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She steps closer. Close enough that I smell soap and warmth and a faint trace of wood smoke… but also something that has nothing to do with cleanliness.

“I thought ye might be wantin’ company,” she says softly. “It’s been a long night.”

“You’re a bold one, aren’t you?” I say.

She smiles again, coyly. “I think ye like that.”

I step into her space, and her breath catches.

“You seem to think you know a great deal,” I say. “As if you’ve been watchin’ me.”

She doesn’t deny it. “You dinnae seem the sort to mind.”

“And you’ve no notion what you’re playing at.”

“I think I do,” she says softly.

The space between us collapses too easily as I crowd her back, the cold stone of the castle meeting her spine. I plant my hand beside her head, close enough to block escape without stealing it entirely.

Heat bleeds through layers of fabric. She tilts her chin up, breath catching, eyes darkening. Her body answers a question I haven’t asked with the smallest, trembling surrender.

Whatever restraint I’ve been living on has been thinning for days. There’s a quiet part of me that’s almost sorry she’ll be the one it breaks against.

“Look at you,” I murmur. “Already obeying commands I haven’t voiced.”

Her fingers twitch at her sides as if she wants to reach for me.

“Don’t,” I say quietly. “Keep your hands down.”

She listens, a tiny moan slipping free.

I lean in until she’s braced for it, until she’s waiting. Then I deny her.

This isn’t about her feelings. It’s about mine.

It’s about silencing the noise in my head for a few stolen minutes.

I let the tension stretch, let my body burn with it, heat coiling low and tight, demanding release. My thoughts blur around it, everything narrowing to pressure and proximity and the need to stop thinking.

I let her feel that, too. This won’t be gentle. It won’t be kind.

“You don’t get softness,” I tell her. “Not from me.”

Her breath goes shallow.

“Let me earn it,” she purrs, hope softening the edge of her voice.

I don’t answer. I lift her wrists above her head and hold them there.

The power steadies me. She goes pliant beneath it, and the way she yields sends a jolt straight through all that discipline I’ve been holding together.

“Use that pretty mouth and tell me what you want,” I murmur near her ear.

She swallows hard before she whispers, “You.”

One word, stripped bare, ruined with need.

“There’s my good girl,” I breathe out.