“You think I’m yours?”
“You think ye’re no’?”
Her breath hitched in her throat. It felt as though all the desire, all the want, all the need, was finally spiraling down into this moment. She needed him, so badly she couldn’t think straight, so desperately her whole body was pushing her forward. She had never wanted a man the way she wanted him, but she couldn’t deny herself this any longer. Whatever attempts she had made to control herself in the face of everything he was asking for.
Finally, she sank her lips into his, giving in and giving herself to him at last.
He pushed her against the wall of the stable, his hands on her hips, his grip tight and intoxicating, as though he never intended to let her go. She gasped against his mouth, and he slipped his tongue past her parted lips, kissing her deeply. She reached up to plant her hands on his shoulders, resting them there fora moment, tentative. One wrong move, she felt, and it would shatter this moment entirely, leave this falling apart around them, but she needed more.
She needed everything.
His hand shifted down, towards her skirts, and he gathered them up with ease and pulled them into his grasp. She moaned against his mouth, the sound surprising even her. She didn’t know she was capable of such lust, but the rush of sensation coursed around every inch of her body. Something was tightening in her belly, reaching down between her legs, a deep, craving need that she had never felt before.
His fingers carved a line along the inside of her thigh, and she shivered again. Just a matter of yards away, everyone else was slumbering, and if they’d had any idea of what she was doing in here, with him, her whole reputation would have been forsaken in that instant. But, somehow, that only excited her more, and she pushed her hand into his hair, pulling him closer, as his fingers traced to the crease of her hip, teasing her lightly as a heady desire started to throb between her thighs.
Then, all at once, he pulled back. She gasped in shock, reaching for him again, but then she realized what had drawn his attention; the sound of footsteps, approaching the stables. Her heart dropped, and she pulled away from him, trying to put as much distance between them as she could. But, in this small space, she knew the chances of convincing anyone that this had been some innocent encounter were virtually nil.
“Aye, I’m sure I heard something out here,” Gregory’s voice cut through the quiet. He must have heard Kiernan sneaking around out there and, by the sounds of it, he had brought someone else with him, too. Her cheeks were flushed, her breath coming hard and fast, and she knew she stood little chance of being able to convince Gregory—or anyone—that this was utterly innocent.
Then, to her surprise, Kiernan stepped out of the stables. Before she could stop herself, she followed after him, moving so that she was just behind him, his broad shoulders and strong frame blocking her from what was waiting on the other side.
“Gentlemen,” he called to them. “I think ye’re looking for me.”
With that, Gregory and his companion turned, and when they saw Kiernan standing just a few yards away from them, Mary cowering behind him, something in the air shifted.
Something Mary knew would never return to normal again.
7
“Ye’re lucky I dinnae have you killed on the spot!”
Arran’s voice crashed off the walls of his study, as Kiernan and Mary stood before him and Amelia. Mary could barely lift her head to look at her sister, sure that she would be met with a glower for dragging her out of bed in the middle of the night.
And that was not even considering what it was she had been caught in the midst of.
Gregory had raised the alarm, letting everyone know that Kiernan had been skulking around the Keep—and, worse, that he’d been found with Mary. The two of them had swiftly been guided to his study, while the corridors came alight with whispers and conversation about Mary, about what she had been doing with such a brute of a man, she was sure.
“And why don’t you, Arran?” Kiernan replied with a near-relaxed tone to his voice. Mary shot a look at him out of the corner of her eye. She did not much care for the idea that he was trying to bait Arran into doing something. She’d heard the way Arran had talked about him before, and she knew that he carried no care for the Fraser family in his heart.
“Because I’m no’ the kind of bastard your father was,” he snapped back, running a hand through his hair. Amelia reached for his arm, giving it a light squeeze, and he closed his eyes for a moment, as though he was drawing himself back down to Earth before he continued.
“If you’ve hurt her,” Amelia cut in, her voice dropping as she glanced over at Mary, but Kiernan let out a chuckle. Mary saw a flash of anger cross Arran’s face at the sound of it, as though he could hardly believe he would be treating this with such lightness.
“Does she look hurt to you?” he demanded, gesturing to Mary. His hand moved close to her, close enough that she could almost feel it grazing her skin, and a shiver rushed down her spine. Though it had landed them in all kinds of trouble, she could still recall, all too easily, how delicious it had felt to give herself to him like that, how badly she ached to do it all over again, no matter how foolish it might have been.
Arran rose to his feet and closed the distance between him and Kiernan. Mary had never seen such fury in his eyes before, and she found herself drawing away from him nervously, worried that she might find herself at the wrong end of it, if she wasn’t careful.
“You Fraser men have tried time and time again to cause trouble in my Keep,” Arran snarled at him. “But if you think I’m going tae stand by and let you defile my sister-in-law…”
“I did nothing of the sort,” Kiernan replied smoothly, not letting his voice crack for a moment.
“Gregory said that the two of you were in the stables together,” Amelia protested. “What were you doing, alone in there with her?”
“Perhaps you’d like tae tell them, Mary,” Kiernan remarked, shooting a look over at her, his eyes blazing with a playfulness, like he was challenging her to come out and say it. She felt hercheeks heat up as she drew her gaze away from him, loathing herself for making her desire so obvious.
“Dinnae try and deny it,” Arran continued, stabbing his finger in the air at Kiernan furiously. “You came here to…”
“I came here to make my intentions known,” Kiernan replied without missing a beat. “Though I suppose Mary and I found oursels’ somewhat… caught up in the moment.”
