Only what she had already guessed, that she was falling for him hard and fast.
“Oh, God,” she groaned again, “I should have gone to the Bahamas or better yet, Cabo.”
“Where is Cabo?”
Emmy started and rolled over to find Connor lounging in the doorway to the parlor. “Geez, Connor, you scared me!” she scolded as she patted her pounding chest. “Didn’t your mother teach you to knock?”
“The door was open,” he replied as he strolled casually into the room. The door had been open but only because he had left it that way the previous night. She had been as groggy as a drunken sailor when they had returned the previous evening. So reluctant to rouse herself that he had carried her up and put her to bed. Connor had taken great pleasure in removing most of her clothing and tracing the colorful lines of her tattoo with his fingertip. As he stared down at her lovely face relaxed in slumber, tenderness such as he had never before experienced had clenched at his heart. She was so unique, unlike anyone he had ever met, competent, beyond intelligent and funny as well. His lips quirked, even half asleep she jested whether his mother had taught him to knock.
“I came to see if ye were planning on sleeping the day away,” Connor took a seat on the edge of the bed as she propped herself up on her elbows and stifled a yawn.
“I just might,” she teased and he laughed. “Care to join me?”
Connor leaned over and caught her lips in a tender kiss. “An appealing offer.” He kissed her again and she arched up to deepen the contact.
“Oh, m’lady! I’m sorry!”
Emmy drew back and turned her head to see Margo backing out of the room balancing a large tray on her hip. “Wait, Margo! Is that food?”
“Aye, m’lady,” the maid confirmed. “You missed dinner last night and I thought you might be hungry since it is almost noontime.” She nudged her way back into the room and put the tray on a small table by the fire. “I’ll just go…”
“It’s okay, Margo, I’m getting up,” Emmy shot Connor a regretful glance which he returned with a disappointed sigh. “Oh, gimme a break, I’m starving. Aren’t you?”
“I ate over an hour ago.”
Emmy raised a brow at his superior tone as she slipped on a dressing gown. “Well, goody for you. Either sit and keep me company or go away if you’re going to be a sourpuss.”
Connor toyed with her phrase while taking a seat across from her at the table and snatching a roll from her plate. “Hey, that’s mine! I thought you already ate.”
“I did,” he drawled as he drizzled honey on the bread and took a bite.
“Well, just keep away from the rest or you might end up with a bloody nub for your trouble, kay?” Emmy took a bite of eggs and rolled her eyes in bliss. “God, that’s good,” she mumbled around a full mouth.
Margo hovered a bit drawing Emmy’s attention. “What’s up, Margo?”
“I finished hand washing your unmentionables this morning and hung them to dry,” the maid told her.
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Emmy responded shoving another forkful of food in.
“And I found this on the floor while I was picking up.” Margo held Emmy’s iPhone out in one and the ear buds in the other. Interest was bright in her eyes. She wanted to ask what it was to be sure, but Emmy simply took them with a nod and tucked them in the pocket of her gown.
“Thanks. How’s your mom this morning?”
Realizing that her curiosity was going to go unsatisfied, Margo answered, “Very well, thank you. I’ll just leave you alone to eat.” She bobbed a curtsey and turned to leave.
“Oh, Margo?” Emmy’s eyes twinkled with mischief as she grinned at Connor. “It might be best if you knocked and waited for an answer for the time being.”
“Aye, mum,” the maid grinned as well as she departed closing the door pointedly behind her.
“What?” Emmy drawled innocently at Connor’s speculative look. They smiled at each other and she added. “Better safe than sorry, right?”
“Of course.” Connor reached over to snatch a piece of bacon earning a smack on his knuckles for his trouble. Rubbing his hand, Connor changed the subject. “I’m curious, where is this Cabo ye mentioned? I have, of course, heard of the Bahamas as it is a territory of the Crown, but not the other. Is it an American colony?”
