Page 85 of Hold Fast

“Tell me why,” she said, her eyes open now and gazing into his.

“’Tisnae safe,” he replied.

“Aye, butwhyisnae it safe?” Una insisted. “All of a sudden? It has never been unsafe before.”

Ewan sighed again and rubbed his palm down his face.

“I need you to trust me, Una. Please? I cannae manage everything else if I’m sick with worry over your safety all the time. Have mercy, lass. I hardly sleep as it is.”

He wasn’t exaggerating. He hadn’t been sleeping much at all. He came to bed far later than she and was always out of bed before her, as well. Always busy. Always taking care of something or conferring with David. He was wound too tightly, the cordage of his body near to snapping from the stress. She knew there was something going on that he wasn’t telling her, some unnamed danger that kept him up at night. That annoyed her. But she worried for him, too.

Una couldn’t make him talk and she couldn’t take away his burdens, but she thought she might be able to ease him, if only for a short while, and Lord knew he needed it. She yanked on his collar, pulling him off balance and sending him toppling to the ground. He gathered her to his chest and rolled so that he didn’t land on top of her. Her laugh was bright and loud, so loud that Greer rolled to her other side with an annoyed groan.

Ewan tried to rise, but she held fast to his shirt. “You will break if you get any more tense. We need to relax you, m’laird,” she said, her voice husky and soft.

“Una,” he groaned and tried to rise again.

“Dinnae go,” she said, and she could see him at war with himself, between going and staying. She rubbed her calf against his and stroked a palm down his chest. She kissed his neck, licking the salt that clung to his skin. He grew hard against her hip.

“Una,” he rasped against her ear as she glided her hands from his collar up his neck and into his hair, pulling his face toward hers.

He kissed her then, his lips warm and soft against hers. She savored the taste of him as her tongue met his. She nipped at his lower lip with her teeth, and he broke away to trail soft, slow kisses across her cheek and down her neck as his hand reached under the hem of her gown and travelled up her leg, bringing the heavy fabric with it as it went.

Una sighed happily as his fingers reached the apex of her legs and delved into the softness between. She mewled as he gently pressed a finger into her sheath, worrying her pearl in slow circles with his thumb. She arched her back when he added a second finger, relishing the stretch.

She was so much more sensitive lately. Or perhaps Ewan had just become a master proficient at playing her body like a well-loved instrument, one that was almost an extension of his own body. He kissed down her chest, crawling down, down, down her body until his tongue slid along her slick seam. She gasped, threading her hands tightly into his hair.

With his fingers in her sheath, gently stroking, he ran the tip of his tongue over her pearl, making quick, soft flicks against it. Una’s mewling grew more pitched, mingling with her heavy panting as she writhed beneath him. She wanted to touch him, but she couldn’t reach more than his head. She felt herself climbing the peak, growing desperate for relief as he continued to play her body. She felt herself squeezing tightly around his fingers. She knew he knew what she needed, but he was refusing her, refusing to let her have it. At least not yet.

Just as she felt herself nearing the precipice, Ewan ran the flat of his tongue down her slit to where his hand rested, fingers buried deep. She moaned in frustration, and he chuckled in response, the vibrations against her sex driving her wild.

“Ewan,” she panted. “Dinnae make me beg.”

He was teasing her, tightening the strings of her arousal until they threatened to snap. And then they did. She cried out with a sudden wail as he sucked her pearl into his mouth and she came undone, her legs shaking as she sobbed his name into her fist. He wiped his mouth against her inner thigh and smiled, crawling up the length of her body. Ewan captured her mouth with a deep kiss and Una tumbled headlong into it, relishing the feel of his weight above her, around her, the way she tasted on his mouth.

“Well, I feel better, but what about you?” Una asked with a smile as she levered herself up, pressing him into the grass and climbing on top of him. She gathered her skirts out of the way as she straddled his body, until nothing remained between them but the rough weave of his plaid. As she adjusted her body to move the fabric, she felt a sharp punch from within. She gasped, her hands flying to her belly. Ewan sat up with a start, looking quickly around her before his hands ran down her sides, assessing.

“Una,” he barked at her, concern heavy on his face, clearly believing her to have been harmed. “Are you hurt?”

“She kicked me!” Una exclaimed with a laugh.

Ewan stared at her with that same, intense frown he’d been wearing when he arrived. She smoothed her hand over his brow and down his cheek, trying to soothe him. She’d known it was coming. She knew that she’d feel the baby in earnest any day, not just the butterfly fluttering she’d felt for weeks prior. But it had still taken her utterly by surprise. She was delighted. Ewan clenched his teeth.

“Ewan,” she said, turning his face towards hers, “Did you nae hear me? She’s moving! That’s the first time I’ve felt her do that.”

“Aye,” he choked, looking miserable.

“’Tis a good thing, Ewan,” Una said quietly, feeling a threatening rush of tears gathering behind her eyes.

He must had heard the tremble in her voice because his gaze softened and he kissed her, trailing his lips over her cheeks, her forehead, her chin, before settling again on her own lips.

“I am happy, Una,” he whispered. “It only took me by surprise. You promise you are well?”

“I am well. I dinnae ken that I have ever been so well in all my life. But there is something that could make me even better…” she said, arching an eyebrow as she circled her hips against his groin.

He groaned. “Are you certain it is well? You are certain it is safe?”

She nodded and he kissed her again, his mouth hungry against hers as she pressed herself tightly against his chest, feeling the hard ridge of his cock beneath the plaid again, rubbing herself against it. He gasped into her mouth. She shifted away to move the plaid and had nearly succeeded when a voice shouted from across the grassy space.