“Magairlean,” Cain growled over Joshua’s asinine words. He turned and lifted Ella against him, his arm under her legs again. Thank the devil or the good Lord or whoever had turned her heart tonight, because she once again let him carry her.

She tucked her face into his neck as his boots hit the stone steps in a near run. He pushed through the door to his new room. Cleaned and decluttered of his father’s heavy furnishings, it no longer held the tang of old man.

Damn, he should have thought to make the fire before he left, but he’d had no idea that his luck would turn tonight. Stepping up to it, he let her lower, his arms around her. She looked up, and he did not give her time to reconsider. His lips came down on hers. Hers met his, hot and demanding. When her cool hands stroked under his tunic to his shoulders, he nearly yelled with gratefulness that the flames from below hadn’t abated.

Cain grabbed the edge of his tunic and yanked it over his head, leaving him in his kilt and boots. Ella’s gaze raked over him, teasing him as if it were her lips delivering tantalizing kisses on his skin. “Och, lass, ye disarm me with a look.”

“If that were true, I would not be here right now,” she whispered. She was teasing, and he sent out another prayer of thanks.

He caught her face in his hands, his fingers threading through her soft hair. “Tonight, I am at your command,” he said and wondered if she’d ask for her freedom. He was an arse. If she did and he said no, which he must, she would pull away. Before he gave her a chance to think, he swept her up again in his arms, pressing her against him so she could feel how much he hungered for her.

His fingers caught the end of her laces and he pulled, letting her stays loosen to slide down. Perfectly sized, round breasts pressed through the white linen of her smock, perched on the top edge of her stays. Releasing the bow at the lace edge, the smock loosened, too. He kissed her as he worked his hand across her, the heat of her skin filling his palm.

Ella moaned as he lifted the fullness of one breast, her voice loud in the silent room. The sound struck a chord of desire in him so strong that he had to stop himself from throwing up her skirts and plunging into her lushness. But he wanted to tease out her pleasure, build it until she completely shattered in his arms where he could hold her as she experienced such joy. It was the most important goal in his world at the moment.