"'Tis too early to be up and about.Maisie will not have that kitchen fire lit for another hour at least.Stay a while, lass."
She hesitated.
His thumb moved.A single slow stroke across her stomach through the linen.
"Cormac," she said, and hated that it came out softer than she intended.
"Aye," he replied in the same low voice.
She turned over.
It took some untangling of limbs, though his hand at her waist stayed steady throughout, and then she was facing him.He was right there, closer than she had quite accounted for, his dark eyes a little heavy-lidded, his jaw rough.He looked unguarded.
"We should get up," she said, without much conviction.
"Aye, we should," he agreed, and then he kissed her.
***
IT WAS SLOW AND CERTAINand nothing like their first careful kiss at the table.Cormac kissed her with heat and passion, one hand cradling the back of her head.Una kissed him back with abandon.
His mouth moved to her jaw.Her throat.The warm hollow below her ear that made her shiver, and she felt him feel the shiver and do it again.
"Cormac," she breathed.
"I have ye," he murmured against her throat."I have ye, lass."
His hands traced the neckline of her shift.She felt the pause, a question in it, and she nodded as Cormac drew it down off her shoulders with care, baring her breasts to his heated gaze.
He moved back just enough to look at her.His chest rose and fell.His jaw was tight.
"Ye're beautiful," he said.
Then he slowly lowered his head and his mouth closed over her nipple.
Una gasped and her hand flew to his hair.
Cormac suckled her slowly, his tongue circling, drawing her in, and the heat of it went straight through her belly and settled low as she arched into him.He moved his mouth to her other breast and laved the stiffened peak with his tongue in slow circles.Una moaned softly.Her fingers tightened in his hair.
"More," she managed, in a voice she barely recognized.
He kissed a trail along her throat and found her mouth again, his hip pressed against the juncture between her thighs, the solid weight of him settling over her.
She felt him then.Hard against her, long and thick and unmistakeable through the linen of her shift.
She ought to stop him.She did not.What happened instead started in her belly and moved outward, warm and insistent, and before she had thought about it she shifted her hips and rubbed herself against the hard length of him.
The sound he made was low and entirely involuntary.
"Damn it, lass," he breathed.
Una did it again.His forehead dropped to hers.His hand gripped her hip.
"Ye're killing me," he said roughly.
"Is that a complaint?"she whispered.
He answered by kissing her harder as he ground his length against her heat, pulling up the hem of her shift.Una parted her legs, rocking against him wanting to feel more.She felt his whole body shudder against hers.Then he groaned into her hair.
