Keeping an eye on the bouncing little dog, Mairi fished a clean pair of socks out of the drawer, put them on, then slipped on her worn tennis shoes before she happened across any more warm wet surprises. She scooped up the dog and cleaned up the puddle of pee with a puppy pad then placed it in the center of the large square of papers she’d spread in one corner for just that purpose. “You see that? That is your temporary toilet until you’re fully housebroken to only go potty outside. Don’t leave me any more presents.”
The dog yipped and lunged upward. His needlelike teeth pinched her chin.
“Don’t bite!” Mairi scolded while rubbing the back of her hand against her stinging chin. The puppy yipped and stretched to bite her fingers. “Damn, you’re mean.” She firmly tucked the little dog under one arm and headed downstairs. Ronan needed to take care of this little demon. After all, he was the one who found him. She rounded the last step and bounced into the kitchen. Disappointment dampened her spirits when she realized Lilia and Eliza were the only two in the room. “Is Ronan not going to eat dinner with us?”
Eliza didn’t turn from the stove, just kept slowly stirring the ladle while peering down into the pot. “Our guest will be eating in his room this evening.”
“Oh.” A strange sense of disappointment washed across her as Mairi shoved the puppy into Lilia’s arms. “Here’s the dog you’ve always wanted.” She went to the sink to wash her hands, cocking an ear in Lilia’s direction in anticipation of the little buzz saw sinking his fangs into Lilia.
“What a sweetie!” Lilia cooed and murmured some unintelligible gibberish into the face of the furry little pup. The dog immediately rewarded her with an overload of doggie kisses, happily wiggling his entire body.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Mairi leaned back against the sink, drying her hands with the towel. “Apparently, you’re the only one he really likes.” Mairi snapped out the wrinkles from the damp towel and hung it beside the sink. “And why is Ronan eating in his room?” She leaned over the bubbling pot Eliza was stirring and inhaled. The mouthwatering aroma of tomato, basil, and rosemary confirmed it. Eliza had fixed her favorite: a hearty ratatouille.
Mairi tore a crust from the loaf of bread sitting beside the stove and dipped it into the pot. “And where exactly is he sleeping, anyway?” Surely, Eliza hadn’t really taken him to the privacy of the forbidden fourth floor.
Eliza pinched a good helping of salt from the crock sitting on the shelf above the stove. She sprinkled it freely over the vegetable stew then stirred it in with the ladle. “There now. Dip yer bit of bread in that and see if it’s not better than before.”
As far as she was concerned, the stew already tasted perfect, but who was she to argue? Mairi tore off another small chunk of bread, dipped it in the stew, and popped it in her mouth. The belly-warming flavors of onion, peppers, fennel, and roasted eggplant triggered a delicious shiver. “Perfect. Now, where did you say you’d put Ronan?”
Eliza glanced up from the pot, amusement sparkling in her eyes. “Have ye gone daft, then? I already told ye he would be on the fourth floor. He should be finishing with his bath right about now.”
“The fourth floor?” Mairi repeated. She waved a sauce-covered chunk of bread in Eliza’s direction. “Really?Yourfourth floor?”
Eliza rolled her eyes and went back to stirring the stew. “The last I checked, this house had but one fourth floor, Mairi.”
“But it’s your level. Forbidden to all.” Mairi dusted her fingers free of crumbs as she leaned back against the counter. “Lilia and I haven’t even been to the fourth floor and we’ve lived here over a year.”
“Aye, well, all that’s about to change.” Eliza pulled a bowl down from the upper cabinet and proceeded to fill it with a heaping ladle full of the ratatouille. “Ye are going to take dinner to our guest.”
Mairi didn’t say a word, just shifted her gaze to Lilia, who had grown suspiciously over-interested in how the fur on the little dog could be tufted in different directions. When she finally glanced up from the little animal, damning color had spread across her cheeks. That cinched it. Lilia and Eliza had been plotting.
“What are you two up to?”
