury in her belly.
When he kissed her sex, she almost pulled away.
It was unlike anything she had ever felt before.
She didn’t even know how to explain the way she felt as his tongue parted her, consuming her with the same fervor he had lavished upon her neck.
Every part of her core heated, the sounds leaving her lips wholly indecent. She tangled her hands in his hair to hold herself steady as her hips bucked against his face.
Her thigh trembled, and Kaden’s hand coaxed it up onto his shoulder. It was hard to balance on one leg, given the distraction that Kaden was. It was hard to hold herself up with his tongue stroking her.
One hand pushed against his shoulder, unsure if she needed a reprieve, or to breathe, or to steady herself. The other tangled in his hair, even through the layers that were obscuring his face from view.
He showed her no mercy whatsoever as his tongue stroked and sucked on her most sensitive skin. Something was building inside of her that she couldn’t control. Her breathing was erratic.
It just felt too good.
She couldn’t breathe properly. Heat coiled in her belly. And then Kaden’s free hand lifted, and a finger slid inside her. Something that she had never considered before.
It wasn’t unpleasant, only uncomfortable for a moment, and when the initial shock passed, Kaden seemed to feel her body loosen, as his long middle finger started to move.
Emily’s eyes fluttered shut. She braced her weight on his shoulder because she couldn’t keep herself upright.
Whatever it was that her body was building to was coming, she could tell.
Higher and higher, until her legs started to tremble and shake.
Her breath kept catching in her chest as she panted.
“K-Kaden, I—” Whatever it was that she had meant to say was lost as she climaxed.
Pleasure flooded through her, and Kaden still didn’t falter. Just when she felt she could go no higher, he proved her wrong. The pleasure was so overwhelming that she felt dizzy with it.
She couldn’t stand any longer, but Kaden didn’t seem to mind using his hand to keep her pinned between his tongue and the wall as she shattered again, her breathy moans filling the night air.
Only when the tremors started to subside did he show her any mercy.
He lifted his face from her sex and kissed the inside of her thigh once with a contented, possessive growl. The skirt of her nightgown fell back down over her legs, but she felt too weak.
Somehow, she wound up sitting astride him, clinging to him as he embraced her.
“Ye are mine, Emily,” he murmured into her neck, his grip on her tight. “I need to hear ye say it.”
“I am yers, Kaden,” she agreed a little too quickly. “Till death do us part.”