From his kisses, and no one else’s.
“Kaiden,” she breathed as he lowered his head to capture something else. “Wot are ye doing?”
He didn’t reply, wetting the fabric that covered her taut nipple with his lips instead. His tongue swirled around the peak and she gasped, her hands clutching his hair. “Sweet,” he murmured against her skin, nipping at the peak as his hand wandered lower, bunching up her skirts as he did so. There was no more pain in his body—not physical pain, at least, but the burning need to have her pulsating through his body instead.
She was going to make him feel whole again.
Kaiden’s lips traveled up the column of her neck and to her ear as he touched her bare calf. “Tell me wot ye want, lass,” he whispered, wanting to give her what she needed first. He knew whatheneeded, what he wanted, but he was not a Scot who was above pleasuring his woman first.
“I...” she breathed as his hand reached her knee, caressing the soft skin there. “Oh, mah.”
“Tell me,” he growled, keeping his hand there. As much as he wished he was at his full strength to be bedding her properly, Kaiden knew not to push his limits just yet.
After all, there would be plenty of time to draw out the gasps from his wife.
Mah wife.
The words were like a dousing of cold water over his body, and he reared back, his thigh screaming in pain as he scrambled off of her.
“Kaiden?” Ferra asked hesitantly as he rolled away from her, wishing he could stand so that he could get away from her scent. What the bloody hell had he been thinking? The lass had married him by proxy in an effort to help him, yet here he was, pawing at her like a bloody fool!
When her hand touched his back, he flinched, and she withdrew her touch immediately. It felt far too familiar, as if he deserved to have her touch him like that.
No, he couldn’t. She wasn’t. He hadn’t chosen her.
She hadn’t chosen him.
Kaiden felt her weight shift off the bed, and he forced himself to turn, the pain eating into his conscience, and not just the pain of his leg either. “Ferra, wait.”
But she was already at the door, fleeing as if the devil himself was on her heels, and there was no way he could go after her.
The door slammed shut, and Kaiden hung his head.
What had he done?
Kaiden blew out a long breath, rolling onto his back to ease the pain in his thigh. He could still taste the innocence of her kiss on his lips, how her soft skin had felt under his calloused fingers, and his cock jumped at attention once more. He had done something unspeakable to her, something that she hadn’t anticipated him doing.
He shouldn’t have touched her like that, and now he couldn’t even pull himself out of the bed to go and apologize to her.
To his wife.
Bloody hell, she was going to hate him. Kaiden ground the palms of his hands against his eyes, wishing his father had just left his dealings well enough alone. Now he had groped an innocent lass that was only attempting to force him to do things he didn’t wish to do.
Things he couldn’t do.
Grimacing, Kaiden forced himself to roll to the edge of the bed, placing his feet on the stone floor for the first time in ages. Spasms from misuse crept into his legs, but he forced himself to ignore them. Ferra was right in her assumption that he was a coward.
He was afraid of failure. He didn’t want his father to see him fail at becoming the man he once was. No, he couldn’t be the great warrior everyone expected him to be. It was one of the many reasons he had kept himself locked away in this chamber for this long.
Sweat dotted his forehead as Kaiden pressed his feet hard against the stone and pushed upright, groaning as the pain ravaged his body.
He didn’t make it far at all, falling back onto the bed as his legs gave way under his body and forced him to nearly knock his head against the stone wall behind him. Dizziness swamped his vision, and he placed his head in his hands.
“That was close.”
Kaiden looked up to find his father in the doorway, pride in his expression.
“Wot?”
