KiltedForPleasure (11 page)

Now she knew. An anticipation and a craving strummed through her. She cupped his other cheek. Shadows darkened the skin beneath his eyes. She hadn’t seen them downstairs. Different light, different perspective. She wanted to blame the moonshine for the sudden nerves that put a slight tremble in her fingers, but it was him.

What exactly had I been running from?

Right. She’d been running toward common sense. Callan was the kind of man who could beat someone outside a pub. He was a widow who didn’t talk about his deceased wife until he did and every emotion he bottled inside came spewing out.
My wife.
His distinction was small but telling.

And Victoria? Well, she was a woman who held her breath and waited for a man to hurt her or simply showed a sign he couldn’t be trusted, proving her theory that no one should be trusted again and again. Neither of them needed to explore a relationship, much less a sexual one that could easily become complicated.

But she couldn’t move from the warmth of him. Couldn’t help but stroke his laugh line again. “Did you win?”

“He now knows better,” Callan answered without inflection.

That sounded like winning. Victoria wasn’t sure if she should feel proud, embarrassed or indifferent. “I need to disinfect you or else you won’t be able to finish working on those antiques. I think I saw a first aid kit down in the pub.”

He wrapped his hand around her wrist and held her gaze. The furrowed lines above his brows had softened. Of course there was lust in his eyes but there was also something gentler, quieter. This wasn’t the man who growled at her when they’d first met. This wasn’t the man who tied her to his bedpost a few days ago. He kept changing on her. How could she guard her heart if he kept surprising her and putting cracks in the wall she had around it?

“Lass,” he whispered, “am I supposed to act like nothing has happened between us?”

She wasn’t sure if that would even help. “You can do whatever you want.”

His fingers pressed into her hip. “You act like I took advantage of you and didn’t call. I’ve watched you run every morning, and every morning I’ve greeted you without pressure. You seemed to want some time and I’ve given you that. What more do you need?”

She’d noticed him outside his home in the morning. He stayed on his side of the moor and Victoria had been grateful. She had needed time to mentally compartmentalize what had happened, the risks she had taken to spend a night with him.

In those four days of thinking, avoiding and somewhat missing his wry humor, she still didn’t have a clue what was going on. This wasn’t love, but being with a man had never felt like another part of her was being peeled back and revealed.

“I don’t know,” she answered him.

He only shook his head before letting her go. That didn’t feel like the end of the conversation, but she left anyway. By the time she came back from the pub with the kit, he had set two plates on the table. He’d even put out napkins and waited for her. Not knowing what to say, she moved to his side and took his left hand, which was the worst of the two. He flexed his hand in her fingers but didn’t make a sound as she patched him up.

She couldn’t take another moment of the silence. “How’s the Chippendale table?”

He stilled and then relaxed. “The amateur—” He waved off whatever gripe he planned to make. “I finished all the work and now it’s drying. I should start on our work tomorrow.”

“The amateur?”

“Aye.”

She shook her head because it was such a cocky thing to say. “You’re so modest sometimes.”

“Life’s too short for false modesty, my dear.”

Her hand tightened at the thoughtless endearment. “What are you starting on first?”

Before she knew it, he’d drawn her into a conversation about his work, his methods. His passion for what they did couldn’t be overstated. The man was a perfectionist. The knot in her stomach loosened. He could also separate work from their sex. Though sometimes he had such warmth, a part of him was so guarded that no one could touch it without hurting themselves in the process. But, he wouldn’t screw up this job no matter what did or didn’t happen between them.

When she finished his right hand, he tugged her into his lap. She leaned back and closed her eyes, feeling at ease the first time in days.

She wondered if he felt the same. “Do you feel appeased now that you’re really touching me?”

He brushed his mouth along her neck and then kissed the sensitive crook. “No, but it’ll do for now. You should eat something. I’m taking you home and you’re going to let me.”

She shook her head at his damn good caveman impression. “I don’t get a say?”

“Lie to someone else.” The caress of his mouth turned into a hard suck. His hand dropped from the table to her thigh. Her heart jumped into her throat but he didn’t move. Everything in her wanted him to, which probably proved his point.

