“Who?”
Hell, he’d spoken without thinking. He’d relaxed his guard, he realized. It probably should bother him more than it did, but he trusted her. Cate was entirely without artifice and didn’t have a deceitful bone in her body—it was what made her so different, and what drew him to her. She was real. He didn’t need to worry about games or ploys or manipulations.
“A friend,” he said, waving off the subject.
Instinctively, his hand had slid around her waist when she’d kissed him, but having that warm, taut body pressed against him was beginning to take its toll. He let her go and stepped back. “I should go.”
“No, not yet.” She had that crushed, disappointed look on her face that hit him squarely between the ribs. “It isn’t morning. Can’t you stay a little longer?”
Not if he didn’t want to make her more sore than she already must be. His gaze flickered to the bed, an unconscious indication of the direction of his thoughts. The smile that crept up her features this time was decidedly more sensual and scheming. Her hands came up slowly over his naked chest to loop around his neck. Her body slid up against him like a wildcat, sleek and dangerous—and every bit as deadly. Especially the pointy nipples stabbing him in the chest. They killed him.
She circled her hips against him. “Please, don’t go.”
Perhaps she had more artifice than he realized. Who the hell would have guessed she could play the seductive siren? But play it well, she did. He was good and seduced.
She peeked up at him naughtily from under her lashes. “Didn’t you say something about my chemise next time?”
He really had to stop swearing around her so much, but the lass really knew how to push him in all the right places.
He could push a few of his own. Pushing her back on the bed, he ripped the offending garment away to reveal a body that had every right to be worshipped.
He’d never seen another woman so perfectly formed. She was all long, lean muscle, slender and strong, with little extra flesh to mar the graceful, feminine lines. For despite the obvious strength in her limbs, she was undeniably feminine with gently curved hips, delicately rounded breasts, and a lush little bottom with an expertly placed dimple or two.
He told her exactly how beautiful she was in words, and then with his mouth and tongue. The feel of her coming apart against his mouth drove him wild. He hadn’t intended to take her again, but she had other ideas and didn’t seem to mind too much—especially when he was deep inside her, and she was crying his name and begging him to go harder, as he pounded and shuddered inside her.
It would have been perfect if a moment after rolling off her, his brother hadn’t come bursting through the door, “Cate, you—”
Seeing them on the bed, John stopped dead in his tracks. Shock was followed by a look of condemnation that made Gregor feel all the guilt that he probably should have felt much earlier.
Fifteen
“You bastard!”
Instinctively Gregor blocked Cate behind him, as if he could somehow shield her from the unpleasantness of the situation.
It would have been bad enough with just John as witness, but his brother hadn’t come barging in alone. Ete and Lizzie were standing behind him. Unlike his brother, however, they were considerate enough to back away quickly and not stand there radiating condemnation.
Not that it wasn’t deserved, damn it. But Gregor didn’t want Cate to accidentally get in the way of anger that should be directed toward him, and him alone.
“I will see you in the solar,” Gregor said pointedly.
John ignored him, taking another step into the room, every muscle in his body flaring with outrage. “How could you do this?” He must not have expected Gregor to answer because he immediately added, “You’ll damn well marry her. Even if I have to drag you to the church door myself.”
Cate made her first sound since her initial gasp on the door opening. “No, John—”
Gregor cut her off with a squeeze of her hand that rested on the bed between them. “Your escort won’t be necessary, brother. I have every intention of marrying her.”
“You do?” Cate said at the same time as John—with equal surprise.
Gregor ignored his brother and looked at the wide-eyed woman nestled beside him, clutching the bed linens to her neck with her dark hair tumbling wildly around her bare shoulders, looking wonderfully—thoroughly—debauched. Her eyes were pinned on his, searchingly. A wave of tenderness rose inside him.
Tucking a lock of hair that always seemed to be in her face behind her ear, he nodded. “Aye, if my clod of a brother here hadn’t interrupted, you would have had a proper proposal.” This time John took the hint. But he didn’t go without a look that promised this wasn’t over. Gregor turned back to Cate when the door had closed behind him. “Surely you could not have thought otherwise?”
His honor demanded it. He’d known that before he’d made love to her and realized what he would have to do.
But he knew it wasn’t just honor at stake. He cared about her—more than he’d thought possible. Enough to try to be the kind of man she thought him to be.
She blushed, casting her gaze down in a way that suggested that was exactly what she’d thought. He tilted her chin, forcing her gaze back to his.
