by Lynsay Sands
Nodding, he picked one up and set it before her, then began eating as well, starting with the meat, cheese and bread he’d first offered her.
They ate in silence for several minutes, and then Dwyn said, “Una and Aileen told me that yer brother sent Lady Catriona and Lady Sasha away.”
Geordie swallowed the food in his mouth, before saying, “Aye. Rory and Alick were no’ interested in them, and they were just taking up space and being unpleasant, so Aulay asked them to leave.”
Dwyn watched him take another bite of the beef that had been sent up, but after watching him chew and swallow, she said, “Aileen said the rooms were needed, one for a new lass who arrived today?”
“Aye, Aulay mentioned another lady had arrived with her escort,” he admitted, and then smiled wryly. “I think he mentioned the lady’s name, but I paid him little attention. I shall ask him later and tell ye who it is though,” he promised.
Dwyn nodded, but said, “Aileen said that they were taking the other room and leaving me here. Una said it was so that I could rest and recover, but that’s no’ necessary. I should be fine now, and it seems silly for us to be split up like that when you and your brothers could take the other room,” she pointed out.
“Me brothers are sleeping in the barracks until more women leave,” he said, reaching for a pastie now.
Dwyn was silent for a minute, but then said, “I got the feeling Aileen was going to give another reason for why we were being split up before Una interrupted to say it was so I could rest and recover.”
Geordie glanced up at that, his eyes wide and almost guilty-looking, and then relief washed over his face when a knock sounded at the door. Standing abruptly, he hurried over to open it and then stepped back to allow Rory in. The healer was followed by two men carrying a large bathtub, and several women carting pails of water, half of which were steaming.
“How is your stomach accepting food now?” Rory asked, moving toward her as soon as he spotted her at the table.
“Good, thank ye,” Dwyn answered, wishing she’d had more time to question Geordie before the man had interrupted. She had a feeling there was something she needed to know here.
“Good, good.” Rory beamed at her as if she had done something to make herself feel better, when she suspected the truth was whatever had been put in her drink had obviously just moved out of her system.
“Should I carry her to the bed so ye can look at her feet?” Geordie asked, leaving the door to join them.
“Aye,” Rory said at once. “Hopefully they are much improved too.”
“Aye,” he agreed, and scooped her up out of her chair to carry her to the bed. Once he’d set her down, both men went to work removing the leather Rory had put over the binding, and then unwrapping the linens too.
“Hmm,” Rory said, raising her feet to peer over them. “They are much improved.”
“Aye,” Geordie agreed, looking them over as well.
Rory set her right foot down and began to press on the bottom of her left foot, and then glanced at her face in question. “Does that hurt?”
Dwyn hesitated, and then admitted, “’Tis a little tender in spots, but no’ much.”
Nodding, he set that foot down, raised her right again and began to press on it as he had the first. He paused when Dwyn sucked in a pained breath though.
“That one hurts,” he said sympathetically and Dwyn grimaced, but nodded.
“Ye’ve made it bleed again,” Geordie growled with displeasure.
“Just the large cut, and just a little,” Rory said soothingly as he set the foot back. “It is healing, but no’ quite ready. I think ’twill be fine by tomorrow though. She should be able to stand on it then.”
“So, she canno’ walk yet?” Geordie asked.
“She can put weight on her left foot, but should not use her right yet.”
“So, she canno’ walk,” Geordie pointed out dryly.
“She can stand on one foot to dress though,” Rory pointed out when Dwyn’s shoulders sagged with disappointment. “Ye’ll only need carry her to the garderobe and set her down inside the door. She’ll no’ need her sisters to help her in the room itself anymore.”
Dwyn breathed out with relief at that news. It was almost better than walking when she thought about it. She could continue to enjoy being in Geordie’s arms when he carried her around, but would now avoid the embarrassment of needing help in the garderobe. She could hop to the bench herself from the door, and stand on one foot while she pulled her skirts up. Aye, this was better.
