“Wet yer hair, lass.”
She glanced at him once more over her shoulder before complying. His strong fingers spread the soap into her hair, and she closed her eyes as he not only washed her hair but also rubbed her sore shoulders and neck.
When his hands slipped over her skin and nearer to her breasts, she felt the tips tighten in the hot water. The circling motions moved lower onto her breasts and she arched, baring and offering them to him. As his actions remained those of simply bathing her, she wondered at it. He pushed her forward and twisted the length of her hair around his hand, then sculpted it on top of her head to keep it out of the water.
Once again, with strong and gentle fingers, he scrubbed her back, pressing on the places that ached the most.
“If yer going to continue in this, lass, ye need to have a care for yerself,” he said softly.
Robena completely misunderstood his words.Iain could tell from the way she turned to stare at him. Shock and disbelief filled her eyes, darkening the usual bright green to something like the color of the forests at dusk. She thought him advising heron being a whore. Iain laughed, resting his elbows on the edge of the tub now, as understanding entered her gaze.
“Oh,” she said with a shrug. “’Tis a bit harder bringing a bairn into the world than bringing a man to his pleasure.” His flesh responded to her words and she glanced over the tub at the tenting of his plaid. “Just so.”
Iain ignored the call of his body and moved to the side of the tub, holding out his hand for her to lift a leg into his grasp. Spreading the soap over her thigh, over her knee, down to her shapely ankle, he knew he could have her the moment he indicated it was his wish to do so. Mayhap that was why the frantic need that had assailed him for weeks was now tempered? Having her at hand made it easier to control his desire, because shewashis—his indeed for the taking.
“When did you begin helping with births?” He did not miss an arousing view of the curls between her legs as she moved the one leg back into the water and held the other up to him.
“Just after yer last visit here in the summer,” she explained as she allowed him to have his way. “Moira is taken with her duties as healer and seeing to her own wee uns.” Moira’s lasses had just four or five years to them and were a handful, he knew. “Daracha needs help tending to some of the women, so I help.” She reached out and placed her hand on his. “I do beg yer pardon for leaving ye without word this morn. I ken ye are paying . . . that I am yers to serve ye as ye wish—”
“Robena.” He could not help that his voice came out harshly at first. “Surely ye ken me better than that?” He rinsed the soap from his hands and stood, saddened somehow that she would think him so uncaring about the travails of a woman giving birth. Or any other reason that she thought important enough to leave her cottage, whether on a cold winter’s morn or whenever. “If ye think that I hold my comfort higher than tending to a woman inchildbirth, then . . .” Iain let his words trail off as he grabbed up a drying cloth and wiped the water off his skin.
Women died in childbirth—it was the most dangerous thing a woman could do. It was something he had always feared as a possibility of Elisabeth carrying his child. His own sister had, and so many others among his kith and kin. The splashing water drew his attention back to the tub and the woman in it.
“I was surprised that ye were gone, that is all. Worried a bit about what could be so important to ye, if truth be told.” He walked back closer and unraveled her hair. A bucket stood near the fire for a final rinsing. “Then Anice told me that ye had been called to Conlan’s wife.” He held out his hand to help her stand then. She turned her back to him and he poured the hot water slowly over her head, watching as it sluiced over every inch of her skin. “So I waited, thinking ye would be hungry or tired.”
Robena turned then and wiped the water from her eyes. She smiled and nodded.
“Aye, I was both of those.” He shook out the larger drying cloth and held it out to her. As she wrapped it around her, he did the same with a smaller one around her hair.
“I thank ye for seeing to me, last night and now with this.” She tucked in the one cloth and rubbed her hair with the other. “This was a wonderful and unexpected gift.”
She stepped up to him, stood on her toes, and kissed him. Full of warmth, he wished he had more time to accept the promise in the touch of her mouth, the way she rested her hand on his hip. If it would convince her to stay here, he would promise her a bath daily.
He, or rather his randy flesh, had just decided that his presence would not be missed in the yard where the men were training, when a loud knock on the door warned him otherwise. Rob gave that scant warning before he pulled the door open and yelled. Though Iain knew she was comfortable in her nakedness,he stepped between her and the door, not wishing to expose her to Rob’s gaze now.
“Come on, Iain. Ye have had enough time to see to this,” Rob called out. “The weather is holding for now, so ye canna avoid being beaten into the ground any longer.” Iain dropped his head back and laughed at the words that were both a challenge and an insult at the same time.
“Have a care, pup,” Iain warned his friend. “I may have more years than ye, but I also have more years of practice in teaching young ones a lesson.”
As he glanced over his shoulder at her, Robena let the towel around her hair drop, and Iain was tempted, very tempted, to slam the door and remain with her. With a wicked gleam in her lovely blue eyes, she smiled and nodded.
“I think he needs a lesson about disrespect, Iain,” she said.
Cursing, Rob pulled the door closed and left them, his taunting message delivered.
“Iain, I am very grateful for ye seeing to my needs, both last night and in arranging this bath,” she said.
He had enjoyed taking care of her, for she gave him little opportunity to do so. After he’d kept her awake for most of the night, she’d gone off and helped a woman give birth, spending almost the entire day assisting Conlan’s wife. From what Conlan had revealed, she’d done this for almost a dozen women in the village over the last few months. For a woman who’d never given birth herself, he thought it both brave and selfless of her.
If he were honest about his motives, Iain would have to admit that tending to her felt very good to him.
Though most of his kith and kin thought that he missed being taken care of by a wife, and indeed he did, Iain missed being able to take care of someone just as much.
“I will be waiting for ye after supper,” she promised after he’d dressed and opened the door. He nodded and walked out to beat Rob to a pulp as he deserved.
That realization—that he missed tending to a woman’s needs—made so many things clear to him, and he thought on little else but that as he showed Rob no mercy that day in training. Well, that and the woman who would be waiting for his arrival this night.
4
