There with You (Adair Family 2)

I grinned. “You wouldn’t change her for the world.”

Thane grunted, but I knew I was right.

* * *

THANE

Lowering down to his haunches, Thane pulled Eilidh into his arms and brushed wisps of hair back from her face. “You excited to stay with Aunt Arrochar?”

He just wanted to be certain, now that it was happening, that his children really were fine with being out from under his roof for the first time since McClintock’s attack.

Resilient as ever, Eilidh beamed. “We’re going to put the tree up and bake cookies and watch Santy Claus movies andandand and Aunt Arro says we might watch Nightmare of Christmas this year!”

Understanding she meant The Nightmare Before Christmas, Thane looked up at his sister who was joking around with Lewis. He glanced at Mac who watched him in his usual intense way. Mac Galbraith saw everything. Mac shook his head as if to say, “I won’t let them watch it,” but Thane wanted it clear to Arro.

“Arro,” he said, drawing her attention, “they’re not watching that movie.”

His sister practically pouted. “But it’s my favorite, and surely they’re old enough now. Lachlan let me watch it when I was Eilidh’s age.”

“And then had to let you sleep in his bed that night because you had nightmares.”

She frowned. “I don’t remember that.”

“Well, I do. Another five years.”

“Five years.” She shot Mac a look and whatever she saw in his face, she sighed and turned to Thane. “Five years,” she promised in disappointment.

“But I want to watch it, Daddy.” Eilidh frowned and then gave him the monster voice. “Now.”

“No,” he growled back and then pretended to bite her face and neck and tickled her with his beard and kisses until her peals of giggles rang through the house. Best sound in the goddamn world.

Movie forgotten, Thane hugged Lewis and kissed him on the head. “Be good.” Not that his son was anything but. Lew was his wee serious angel and Eilidh his charming wee devil.

“They’ll be fine,” Arro assured him as Mac took the kids into the kitchen to get started on the baking.

“It’s good of Mac to do this. I’ll thank him later.”

“It’s not a hardship for him,” Arro said defensively.

Thane nodded. “I know. He loves the kids.”

She smirked. “Right.”

“Eh?”

“Nothing.” She pulled him into her arms and gave him a squeeze. “Go. Enjoy your free night. Have a whisky with Lachlan or something.”

As Thane got into his car a few seconds later and drove back toward Caelmore, he was agitated but knew leaving the children with Arro was the right thing for them. They had to keep acting normal, or they would think there was still something to be worried about.

A distraction, he mused. He needed a distraction.

And he knew exactly what kind of distraction that was.

For the first time since their affair started, Thane and Regan had the house to themselves. They could be loud. And he planned on giving Regan many, many reasons to be very loud indeed.

Letting his mind wander to the woman in his life, to the frustrations of having to curb his instinct to reach for her throughout the day, to the worries that they had less than two months left before her visa was up, Thane became focused on one thing: making tonight a night she’d never forget.

An almost savage possessiveness gripped him.

“Hey.” Regan turned to him from the dining table when he strode into the house. “I’m just setting the table—” Her next words were swallowed in his kiss.

She tasted of chocolate. Sometimes he saw her sneak a piece before dinner but never in front of Eilidh and Lewis. She wanted to be a good example. Always thinking about them, loving them, protecting them. Him too. And in less than eight weeks, she’d be gone. And he would feel her loss more deeply than he could admit to himself most days.

Throwing the painful inevitability of the future out of his mind, Thane kissed her harder and Regan whimpered, her tongue stroking his in return.

And Thane was lost.

His kiss turned hungry as desperation came over him, and he pressed his body down the length of hers. He gripped her ass, urging her closer, his arousal straining against her belly. His hand slid down the back of her thigh, and he hiked up one leg against his hip so he could be where he needed to be, snugly between her legs.

Fuck, he loved her little dresses, but he hated the goddamn tights she wore with them.

“Thane,” she panted, breaking the kiss. Her head fell back and her eyes fluttered with the sensation of him thrusting against her. Her cheeks were flushed as she moaned and dug her hands into his shoulders. She flexed her hips against his, and his nerve endings caught fire.

He needed inside her. Now.

Knowing how wildly she responded to him when he was rough, Thane stepped back but only to spin her around and bend her over his kitchen table. Lust was a haze across his mind as she cried out. He gripped her nape and pressed her down into the table while his other hand pushed up her dress and ripped at her tights.