Emmy bit into the second biscuit licking a drop of jam from her fingers. While on some level he was once more appalled by her horrible manners, he more enthralled by the comfortable casualness her manner and relaxed posture encouraged. She answered around the mouthful of bread and jam, “No, Cabo, Cabo San Lucas is in Mexico on the Baha peninsula…south of California.”
“The Cape of St. Luke?” he translated the Spanish. “I have never heard of it. Ye’ve been that far west? I understand many areas are still quite violent and dangerous,” he was astounded that she had traveled such a distance. Alone? He tried not to speculate.
Thinking herself of Hollywood and east L.A., Emmy admitted the west still had its dangerous elements but added, “Cabo is a resort town though, the police there try to keep it safe for the tourists.”
“So ye traveled there on another holiday, then?”
“Oh, yea, the ocean, the beaches, a little snorkeling. It’s a party.” She raised her brows and waited for him to say something, anything that would give her leave to approach the whole ‘I’m from the future’ topic, but he disappointed by merely responding with a thoughtful ‘hmmm’. She wondered what pictures were floating through his mind.
“What did Margo give ye?”
Here it was. If there were ever a perfect opening for a futuristic show and tell, this was it. Emmy could show him the iPhone explain how it works and when he said in amazement how such a thing was impossible…boom, she dropped the bomb. She opened her mouth, looked into those deep, dark eyes and deflated. “Just something I had dropped in the bathroom yesterday afternoon,” she ended up responding vaguely.
Chicken.
“So what are your plans today?” she carried on instead.
“I had thought to offer my company and carriage to drive ye everywhere ye need to go today,” he answered filled with curiosity. She had been about to say something else. He knew it, and indeed she had looked disappointed with her own response. It occurred to Connor in that moment that besides denying her identity, she was hiding something else. That surprised him as he had thought only the previous day that she was an open book incapable of deception. He wondered what it could be. “Can I see what she gave ye?”
“Not now. Where am I going today?”
“News of yer special skills seems to have spread overnight. Chilton told me that several women from even as far as Craignure are seeking yer services. Assuming, naturally, that you would care to provide them,” he eyed her bacon once more and with a sigh of defeat, Emmy handed over a piece. “Why not?
Accepting the change of topic without batting a lash, Emmy shrugged. “It’s mine and not yours and I am allowed my privacy. House calls, huh?” Emmy nibbled on the last of the bacon thoughtfully. Seemingly her vocation was highly sought after in this time. Could there really be so many women pregnant at the same time in such a sparsely populated place? Granted there was no real birth control around. No TV and long nights and the nights were getting rather cold. A warm bed occupied by a warm partner had a broad appeal and the activities that could get you even warmer resulted in…well, a high percentage of pregnant women. Women who had no one to care for them on Mull except for the old doctor that Dory refused to allow near her.
“I could take it from ye.”
“You’ll only get to see it when you ask nicely and I decide to let you have it,” she responded pleasantly, amused over their banter. “Well, house calls it is, then. When do we go?”
“I thought within an hour or so,” he looked at her speculatively. “I am much stronger than ye. Any resistance could be easily overcome.”
“But that would be going against my wishes and you’re not that kind
of guy.” Emmy watched his frustration grow through lowered lashes. “I’ll need time to bathe first. I still smell like seawater.”
He studied her for a long moment then a new look dropped like a mask over his features. His mouth softened and his eyes grew heavy and hot. Connor reached across the table and took her hand tracing circles in her sensitive palm. “Are you sure ye’re not still fatigued from last night?” His voice turned low and seductive. “Perhaps ye should return to bed for some more…rest before we go.”
Emmy shivered as he stood and pulled her to stand in front of him. He stared down at her with his dark, hungry eyes, his hands moving lightly up her arms to her shoulders, neck to cup her cheeks. His mouth lowered to hers in a light teasing kiss licking at her lower lips before slanting across her mouth with devouring heat and intensity. Emmy leaned in with a moan as his hands plunged into her hair and moved down her back. His lips nipped and sucked until she was void of logical thought. So far gone was she that Emmy almost didn’t feel his hand slipping into her robe pocket but she slapped a hand down over his and glared up at him in astonishment stumbling back from his embrace.
