If at all possible, he turned a deeper shade of ill. “Need sleep.”
He dragged his legs onto the bed, rolled over, and passed out. At least he’d removed his sword and quiver before she’d returned. They were on the floor beside the bed with his bow and boots.
What was she to do? She glanced at the buffet on the table. No. She wasn’t hungry.
She retrieved the chemise from her saddlebag, stripped off her clothes, and donned the thin linen slip. She bit her lip, uncertain. Oh screw it. She climbed into bed next to him and spooned against his back.
Emotion swamped her. This felt nice. Like when she’d slept with—
The pang of pain hit her right between the eyes. She lay there, unmoving, praying for the headache to recede.
A few hours later, Emily startled awake. Gregor still slept soundly. She padded across the floor.
She pulled open the door and stood in the opening, gazing out into the evening. The storm was long gone, but an eerie mist had laid claim to the land beyond the cottage. A chill snaked over her shoulder blades, and she shivered. Was there someone out there watching from within the thick haze?
Get a grip, Emily. Maybe she wasn’t comfortable alone in the wilderness because she had little experience with such. She glanced back at the bed where Gregor slept the sleep of the drugged. When he woke she’d ask him to teach her how to use the knives.
She wrapped her arms over her chest. Considering her recent experience with the mist’s hidden dangers, more than likely she’d overreacted. For Pete’s sake, who in their right mind would have thought there was an enchanted time gate in the woods behind a garden center in Anderson Creek? Emily shut the door and returned to the bed.
* * *
Gregor used a dream-hewed blade to slice through the thick, ropelike web wound about his body as he held the menacing six-eyed stare of the hairy spider keeping himprisoner within the realm of sleep. Unfettered, he jolted awake, eyes opening wide. His heart thundered within his chest as it had when he’d chased the white stag onto theSithichean Sluaigh.
He remained still, unclear of his surroundings. After several tense moments, his mind rose above the nightmarish muck of his drugged slumber, and he remembered riding to the chief’s hunting lodge with…Emily.
He rolled to the side.
She slept beside him atop the covers, her thin chemise hiked to her waist, exposing to his hungry gaze a nicely rounded feminine arse. He hardened at the sight.
Christ! He wore no garment. He must have risen from the bed at some point and cast his clothing aside, for the lass couldn’t have undressed him.
He slid his gaze over Emily’s lovely curves to her face. Dark lashes shadowed high cheekbones. Creamy ivory skin bore a pinkish blush, perhaps from the sun, or from the exertion of the ride to the lodge or from the wind. Sweetly bowed rosy lips made him want to kiss her awake.
Awed by her beauty, he drew in a ragged breath. In distraction, he swept a trembling finger along the smooth length of a muscular feminine leg.
The cadence of her breathing changed. Her eyes fluttered open. “Oh, hey.”
“Good eve’n, lass.”
She snuggled close, rubbed against his rigid arousal, killed him with burgeoning desire.
He cleared a suddenly dry throat. “I agreed to wed with you, be it in name only, or more, to protect you and the wee lad. I want the more. What say you?”
She placed a finger to his lips. “Don’t talk. Just kiss me.”
That was the only encouragement needed. He dragged her sideways over his body. Touched her lips softly with his, a mere whisper of a touch, then more fiercely, wanting, needing her taste in his mouth.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Gregor dropped Emily’s discarded chemise over the side of the bed onto the floor, holding her close, glorying in the sensual slide of skin against skin. “Ach, lass. You feel good in my arms.”
“I like being in your arms.” She chuckled and rose over him.
Their gazes met, lingered. Mutual desire acknowledged without words.
He kissed her lips, her face, the hollow of her throat.
She licked the contour of his ear, blew into it. Made him shiver with delight. She nibbled the lobe. Drove him near to the edge of endurance. Heat pulsed through his blood. He growled and rolled her beneath him. He wanted to devour every bit of her.
