He leaned against the mantle, ignoring the cold stone at his back. Abigail glared at him, her breasts rising with each breath, her cheeks pink with temper. He laughed. “You’re jealous.”
She crossed her arms, the action accentuating her breasts even more, not that she needed to. Her sweet, pink nipples puckered against her shift, and his body hardened, the need to taste her again, to kiss those delicious peaks, roared through him like an avalanche on the Highlands mountain range.
“I am not. You may do as you please. I don’t give a shit. But what I don’t like is being used and then ignored. You acted like an ass today and now you can leave.”
He raised his brow. He had no intention of going anywhere. “Explain.”
She scoffed at him, going to stand by the window. It was the worst thing she could’ve done as the shift became transparent in the moonlight. He bit back a groan.
“You, Laird,” she said, accentuating his title, “didn’t even bother to speak to me, had me sit away from the dais, like some common whore with no right to eat beside you. Never mind the fact you kissed another woman.”
He joined her at the window, hating that he’d upset her, but also, wasn’t this what they had agreed? “We made no vow to one another.”
She huffed out a breath. “That’s all you have to say for yourself? You didn’t make a vow?” She jabbed him in the chest. “Listen here, you medieval ass, where I come from it doesn’t require a man to declare a vow after such an act. If the guy has any honor, any slither of respect for the woman, he’ll speak to her again, ask her out again. Not ignore her like a lowly whore you’d pass in a dark alleyway.”
“If ye must know the reason I kept me distance from ye, I didn’t think I could trust myself. Blast it,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Every time I look at ye I want to haul you against me and kiss ye senseless—take ye away from the games and do with ye as I please.” He stepped toward her, the tips of her breasts touching his chest. “Even now, when you’re angry with me, I want ye. All of ye.”
Excitement thrummed in his veins. She looked up at him in surprise, her delectable mouth partly open. He wanted to kiss her, wanted to feel the soft glide of her tongue against his, to hear her moan against his lips as he drove deep into her core. “’Tis also become noticeable by some of the clans that I’ve taken a keen interest in ye. That I seek ye out often and talk to ye more than I should.”
He slid a finger down her neck, revelling in the most perfect skin he’d ever beheld, before slipping the shift off her shoulder, exposing one breast. “The clans are expecting me to marry a woman from one of their families. They won’t look kindly if I spend the majority of my time staring at you. And as ye said, you’ve no intention of fighting for my hand, so…”
Her eyes went wide at his words and she sighed. “I have no idea what we’re doing.”
No longer able to deny himself, he kissed her shoulder, sliding his tongue along her collarbone. Gooseflesh rose on her skin, and she shivered in his hold. “’Tis the truth, lass. No more or less than that.” He kissed his way up her neck. “I’m sorry I hurt ye. It was never my intention,” he whispered into her ear, relaxing as her arms came to sit on his hips.
“I shouldn’t care. I know what we’re doing has no future, but seeing you today, having that feeling that I’d been used and discarded, hurt. Don’t do it again, Aedan. I won’t be so forgiving a second time.”
He met her gaze, running his hands down her back, pulling her fully against him. “I promise ye I won’t. You have my word, but we need our association to be of a private nature. Trust me, whenever I’m speaking to another, I’m thinking of you.”
Aedan wasn’t sure if she believed him, but her arms pulled him close and he took the opportunity to hold her against him, to feel her warmth and revel in it. “You smell very sweet.” He rubbed his jaw against her hair. “What is that scent?”
Her chuckle against his neck made him ache. “Jasmine. Your sister