“Do ye care for me?”
Her question surprised him. Could she not see that he cared for her greatly?
“I thought that much was clear.”
Iris lifted her head, and he saw tenderness in her eyes.
“We cannae do this, James,” she whispered, pulling away from him. “We cannae.”
James watched her pick up the bottle once more and take a hefty swallow.
“Tell me why.”
By the gods, he was frustrated!
“Because,” she retorted, “we are enemies! Mah da, yer da, they are never going tae allow us tae…tae…” Iris stumbled over her words, and James took a step forward, backing her up against the stone wall.
“Wot?” he urged. “Wot are ye aboot tae say, lass?”
Iris stared at him for a long moment before shaking her head.
“It doesnae matter. I should go.”
He didn’t want her to leave. James knew the moment she left, it would be like they were the first time they kissed. Iris wasalready telling him that she wasn’t willing to fight for them to be together, but he wasn’t going to accept her defeat.
He couldn’t.
“Nay, lass,” he said, bracing one of his hands on the wall beside her head. “I cannae let ye go just yet.”
Before Iris could respond, he lowered his head and kissed her carefully, well aware that at any moment she could do him bodily harm for doing so. He was desperate for her affection, for a chance to make her happy.
He felt her start of surprise before she was kissing him back with fervor, winding her arms around his neck to pull him closer. James obliged her, breaking their kiss to trail his lips over her cheek, then down along her jaw.
“Tell me,” he whispered across her skin. “Tell me that ye can walk away from this.”
“James,” Iris breathed, her hands clenching his hair as he found the lobe of her ear. “By the gods…”
That was all he needed. His hands shaking, James found the front of her bodice, undoing the lacing and cursing against her neck when he knotted them more.
Iris laughed huskily as she batted his hands away and released the laces, letting her bodice fall open.
“Lass…” James whispered as he pushed the fabric away to reveal her pert breasts. “Ye’re lovely, Iris.”
When his hand brushed over the stiff peak, she gasped.
“Do ye like that?” he asked, a lazy smile on his face.
“Och, ye know I do,” she forced out, tugging on his hair until he did it again.
James did more than just touch her, and when he lowered his head to catch her nipple in his mouth, Iris let out a string of curses.
It only made him wish to hear them again. James’s breeks grew uncomfortably tight as he lavished her other breast, hisears filled with her moans. He shouldn’t be touching her like he was, but he couldn’t force himself to stop either.
With one last suckle, James brought his lips back up to hers, kissing her.
“James,” Iris breathed, her hands everywhere on his body now. “I need…”
“Aye, I know,” he finished for her, feeling the same need thrum through his body as well. It would be easy to take her to his tent or hers and give them both what they were wanting. She was an innocent—of that he was sure of—and she deserved something more.
