by Sabrina York
Life would be a dismal drudge without her.
When he finally made his way up to the tower room, she was sleeping. She was so peaceful and sweet it made his heart ache. He didn’t have the heart to wake her. So he nestled in beside her and held her. Just held her, savoring her every murmur, her every breath.
When he awoke in the morning—much later than he’d intended—she was still there. He stifled the annoying flare of relief. Of course she was still there. He’d locked the door.
He levered up on his arm and stared down at her, studying her face, glorying in the sooty arch of her lashes on her cheeks, her rosy glow, the plump pout of her sleeping lips. He dipped his head and kissed her neck. She muttered something and rolled over into his embrace.
God, she was adorable. Tiny and curvy and warm. He kissed her awake. His heart flared when she responded. When her lips moved under his. When her tongue dabbed at his.
His cock surged. He growled deep in his throat and shifted on top of her. Her thighs spread. Not far, as she was still wearing her dress, but far enough for him to wedge against her. He rubbed her with his hardness, showing her his need.
She looked at him, her eyes soft with sleep, welcoming. Her lips parted and a sigh slipped out. A delicious sound.
He couldn’t help but nuzzle her neck, nibble and nip and taste the essence of Violet.
Ah. She should know better. She should know better than to wriggle against him so. He shot her a smile and reached for her hem.
A knock rattled the door.
He dropped his head on her shoulder and groaned. “What?” he bellowed.
No response. Just the knock again.
Fuck.
He rose from the bed and made his way across the chamber, opening the door a crack. Alasdair stood on the landing, a flummoxed expression on his face.
“What the fuck is it?”
“You have visitors. A man. And a woman.” Thank God he had the sense to whisper. Still, Ewan’s heart seized.
“A woman?” Was it Kaitlin? Had she come? Hell. So soon?
“Aye, and demanding to see you. She’s…rather adamant.”
Ewan relaxed. Well, it couldn’t be Kaitlin. Kaitlin wasn’t adamant. Not ever. She was as timid as a church mouse.
“You’d better come.”
Ewan glanced over his shoulder at the bundle of fragrant woman curled in his bed. She stretched, giving him a blinding view of her breasts. Even encased in that wretched dress, they made his mouth water. He didn’t want to leave her—he really wanted to make love to her, and now—but he could deal with whatever this was quickly and return. Then he’d make love to her all day.
He stormed down the stairs, yanking on his shirt, but his step faltered at the sight of his men scurrying about, scrubbing flagstones and tidying up rancid dishes. “What the—”
“Ewan McCloud,” a shrill female voice bellowed. The sound rang off the walls.
His gaze snapped to the entryway. Callum MacAllister stood there with a small woman by his side. Ewan blanched as he recognized his betrothed, but in a fine fury—unlike he’d ever seen her. Her hair was down and wild and she stood with legs apart, hands fisted on her hips like a general on the verge of a bloody battle.
Which he suddenly suspected it might be.
Their marriage, that was.
“Kaitlin? W-what are you doing here?”
She advanced on him, her fury preceding her. “What the hell do you think I’m doing here? You kidnapped Violet.”
He took a step back. “I didn’t kidnap Violet. He did.” He pointed at Callum, who flinched.
“I only did it because Kaitlin ran away.” This, the little ass whined.
She glared at them both in turn. “I am here to marry you.”
He attempted a cocky grin. “You don’t need to sound so happy about it.”
“What the hell did you expect?” she snarled. “Forcing me to marry you. Kidnapping my best friend—”
“That was not I.”
“Making my brother do it then. Holding his debt over his head.” With each accusation she stepped closer, and with each of her advances he retreated until he was flat against the wall. “You, sir,” she poked him in the chest with a sharp finger, “are a brigand.”
He blinked. “Hardly a brigand.” This, he said in a tiny voice.
She crossed her arms. “I have delivered myself into your clutches. Release Violet at once.” The silence in the hall following her demand settled in. She spun around and glared at the thunderstruck men. “And you lot, get back to work or I will have your guts for garters.”