She could feel his smile against her skin before he said, “You’ve made peace with whatever was troubling you about me.”

“Act surprised anyway.” She closed her legs trapping his hand. And still he didn’t move. “It’ll make me feel less wishy-washy.”

His voice grew husky. “I will when you invite me in for a nightcap.”

Victoria could feel every hard inch of him against her ass, and the added raspy timbre of his voice didn’t help. If she felt like that now without them being naked…She straightened so she could eat. She was going to need her strength for tonight anyway.

CHAPTER TEN

Victoria leaned against the cottage’s door and faced Callan. Her stomach had a jittery weightlessness like she teetered on an edge. The soft glow from the porch light gleamed on his tousled hair and darkened his furrowed brows. She huddled deeper into her jacket. No one could convince her this was anyone’s summer, but he looked warm even without a coat, unperturbed and patient. How she felt about the last two things, Victoria didn’t want to know. Tonight was supposed to be light and she’d keep it that way.

And since awkward small talk was never her thing she said, “Remember, be surprised when I invite you in.”

He rolled his shoulders and then crossed his arms. His eyes lit with laughter. “Good night, Burke.”

She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. “Do you want to come in for a nightcap?”

His lips twitched though he kept his tone grave. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she said choking back a laugh. She liked how he was playing along.

His jaw dropped and he placed a hand on his chest. “Really?”

Victoria said wryly, “Oscar worthy.”

He leaned into her, placing his hands above her shoulders. “Are you sure, lass?” This time when he asked there was a thread of genuine seriousness.

Yes. No. Believing this entire thing wouldn’t end in disaster involved taking a sledge hammer to her defenses just to make a big enough crack so trust could bleed in. The need to pick up the sledge hammer and the necessity to have one lodged a stone in her stomach.

Victoria shifted, hoping to dispel the discomfort. “Let’s just say tonight my need to have you in my bed outweighs the worry.”

“And tomorrow?”

“Is tomorrow.”

He bundled her into his arms. Little by little his expression darkened, deepening the lines around his mouth. The emotions swirling in his blue eyes somehow lived between the abyss and lust. The inner war forced his jaw to clench. She touched his cheek, confused by the sudden intensity in him.

“Callan, what’s wrong?”

He took her mouth instead of answering. No other way to describe the way his lips possessed hers. He owned her mouth with a hard nip and then a suck. There was no seduction to it. No slow slide into something that made her breath hitch. He was taking what was left after he’d made her silently confess she might have a kink. Doubts, regrets pounded out of her with each unsteady heartbeat.

She held onto his shirt, not caring if she broke some buttons. He possessed her mouth in a way that made her need an anchor. His hand on her throat hadn’t stoked this drowning sensation, but this kiss did. It demanded more than she suspected existed inside her—not in any one person.

She pulled back, reached up to cup his face. “Callan?” she asked again.

He closed his eyes and tensed. A few beats passed and when he opened his eyes, all the intensity had vanished. “Let’s go inside.” His voice held a tenderness he wouldn’t have possessed seconds ago. “You’re shivering from the cold.”

He nudged her forward until she unlocked the door. She wanted to pause for a moment to talk because something was going on with him. He’d gone from flirtatious to dark within seconds and back again, but then he’d slipped his fingers into her shirt, tugging the front down as he went. He brushed his fingers back and forth over her nipples. The unspoken incentive picked up her pace and she forgot the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach.

The door clicked open. He turned her to face him once they’d stepped inside. Callan shoved the door closed with his foot. Seconds ticked by with him leading the way to her room. She blinked. One hallway led to the backyard and the other went to her room. He’d picked the right one.

She broke the kiss right before they could enter her room. “Wait.”

“I guessed five minutes before you stopped me. It took you two.” There was a hint of a tease in his voice though his cock pressed against her stomach.

Her gaze dropped to his pants. Yeah. Nowhere near close to being turned off by her sudden nerves. “Have you been to my cottage before?”