“I shall leave the salve and fresh linens fer ye to replace on the still-tender foot after her bath, Geordie. But,” he added, eyeing Dwyn sternly, “ye must wear yer slipper on the unbandaged foot for the next little while until ’tis completely healed. The cuts have all scabbed over or healed altogether now, and the chance of infection is small at this point, but better no’ to take risks.”
Rory waited until Dwyn nodded obediently, and then he stood. “I’ll leave ye to yer bath, then.”
“Thank ye, Rory,” Geordie said, standing to see him out. He didn’t just see him out, but followed him out into the hall. When the two men paused briefly to speak, Dwyn turned her attention to the bath being prepared for her. The men who had carried in the tub had left while Rory had examined her feet, as had a good half of the women after dumping their water in. The remaining women would soon be gone too, she saw as they emptied their pails into the quickly filling tub and turned to trudge out one after another, their empty pails swinging from their hands.
There were only two left in the room when Geordie finished talking to his brother and came back into the room, and one of them was already walking toward the door. The younger woman smiled from Dwyn to Geordie and then slid out through the door Geordie was holding open. Dwyn then turned to the older woman as she finished emptying her pails and made to start across the room. She returned the smile Dwyn gave her and then her footsteps slowed and she glanced uncertainly from her to Geordie and back, a small frown bringing lines to her forehead. “I should have arranged for one o’ the maids to stay behind to help Lady Innes bathe. But I can help if—”
“Nay, ’tis fine, Mavis. I will help Dwyn with her bath,” Geordie said quietly.
The woman’s eyes widened, her jaw dropping with shock, and she swung her head toward Dwyn, who was just as wide-eyed and agape with shock. The two gaped at each other with dismay for a moment, and then Geordie said, “Thank ye, Mavis. Ye may go.”
The woman looked as if she might argue, but then something in Geordie’s expression gave her pause and she merely mumbled, “I hope ye ken what ye’re doing, lad,” and rushed from the room, leaving Dwyn to stare at Geordie, her face hot with what she felt sure was a blush as she watched him close the door behind the woman and then turn to move back toward her.
Forcing herself to close her mouth, she cleared her throat, and then said nervously, “Ye were jesting, surely, m’laird? I’m sure even now Rory is sending me sisters up to help . . .” She let the words trail away when he began to shake his head. “Ye were no’ jesting?” she asked weakly.
Pausing in front of her, he took in her expression and said, “I want to marry ye, Dwyn. I want ye fer me wife. Agree to marry me.”
“Aye,” Dwyn breathed, and then blinked and shook her head when his face broke out in a smile and he reached for her. “I mean, nay, m’laird.”
Geordie paused, surprise crossing his face. “Nay?”
“Ye do no’ want to marry,” she reminded him miserably. “And I’ll no’ let yer brother force ye to marry me just because someone witnessed what we did in the orchard and tattled to him. Ye’d hate me fer it if I allowed that.”
Geordie relaxed and bent to clasp her by the waist to lift her up off the bed. “Kneel,” he instructed as he lowered her again, and Dwyn automatically bent her legs to kneel as he set her back down facing him on the edge of the bed.
“No one tattled to Aulay,” Geordie announced now, setting t
o work on her lacings. “At least, if they did, he did no’ bring it up before I told him I wished to marry ye.”
“Which ye did because ye feared someone had seen and would tell,” she reasoned.
“Nay,” he corrected gently as her neckline loosened. “Because I want to marry ye, lass.”
Dwyn shook her head and caught the top of her gown to her chest as it began to fall away. “But ye do no’ wish to marry. I heard yer brother telling his wife ye’d said that.”
“I did no’ when I first got here, that is true,” he acknowledged. “But spending time with ye changed me mind.”
Dwyn was so amazed at this news she simply stared at him as he stepped back and bent to pick up something. One of her slippers, she realized when he straightened and leaned around her to slip it onto the foot Rory had said she could now stand on. Once it was firmly on her foot, he straightened, clasped her by the waist and carried her to the tub.
“Stand only on yer slippered foot,” Geordie reminded her before setting her down.
Dwyn kept her gown up with one hand, but reached for his arm with the other as she teetered briefly before adjusting to standing on one foot. Once she was sure she wouldn’t fall, she released him though, and returned that hand to her chest to help hold her gown up.
