Page 37 of Stilettos & Secrets on the 7 Seas

Fine.

I focused on the other issue clogging up the gossip blogs. “What about the whole Mahlia Mafuso thing? She still claims you’re her baby’s daddy.”

He looked up at me. Eyes wide. And were those worry lines forked between his brows?

“Ye know ’tis naugh.” And with the speed of Shazam, Caiyan pinned me against the door. He tucked a stray hair behind my ear and ran his finger down my cheek. “I’d never lie to ye aboot such a thing.”

“I know.” The words escaped on a whisper.

His mouth pressed against mine. Our lips parted. The slight hint of sweet from the scotch tangled in my mouth. His tongue stroked mine, teasing, touching, torturing until pleasure overwhelmed me, and the questions drifted away. He was kissing me stupid. He was good at that—kissing me until I didn’t have a sane thought in my head.

I willed my knees to hold steady. Don’t buckle. Don’t buckle. He worked the strap on my sundress, replacing it with his lips, sliding it down my shoulder until his fingers skimmed beneath the cotton fabric and expertly found one of my traitorous perky nipples. He cupped my breast in his hand, and someone moaned. I think it was me.

I fumbled with his belt and murmured my approval when I found my way inside his pants. Caiyan caressed the swell of my breasts, moving his mouth to an area of intense pleasure. He whispered naughty words in Gaelic as I stroked his admirable length.

Scottish accent plus dirty talk equals me begging for more. I shoved his pants over his hips, gasping as he sucked my earlobe. I was buttery toast the moment his fingers dipped into my panties. “Stop.”

“What d’ye mean, stop?”

“I mean—” He kissed me again. “No. I meant…wait.”

He answered my protest with more kisses that trailed to my throat. His tongue played lightly across my collarbone.

“Do ye want me to stop?” He breathed softly into my ear, pressed kisses down my jawline.

Hell, no.

Hell, no.

Hell, no.

My heart beat the rhythm of my wordless answer. The previous problems pushed to the back of my mind but not forgotten. “Uhm, we can talk after, right?”

In one swoop he had my sundress pooled on the floor and me on the bed. He tugged his shirt over his head, finished the pants I’d started. Fully naked and glorious, I admired the man as he moved beside me. Would I enjoy being Mrs. Caiyan McGregor? Or maybe I could hyphenate. Jennifer Cloud-McGregor. Or maybe Jennifer McGregor-Cloud. I wasn’t sure how the entire hyphenated thing worked.

“Jen.” His voice grew smooth, sensual. His breath ticked that sensitive skin just behind my ear. “Where are ye, lass?”

Damn. I’d zoned out in the middle of foreplay. My favorite part. “I’m right here.” I ran a finger over his heart, and a surge of sorrow ripped through me. It felt like the most intense grief I’d ever felt. It stopped as quickly as it started.

“I’d die if something happened to you.” His words weren’t more than a whisper.

The same words I’d told Marco on the beach the night I left him.

“Caiyan?” I stopped his hands from roaming over my body. He held my shoulders. My hands wrapped around his wrists. His muscles tensed, and his fingers tightened against my skin.

He stared down at me. His green eyes smoked over with lust and something else. Fear. Remorse. He feared letting me in. He was sorry he’d dropped his block, let his emotions slip, opened himself, and let me inside. He touched his forehead to mine. “I’m sorry. I should be more careful, but the things ye do to me. The closer we get, the more I cannae control it.”

“Why can’t you let me know you? All of you.”

He placed a finger to my lips. “Later. I promise.”

He moved lower, doing that thing with his tongue that I loved. A twinge between my thighs. A low want that starts in my belly like a bubble of highly compressed air that expands until reaching equilibrium and then explodes.

My explosion came, followed by a lot of goose-tingling skin. I wanted to be in the driver’s seat, but he resigned me a satisfied passenger. He moved inside me, calling my name over and over and over again like he was lost in a dream, and I was the only one who could pull him to safety. I clenched around him, holding him so tight as the pleasure built inside me, thrust by thrust, breath by breath.

“Together,” he cooed in my ear. Caiyan had a way of knowing when I was close and he held on, waited until driving with just enough force to give me exactly what I needed.

“Together.” My vision turned brilliant white. My hands gripped his back. My body arched against him. I screamed his name, my pelvis rocked, and I trembled like a thousand seismic waves rippled through me. We moved together until he released inside me, and I lay spent, satisfied, and totally in love with my man of mystery.

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