Page 88 of Hold Fast

She nodded and he entered her with shallow thrusts of his hips. Una dropped her face to the mattress, her weight on her forearms, and moaned. He fucked her slowly, reaching around and wedging his hand between her thigh and the swell of her belly to fondle the bundle of nerves at the crest of her sex, which had her keening and clenching around him in a matter of moments.

It didn’t take long. The effort to resist spending in her mouth had drained him, and so, as soon as he felt the flutter and squeeze of her sex around him, signaling her release, he bucked and let go, his own release pulsing so violently that he collapsed to the bed beside her when it was done, utterly spent.

He did force himself to rouse after a few moments, cleaning them both with a wet cloth, before he returned to the bed and tucked her against him, her belly round and big propped against him and her head on his shoulder. She fell asleep almost instantly, and for the first time in as long as he could remember, Ewan felt as if he might sleep as well. She was safe in his arms, he’d received no report of any looming threat that day, and he was just so relaxed, his body so heavy and sated. She was safe, and he would continue to keep her safe.

CHAPTER37

For the past few months, Una had awoken in an empty bed with a fire blazing in the hearth. Ewan stoked and built it up before he left so that she would be warm in his absence. But the next morning, Una woke with Ewan wrapped around her like a vine. The fire in the hearth had all but died. The faint light through the window coverings told that it was nearly dawn. She smiled as she realized that he had gone to sleep with her and had not woken up at some ungodly hour to see to whatever business had made him look ten years older than he actually was. He had stayed with her.

She had also slept better than she had in quite some time. Ordinarily, she woke several times a night to use the privy or to cushion her belly differently as the baby kicked and rolled. But propped against his side, she’d slept deeply until morning. She wanted nothing more than to huddle down deeper in the blankets and closer to his body, but she desperately needed to use the privy.

Una crept out from beneath the covers, crossing her arms tightly over her chest, her skin erupting with goosebumps from the cold and she shivered. She had her shift on the floor, but Ewan’s plaid, discarded on the chair, with its yards and yards of fabric would be so much warmer wrapped around her and it would cover enough to keep her decent as she went to the privy down the hall.

The room was dark and Una couldn’t see where she was stepping as she hurried across the room to the chair, her bladder full and aching. Her discarded shift had tangled around her ankles and she was halfway to the ground before she registered that she was falling. Time slowed down as she careened toward the floor. A soft cry flew from her mouth as she landed in a heap on her side, the fabric still wrapped around her legs, the stone floor icy cold against her bare skin. With a shout of alarm, Ewan flew from the bed and landed naked in a half crouch behind her, no doubt woken from a dead sleep expecting an attack.

“Ewan,” she whined pitifully from the floor, not because she was in pain, but because her bladder was near to bursting now and she had no idea how she would be able to stand on her own without it releasing. “Privy,” she said, panting.

“Una, are you hurt?” Ewan shouted, dropping to his knees beside her and running his hands all over her to assess what it was too dark for his eyes to see.

“Privy!” Una wailed.

Ewan scooped her into his arms and strode quickly down the hall, the two of them naked as the day they were born. He sat her gently on the stone privy seat and, at her urging, left. He returned a few moments later with his plaid bunched in his arms, still without a stitch of clothing on himself.

“You’re naked.”

Ewan looked down, as if this was the first he’d noticed it. His gaze was intense, all of the relaxed peace from the night before gone. After completing her business, Una stood slowly, wincing when her hip pinched, as it sometimes did when she stood up. Ewan wrapped the plaid around her and, before she could protest, swept her up into his arms again and stalked back down the hall to their chamber.

He deposited her on the chair and rebuilt the fire, the muscles of his back bunched with tension. Una sighed, seeing all of her hard work from the night before destroyed. Fighting him hadn’t worked, and so she’d meant to try diplomacy instead. She’d meant to ease and relax him enough that he might confide in her and help her understand what had made him so fearful and preoccupied.

When the fire burned brightly in the hearth, Ewan stood and turned to face her.

“What happened, Una?”

“It was dark. I had desperate need of the privy and I was hurrying to reach it. I tripped over my shift on the floor and fell.”

“You’re injured.”

“I am fine, Ewan. I’ll have a bruise or two, but I’m fine.”

“But you could have been injured. Or the bairn—”

“Is fine,” she cut him off. “We’re both fine.”

He began to pace, stalking back and forth across the room, dragging his hands through his hair and muttering to himself. Una started to stand.

“Nay,” he bit out with a sharp gesture. “Stay.”

“I’m thirsty,” she said, pointing to the pitcher and cup on the bedside table.

“I’ll get it,” he growled and pointed his finger. “You stay put.”

Una settled back into the chair, watching as he poured water, half worried he’d break the cup in his hands if he gripped it any harder. He stomped back to her, handing her the water with care before he resumed his pacing. She drank, stretching her toes out toward the fire and relishing the warm tingles that crept beneath the plaid as the chill slowly left the room.

After a while, Ewan stopped pacing. “I’ve decided something,” he said, grabbing his discarded leine from the pile on the floor and dragging it over his head.

“Why do I have a feeling that I willnae like whatever you’ve decided?”

“You willnae leave this room until after the babe is born.”