Of course she’d bet he’d be unwilling to share those matters that had once filled his days. What were they? And why did the easy humor leave his face when he spoke of them?
“Sorry again,” he spoke softly as the devilish grin curved his mouth. “Didn’t mean to get so serious there.”
Darby pressed her lips together, stifling herself from begging him to tell her more.
“Guess it’s time to get you into bed, then.”
Oh, for heaven’s sake, stop fluttering! Darby demanded of her lashes which set to batting the second he spoke the words.
Kraven chuckled at her reaction which helped to lighten the mood tremendously. Standing, he helped her from the table and back to the Jeep.
~TWO~
Darby felt like a new woman when she woke later that evening and it was no exaggeration. After two days of poor sleep, she didn’t rise straight away but took time to savor the rugged luxury surrounding her.
Stone walls gave off warmth thanks to the elaborate tapestries that decorated them. The windows were shielded by thick wine colored drapes that bathed the room in darkness-no matter the time of day.
Someone had been gracious enough to start a fire in the hearth. The flames cast a golden sheen upon the entire chamber. Like the walls, the stone floors were covered not by tapestries but with furs-dark and silken in their appearance.
Still drowsy, Darby snuggled deeper into the massive sleigh bed drenched in layer upon layer of heavy, exotically designed covers. The quilts looked to have been handmade and she wanted to doze back into oblivion.
Her stomach had other ideas, however. Darby heard the growl just as her lashes settled back down over her eyes. Perhaps a little coating of food, she decided. Then it was back to sinking beneath the covers for another lengthy snooze. Shoving back the thick quilting; she reached for her clothes lying on the armchair nearest the bed and pulled them back on over her under things. She’d misplaced the barrette which had been keeping her curls in a ponytail and out of her face. Shrugging, she tousled them about her face, sighed and pushed off the bed.
~~~
Darby figured she must’ve been conked out for quite a while. When she left the chamber, she could tell that it had grown darker despite the electric candles lighting the corridors. She stopped on a landing of the grand curving stairway, closed her eyes and tried to recall the route Kraven had taken when he led the way there hours earlier.
Sadly, she hadn’t been paying the strictest attention to direction as they headed to her wing. God, but the man was a diversion and so unlike the well-mannered business types she was used to. Beyond the danger that seemed to shroud him, there was something elemental-more basic. This was a man who could change his civilized demeanor for a savage one like he might exchange one shirt for another.
So muddled was Darby in her thoughts, that she hadn’t realized her nose had led her right to her dashing host. The aromas in the air were to cherish and called to her nose and empty stomach simultaneously.
Kraven was downstairs in what had to be the biggest kitchen she’d ever seen. There was even room for a small living area. He was dividing his time between chopping something at the kitchen island and cursing at the gargantuan plasma screen which showed a hockey game in progress.
Darby pressed the back of her hand to her mouth in hopes of stifling her laughter when his team was penalized and he kicked a soccer ball across the floor. It bounced off the base of the sofa and rolled toward her.
“Ah,” he whirled around and winced. “Sorry lass,” he whispered, looking adorably sheepish as he did so.
Darby held onto the ball and moved deeper into the kitchen. “I never realized how loud L.A. was until I’d been given the chance to step back from it. Thanks for bullying me into staying a little longer.”
“Me?” Kraven feigned offense while pressing a hand to his chest. “Nile and T did that, you know?” He grinned then as though he’d discovered how the gesture affected her.
“Do you like Italian?” He asked while turning back to the spacious kitchen island.
“Yeah, what’s for dinner?” She took a seat at one of the barstools lining the island. She dropped the soccer ball while listening to him run down the menu. “What are you chopping?”
“Veggies for our salad. Had a feeling you’d be up by now.”
Silence settled then with the exception of vegetables crushing beneath a knife.
“We’re alone here in the house.” He softly informed her, never looking up from the cutting block as he spoke. “Does that bother you?”
“Should it?” Darby was both surprised and pleased by the steel in her voice especially when her heart was beating like a bass drum. The look he slanted next could have easily melted the steel she’d celebrated mere seconds earlier.
“I didn’t plan it this way.”
“Of course you didn’t.”
Again, the grin appeared. “It just completely slipped my mind to tell you the staff isn’t on twenty-four hours yet. Not ‘til the lodge is fully operational, that is.”
Darby reached for a baby carrot and chewed absently while he explained.
“I hope this won’t prompt you to leave.”
“Ha! No way am I givin’ up that bed.” Darby’s reply was honest, but intended to keep things light.
Kraven flashed a wink. “I knew it’d be a good investment.”
“So um, talk to me about this need to come back home to things that are more of your family’s world.” Darby was intent on moving the conversation towards anything that steered away from bed.
Kraven’s chopping slowed. “What? Don’t I strike you as a ‘Shepard tending his fields’ kind of guy?’”
“The truth?” Darby dragged her emerald stare from the bronze forearms beneath the raised sleeves of his navy sweatshirt.
His laughter rumbled throughout the kitchen. “I think you’ve just given it to me, love!” He chuckled a while longer, then reached up to swipe a laugh tear from his eye as he sobered. “It’s just what I told you before about the importance of finding one’s roots.”