A rather frenetic activity resumed.
Holy hell. Ewan stared down at the tiny and fierce creature he had promised to marry, a skirl of dread skating through his bowels. “Kaitlin MacAllister, you, I fear, are something of a termagant.” He raked his hair and muttered, “Small wonder you and Violet are friends.”
Chapter Twelve
What was he to do?
He housed Kaitlin in a chamber on the second floor of the keep and bade her to bar the door. The last thing he wanted was Violet and his betrothed meeting up and sharing…stories.
Besides, he wasn’t done with Violet yet. Not by a long shot.
And he needed some time. Time to figure a way out of this conundrum. He was not marrying Kaitlin MacAllister. He couldn’t. Not now.
And he couldn’t bear to let Violet go.
Callum, however, he sent on his merry way.
He spent most of the day in his office with the door closed and the whisky bottle open, wrestling with his churning emotions. On the one hand, he needed to marry Kaitlin. Needed the entrée to the ton her rank would provide. Sophia would be coming home in a month to prepare for her season and he couldn’t let her down. He just couldn’t. He’d worked so hard to create this opportunity for her to marry a man who mattered. A powerful man who could keep her warm and safe and dry.
She would never end up in the dire straits his mother had faced. Never. This, he had vowed to himself long ago.
Sophia was a sweet, gentle soul. Ewan had done everything he could to protect her from the harsh realities of life, done all within his power to prepare her for a future of Quality. She deserved the absolute best.
But the thought of marrying Kaitlin—of marrying anyone really—turned his stomach. And the prospect of letting Violet go made him ill.
What a pity that, at his core, he was an honorable man.
If he weren’t, he would abandon Kaitlin, abandon everything, and flee with Violet in his arms.
He took dinner with her in the solar. They drank and ate and chatted and he attempted to charm her from her peevishness—she was still annoyed that he had tied her up and led her like a hound back to the keep. He had it in his mind to seduce her tonight but his chances didn’t look very good.
Still he gave it his best, though all the while, through all the soft words and cajoling smiles and witty ripostes, guilt prickled at his nape. He should tell her Kaitlin had come but he couldn’t bear to do so.
Telling her really would end this. And he couldn’t bear it.
It was almost a relief when Mungo scratched on his door.
“What is it?” he asked through a sigh.
“Visitors,” the hulk muttered.
Ewan’s brow clouded. “I don’t see visitors.”
“I told them that. Said they was ‘old friends’.”
Curiosity twined in his chest. No one visited here. They knew better. “Fine,” he grunted. He glanced over his shoulder at Violet sipping her wine and staring into the fire. “I’ll be right back,” he said.
She merely sniffed. Tipped her chin at that intransigent angle and didn’t answer.
Hell.
He winced as he descended the stairs. His men were in fine fettle, drinking and carousing. A fight had broken out between Alasdair and Cedric. They battered each other with glee. Thank God he’d locked Kaitlin away. There was no telling what ideas might get into their heads when they
were in such a state.
His eyes lit on the coterie assembled in the foyer and widened in surprise. Two men he’d never thought to see again, but he was glad to. They’d all been locked up together in that French prison, jammed into the same cell. Edward Weston and Charles Transom had saved his ass more than once. He strode toward them with a broad grin.
“Transom? Weston? By all that is holy. I never thought to see you here.”
Cedric took a meaty blow and crashed into the table, making it wobble and spilling all the cups. The men around it leapt up and bellowed their rage. Their cries bounced off the walls as yet another brawl ensued.
Ewan snorted a laugh. “The place is something of a mess. Had I known you were coming, I would have tidied up. How long has it been?”
He shook hands with each man in turn but when he came to the third, a young pup with a surly frown, his outstretched hand faltered.
“We need to talk,” Weston said. “Someplace private.”
