Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Morning sunlight had barely reached the eastern windows when Ailis began searching for Brochan.
The little creature had been missing since breakfast, and Lileas had informed her with the solemn certainty of a child delivering matters of great importance that Brochan had “gone to see the Laird.”
The hedgehog seemed to have a peculiar fondness for Gordon’s chamber, perhaps because it remained quiet and undisturbed most of the day. Ailis suspected Brochan had discovered a warm spot beneath the bed and decided it was his.
The sun was well above the hills now.
Gordon would surely have gone on patrol.
Ailis climbed the stairs without troubling to ask permission.
She reached his door. She pushed it open without knocking, and her entire body went still.
Gordon stood beside the washbasin. He had evidently only just finished washing. His hair was damp, loose around his face and shoulders, and water still glimmered upon his skin. His clothes lay discarded over a nearby chair while his broad, bare chest was turned partly toward her.
Ailis forgot why she had come. For one disastrous heartbeat, she forgot everything.
The old memory struck first. Two years ago, Gordon had been bare to the waist when she walked into his study. She recalled her own stunned silence and the rush of color that had filled her face.
Gordon looked at her calmly now, and her gaze drifted down his scarred chest, taking in the sinewy muscles there and the tautness of his abdomen.
He did not scramble for a shirt or even appear embarrassed.
He simply stood there, watching her as though she had walked into his chamber every morning of her life.
Ailis’ heart thudded once, hard enough to hurt. She lifted her chin. Then she stepped farther inside.
“Ye might warn a lass,” she said coolly.
Gordon’s mouth almost curved. “Ye didnae knock. This is me chamber… I fear it is I who should have been warned.”
Ailis narrowed her eyes.
“That doesnae mean ye ought to stand about lookin’ like that.”
His brow lifted. “Like what?”
She nearly choked. “Like…” Her gaze betrayed her, traveling for the briefest instant over the broad planes of his chest, the old scars crossing his skin, the strong line of his shoulders. She dragged it back to his face. “Like a man with nay sense of decency.”
His eyes darkened. “I was washin’ meself when ye barged in,” he argued.
She rolled her eyes in response. “So I see.”
Silence settled between them again. Ailis could hear the faint drip of water striking stone as her cheeks flamed.
She should have left. Instead, she walked farther into the chamber and past him. The scent of water reached her first, clean and cool, but beneath it was something distinctly Gordon. Leather. Soap. Warm skin.
“Does this disturb ye?” he asked.
Ailis stopped. “What?”
“Me.”
Her heart stumbled. She turned slowly.
Gordon remained beside the basin, one hand resting against the stone edge. His expression had become unreadable again, but his eyes were fixed upon hers. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Ailis refused to give him the satisfaction.
“I am searchin’ for Brochan.”
One corner of his mouth threatened to move, but he caught it.
“He is under the bed,” he revealed.
“Very well.”
She moved toward it without looking away from him. “Thank ye.”
Ailis crouched. Her gown brushed the floor as she reached beneath the bed, fingers searching through dust and shadows. “Brochan?”
Nothing. She reached farther then a tiny rustle answered.
“There ye are.”
The hedgehog emerged slowly into her waiting hands. Ailis gathered him against her chest and rose.
Gordon had not moved. She could feel his gaze upon her.
The closeness of the room seemed almost oppressive now. Morning sunlight spilled across his bare skin, touching the scars on his chest and the damp strands of hair resting against his shoulders.
Ailis swallowed then awkwardly turned away from him. “I apologize for invadin’ yer privacy,” she said before she could stop the words then cringed, chastising herself for speaking.
“Ye will have to grow accustomed to it,” he said behind her.
Ailis blinked and spun around again without thinking. “To what?”
His gaze returned to hers. “Me. Ye’ll see far more of me like this once we wed.”
For one terrifying moment, Ailis forgot every clever answer she had ever known. Her face went warm. Her heart seemed to tumble from her chest straight into her stomach. She clutched Brochan tighter and swallowed hard to push the lump in her throat down.
Ailis forced a smile. “Aye.” She raised Brochan slightly. “Now, do ye hear that, Brochan?”
Gordon’s brow rose.
“I believe the Laird thinks ye shall grow accustomed to it.” She lowered her voice, pretending to speak privately to the hedgehog. “Very important advice, that.”
Brochan wriggled, and Ailis nodded solemnly. “Oh, well,” she continued. “He says he might as well.”
For one heartbeat, the room was silent, then his face broke and laughter so soft and breezy slipped past his lips, softening every feature of his face and making her heart lurch.
Her heart stopped at the sight then began beating twice as hard.
Ach.
She hated him and that smile. But she hated how much she wanted to see it again even more.
Her body betrayed her in the moment. Warmth climbed from her throat into her cheeks. She felt it spreading, and she tried to look down at Brochan, so he wouldn’t notice, but it was too late. Her gaze lingered one heartbeat too long over the broad expanse of his bare chest.
Ailis swallowed.
Gods.
She had already seen enough. Before her eyes could wander lower, she turned sharply toward the door, gathering her skirts in trembling fingers.
“I shall leave ye to yer bath, Me Laird.”
