Chapter 17 Savi
Savi
Leaning against the end of the bed, Savi touched her pencil to the paper, lost in putting the finishing touches on her model’s broad shoulders, when she heard a crunch.
Her attention snapped up to find Alex leaning against a mountain of pillows, looking too innocent for his own good. Her eyes narrowed when she spied his cheeks bulging on one side. “Are you eating?”
Alex’s throat shifted as he swallowed, naked but for the duvet covering him from the hips down. “I have no idea what you mean.”
She bit down on her lip to stop a traitorous smile spreading across her face. “Life models are supposed to be still.”
“In my defence, I didn’t apply to be a life model.” He lifted his hand from behind the covers to reveal a shingara with a distinct chunk taken out of it. “I merely woke up to find myself on centre stage.”
“Well, when you have shoulders like those…” Savi trailed off with a feminine sigh. “I have to take advantage of the moment and draw them before they’re hidden away again.”
Alex finished the rest of the shingara, reaching down to the picnic basket of food she’d brought over from the kitchens last night. “I’d hope that such opportunities will be available every day in the future.”
She chewed on her lip, feeling little bubbles of happiness floating around inside her. “Yes, I expect so.” Pencil poised on her sketchbook, she darkened the shading on Alex’s shoulders, shyly catching his eye. “After last night.”
An affectionate smile flickered on his face before vanishing. “About last night, actually…” Alex cleared his throat, the guilty edge returning. “I need to apologise.”
“For?” The words came out harder than she’d expected it to.
“It occurred to me this morning that I wasn’t wearing a condom.”
She blinked as his words—and the ramifications thereof—settled in her mind.
“I’m sorry, Savi.”
Before marrying, the news would have filled her with terror. There was a chance they had conceived a child last night, and yet…
Curiously, she felt no panic, no dread, no silent bargaining or furious calculations of when her next period was. There was no worrying about whether the potential father would abandon her to the life of an unwed mother, or would abandon their child to the life of an unclaimed bastard.
Her eyes found Alex, realising she had no worries at all. In that moment, she realised that she couldn’t have picked a better man to father her children.
“Say something,” he pleaded.
“Were you intending to impregnate me?”
His eyes widened. “God, no. It was the furthest thing from my mind.”
Then what had been on his mind? Something had ignited that desire.
“The timing isn’t ideal,” she acceded, shrugging her shoulders. “And perhaps it’s something we should have discussed beforehand, but I can’t find it in me to be cross with you.”
The panic on his face dissolved in the wake of a relieved smile. “You aren’t?”
“No,” she said matter-of-factly. It was unlike her not to think of contraception, but then her relationship with Alex was a far cry from the liaisons she’d had previously. “It was a little bit…abrupt, was it not?”
Alex’s brow twitched. “The start or the end?”
It was a struggle not to laugh, but she managed it. “Both, but in a good way. Although that does lead me to ask…what the devil had you in such a state?” She wasn’t complaining, but she was curious.
He paused, looking almost embarrassed. “You.”
“Alex.” Her voice was stern as she cocked her eyebrow. “I’m going to need more than that.”
Taking a deep breath, he expanded, “I arrived back at Silverburn last night, a few minutes after you left the kitchens. I wanted to catch up with you. In the course of doing so, I realised how much I… enjoyed chasing you.”
Well, that was a new one, even for her. Delight curved her lips. “You’re full of surprises. First impregnation and now hunting?”
“I’d hasten to add that such things have been surprises to us both.”
“Meaning if I want to see you like that again, all I’d need to do is let you chase me through the woods?” Arousal fluttered beneath her navel at the very thought.
His nostrils flared. “You’d do that for me?”
“I would do it because it appears to be something we both enjoy.” She looked down, innocently circling the covers with her finger. “Perhaps there may even come a time when you could chase me through the woods with the intention of impregnating me.”
A chaotic assortment of noise came from his direction, caught halfway between a cough and a growl. She looked up with a sly smirk, enjoying the response that had earned her.
Alex let his head rest against the headboard, his delectable shoulders shifting as he inhaled deeply. “I think you may well be the death of me.”
Light, quivering chirps interrupted their conversation, reminding Savi of why she was here in the first place. “The eggs hatched, by the way.”
He sent her a remorseful look. “I remember you wanted to draw them. My apologies for interrupting.”
She waved away his apology. “I already got a full day of drawing in. Given the choice, I absolutely would have chosen an evening with you.” She tried to stop her lips from curving. “I’d been sitting down all day. I needed a chance to stretch my legs.”
Alex shot her a hard, almost reluctant grin. “You’re so wonderfully incorrigible.”
“Thank you for the compliment.” She held out a hand. “Shingara, please. How was your day in London?”
He leant forward to hand one over. “A tad frustrating, but I finished everything that needed doing.” Clearing his throat, he added, “I also saw your father.”
A disgruntled noise left her, muffled by her mouthful of vegetables. She swallowed. “What did he want?”
“How do you know he wanted something?”
Savi rolled her eyes so hard she almost went blind. “He always wants something, especially from people like you. It’s in his nature.”
“Well,” Alex admitted. “He did want something—to throw you a ball for your birthday.”
Her face scrunched up like she’d just bitten into a lemon. “He’s free to do so, but I shan’t be attending.”
“I said that I’d ask you what you wanted to do.”
She raised her shoulders in a shrug, thinking carefully.
In the absence of her mother, she’d never really celebrated her birthday.
“A picnic by the lake, perhaps. Just you and me. And my sketchb—” She halted as an idea came to her with a spark of potential.
“Deer hunts are common in these parts, aren’t they? ”
“People go stalking, yes.”
“Could you take me stalking?” Her voice was an excited hush. “To find a stag, preferably.”
“I—” He blinked before continuing. “If you’d like.”
“Not to shoot them,” she added, realising why he was confused. “To draw them.”
“Oh,” he chuckled, tilting his head as he sighed, his eyes never leaving her. “You had me going for a moment. Of course, I’ll take you stalking. What an excellent idea. There are a few stags around the estate; it can’t be that difficult for the ghillie to track one down.”
What the dickens was a ghillie? But it didn’t matter, not in the wake of the excitement rippling through her all the way to her toes. Now that was a birthday treat. “I do have one more request.”
“Anything.”
Savi chose her words carefully. “This one is more of an advance gift.”
Alex shrugged off her reticence. “If it’s within my power, then you shall have it.”
He might regret that. “Well, the thing about life models,” she began, tapping her pencil against her sketchbook, “is that they’re usually naked.” She glanced towards the bedcovers, still hiding everything below his hips. “But you seem to be overdressed.”
Those eyes darkened. With a smug smile, he pulled the duvet away in a flourish to reveal everything from his powerful thighs to the rapidly hardening length between them. “Best get drawing then, wife.”