Page 41 of The Eagle

However, she wanted one moment for herself. A selfish interlude that would belong to her alone. On impulse, she slid closer, leaned forward, and kissed him. Stuart needed no further prodding. His muscular arms came around her, pulling her close as he deepened the kiss.

His lips traveled from her mouth down to her neck. Cait gasped when he kissed a trail to the top of her breasts, pushing them from below so that they were exposed.

She slid her hand under his tunic enjoying the feel of his warm skin. It was bold; but at the same time, she was possessed by a need she didn’t understand. Cait tugged the fabric upward and Stuart removed it.

He remained still as she ran her fingers across the expanse of his bare chest and then down the center over a thin trail of hair.

Stuart was magnificent.

Once again, he took her mouth and guided Cait to her back and he lay beside her. As they continued to kiss, they became entangled. Her leg over his. His between hers. Their hands discovering all they could of each other.

Moments later, Cait’s top was untied and her breasts free. Stuart covered them with kisses, sucking the tips into his mouth sending her to heights she never knew existed. She was aware there was more to come, and she craved it.

She gasped with delight when Stuart’s hand slid under her skirts and up her leg. The calloused palm sending waves of sensations up her body and back down to between her legs. There it pooled into a delicious molten heat that needed sating.

“Oh,” she whispered into his ear, nibbling at the lobe with quiet desperation. His soft moan telling her he enjoyed what she was doing. Emboldened, she licked down the side of his neck, loving the salty taste of his skin.

“Cait,” he whispered, turning his head, and taking her mouth. When his tongue delved into her mouth, she loved the intrusion.

Her breath caught as he ran his fingers up her inner thigh. It was too much. She could faint from so many sensations at once. And yet, she urged him to take more.

At first, she wasn’t sure what to think as Stuart slid his fingers between the folds of her sex. The touch jolted her and she tensed. When he repeated the movements, she was lost and gave into what would come next.

Every nerve in her body tingled with anticipation and she clung to him wanting to feel more, the need insatiable.

His harsh breaths combined with his touch was so unbearably wonderful that she cried out. Thankfully, his mouth covered hers in time to quiet the sound.

“Stuart,” Cait gasped. “I cannot withstand more. I-I . . .”

It was as if she fell to pieces, broke apart into fragments of herself that would never return to their proper places.

In that moment, she was forever changed.

Chapter Eleven

Cait leaned back against him as they rode to the keep. Every few minutes, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“Will ye wait for me to come back for ye?” he asked for the third or fourth time. He purposely kept his mount to a slow pace, not wanting to stop being with her. “I leave in the morning.”

She turned and looked up at him. “So soon?”

Just looking into her eyes made him want to change his plans and say to the devil with his quest for finding a place in the world. It was with her that he wished to be.

“I will not hold ye to anything because of what happened between us. We were not fully…intimate.”

Once again, he kissed her, this time on her temple. “Aye not fully, but as much as I dare without yer brother killing me.”

When she chuckled, it was light and airy.

“It is the first time I’ve heard ye laugh,” he told her. “I want to spend a lifetime hearing that sound.”

She tugged at the reins making the horse stop. “I would have never taken ye for someone so romantic.” Her lips curved and there was warmth in her gaze when her eyes met his. “Everyone is urging me to go with ye and I will consider it while ye are gone. But once ye are settled, if I come to ye, it will be to accept the position of housekeeper.”

He was silent, so she continued, “What happened between us this day, we must forget about it. Once I come to work for ye, I will need ye to allow me to do my duties and that is all.”

“Ye will not work as a servant. I will speak to yer brother, and I will inform my family that ye are now to be considered part of the family.”

By the rounding of her eyes, this was not what she expected. It was further confirmed when she slid from the horse and began pacing.