She slipped from the chamber before her foolish eyes could commit another offense.
That evening, Ailis requested a private conversation with him.
Gordon regarded her from his desk when she entered his study.
She looked entirely too pleased with herself. Her blue eyes sparkled as she paced around his study for a bit.
“What is it?”
“I have a proposition.”
Gordon reached for his whisky, his temple already throbbing as he did not know what she would ask.
“It is about Lileas,” she continued.
His hand paused around the quaich.
Ailis’ expression softened. “She should stay with me in me chamber.”
Gordon leaned back. “Stay with ye?”
“She is frightened at night. She wakes and finds herself in a different room with a different servant beside her, and she thinks she has been abandoned again. I ken what it is to be wee and alone,” she said quietly.
“I ken what it feels like to be frightened of the dark too although me brother and sister were always there for me whenever I was frightened.”
Gordon studied her. There was no mischief in her face now, only tenderness.
“Please?”
He thought of Lileas and the way the child always ran into Ailis’ arms without hesitation.
“Very well.”
Ailis blinked, her eyes wide with shock. “Very well?”
“Aye.” He took another drink. “But ye will need larger chambers.”
Her lips parted as he rose to his feet and walked toward her.
Her brows arched now. “Larger chambers?”
“Adjacent to mine.”
Her smile slowly returned. “Whatever for?”
“It is the biggest chamber in this castle. And yer present chamber is too small.”
And because it is nae fair that I have made ye stay in that chamber all this time.
She placed a hand dramatically against her heart. “Me chamber is spacious enough for me.”
Gordon’s brow lifted. “It was spacious enough for me too, but it doesnae mean that I daenae need a bigger one.”
A laugh burst from her. “I thought ye didnae need anythin’ beside yer swords and horses? Ye are the Dragon, are ye nae? A fearsome dragon.”
She made an exaggerated curtsy now, never breaking eye contact, and Gordon stared at her, confused for a second because he had been more attentive to the breathless laugh coming from her.
“Dragon?”
She straightened. “Aye.”
“What is this now?”
“Ye daenae ken?”
“Apparently nae.”
Ailis’ smile became wicked. “That is what they call ye.”
Gordon frowned. “Oh… I ken of that,” he muttered then rubbed his chin. “I just daenae ken why.”
“I think it is because of yer hair,” she teased.
Another breezy laugh escaped her, and Gordon could not contain himself this time around. A laugh escaped his lips too and echoed in the air.
“That is the first time I have heard ye genuinely laugh,” she said to him as the lightness died in the air and his heart fluttered a little.
They held each other’s gaze for the next moment, neither of them saying anything before she curtsied and turned to walk away.
Gordon did not want her to leave yet. There was a lightness that tickled the air around him now, and he wanted it to last.
As she moved to the door, he followed without thinking, his strides fast as he asked. “Why did ye flee from yer betrothal two years ago?”
Ailis stopped. Her hand rested upon the latch.
For a moment, he thought she might ignore him. Then she turned.
“Surely we have more entertaining topics.”
“I am serious.”
The playfulness left her face. Ailis lowered her eyes. “I was afraid. Of Rowan. Of his reputation. Of what he might do to me.” Her fingers tightened around her skirts. “I was barely more than a lass.”
Gordon said nothing.
“He was the Wolf of the North,” she continued. “Everyone had a tale about him. Every tale made him sound more terrifyin’ than the last.” She gave a small, embarrassed laugh. “I thought I was being brave when I fled.”
“Ye were.”
Her eyes lifted, and Gordon held them then he asked softly, “And me?”
A small smile appeared. “Ye?”
“Aye. Do ye nae wish to flee from me?”
She hesitated. “Ye are the Dragon.” Gordon’s mouth twitched when she said that again. “And I cannae flee.”
“Why?”
“Because I am locked in yer tower.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “Are ye now?” The words were barely spoken before he was moving.
He did not understand how he had crossed the chamber so quickly. One moment, there had been distance between them. The next, he stood directly before her.
Ailis’s breath caught when Gordon stopped in front of her.
She looked up at him. “And ye spit fire,” she whispered. The words carried no mockery now. Only a breath of awareness.
Gordon’s pulse hammered. His hand rose, and his fingertips brushed over the curve of her cheek before he could analyze the move. Right over the place where one of her dimples appeared when she smiled.
Her eyes fluttered as his fingers lingered on her skin.
Gordon’s breath caught in his throat too. His fingers moved lower, tracing the soft line beside her mouth.
Her lips parted, and this time he could resist the flood of heat that swept through him.
“Perhaps, I guard me treasures,” he murmured, his entire body taut with desire as his eyes stroked hers then drifted to her full lips.
Ailis swallowed. “Do ye?”
“I do now.” The words came out rougher than intended.
He knew precisely what would happen if he let himself cross the final distance. Yet neither of them moved away.
Ailis’ fingers caught lightly in the front of his shirt.
Step away.
He could not even when Ailis rose slightly onto her toes.
It was the slightest of movements that barely meant anything, yet it brought her lips closer to his, and it drove him mad with desire.
Gordon trembled with the strength of his need as he began inching toward her then she let out another breathless sigh, and that was all it took to drive him over the edge.