“Now that was just cruel, Connor. You think you can seduce it out of me?”
“Almost had it,” he murmured kissing her again, softly, but with a chuckle.
He was so good that he almost had, too. “No, no, you had your chance,” she pushed him away. “Go away now.”
“Now who is cruel?” he moaned stepping back to reveal his aroused state. “Will ye leave me in pain?”
“It is your own fault trying to use my attraction to you in such a way. You must respect my wishes and my property, Connor,” she insisted fiercely. “I said no, not now, and I meant it.”
“Ye didn’t truly mean it.”
“Surprisingly, I did. You can’t just take what you want.”
“I am the laird; I always get what I want.” While the words were teasing, Emmy could see that on some level he was serious. He might try to wheedle what he wanted from her but, in the end, he fully expected to get it, one way or another.
“You don’t always get what you want.”
“Surprisingly, I do,” he mocked her words.
Lifestyles of the rich and powerful, she thought. She had known that he had some arrogance in him; it was part and parcel of the commanding presence he portrayed. Part of him. The earl. But to such an extreme that he assumed his every wish would be granted? He probably didn’t truly know the meaning of the word no. The world was his oyster and if he wanted the pearl, it was his. Well! “No! Not this time!”
“Are ye telling me no?” he asked torn between shock and amusement.
“I am telling you no.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down stubbornly. “It will be my choice if and when I let you see my personal belongings. You cannot command or seduce them out of me.” In truth, it was probably that he used her affections and desire against her that irritated her the most. “You just shouldn’t think it was okay to toy with people with that! And besides,” she went on with anger rising over his deception, “you don’t always get what you want.”
“Now what are ye talking about?”
“I think you know what I am talking about. I can think of at least one other instance when someone denied you what you wanted.” Emmy raised a brow and waited for him to catch on. It didn’t take him long.
“So ye denied me once,” his eyes narrowed. “Why should I allow ye to do it again?”
“I would defy you if only to prove to you that you are not a god, Connor,” she snapped back. “You might be the laird here, but you cannot command everyone in Duart like they are dogs. People have a right to their person and their privacy, at least. Life, liberty and property!”
“I have read yer American constitution, but in my house…”
“In your house you are king,” she interrupted sarcastically. “You are god, blah, blah, blah,” she made a hand puppet to deliver those words. “You know what? I’m glad she left you! Yea, that’s right! You obviously need to be brought down a notch!” She poked him in the chest.
“Glad? Do ye have any idea the humiliations I have born these past ten years because of that?” he accused his usually heavy brogue so thick now that Emmy could barely grasp his words.
“So you punish everyone around you for your pain, is that it? Your pride, your ego!” She faced him with hands on her hips and anger rising over his stubborn refusal to face the truth. “Well, they might suck it up, but I will not be treated that way. It isn’t all about you, you know? And I don’t have to stay here! I can leave any time! I don’t have to put up with a tyrant!”
“Run away, then,” he roared. “Run away like ye did before!”
“Sometimes you are worth running from!” she yelled back.
“If ye didn’t want to marry me, you should have said so – I wouldn’t have made ye do it, but ye just left without a word. Do ye have any idea how humiliating that was? The Prince of Wales was there!” he shouted poking his finger back at her.
“Now you’re getting to your real issues! But it was all pride, Connor!” she went nose to nose with him. “You didn’t care that she was gone for anything more than your pride! You have let it rule your entire life. You have already said that you didn’t love her, it wasn’t like you had your heart broken!”
“I didn’t, that’s right! I didn’t love ye then!” his anger was still running awry making him almost unaware of the words he spoke. “I only married ye because it was what my father wanted. I didn’t even meet ye until the previous day. How could I have cared about ye? Aye, twas all pride, I’ll admit it.”
“Then?” Emmy echoed hearing nothing past that one word and all the hot air went out of her. Similarly deflated, Connor sliced his hand through the air to halt her but she ignored him.