“I canno’ bathe ye with yer gown on, lass,” he said huskily. “Ye need to let it go.”
When Dwyn raised her head to peer at him with wide-eyed alarm, he smiled faintly and asked, “Where’s the brave lass who bared her breasts to me in the orchard? She’s the lass I admired so much I went to me brother and said I planned to marry her.”
Dwyn stared at him briefly, a small battle taking place in her head, and then she straightened her shoulders and let her hands drop. The wrinkled gown immediately slid down her body to pool around her feet. Dwyn swallowed and raised her chin as his gaze followed the same path, gliding over her breasts, down over her stomach, to her hips and the spot between her legs where his kisses had given her such pleasure, before finally following her legs to her feet, one slightly up and back to prevent it touching the ground, and the other still in its slipper. Then his gaze followed the same path back up, before settling on her face.
Dwyn noted the hunger in his eyes and felt heat and tingling roll through her body in response. His voice was a low, rough growl when he said, “I’m going to lift ye up and ye need to slip off yer slipper ere I place ye in the tub.”
Swallowing, she nodded once, and then braced herself as he stepped forward. Dwyn closed her eyes as his warm rough hands closed on the naked skin of her waist, and then opened them again as he lifted her. She reached instinctively for his shoulders to brace herself, and then stared past his head as she concentrated on getting her slipper off. A startled gasp slipped from her when something brushed one of her nipples and she glanced down to see that he’d raised her until her breasts were in front of his mouth. She watched silently as his mouth closed over one, and then closed her eyes as he began to draw on the nipple, sending a sharp shaft of pleasure through her.
Dwyn blinked her eyes open again when he released her nipple and ordered, “Hold yer hair up so it does no’ get wet.”
Reaching back, she gathered the long strands and lifted them, until he had lowered her into the tub. Then she let them fall over the edge of the tub where they wouldn’t get wet. She expected him to straighten and leave her to her bath then, and he did, but only long enough to fetch the soap and strip of linen Aileen had used earlier to wash her face. Carrying them back, he knelt beside the tub and dipped both into the water, before pulling them out to begin working the soap over the linen.
“I’m sorry ye’ve been hurt and made sick, lass,” Geordie said in a husky voice as he began to move the now-soapy cloth over her body, starting at her neck and shoulders, before moving lower. “But hopefully, with Catriona and Sasha gone, the attacks will end.”
“Aye,” Dwyn breathed, her eyes closing and head dropping back as he began to soap her breasts, his hands caressing even as they cleaned.
“Ye’re so beautiful when ye do that,” he growled, both hands on her breasts now and concentrating on the nipples, one with the linen, one without.
Blinking, she lowered her head with confusion. “When I do what?” she asked, and then gasped and threw her head back again when one of his hands suddenly dipped into the water to slide between her legs.
“That,” he said. “Ye close yer eyes, and throw yer head back, yer beautiful neck stretched tight and yer mouth open just a bit. It makes me want to—” His mouth covered hers suddenly and Dwyn opened her eyes and pulled her hands out of the water to wrap them around his neck. She moaned with pleasure when his tongue thrust between her lips and then cried out into his mouth when his fingers slid between the folds guarding her sensitive nub and began to run circles around it.
Dwyn kissed him back desperately as he caressed her, her fingers plucking and tugging at his plaid. She wanted to touch his naked skin. She wanted to run her hands over his shoulders and down his back. She wanted to press her breasts to his naked chest and . . . Dear God, she wanted him to keep touching her, but wanted him to taste her again too. She wanted that explosive release he’d given her before. But she wanted to touch him there too, so that he exploded as well, and she wanted . . .
Dwyn cried out with dismay when he suddenly broke their kiss, and then watched him stand and give his plaid a tug that had it dropping away to the floor. She barely got to see him in just his shirt, and note that he had fine strong legs, before he tugged the shirt up and off. Her gaze moved immediately to his pillicock and her eyes widened incredulously as she saw how large and hard it looked. It was pointing accusingly at her, she noted, before he bent and lifted her out of the tub.
