Then what is Alec doing here so late at night when he could quite easily have told her of the attack on the ewes and lambs tomorrow?
“Might I put forward the insight of someone who is new to the situation?” Andrew suggested softly.
Cat gave an abrupt nod, her throat now too dry for her to be able to answer him.
Andrew gave her an encouraging smile. “Since my arrival, I have several times heard you, as the aunt and guardian of the young laird, referred to as my lady.”
She gave a shake of her head. “It is a courtesy title only until Malcolm is old enough to take a wife.”
“Nevertheless, it is a fact Malcolm is aged only four, and therefore that courtesy title and your guardianship of Malcolm and the land will remain in place for many years to come. Land which, I also learned this evening, borders Munro’s, and which he obviously takes a close interest in if he discovered the injured ewes and dead lambs on your side of the border between your two estates.”
Cat was aghast at the picture Andrew was painting. One which she freely admitted had not even occurred to her until this moment.
Because she had so suddenly been thrust into the position of lady of the McGregor clan and guardian to Malcolm, she admittedly had, these past two months, accepted Alec’s assistance in the overseeing of the McGregor land and livestock.
A role he had been happy to supply because of his own intention of marrying her and for all intents and purposes unite the Munro and McGregor land?
“Have you taken a lover since your husband died?” Andrew prompted harshly.
She frowned at the sudden change of subject. “I do not see what business that is of yours.”
He smiled. “Now you are lying to yourself.”
Was she? Andrew had made his desire for her completely clear earlier.
“I have every intention of us being honest with each other, little Cat,” Andrew murmured. “For example, I feel no hesitation in telling you of my own celibacy for the past ten years.”
“Ten years?” Cat repeated incredulously.
His jaw tightened. “It was my intention to return a state of propriety to our family name by ensuring no scandal was ever attached to it on my behalf.”
Hence Elena’s comment regarding the “curse” of her brother’s propriety?
“Did you succeed?”
“I believe so, yes. Until today,” he added.
Cat eyed him guardedly. “Today?”
Andrew’s gaze warmed. “Today, despite what Munro might have accused me of earlier, I took one look at a very beautiful young lady and knew that I no longer cared what Society did or did not think of me or my family name.”
She swallowed. “Are you referring to me?”
He nodded. “Very much you.”
“But— Have you really been celibate for ten years?” It seemed incredulous to her that could be true of a man as handsome and virile as Andrew.
His smile was rueful. “The only sexual relief I have found in that time was given to me by my own right hand.”
Cat’s cheeks heated at his candidness regarding such intimate matters. “I— You— Ewan has been my only lover,” she acknowledged huskily.
Andrew watched Cat as she began to pace the bedchamber again. She was obviously disturbed by the intimate turn the conversation had taken.
Pity, because it was very shortly going to become even more so.
Andrew watched admiringly as, he felt sure without Cat being aware of it, the light from the fire outlined the delectable shape of her body through the thin material of her nightgown and robe.
She was slender in both hips and waist, but her breasts were full and lush, and tipped with darker areoles that surrounded the engorged nipples.
Engorged nipples Andrew wanted to lick and suck and bite until Cat quivered and shook in his arms through the ecstasy of her release.
He felt that now-familiar tightening of his balls and the engorging of his cock merely from looking at the outline of Cat’s body as she walked to and fro, her breasts visibly jiggling up and down. The urgency of desire he felt for this little Cat now consumed his every thought and emotion.
So much so that, before they took this any further, Andrew needed to make sure she was made aware of the punishment he would administer for any of her actions he considered to be inappropriate or disrespectful.
He moved to sit on the side of her bed. “Would you come over here to me, please, little Cat.”
Her eyes widened at the sight of him sitting on her bed, a frown creasing her brow as she slowly crossed the room to stand in front of him.
“What— Andrew!”
His name came out as a cross between a protest and an alarmed squeak as he grasped her wrist closest to him before pulling Cat forward until she lay across the broad width of his muscular thighs.
“What are you— Andrew?” she cried out again, incredulously this time, as she no doubt felt the brush of cool air on the back of her thighs and bottom after Andrew had used his other hand to push the back of her nightgown and robe up to her waist.
He placed one of his arms across her back and the other over her thighs to hold her in place as he took several moments to enjoy the sight of her bared bottom. The cheeks were perfectly plump below the slenderness of her waist, causing his palms to once again itch with the need to spank those deliciously plump orbs.
He nodded to himself with a fresh resolve. “Lessons need to be given and learned before we can proceed any further, little Cat.”
She gave him a bewildered glance over her shoulder. “I fail to see why my bottom needs to be bared for the conversation!”
“Oh, but it does.” He nodded his satisfaction as he gazed his fill of her bared and plump arse. Saliva filled his mouth at the thought of licking and biting that plumpness, of parting those luscious cheeks and tasting her there too.
His restraint, so