Darby dropped the half eaten carrot and frowned. “I remember telling you that some roots are best left buried.”
Kraven nodded his partial agreement. “You know it’s often those buried roots where one finds his or her true calling.” He dumped fresh chopped spinach leaves into a bowl. “Look at Nile for example. Do you think your friend would be such a champion for her kids were it not for what she knew of her own roots?”
Darby remained quiet, unable to argue the point.
Kraven sensed that and instantly regretted bringing the shadow to her face. “Hey?” He gave the island’s counter a quick rap. “You just gonna sit there or are you gonna help me chop?”
~~~
“I was an army brat.” Darby shared later in the den before the fire. Kraven had just asked whether she’d grown up in California. She was enjoying her second bowl of the amazing salad following a second helping of the delicious Gnocchi Di Spinaci he’d prepared.
“All that travel as an only child kept me from feeling too lonely. All the things I got to see and having my parents there to explain it all made me see the world as this great magical place, full of fascinating stories and wonder, blah, blah, blah…” She dug into the salad again.
Kraven waved the wine bottle in silent inquiry. “Why blah, blah?” He asked when she leaned over to have him refill her glass.
She drank deeply of the flavorful Riesling. “I was half way through middle school before I even had an idea about the complications my parents experienced because of their relationship.” She wiggled her toes inside the thick socks covering her feet before tucking them beneath her on the arm chair and settling in for the story. “It wasn’t until I had my own brush with racism that they said anything.”
“Will you tell me?” Kraven asked.
Again, she drank deeply of the wine. “I was attending school in London,” she shrugged to make light of the emotions swelling. “I
didn’t even know what the word meant that they called me.” She smiled and looked down into her glass. “I remember going home and saying it at the dinner table. Daddy about had a fit.” She laughed, happy she was able to do so. “My dad never went into all the specifics about the racial complications he and Mama went through but I knew they’d existed and I knew they’d been intense enough for them not to associate with family on either side.” She tossed her head back. “Well my mother didn’t have any family so…but dad…I knew he’d come from some big Irish clan,” she smirked over the word.
“Anyway, my parents are all the family I have. Them and Nile. I never felt I missed out on anything and still…” she bumped the glass against her knee. “I can’t get past that-that morbid curiosity to find out about that part of me-my roots.” She sent Kraven a telling look and grimaced. “It terrifies me.”
Kraven could see that without having to hear her speak of it. The dread of following through on something she felt compelled to do was scaring the living hell out of her even as an adult. His fists clenched on the arm of the worn brown leather chair he occupied. There was the powerful need inside him to cast away what vexed her. Somehow he suppressed the need.
“So how did your storm fear come about?” He half expected her to shy away from confiding.
“Hmph,” she set aside the glass and shifted her position on the chair. “Nile thinks it’s all about something from childhood-something in my subconscious, but I didn’t develop it until the incident in London. I must’ve had a dream or something,” her green stare was focused as she watched the flames dancing around the hearth. “I can never lock in on the details of the dream, but in it, I know I lose my parents. When I woke up, it was storming like crazy. The thunder…” she shivered beneath the fabric of her sweater. “I tore out of bed and through the house until I got to my parent’s room.” Leaning forward, she clenched all ten fingers through her curls. “I wouldn’t tell them a thing I just huddled between them in the bed-shaking. I wouldn’t let go of either of them ‘til the storm ended.” She blinked as if returning to the present. “We never spoke about that night and I never climbed in bed with them again but I hate like hell being alone when a storm comes around.” She gave a jerky toss of her head. “If I’m alone, I try to focus the fear away. I haven’t had much success with that.”
Her attempt at a smile broke Kraven’s heart. He had no choice but to go to her, hold her… He’d been trying like crazy to keep his hands off her, but wouldn’t think of that then.
No words were needed, but he could tell she treasured the closeness. They both did.
~THREE~
Darby barely had her eyes open the next morning when the familiar booming knock sounded on the door. Slowly-very slowly she trudged from the bed to answer and found Kraven leaning against the opposite wall and checking his wristwatch.
“It’s seven a.m., you know?”
“Seven a.m.?” Darby yawned. “Yeah…that sounds about right.”
He chuckled and pushed off the wall. “So what are you doing still asleep when a day of adventure awaits us?”
“I can assure you, I’ve been having a very relaxing adventure right here in this fantastic bed and I’d be pleased to get back to it.”
Kraven strolled into the room when she walked away leaving the door open. “And I had you pegged for a morning person.”
Darby had to smile in spite of her drowsiness. “Not even on my best days.” She flashed him a wicked look when his laughter seemed to shake the room.
Kraven prevented her from tugging up the covers when Darby climbed back into bed. “What are you wearing to the party tonight?”
“Party?” She queried through a yawn.
“Colin and Moira Bradenton’s anniversary.”
Darby nodded, smiling at the memory of the kind couple who cared for the manor house Taurus kept a few miles away. “I had no idea,” she breathed, now sitting in the middle of the bed with her legs folded. “Nile’ll sure hate she missed it.” She said, recalling how sweet the couple had been to her friend when she visited.
