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“My feet,” he said, cutting back and forth. “You’re looking at my feet.”

But she clearly was not.

Reid stopped what he was doing, waiting for her to shift her attention. When she did, he resumed the cutting drill, but it was still quite impossible for her to focus on his technique. He stopped abruptly, his eyes narrowing at her.

“I thought you wanted to learn,” he teased, moving toward her.

Allie raised her sword. “I do.”

He met her sword with his own. “You think to stop my advance?”

Truth be told, she didn’t want to.

“Aye,” she said, full of false bravado.

He tapped and thrusted, testing her. Allie pulled from every one of her sword-fighting lessons and met each of his movements as skillfully as she was able. She tried to forget about his high cheekbones and his muscular body and remember to move her feet as quickly as her sword.

Then he smiled, a slow, sensual smile that robbed Allie of her next breath and saw her sword knocked to the ground. He was next to her immediately, grabbing her wrist with his free hand.

“You forgot our first lesson,” he said. Allie licked her bottom lip in anticipation.

She struggled to remember what he spoke of. All she could think of was kissing him.

“And now you will suffer for it.” His eyes told her a very different story. They held a wicked promise.

“It sounds dreadful.”

His face was close enough to hers that she could feel his breath on her cheek. Lowering his head toward hers, Reid took her lower lip in his mouth. In the next moment, he took everything. Covering her lips with his own, he thrust his tongue inside without apology. The kiss was demanding, but Allie did not mind. In fact, the more he demanded, the more she gladly gave. A warmth enveloped her as she returned the kiss with vigor.

Reid pulled back, his eyes hooded. “If this continues, the promise you made to your sister will not stand.”

“Why?” she asked, feigning innocence.

Though he was in complete control, restraint overcoming the desire she knew he felt, Allie was sure she could break through.

Now why would you do that?

“Because,” he drawled. “Every time I touch you, every time my lips taste you, I want more. Do you remember, sweet Allie, that feeling in the tub?”

As if she could ever forget.

She nodded. “Aye, very well.”

“I will make it my life’s purpose to give you that same pleasure every day we’re together.”

“But what—”

“Though, I am no monk,” he continued. “There will come a time when you will do the same to me. I can wait.”

She inadvertently looked down. Did he mean—

He turned away then, his shoulders rising and falling.

“Reid?”

He tilted his head back and squeezed his eyes shut, groaning loudly in frustration, before he turned to face her once again.

“Training,” he said. “We should get back to the training.”