Page 15 of Falling for Her Highland Steward
He shrugged. “It is what you pay me for,” he replied. He stood up to leave, but Erin had poured him a glass of wine.
“The best news of all is that I will be able to replenish the wine cellar!” She laughed. “Sláinte Mhath!”
“Sláinte Mhath!” Caillen replied, before taking a sip of the rich red wine. He closed his eyes in appreciation for a moment, but when he opened them, he found that he was looking straight into Erin’s.
7
There was a single moment when neither of them knew what to do, but an arc of attraction sizzled through the air between them, then suddenly Caillen had closed the gap between them and pulled Erin roughly into his arms.
Erin breathed out a soft, trembling sigh and a small moan of need, then, almost against her will, her lips parted in an unspoken invitation.
The feel of her pliant body against his and the soft whimper she made were driving Caillen mad. His manhood stiffened in response, and it was all he could do to control himself.
Erin felt as though she might collapse at Caillen’s feet. The look of hunger in his dark eyes sent a thrill of desire straight to her core, and she felt a wetness gathering in her private place. When he dropped his gaze to her lips then began to inch his head toward hers, she plunged her hands into his thick hair to pull him into a kiss. God, this was glorious!
Neither knew what would have happened next if Erin had not heard footsteps in the hallway and pulled out of Caillen’s arms a few seconds before Michael strode in. Erin had just managed to sit down at her desk, but she looked flustered, unkempt, and with the guilty flush of a lady who had just been thoroughly kissed, even though nothing had happened.
“The rain has stopped,” Michael observed. He smiled at Erin. “Do you feel like having a walk in the fresh air?”
Erin pinned a smile on her face and almost jumped out of her chair. “I would welcome that very much,” she replied. “My head is reeling from looking at all these columns of numbers!” She closed the ledgers, but just as she was putting on her cloak, the door opened to reveal a grinning Stephen standing on the other side. He was carrying a wooden sword one of the carpenters had made for him and a helmet that had been fashioned from a tin bowl from the kitchen. Behind him stood Betty, looking flustered and irritated.
“Yay!” Stephen cried, throwing his arms in the air. He rushed over to Caillen and wrapped his arms around one of his thighs, hugging him and laughing. “Come and fight with me! Bring your claymore!”
“I do not think so.” Caillen disengaged the little boy’s arms from his thigh and knelt down in front of him. “My sword is very big and very sharp, and it could hurt you. Then Mama will be very angry with me, and she will send me away. Do you have another sword like this?”
“No,” Stephen said sadly.
“Hmmm…” Caillen mused. “What if we found something else? Let’s go and look.”
“Can I ride on you again?” Stephen asked mischievously.
“If I let you ride on my shoulders, will you be a good boy and do everything I say?” Caillen asked, looking at him suspiciously with narrowed eyes.
Stephen nodded vigorously. “I will,” he promised. “But if I am a good boy, can I have an orange?” He used his bright green eyes to good effect, widening them so that they looked like a little puppy begging for a treat.
Caillen looked at Erin, raising his eyebrows in a question. He could see that she still looked a little flushed.
“Only if Uncle Cal tells me you have been well behaved,” Erin answered, trying not to laugh as she looked at her son.
If Caillen was surprised at being received into the family as an honorary uncle, he gave no sign of it. “Uncle” was a term of respect from a child to an adult, nothing more, he reminded himself.
“I will be very good,” Stephen promised solemnly. He climbed onto Caillen’s shoulders once more, then looked down at Michael and Erin with a triumphant smile. Then he patted Caillen’s shoulders to urge him on, and they left. Michael and Erin heard Stephen giggling all the way down the corridor.
They went outside to the courtyard, then stood and watched as Stephen drew his sword and held it up in front of him in an imitation of Caillen. They bowed to each other as if starting a duel, then Caillen, who was fighting with a long stick, began to teach the little boy how to hold his sword, then to lunge and thrust at his enemy. It was comical to watch Stephen and the big man fighting as though they were equals.
“Stephen has taken quite a liking to him,” Erin observed, smiling.
“Stephen is a very clever little boy,” Michael remarked. “He inherited his father’s intelligence and his goodness.”
“Yes,” Erin agreed, then she laughed as she watched Stephen stab Caillen in the stomach.
Caillen staggered backward for a few steps, then fell on his back, moaning pitifully. Stephen stood over him with his fists in the air, cheering at his own prowess before Caillen grabbed him and pulled him down onto his chest, then a fierce wrestling match began. To no one’s surprise, Stephen won again.
“Thank you for bringing Cal,” Erin said as they emerged into the courtyard. “He has done wonders to the estate already, and he is Stephen’s best friend!”
“Calling him ‘Cal’ already?” Michael laughed. “I thought you would like him, and he is very good at what he does. I could manage some of the work, but he has all the necessary skills, and as a woman, I am sure you have noticed that he is quite an attractive man. In fact, Shona McKay, Laird McKay’s daughter, practically swoons every time she sees him!”
A dart of jealousy shot through Erin, who had begun to feel unreasonably possessive about Caillen, although she knew it was foolish. The fact that she was not the only one to have noticed his good looks did not surprise her. A woman would have to be blind not to!
