He tossed up her skirts and untied his breeches faster than he’d ever done before, not wanting to take any chances that she would change her mind.
He made a deep sound of raw pleasure as he slid his cock between her legs and let his length slide back and forth along her dampness.
She was practically panting now, her body shaking with need. “Gregor, I can’t wait…that feels so good.”
Needing to feel how good, he reached around front and dipped his hand between her legs. He slid one finger in, and then another. “You feel so silky soft and wet. I can’t wait to be inside you.”
She was writhing against him, her whole body begging him. He couldn’t wait any longer. He came into her with a hard thrust that jarred her against the door.
She cried out, not in pain but in pleasure. “Yes! Oh please, don’t stop.”
With every thrust she gave back every bit as fiercely as he did, urging him with the press of her body and her inciting words.Harder. Make it harder. Faster. You feel so good…so big.
He lost control. He lost where he stopped and she began. He couldn’t stop. He drove into her over and over with all the passion and all the unnamed emotion inside him that had been fighting to come out. He held nothing back, and for the first time in his life Gregor felt completely free.
They came together in a conflagration and explosion of raw energy that rocked and quaked, destroying everything that had come before. There was only the woman coming apart around him. Now and forever.
Two days after the first time Gregor had surprised her in the storeroom, Cate finished the last few adjustments on her clothes and hair. Fortunately, she’d been dressed for practice and the damage he’d done in his eagerness was easily repaired. With the weather clear for the first time in days, she’d been on her way to go for a ride with Pip, when Gregor had caught her in the stairwell and dragged her into the storage room under the stairs that held the casks of wine and ale.
“How do I look?” she asked, letting the end of the plait she’d just finished drop down her back.
He looked her up and down, a distinctly smug expression of masculine satisfaction on his face. “You look like a beautiful, thoroughly ravished young woman who has just come apart three times.”
“Gregor!” She blushed hotly. “You shouldn’t say such things.”
He gave her a wicked smile. “Why not? It’s true. That’s what I see when I look at you. Other people might just assume you’ve been sitting next to the fire for a while.”
She rolled her eyes. “I doubt it. I don’t think we are fooling anyone. Just today Ete asked me if I had counted the bags of grain we had in the storeroom lately. She told me with the feast coming it wouldn’t be a bad idea, and I should take as long as I needed—she would watch Maddy later this afternoon.”
Gregor grinned broadly. “I always knew I liked that woman.”
Cate shook her head. Hewasa rogue. But he was her rogue—or would be soon. “I am glad there are only seven more nights—”
“Six,” he corrected. “The seventh night you are mine.”
Cate smiled. She’d known that. “Youarecounting.”
“Every damned minute,” he said, picking up the belt with his sword to fasten it around his waist.
When he finished, he sat on one of the casks to look at her, seemingly reluctant to leave. She knew the feeling. Even though there was something decidedly illicit about what they were doing, it was the only time she had alone with him, and she cherished every moment.
With Hogmanay tomorrow, they’d both been busy with their duties attending to the guests and making sure everything was ready for the big feast. The busyness was to be expected, but that didn’t make it any easier. Nor was it any easier to watch the women descend on him like locusts. Or maybe vultures was a better analogy, looking for any scraps left on the carcass of his bachelorhood. Apparently being betrothed wasn’t much of a deterrent.
“Where were you off to?” he asked.
“You mean before I was swept off my feet and carried down here by some over-muscled barbarian?”
He grinned unrepentantly. “Aye, before that.”
“Pip and I were going to go for a ride, and then practice his archery at some of the butts set up on the moorland on the other side of the village.”
He frowned, and she wasn’t sure whether it was at the mention of Pip or the mention of her straying so far from the tower house. “How long will you be gone?”
“A few hours. You need not worry—I’m sure your two guardsmen will report back to you as soon as we return.”
He didn’t bother feigning embarrassment at her discovery. “I’ll not apologize for being cautious, Cate. With strange riders about, I thought it prudent to have my men accompany you when you are away from the castle.”
“Accompany me? Don’t you mean follow me?”