Well. So much for the niceties. The smile drifted from Ewan’s face. “My study?” He led the way, his mind awhirl. He couldn’t imagine what they wanted. But he didn’t care. It was damn fine to see them again. “Sit. Sit.” He waved at the chairs as he took his own. “May I offer you a drink?”
Weston’s brow clouded. “No thank you. Our business is rather urgent.”
Really? “Urgent business? After so many years? I’m intrigued.”
The young pup, the one who had refused to sit and was now prowling like a caged lion, snarled, “Where’s my sister?” His fingers opened and closed as though he really wanted to punch something.
Ewan’s gut clenched. His sister? He narrowed his gaze and studied that face. And his blood curdled. He remembered that face. Oh, he’d been younger, softer, less surly, but Ewan remembered that face. “Who are you?” he asked, although he knew. In his heart he already knew.
“Edward Wyeth.”
Acid bubbled in his gut. “Edward Wyeth.” This, he spat. The son of the man who had heartlessly savaged a boy and then tossed him and his mother out in the snow.
Weston frowned. “Ned, please. Let me handle this.”
“I want her back, you bastard.”
“Ned.” Transom’s warning had no effect.
Ewan leaned back in his chair and poured himself a drink, sipped it slowly. “What makes you think your sister is here?”
Ned opened his mouth to respond but Weston glared him into silence and said, “Callum MacAllister.”
Annoyance curled through him. “Callum told you she was here? I may need to squash that little bug.”
The boy visibly bristled. “He didn’t tell us anything, that filthy cur. We found you all on our own.”
Ewan ignored this outburst. He poured a drink for Weston and Transom, though they had declined. “So tell me, Weston. What’s your part in all of this?”
His friend cleared his throat. “The name is not Weston, actually.”
“It’s not? How unsettling. Never say you lied to us all those years ago.”
“I didn’t lie so much as pose as someone I was not.”
“Hardly a difference.” He took another drink. “So who are you?”
“Also Edward Wyeth.” He glanced at the boy. “It’s a family name.”
The bottle stilled. Ewan’s gaze flicked up. He bit his tongue and his jaw clamped shut.
“Violet is my…cousin.”
Everything in him seized. Suspicion curled. Weston—Wyeth—was Violet’s cousin… “I take it your father was not a bookseller.”
“He was not.”
“What was he?” Tension crackled.
“A duke.”
“Fuck.”
“Moncrieff, actually. He’s the one who arranged our escape. I’ve come to call in that favor, Ewan.”
“Fuck.”
“I will take Violet tonight. In return I’ll pay you the money that is owed. You will leave Violet and Kaitlin alone.”
“Kaitlin?” Something in Edward’s tone when he said her name caught Ewan’s attention. His finely honed instincts flared to life. “Not Lady Kaitlin? What’s my betrothed to you?”
Edward bristled. “You will release her from this betrothal and never bother her again.”
Ewan grinned. Yes. There was something there. Something other than genteel concern over his cousin’s friend. “Your…passion is intriguing.”
“I must insist.”
“And if I refuse?”
Edward narrowed his eyes. “You used to be a man of honor.”
Ewan plucked at a splinter of wood on the table. “That was a long time ago.” He took another sip of his drink and pondered this interesting revelation. He fought to keep a smile from curling on his lips as a possibility, a sweet solution, unfolded in his mind. “I have need of a bride. Surely I should keep one of them.”
Ned shot to his feet. Edward pressed him back down. He fixed Ewan with a resolute stare. “I will pay you double what is owed. One debt for each woman.”
Ewan stilled. He drew his finger over the lip of the cup. “It is a substantial amount.”
“I know.”
“I will think on your proposal.”
Ned shot to his feet again. “What the hell is there to think about?”
Ewan chortled. “You’re asking me to give up my dearest Kaitlin. And a rather valuable captive. Come back tomorrow and I will give you my answer.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes. Tomorrow.” Ewan stood, indicating that this interview was at an end. He needed them to leave. He need time to think, to play through the permutations in his head.