“Put yer arms around me, lass,” Geordie ordered, and she did so automatically and then squeezed her eyes nervously closed as he stepped into the tub he’d just taken her out of. She didn’t open them again until he’d settled in the water with her in his lap, the backs of her knees on one side of the tub, her feet hanging over but not touching the floor, and her back against the other side, her hair trailing on the floor. She could feel his hard erection against her bottom, and her gaze shifted to Geordie’s face as he leaned back in the tub and looked her over as his hands returned to her body.
“One day I’d like to take ye to the loch and make love to ye under the waterfall,” he murmured, his hands closing over her breasts again. “There’s a little ledge on the wall under the falls I can set ye on while I love ye.”
“Oh,” Dwyn breathed, her eyes closing as she enjoyed his touch and envisioned what he was describing.
“Would ye like that?” he asked, shifting one hand between her legs to caress her there again.
“A-aye, G-Geordie,” Dwyn gasped, her legs automatically spreading to give him more room, and one hand sliding from his neck to drop and cover his, urging him on.
He kissed her again, and Dwyn kissed him back with all she had, her mouth opening, her tongue meeting his, her lips sucking and her chest twisting to press against his and slide soapy wet across the coarse hairs there. Her hips began to move, riding the hand caressing her, and her bottom was rubbing over the hardness beneath her. Dwyn heard water splashing out on the floor, but didn’t care as she chased that release she’d experienced before. And then he slid one finger into her and she broke their kiss on a gasp, her head pulling back so she could look at him. Geordie held her gaze and eased the finger in farther, his thumb now rubbing over the center of her excitement.
“Relax yer muscles, lass. Let me in,” he growled, easing his finger back out a ways before pushing back in, deeper this time, his thumb continuing to build her excitement as he did.
Whimpering, Dwyn leaned back against the side of the tub, her back arching, and legs opening and closing around his hand, hips moving into the caress. She tried to relax her muscles for him, but she was panting, her body tightening, the need in her becoming so intense she didn’t think she could
bear it.
“That’s it, love. Give me yer passion,” he murmured, splashing water over her breasts with his free hand to rinse away the soap, before bending his head to claim one nipple. Catching it between his teeth, he nipped lightly, then began to draw hard, adding to the pressure building in her, and Dwyn clutched at his head with her free hand, her other still covering his between her legs and trying to move it more swiftly against her and with more pressure. But he resisted, keeping his movements slow and steady until she thought she would go mad in search of her release.
“Geordie,” she gasped desperately, and felt a second finger join the first, stretching her as they slid in. Releasing her breast then, he raised his head and watched her face, his expression a combination of grim determination and something softer.
“What is it, love? What do ye want?” he asked, flicking her sensitive nub with his thumb now. “Can ye tell me what ye want?”
“More,” she groaned, and then, “You.”
His determination broke from his expression and Geordie slid his hand into her hair and dragged her face up to claim a kiss, his tongue thrusting in time with his fingers as they moved faster and more firmly into her until she screamed into his mouth and began to convulse against him with her release. Dwyn was vaguely aware of Geordie breaking their kiss and resting his forehead on hers as his fingers paused inside her, but she merely held on tightly to him as the only stability in a world gone mad.
Chapter 10
Geordie kissed the top of her head when Dwyn collapsed weakly against his chest. She was limp and breathing heavily, but moaned in protest when he eased his hand from between her legs, his fingers drifting across her oversensitized skin. She didn’t even have the strength to clutch at his shoulders when he shifted her in his arms and stood up in the tub. She simply lay with her head in the curve of his neck, and her arms in her lap, as he carried her to the bed.
Her energy began to return again though when he laid her in the bed, climbed in with her and began to kiss her once more. Moaning, she welcomed his kiss, her body stretching against his as he half covered hers with his own. Much to his pleasure, her excitement returned as if it had never been sated and began to burn brightly again. She had recovered quickly in the orchard as well and had been ready to go again after he’d pleasured her there. Now she kissed him eagerly back, her hands moving over him with curiosity. He grinned against her mouth as she squeezed his muscled chest, and then ran her hands down over his stomach, before bringing them back up to find and focus on his nipples.