Chapter 27
He moved across the floor to place his hands on the tops of her shoulders, giving them a light squeeze. His eyes were troubled, but his frown was still in place. ‘But what about your work? I’m concerned you haven’t got an office away from here yet.’
Lea pulled out of his hold and folded her arms across her body, her glow hotter than the hotplate the kettle had just come off. ‘Oh, so that’s what this is about? You’re worried I’m going to get too comfortable working from here once the time is up on our marriage? Well, here’s some news for you. I’ve already been looking online at potential rentals in Edinburgh. There’s one in the old town that looks promising. It’s a bit expensive, but I want the position to attract a good clientele. It’s got a tiny bed upstairs, so I can stay there if I don’t feel up to driving back here. And I can live there once our marriage ends.’
His frown deepened. ‘You’re surely not thinking of commuting between here and Edinburgh over the winter? The roads are treacherous with black ice and snow, and—’
‘Make up your mind, Dave,’ Lea mock-laughed. ‘You either want me to prioritise my work over you or you don’t.’
He came back to her and placed his hands on her hips, pulling her back against him. ‘That’s the whole damn problem.’ His tone was a low, rumbling growl, his expression still set in brooding lines. ‘I don’t want to share you with your work or with anyone, and it scares the hell out of me.’ And then his mouth came down heavily, explosively on hers.
It was a kiss of lust, anger, frustration, and scorching need racing out of control. But she relished every heart-stopping second of it. His mouth was a fire on hers, his tongue a flame, teasing her into a combative dance with bone-melting expertise.
Lea thought her legs were folding beneath her, but he had picked her up and sat her on the kitchen bench in front of him. Her legs parted, and he stepped between her open thighs, his mouth still locked on hers. The closeness of his erection, the molten heat building in her body, and the escalating need communicated by their mouths were a potent combination.
Dave untied the waistband of the bathrobe and stripped it off her shoulders, leaving her naked and exposed to his smouldering gaze. His eyes travelled over her breasts, his hands cradling them before placing his mouth on each in turn, subjecting them to a spine-tingling array of licks, strokes, and circles of his tongue. Darts of pleasure shot through her, and she shuffled as close to him as she possibly could.
Dave rummaged in the pocket of her discarded bathrobe for the condom, swiftly tugging down his trousers and applying it. He surged into her with a primal groan of satisfaction, thrusting deeply and rhythmically, making her senses spin out of control. The delicious pressure built and built to bursting point, and then, with the added caress of his fingers against her most sensitive female flesh, she was tossed into the maelstrom of a powerful orgasm. She cried, she gasped, she shook, she shuddered and quaked, and still it went on in ripples and waves that were only intensified by his release, which coincided with hers.
Dave framed her face in his hands, his breathing still laboured. ‘I’ve always wanted to do that.’
Lea brushed his hair back from his forehead, gazing into his intensely blue eyes. ‘Do what? Kitchen bench sex?’
His mouth tilted in a crooked smile. ‘Yeah.’ He brushed her lips with his and added, ‘I was a kitchen bench sex virgin. You’re so damn hot I can barely keep control of myself no matter what room we’re in.’
His words thrilled her as much as his red-hot passion had moments earlier. She pressed her lips against his once, twice, and three times, pulling back to meet his gaze. ‘What you said before… About it scaring you, how much do you want to spend time with me? I feel like that too.’ Her voice was as soft as a whisper, and for a moment she wondered if he’d even heard.
Flickers of deliberation passed through his gaze—thoughts and considerations, worries and balances being carefully weighed. ‘We don’t have to think too far ahead, sweetheart.’ His tone was as rusty as the lychgate hinge in the garden. ‘We can just enjoy what we have for now.’
For now.
Lea wanted more than ‘for now’, but how could she be sure she would get it?
Later that evening, Dave put some more wood on the fire and then came back to sit with Lea on the sofa. She was dressed in a baby-blue cashmere sweater and black yoga pants that clung to her shapely legs like a velvet evening glove. Her hair was in a loosely tied knot at the back of her head, highlighting her finely boned features and elegant neck. He had always considered her beautiful, but lately he couldn’t look at her without his breathing catching and a warm flow of heat spreading in his chest.
Lea looked up from the magazine she was idly flicking through. ‘It will soon be time to put up the Christmas tree. Will you get a real one from the forest like before or a fake one?’
‘It wouldn’t be Christmas without the smell of pine needles,’ Dave said, playing with a loose curl dangling below her ear. But, then, it wouldn’t be Christmas without her bustling about the castle, helping her great-aunt get ready for the festive season. It wouldn’t be Christmas without the delicious cooking smells coming from the kitchen. So many of his memories had snapshots of Lea in them. She had become an essential part of Brathellae, and he couldn’t imagine the place without her. And—even more disturbing to his carefully guarded emotions—he couldn’t imagine his life without her.
‘True.’ Lea closed the magazine and leaned forward to put it on the coffee table in front of the sofa. She sat back next to him, her gaze meeting his. ‘But will you invite anyone? Will Mary and these kids come home for it, do you think?’
‘I have no idea what her plans are, I bet Tyler had something in mind,’ Dave said with an all-too-familiar knot of tension in his stomach whenever her sister was mentioned. ‘You know what she’s like—she’ll just show up unannounced and ask silly questions—’ He leaned his head back against the back of the sofa and released a frustrated sigh. He left the sentence hanging with all the unspoken things he wished he had done.
‘You did what you thought was right at the time, we saved the castle, that is all that matters,’ Lea said. ‘We all have a PhD in hindsight.” Dave took her hand and brought it up to rest on his thigh. ‘I can’t help comparing you to her. Like Mary, like us, you weren’t born to privilege. You’ve had such a rough time of it, and yet you’re a kind and compassionate person who is always giving your time and attention to others. I feel ashamed that Mary hasn’t made the most of the opportunities she’s been given. You love this castle like it was your own."
He sighed again and added, in a weighted tone, ‘I feel like I’ve failed my grandparents. I've let them both down. And the guilt that comes with that churns my guts.’
“No, don't be; the castle was saved by your idea of marrying me.”
“I bet it was Mary’s idea."
“Really?”