Page 91 of The Scot’s Secret

And she did, quickly.

“Clara. . .”

Her name on his lips was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard. She moved with him until the pressure became too much to bear.

“I need. . .”

He circled his hips beneath her, somehow understanding, and once again Clara lost herself to the pleasures that he awoke in her. He called her name again, thrusting into her as she shook and squeezed and shuddered.

She wanted to tease, ‘Not too loud,’ as he’d done before, but she couldn’t talk. She couldn’t breathe. She allowed her whole body to go limp atop him. It was as if she were frozen in place.

This time when he broke contact, he rolled them both onto their sides.

“You spin me around like I’m a kitten,” she said.

“A kitten?” He laughed. “Nay, a full-grown cat, ready to pounce. No wee kitten here,” he said, kissing her nose.

The intimate gesture made her smile.

“Nice?” he asked.

“Perhaps I could have used another word,” she admitted. “How many times can—”

“As many as you’d like.”

“Really?”

“Aye.” His voice had suddenly grown serious. “But every time we make love, the chance you’re carrying my babe grows.”

She would have been excited by the prospect, even unmarried, if she could offer a babe any kind of normal life.

But she could not.

“You’ve done that before?’

He didn’t flinch, but instead pulled her closer to him. Wrapped in his arms, Clara could imagine all would be well. That she wouldn’t ever have to say goodbye to him. She’d never felt so safe, or sated, in her life.

“Aye.”

“And you have no babes?”

He sighed. “I do not. There’s a way to avoid it.”

She waited.

“I could have, should have, pulled myself from you at the end to prevent it.”

“Pulled yourself?” Though she knew how a woman became pregnant, she’d never thought about how to avoid it.

“Aye.”

He watched her as she thought about what he was saying. “Why did you not do so?”

“That’s not so easily answered, lass.”

Actually, she thought it might be, but didn’t dare say so aloud.

“Have you ever been with a vir. . .” She stopped. She really didn’t want to know.