“Before I bought my place. It was The Smith’s place or mine. Obviously I didn’t buy theirs or I would have been free of you.”

“I should hit you.”

“You’d like to cause me pain. A sadist instead of a masochist. Surprising but not beyond the realm of believability.”

She tried to do as she promised and hit him, but he grasped her wrist, held her hand up to his mouth and kissed the tips of her fingers.

The gentle seduction threw her off her path of rambling and asking a million other questions. “You’re good at this.”

“Tell me about your day.”

He nipped her knuckle and her knees turned to jelly. “Really good at this.”

He picked her up and carried her into her room and then on the bed. “Your day,” he said. “How was it?”

The question would have been nice and thoughtful if not for the way he’d begun to tease her nipples through her shirt in a lazy and unfocused manner. He caressed her just enough to make her pant. She crawled to the middle of the bed and he followed, his gaze intent.

“Long and confusing,” she answered as she laid back.

He slid between her legs and knelt. “Dealing with Papa Baird can do that to you.”

He seemed so big, but it had nothing to do with his actual size. Victoria felt so delicate and small next to him. Callan held her gaze and smiled. He didn’t laugh or smile often. It made her wonder, if life hadn’t kicked him in the teeth would he be a lighthearted man? Maybe, but he wasn’t. He was a man who was often a pain in her ass and could make her melt with a touch.

He pulled her shirt over her breasts. She wiggled to help him get it off and pushed aside the maybe thoughts. “I know you’re just trying to distract me.”

“Never said I wasn’t. Now tell me about your most embarrassing moment in college.” He peeled the cups of her bra down and stopped. Raising a brow, he waited.

She made a frustrated noise because he wouldn’t keep going until she answered. “Locked out of my dorm. In a towel. My co-ed dorm.”

He sighed and then closed his mouth around her nipple.

“Callan,” she moaned.

Without stopping his worship of her breasts, he unbuttoned her jeans and slipped his hand into her panties. She trembled from the sensory overload. His five o’clock shadow rasped over her sensitive breasts and the calluses on his hands were the perfect friction between her thighs.

Again he stopped, looming over her with only one arm bracing himself. “Favorite dessert.”

“Vanilla bean cheesecake,” she whipped back the answer because he’d stopped right as his fingers pressed against her clit.

He dipped his middle finger into her as a reward. She gripped his hair and pulled his head up to watch his hand. She couldn’t actually see what his fingers were doing, but there was something so erotic about his wrist being covered by her denims and panties. His arm moved in tandem to her hips rocking. Every time he pressed his roughened fingertip hard against her clit, her legs trembled and pulled up.

“You like to watch, lass,” he whispered. “Kinky.”

His words were too much. She moaned.

So caught up in the sensations hazing her brain, Victoria finally looked at him. He’d been watching her face the whole time. Embarrassment couldn’t get in, not while her world spun. He had applied more pressure, teasing her clit at a faster pace. She let him go and balled her fist into the comforter as he worked her into a frenzy. The way he drunk in her responses left no doubt he got off on witnessing her unravel.

Worse, much worse, she liked him to watch her come. Her moans, her facial expressions were his form of erotic entertainment.
Exhibitionism.
Her moan deepened at the realization of that kink. Victoria tried to pant through this orgasm instead of holding her breath and failed just as it gripped her hard.

She reached for him right as he leaned down to kiss her. There was a tenderness to the way he worked his mouth over hers. Nothing dark or possessive this time in his kiss. This kiss was too soothing for the sharp, raw way she’d come. She moaned into his mouth. He continued to hold her until the last vestiges rode through her.

When the climax had subsided and she’d kind of melted into the bed, he moved his hand from her pussy and placed it across her jittery stomach.

“Please tell me you have a condom.” His voice was hoarse.

She tried to catch her breath, and imagined what he planned to do next. Victoria stopped breathing for a full two seconds with that thought. “What would you do if I said no?”

“Make you come with my mouth,” he said it as though the action was a threat.

She had no quibble with lying to him. “I don’t have not a one.”