Then she gently pulled the door closed and went to her own bed. It was a wonder with its soft pillows and clean, lavender-scented sheets. Closing her eyes she realized she missed Callum next to her. They had not been lovers all that long but she was already accustomed to having him at her side. As she closed her eyes, she wondered if he would join her even though she knew it would be wrong.
* * *
His head still reeling with all the advice Payton had offered on how to woo a woman, Callum was caught by surprise when Payton asked, “Do ye love her?”
Callum rubbed his hands over his face as he struggled to answer and then looked at Payton. “I dinnae ken.” He sighed. “I dinnae ken what I feel. After I spoke with Brenda I gave it some thought . . .”
“Dinnae think, lad. That leads to trouble. I thought a lot about what I was feeling about Kirstie and it got me nowhere, just confused.Feelit. What do yefeel?”
“I dinnae ken!” Callum dragged his hands through his hair. “I keep finding reasons for her to stay at my side but really dinnae ken why.”
“Lad, ye are in a sorer state than I e’er was,” said Connor.
Looking at the man, Callum asked, “What do ye mean?”
“Ye are thinking o’er everything, to nay use, like pretty mon says.” Connor ignored Payton’s scowl. “I at least had a good reason to do so much thinking. Couldnae appear weak, ye ken.”
“Aye, of course.” Callum was not quite sure it all had to do with appearing weak but he had learned a long time ago not to even try to argue with Connor. “I dinnae worry o’er that.”
“I ken it. Ye just worry about why am I doing this, or why am I doing that. Useless. Ye are doing it because ye have to. Accept that. Ye took her with ye because ye wanted to. Ye keep her with ye because ye want to. Ye just have to figure out why ye want to though it seems plain to me.” He poured himself some ale.
“That is what I am doing. Trying to decide why I am doing such things.”
Connor sighed. “I just told ye why. Ye want to. Tell me, when she got stabbed, how did ye feel?”
“Terrified,” he answered without hesitation.
“There ye go then.”
Callum rested his hand against the back of the chair, ignored a grinning Payton, and sighed. “And where am I going?”
Connor caught Callum’s stare and held it. “Mon doesnae get terrified over naught. Doesnae get terrified because a bed warmer got hurt nay matter how likable she is. Doesnae get terrified over a lass who saved his life.”
One did not and he should have understood what that meant. Before he could say anything, however, Payton cursed and tossed an empty tankard at Connor. Connor smiled and calmly dodged it, then returned to drinking his ale.
“Before the two of ye get into one of your long, winding arguments,” said Callum, “I believe I will retire. I have a woman to woo.”
“Havenae done that yet?” asked Connor. “Ne’er thought ye a slow lad.”
Laughing, Callum headed to the bedchamber. He would hear Payton and Connor trading jovial insults behind him. When he entered the bedchamber given him he sighed with satisfaction because Bethoc was tucked up in the bed. He suspected she had no idea they were sharing a room but hoped she would not be unpleasantly surprised.
He was certain she was fully healed now. Just the thought of that was enough to make him hard and he silently cursed as he shed his clothes and washed up. Hastily turning back to the bed, he saw that she still slept and he smiled faintly, slipping under the covers as quietly as he was able before reaching for her.
* * *
Bethoc woke to the slow rise of desire in her belly. There was no fear of the hands running over her body because the air was scented with cinnamon. She turned in his arms and put her arms around his neck as she kissed him. Bethoc sank into the sweet, hot passion of his kiss.
Callum slowly untied the laces on her night shift, kissing each newly bared patch of soft skin. He had already found the high slits on the sides allowed easy access to her slim legs. Whoever had made this night shift deserved a knighthood, he decided. Then Bethoc’s small hands slid over his belly and she curled the fingers of one hand around his erection.
The feel of that soft hand intimately stroking him was like a kick in the gut and had his passion increasing in one giant lunge. If he did not escape that tormenting hold soon he would be spent before he even got inside her. Then he smiled against her breast. He knew one way to get away from that teasing touch without making her think she had done something wrong.
Bethoc sighed with delight as he kissed his way down her body. She made a soft sound of disappointment when he slipped out of her reach but moved her hands to his back, then his hair. When he kissed the inside of her thighs she shivered with a mixture of desire and anticipation. Her cry when he finally kissed her where she so badly needed it was a mixture of shock and welcome. It was a shocking intimacy yet she welcomed it with only the briefest of hesitations. Passion ruled her and she let it.
She was soon clutching at his arms, trying to pull him into hers. The ache of need was making her frantic with its demands and she wanted him joined with her. He kissed his way slowly back up her body until he was kissing her neck. She wrapped her legs around him, silently urging him to join with her. Then he did, so slowly she thought she would scream. He propped himself up on his arms and looked at her.
“’Tis like coming home,” he said, barely moving, savoring the heated welcome of her body as long as he could.
“I wasnae saying nay,” she said, surprised she was still able to talk.