“You said ‘then’. That you didn’t love her ‘then’. Do you love me now?” He turned his back away from her and faced the window, arms crossed in that same defensive posture he had used the first day she met him. She ran her hand up his shoulder blade. “Connor?” Both hands slid under his arms, around the hard ripple of his ribs until she was hugging him from behind, resting her head against his back. Relaxed against his tense body with her heart pounding forcefully between them. “Do you, Connor? Do you love me now?” she whispered with longing.
His hands clasped hers tightly for a moment. He drew a breath as though he were about to speak but then exhaled heavily. “Go get dressed and we will leave.”
“But, Connor…”
“Just leave me be, Emmy.”
Sighing heavily in defeat, she dropped hers arms and moved soundlessly to the bathroom closing the door behind her. It wasn’t until she was washing her hair in the bath that she realized that he had called her Emmy instead of Heather.
He had called her Emmy.
Chapter 29
What a horrid day! The long periods in the carriage had been sickening and awful but what had really made the day excruciatingly long was Connor’s absence from it. Ian, not Connor, had been waiting at the carriage that morning when she arrived to escort her on her rounds. Ian had cheerfully explained that Connor had urgent business in Glasgow and would be gone for several days. He had asked Ian to aid Emmy in her medical pursuits.
Ian had filled their time in the carriage with pleasant chatter and anecdotes that Emmy regretted hadn’t done more to distract her. Business in Glasgow? She didn’t think you so. There was no doubt in her mind that Connor - that big, fat chicken - had run off rather than face her. Perhaps he regretted suggesting that he loved her before he was certain of her feelings and he was avoiding her to allow her time to digest his revelation unsure, but she doubted it. More likely, he hadn’t meant it the way it sounded at all and he was afraid her feelings would be hurt.
That thought caused her breath to catch. God, she hoped not. She was pretty sure he liked her beyond the physical, had even had cause to think that he cared for her…maybe more than he knew or wanted to
? It had only been four days, she thought realistically. It was an impossibly short time in which to fall in love with someone. Things like that took time. Love at first sight wasn’t something she had ever believed possible before. Just because it had happened to her didn’t necessarily mean it he felt the same.
Oh, Lord, I love him, she moaned inwardly. What a fool she was! Had she truly fallen in love at…well, almost at first sight with Connor? He was completely wrong for her. Truthfully he was completely right for her but this was all wrong! She was supposed to fall in love with a man she could live the rest of her life with and she had no intention of staying here in old time Scotland. She needed technology, her career, Starbucks!
Yes, he was everything she had ever wanted. He was intelligent, caring and responsible. He was funny and sexy and handsome, her thoughts warmed. He made her feel challenged, made her think, made her feel like a goddess. Connor brought out every extreme of emotion in her. She had never felt such anger as that he roused in her but she had never felt such passion and contentment either.
She loved him! Truly, honestly, deeply.
Now what?
Stay here? Hah! And did she even have a choice? She wasn’t entirely sure what Donell’s point had been in bringing her here. Second chances? For Connor? Most likely for Dory if she had taken his implications correctly that Dory would not make it through her delivery. That was most likely the tragedy he spoke of. But second chances for herself? Why did she need a second chance? She had her life lined up and waiting for her. But whatever mystical force Donell had employed to get her here could just as easily yank her right back without warning. If that happened it would break her heart and maybe, maybe? his as well.
But an hour of his love was better than none at all. Take what you can get, wasn’t that the old motto? Well, she was ready to embrace it completely, but that man, that aggravating man, had fled like a coward rather than to face her and take it like a man.
Emmy could break down his thoughts pretty well. He was more vulnerable than he thought. He had a fear of rejection that she had been able to read from day one. His defenses were built from prideful humiliation rather than love and a broken heart, but clearly he feared that same shame happening again. So he fought it. He refused to allow the opportunity to present itself and he had taken himself off before she had a chance to reject him, probably never considering that she might return his feelings. Men!
A Laird for All Time Page 18