She let out a laugh, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Now that seems quite the boring task for someone like ye.”
“I could watch ye all day,” he said softly as she pushed out of her chair. Her cheeks flushed, and he felt it in his groin. As much as he tried to stay away, to put the distance between them now that she was in this position, he couldn’t.
“Ye could watch me a hell of a lot more if ye would take the bloody position,” she grumbled as he rounded the table.
He reached out and brushed his scarred hand over her soft cheek. Edna had never flinched at his touch or the way his warrior body had changed over the years. He had more scars than he cared to count, but she had. She had kissed each one of them. “Ye know I cannae, lass.”
Edna turned her eyes to him, and he drew in a deep breath. “Then wot aboot as something else, Leeth? I—”
He covered her mouth with his before she could finish, his heart clenching in his chest. He knew what she was going to say, and it was far worse than just being her second-in-command.
That was a position he could never hold for her.
Her hands started to tug on his tunic, and he deepened the kiss, working on the laces on her gown. “Nay,” she said, tearing her mouth from his and stilling his hands. “I dinnae have that much time. Just lift mah skirts, ye bloody Scot.”
He grinned before sweeping the things on the table to the floor, knowing he was making a mess before seating her on the table. “I dinnae think I’ve properly had ye in quite some time, lass,” he growled as he lifted her skirts.
“I know,” she breathed, fumbling with his breeks. “Please, Leeth.”
That was always his undoing, the way she said his name as if it were the last word she would ever say. “Aye,” he grunted as she released him from the confines of his breeks and guided him to her wet warmth.
One day he would have to stop this, to love her from afar as she moved on with marriage, but today she was his, and he was going to give her what she wanted.
“Leeth,” she gasped, arching her back as he drove into her.
He buried his face into the crook of her shoulder, breathing in her scent as he plunged into her again and again, whispering words that he would never say aloud to her otherwise. This was his weakness, this fierce woman who had captured his heart a long time ago, and he didn’t know what he was going to do the day that he would have to say goodbye to her.
He could never stand beside her as her husband now that she had taken this position, and while he didn’t regret the fact that she did, it still hurt to know that he would have to give her up one day.
