Page 17 of Scot of Seduction

“It doesnae matter.”

“Aye, ye’re right. It cannae matter at all that ye started thrashing and shouting in yer sleep.” She flung herself down beside him on the bed. There was a space between them that he was all too aware of.

I kissed her. I broke every vow I made tae her braithers.

The guilt raged inside of him.

“What did ye see, Tad?” her voice was so soft that his heart pounded in his chest. Uncertain what it meant, he felt the glimmer of the truth escape his lips.

“I saw me faither again. I saw the day that he…” He didn’t need to say the word. The silence between them showed that she understood. “I saw the boy that did it. I let that same boy go, seconds before it happened.”

“It was nae yer doing, Tad. Ye were trying tae protect a boy from death.”

“Wasnae it?” He scoffed, shaking his head on the pillows. “I’ll always feel responsible, Cat. Always.”

To his relief, she didn’t complain at the nickname.

Her fingers snaked out toward his, curling softly around his own. Without thinking, he caught her hand in his and held it tight.

No other words passed between them, though he felt something shift in that silence. She turned her head toward his a little, and she didn’t pull back her hand. He felt his eyes drift closed and sleep claimed him, with Catreena there beside him.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Tad could feel his hardness pressed against another. It was stirring him from sleep, as much as the strong sunlight on his face. He pressed his face nearer, into someone’s flower-scented hair. He felt her writhe, heard the softness of breath.

A lass…

He didn’t know who he was with in his sleepy state. He knew only that a woman was there. He moved her hair aside, nuzzling deeper. That scent became even stronger as his lips met her neck.

He heard an intake of breath. The softest, most delicate flutters of breath. He felt her rear, pressed himself closer, his hardness pushing toward her beneath the covers of the bed, then…

It’s Catreena.

The full force of the realization hit him as if a pale of water had been chucked over his head.

He sat bolt upright in bed, his eyes wide open as he stared down at her. She was still fast asleep, that pleasant fluttering breathing a result of her dreams.

That kiss!

He remembered in an instant the way he had kissed her the night before, after his nightmare. He remembered the shame of it, the guilt, and the thrill.

“Damnation,” he muttered and threw himself as hurriedly and as quietly as he could from the bed. He backed away, going so fast that he collided with the wall.

Looking down, he saw that his length was hardened against his trews, making a tent out of the material.

A wild thought shot across his mind of moving over Catreena, of waking her with kisses, of slipping beneath those covers and showing her everything that she might have had the curiosity to know about what being with someone could be like.

It’s Catreena!

He turned firmly away and found the basin of water from the night before. At this time in the morning, the water was cool, allowing him to wash his face with a cold splash. He could only pray it cooled his ardor as he glanced back at Catreena on the bed.

He had done something he had never done before with a woman. He had merely slept beside her. This was new. What worried him the most was that he had liked it so much. He had liked the warmth of having her there, companionable, intimate, trusting… all things that he never usually felt with a woman beside him in bed at all.

“This has tae stop,” he muttered darkly, looking down at his length again. He closed his eyes and willed himself to think of anything but Catreena. In the end, thinking about how he had let her brothers down was the fastest way to cool his heated thoughts. Only when his trews were back to their normal state did he turn to face the bed again.

Thank God she didnae wake when I started nuzzling her. I’m a sick man!

Her reactions had not helped. He couldn’t help wondering who she had thought was trailing her neck with kisses in her dream state. Had she thought of him? Or another man?