“And you can’t miss it.” Kraven warned, his gaze lowering as he stepped closer to the bed. “Miss Moira already told me she had to have at least one of her girls there.”
Darby felt her heart warm over the words, but fell back against the bed just the same. She tossed an arm across her head in a weary manner.
“What the hell would I wear to something like that?” She moaned.
Kraven leaned over her then, bracing a fist on either side of her against the bed. His deeply set jade eyes caressed her face before lowering to the wash-worn green T-shirt she’d slept in. The garment had been slowly driving him out of his mind since she opened the door and his curiosity raged with the need to glimpse what lay beneath it.
Darby wouldn’t acknowledge that her heart was about to beat out of her chest. She worked to stifle her breathing, for she certainly didn’t need to do anything more to draw attention to the endowments there.
“I have to say that your present attire is fetching enough but aside from me and the entire male pop of Near Invernesshire, it might night g’over too well.”
“I’m sure of it,” Darby smiled while rolling her eyes. “That still leaves me in a pickle then, doesn’t it?”
“Not at all,” he waved a hand before setting his fist back in place on the bed, “I know the perfect place.”
“Really? Is it outside the country?”
Kraven’s laughter rumbled but for a moment. “If you like.” He was suddenly serious then.
Breathe, Darby had to remind herself. “Local,” she cleared her throat. “Local is just fine with me.”
“Well then, I’ve got the perfect place in mind but we’ll have to hustle as Ms. Elena only keeps her shop open ‘til mid-morn then she goes to work the brunch crowd at her husband’s café.”
Darby had to laugh over the charm of it all.
“So if you’re done laughing,” he leaned in and kissed the corner of her mouth when she nodded.
Stop fluttering, dammit! She ordered her lashes when he smiled down at her.
“You’ve got an hour,” he said and was gone.
Alone, Darby rolled to her side, squeezed her thighs together and moaned into the nearest pillow.
***
Elena’s Dress was as quaint as the lady herself. Tiny and dainty, Elena Wallace appeared almost giddy when she was charged with the task of dressing the best friend of Taurus Ramsey’s wife. She chirped and bounced around Darby for the better part of an hour and a half. Kraven wondered if Seamus Wallace might be wearing the hat of chef and hostess of his café that day.
Within two hours, Darby had a subtly sensual frock for the Bradenton’s bash as well as a few other items to serve her for the duration of her stay. He watched her handle the bill and thought had anyone told him a few months ago that he’d soon be enjoying over two hours in a dress shop, he’d have figured them mad. What he dreaded now was that the time had passed so quickly.
“Thanks Mrs. Wallace.” Darby was saying somewhat sheepishly as she took the two large white bags the woman brought around the porcelain counter.
Elena Wallace gestured with a quick shushing sound. “Think nothing of it, love. It was my pleasure.”
Darby scarcely had a moment to hold onto the bags with Kraven standing right there waiting for her to hand them over. “I know you’re screaming inside,” she whispered near his ear.
“And whatever gave you that idea?”
Stunned, Darby looked around the purely feminine shop and asked that he do the same. “I’m betting you’ve never been inside a dress shop in your life.”
The pretend offense clouding his face then only made him appear more devastating. “I’ll have you know that I’ve had some of my most enjoyable moments inside dress shops.”
“God,” Darby closed her eyes. “I walked right into that one.”
“I’ll make it up. Are you hungry?”
“Starved. Since y
ou wouldn’t even let me have breakfast before we left. Some host you are.”
Pulling open the lace curtained door of the shop, Kraven managed the bags in one hand and pressed the other to the small of Darby’s back. “Come with me, then.” Casting a devilish wink across his shoulder, Kraven called out to the little woman behind the counter. “Ms. Elena, we’ll see you at Mr. Wallace’s café!”
Elena Wallace waved off the couple after calling out another ‘thank you’ to Darby. She next grabbed the phone.
“Margret, dear?” She whispered once the connection was made. “Looks like our Kraven will be the next young and lovely thing to be taken off the market.”
~~~
Following a simple yet delectable lunch of fish chowder, biscuits and ale, Kraven once again donned his cap of tour guide and treated Darby to an afternoon of sight seeing. This time he shared some of his truly favorite places which carried the two of them quite a bit farther than they had ventured during the previous trip with Taurus and Nile.
Like before however, Darby was in a state of sheer awe. She would’ve never dreamed she’d be standing on such revered and historic grounds. There was Loch Ness where she’d scrambled for her camera in hopes of snapping a shot of the famed monster. She inhaled the crisp, fragrant air surrounding Urquhart Castle-one of Scotland’s most renowned glens that dated back to the twelfth century. By the time they got back to Kraven’s there was scarecely two hours to prepare for the Bradenton’s party.
~~~
“Will they be offended if we’re fashionably late?” Darby asked when she rushed in through a back door ahead of Kraven.
Shutting the heavy door leading to the kitchen, Kraven dropped his keys to a dish on the counter. “Most folks ‘round here are farmers-early risers,” he sent her a meaningful look. “It’s fair to say this thing may not run all that late.”
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