Edward stood as well. But did not offer his hand. “Tomorrow it is, Ewan. And do not forget. You owe me. You owe me your life.”
* * * * *
Violet spent her time waiting for Ewan’s return strolling from one side of the solar to the other. It was not very diverting.
It annoyed her that he’d left again—on business, he’d said.
In truth he’d probably been anxious to escape her presence. She hadn’t been very good company since their return to the keep. She’d needed to take him to task for tying her up and humiliating her in front of his men, but for some reason she hadn’t been able to shake her irritable mood. She’d railed at him all day and through most of dinner.
She sighed. No wonder he wanted to flee.
It wasn’t the fact that he’d tied her to the bed that plagued her. It was the revelation of her true feelings for him, and the depth of them, that perturbed her.
She’d never imagined she could have feelings like this for someone. It was sheer delight and fear and terror and need all rolled into one churning, burning emotion. It was as though her vision had narrowed down to one flickering, capricious point. The whole of her life had been lived solely for this reason. To love him. To be with him.
The fear and the terror sprang from the suspicion he did not feel the same.
Oh, who was she trying to fool?
It wasn’t a suspicion.
Still, when he returned to the chamber, when he opened the door and stared at her with a hungry look in his eye, she wanted to run to him. To fling herself into his arms and cling.
He closed the door and turned the lock. Then faced her, still staring as though he could eat her up. He strode across the room until he stood before her, close. His heat, his desire, licked her in waves.
She wrung her hands and searched for something to say. “How-how did your meeting go?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
She tipped up her chin and studied his face. It was tight. Drawn. Harsh. Had she displeased him? Again?
“I don’t want to talk.” He cupped her face. Thumbed her cheek.
Her heart thudded. “Then…what do you want to do?”
“I want this.” His mouth took hers in a dizzying rush. He consumed her. Kissed her wildly as though he would never kiss her again. The yearning in his touch made her chest ache.
She couldn’t st
op her arms from curling around his neck. He grunted—she tasted his satisfaction—and swung her up in his arms, not breaking the kiss.
Her head reeled, her heart pounded as he whirled her around and headed for the bed. “Violet,” he murmured, peppering her lips, her cheeks, her lashes, with tiny busses. “Violet.”
“Ewan,” she said, because she could think of nothing else to say. Indeed, nothing else needed saying. She tugged impatiently at his shirt and he complied, ripping it off. Buttons flew. “Ah.” She set her palm to his warm chest, stroked him, petted him.
He groaned and shifted down to feed on her neck. He fumbled with the buttons on her bodice and when he couldn’t undo them quickly enough, he ripped it open. She had it in her mind to complain—this was her only dress after all—but then he took an aching crest into his mouth and sucked and all thoughts flew from her completely, like startled birds scattering in the trees.
Delight, pure and sweet, raced through her body, a shimmering, shivering stream. She clutched at his head, holding him there as he feasted. But she couldn’t hold him long. He wanted more. He worked his way down her torso, ripping the gown as he went. She laughed. She couldn’t help it. Joy skirled in her soul.
But when he had bared her completely, when the dress lay about her in tatters and he continued his downward journey, everything within her constricted.
He spread her legs. He thumbed her cleft, opening it. His breath, hot and harsh, danced over her core.
“Ewan!” A howl. Panicked and frail.
Still, he did not stop.
He touched her. With his tongue. There.
Her mind went blank. Her body clenched. Every nerve ending awoke and sang.
Never. Never in her life had she imagined…
He nuzzled deeper between her folds, drawing that hard button between his lips. He sucked, nibbled, lapped.
She braced her feet on the bed and arched up into him with a feral howl. “God, yes!” His chuckled vibrated through her, causing more delicious sensations to spiral from her pearl straight through to her womb.
When he nudged his fingers into her body she lost all connection with the mortal world. Her mind reeled, her heart froze, her breath stalled in her throat. Wave after wave of agony, of the sweetest bliss took her. She writhed, whimpered, wailed.