Page 87 of Hold Fast

He dragged his weary body up the stairs and down the hall. When he opened the chamber door, he saw Una arranging food on a small table by his chair near the hearth. She looked up when he entered and smiled. How long had it been since he had seen her smile?

She gestured to the chair before the hearth, and he went to it. He dropped into the seat and bent down to unlace his boots.

“You look tired, Ewan,” she said, her voice honeyed.

She stood behind him, her hands on his shoulders. He grunted as she began to work the knots with her fingers, pressing against his resistant muscles, digging into the burls of tension with her thumbs.

“Eat, Ewan. You need your strength,” Una murmured, a hint of a suggestion in her voice. Ewan felt his blood heat in response.

There was a platter of cold meats and cheese, sliced apples, fresh bread with thickly slathered butter, a mug of ale. He ate it quickly, famished, as Una’s hands worked their way from his shoulders and to his neck. She massaged his neck, raking her knuckles down the tight cords of muscle and then shifted her hands to his scalp, her fingers raking through his hair and pressing gently at his temples, making slow circles.

If he’d been a cat, he’d have been purring loudly by the time he finished his simple supper and she shifted her hands down to his chest, slipping beneath the dirty fabric of his leine shirt.

He closed his eyes, his head listing to one side. She pulled at his leine until the hem came free from his plaid and lifted it until Ewan was forced to raise his arms so she could sweep it over his head. She dropped it to the ground and circled him, coming to stand between his spread knees.

Una bent and pressed her lips to his, bracing her hands on the arms of the chair. He leaned forward, meeting her kiss with enthusiasm. Between the advanced stage of her pregnancy and how furious he had made her of late, she had not come to him like this in a long time. He groaned and thrust his tongue into her mouth, drawing her closer. She straightened and he pressed his forehead, his lips, against the large swell of her belly as she sifted her fingers through his hair.

“I’ve missed you, Una,” he whispered, burning for her.

“Aye,” she answered. “I’ve missed you as well.”

Una lowered herself to her knees, rubbing her palms up and down his thighs beneath his plaid. He held his breath as she reached beneath it and took his cock in her hands. After a few strokes, she released him, unbuckling his belt with quick, impatient hands. She yanked the fabric of the plaid apart, revealing his naked body, his stiff arousal. Before he could say a word, she had the swollen head in her mouth. Una lifted her lashes, meeting his eye, and he groaned. She sucked, her tongue rubbing along the slit at the tip.

“Una,” he breathed, “Are you certain?”

This was the first time she had ever taken him into her mouth. Once, she had confided in him that Malcolm Cameron had demanded such attentions whenever she was in her courses and that, out of necessity, she had learned how to finish the deed quickly. She had never offered to pleasure Ewan this way, and he, always wanting to be sensitive of her past, had never asked.

She nodded and slid her mouth down his length. When the tip of his erection came to the back of her throat, he heard her gag. She froze, and his gut clenched. He placed his hands on her shoulders and drew her gently off. “Una, you dinnae have to—”

“Nay,” she said vehemently. “I want to.”

“But you—”

“You are nae him,” she said, her eyes focused on his face.

“I am nae him,” Ewan repeated carefully, cursing the fact that he couldn’t seem to escape Cameron. The threat of him loomed outside the walls, the ghost of his cruelty haunting within.

“But could you… speak to me?” Una whispered. “To remind me?”

As if he could refuse her anything she asked. As she took him into her mouth again, he told her how good she was, how beautiful, how brave, how strong. His voice was a rasp. She moaned loudly around him, and it was the vibration of that sound, coupled with the image of her bright eyes gazing up at him, her mouth stretched around him, that made him buck his hips and groan like an animal.

“Sorry,” he hissed. “Sorry. I promise nae to use your mouth like that.”

But she lunged deeper against him, and Ewan gripped the arms of the chair.

“Una,” he growled low in his throat.

She slid her mouth up and down his length, one hand squeezing the base of his cock while the other gently fondled his bollocks. He felt his breathing grow ragged, his body tight as a bowstring from head to toe.

“Una, I dinnae want to spend like this,” he said through gritted teeth. “I want to come with you.”

But she ignored him, bringing the head of his cock into her throat and swallowing. He shouted. The pain of holding back his seed was all-consuming, but he forced it back, gently pressing her back far enough for his arousal to leave her mouth with a pop. She whined, but before she could come back to him, he’d bent and scooped her into his arms, standing quickly and striding to the bed.

He placed her on the mattress and helped her to remove her shift before he gruffly said, “Turn over.”

With a gasp, she did, shifting onto her hands and knees. The urge to thrust into her was intense as he climbed into the bed behind her, but he would never do such a thing without her leave, not without discussing it beforehand.

He ran a trembling hand up the long length of her spine, gathering her shift and guiding it over her hips as he asked, “Are you ready?”