He let out a humorless chuckle. “Wot’s the point? So that I can fall on mah arse?”
“Nay,” she answered, grabbing his hand. “So that ye can walk out of this chamber. Now sit up. I’m growing tired of ye playing the invalid.”
He wrenched his hand from hers. “Leave me, lass. I dinnae wish tae go through this right now.”
His words angered Ferra. She hadn’t saved his leg for him to wallow in his own pity! “Ye big oaf!” she shouted, reaching for his hand once more. “Do ye wish for someone tae feel sorry for ye? Tae pity ye? Because those are the coward’s way out!”
His eyes flashed with anger, and before Ferra realized it, his hand was curled around her wrist, the surprising strength of him pressing against her delicate bones. “Does that feel like a coward, lass?”
Ferra snorted, though she desperately wanted to beg him to release her. Not that she was scared, but that his touch was causing her stomach to flutter with an unknown feeling she had never experienced before.
“Ye dinnae scare me, Kaiden McGregor.”
His expression shuttered, and he released her, turning his face toward the wall. “Leave, Ferra.”
“Come make me, for I’m nae moving from this spot until ye do, Kaiden McGregor!” she challenged, desperate to have him do something that would show him that he could still in fact walk and carry on as he had in the past. He might have a slight limp, but it didn’t slow down Erik, and Ferra wagered it wouldn’t her husband either.
“Why cannae ye just leave me in peace!” he growled, flinging on his back to glare at her.
Ferra approached the bed, holding out her hand. “Just stand,” she said softly, “and I will leave ye in peace.”
He reached up to knock her hand away, and she grabbed it, ignoring the tightening in her gut as she did so. “Please,” she begged him. “Once is all that I am asking. For yer clan.”
His eyes flashed with anger and a bit of hurt. “Ye know nothing of this clan or wot it needs.”
“I know it needs a leader,” she challenged, wrapping her hand around his large one. “And ye need the clan.”
Kaiden made a sound of disgust, attempting to dislodge her hand from his. “Ye made yer point, Ferra. Just leave me be.”
Unfortunately, as he attempted to separate them, Ferra felt herself pitch forward, and she tumbled into the low bed with a squeal, finding herself sprawled across Kaiden’s broad chest. Suddenly she was well aware of the muscles that were pressed up against her body, the strong arm that was now anchoring her in place around her waist. When had she thought that he was weak? From this vantage point, it seemed that he had been lounging in bed without a life-ending infection wreaking havoc on his body.
Her eyes flew to his face, and she saw the startled look of surprise there, along with a simmering heat that reflected in the beautiful shimmering depths of his eyes. For a moment, they stared at each other before Ferra was flipped on her back, her husband looming over her. His chest was heaving in something that wasn’t anger, and he was staring at her lips like she had grown a third one suddenly, causing Ferra’s heart to hammer against her chest. This was the closest she had been to him that didn’t involve his wound, and suddenly she felt small in his presence.
So very small.
7
Kaiden didn’t know what he was doing, but it hurt like the very devil to be poised over Ferra like this.
In more ways than one.
His entire body screamed at the movements, realizing how little he had exerted himself over the past few months. His leg was burning in pain, and his muscles were shaking from holding himself up like this, but all he wanted to do was kiss Ferra senseless.
Damn his weakness and injuries. He wanted to taste her trembling pink lip that he had stared at for a week now; studied, even. She had pushed him to the brink, and now she must pay for her words in the only way he knew how.
So, he lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers, feeling her gasp in surprise. Kaiden, too, was surprised at the flood of need that hit him full force, his cock swelling inside the smalls he had been forced to wear in her presence.
Not that it had helped at all.
Kaiden wandered his lips over hers until she was kissing him back, coaxing her lips open so that he could slide his tongue into the warm recess of her mouth. His entire body reacted thusly, and he groaned in her mouth.
Bloody hell, it had been a long time.
He moved his body to the side of hers and propped himself up on his elbow, not once removing his lips from hers. He wanted to strip her body bare and roam his lips other places, the need pressing greatly against his smalls. She tasted of mint and strawberries, likely from her morning fare, and he wanted to drown himself in her lips, to let her nimble hands stroke away his pain.
It was what she had done to him, after all—stroked away his pain and given him...well, she had given him hope.
His own hand found its way to the laces on her gown, and before he realized it, her bodice was gaped open, and he was cupping her breast through her shift. Ferra tore her lips from his, and he gazed into her wide-eyed stare as his thumb brushed over her hardened nipple. “So ready,” he murmured, pride infusing into his veins as he saw the redness of her lips.