Eliza placed the bowl of stew on the table in front of Lilia. “There’s no time for chatter. Lilia needs to eat so she can walk the wee dog, and yer guest is waiting upstairs. I’m sure a man that size is starving by now.” She pointed to a wide cloth-covered tray balanced on the counter. “There’s yer dinner as well as Ronan’s. Hie now and get it to him so ye’ll both be able to enjoy it whilst it’s pipin’ hot.”
“Why can’t he eat down here with us?” If Eliza expected her to happily skip into whatever trap she’d carefully set, then she better think again. Mairi leaned more comfortably back against the counter. Eliza had better realize she was an amateur compared to Granny when it came to setting traps.
Eliza didn’t answer, just walked to the tray and made the odd clucking noise that always meant she was thoroughly displeased. “I canna believe ye would deny a weary man a simple meal. A man who was so concerned for yer welfare, he risked his own health by traipsing out in the foul weather to help ye find a dog ye’d only had but a few hours.” She jerked her head from side to side, her brightly painted lips pulled down into a disapproving frown. “Shameful, I tell ye. Just shameful.”
Oh, good heavens.“Give me the damn tray.” Mairi nudged her way between Eliza and the tray and hefted it to her chest. Eliza was such a drama queen when things didn’t go her way. “I just asked a simple question. All you had to say was that he didn’t feel like coming down. You know I’d never begrudge helping someone who’s ailing.”
Her face wreathed in smiles; Eliza looped a cloth bag around Mairi’s neck, then happily patted her shoulder. “There’s a fine bottle of Rhenish, a loaf of bread, cheese, and a pair of tart apples for dessert. Mind the steps and dinna stumble and send all my hard work tumbling down the stairs.”
“Good gosh. There’s enough food here to feed an army.” Mairi peered around the tray and gingerly started up the steps.
“Not an army. Just a fine-size man waiting to be fed. Mind the turn in the stair and dinna tip the tray.” Eliza’s instructions echoed up the stairwell as Mairi climbed ever higher.
It didn’t matter what Eliza said about Ronan feeling too ill to come downstairs for supper. Instinct told her she was walking into a trap. The closer Mairi drew to the fourth level of the house, the more nervous she became. She had to admit, she had secretly looked forward to seeing Ronan again. The fact that a room seemed empty without him disturbed her more than just a little. How could she feel that way about a guy she had just met?
She paused on the landing to the fourth floor and stared at the entrance to Eliza’s private suite. This was definitely a trap. Had to be. Why had this man suddenly shown up in her life? She bit her lip. The only way she was going to find out was by getting to know him better. Mairi took a deep breath, put her back to the door, and pushed the latch with her elbow.
A stifling cloud of rose-scented air filled the room. Good heavens. No wonder the man was ill. Eliza’s love for the cloyingly sweet smell of roses made breathing in here a chore. The stout fragrance stung Mairi’s eyes as she hurried to the opposite door. She hoped the air in the next room was better. He could have suffocated by now if it wasn’t.
Breathing in through her mouth, she backed up to the next door and clicked its latch with her elbow too. The last words Eliza had shouted up the stair were not to bother knocking at the first two doors because they were just sitting areas and Ronan wouldn’t be able to hear her if he was still in the bath. The bedroom and the bathroom were the farthest rooms on the floor—discretely offset from the sitting rooms and guaranteed to be private. Mairi turned into the room as she pushed open the door then nearly dropped the tray at the wondrous view that greeted her.
Unabashedly naked, Ronan stood with his back to the fire, drying his hair with one end of the towel he hugged against his massive chest. Teasing droplets of water snaked down the gleaming planes of his hard muscular body. The moisture snared her focus, luring her gaze down the laddered ridges of his taut stomach then much lower to the defined pattern of dark hair starting just below his navel and marking the path to the impressive prize at the end of the trail.
The corded muscles of his thighs flexed as he shifted in place.Mairi couldn’t look away. The man needed USDA Prime tattooed on his flank. Dammit.Her sexual thermostat shot tohell yeshot and ready from the naked Highlander tour. Catching her breath, she jerked her gaze back up to his face and steadied herself back against the door.
