The nurse assisting her bit her lip, but couldn’t disguise her raging curiosity. There wasn’t a person in the walls of the infirmary who wasn’t mad with questions. Not only about how Scarlett had succeeded in hiding her pregnancy so effectively but how her now-toddler had managed to slip past the media’s rabid, watchful eye. Some, like her shift nurse, effectively refrained themselves from asking. Others weren’t as circumspect. Scarlett wanted to bite her tongue for bringing up her personal life, even in casual conversation, but the past five years had broken the habit of caution that had long been ingrained in her.
“Skin time has shown to be effective with most infants but especially with preemies,” was all the nurse said aloud. She repositioned the baby until she was sprawled against Scarlett’s bare chest, then tugged a sheet up over them. “We’ll just keep her there for a while then try to have you feed her again. It would be beneficial for her to have the father do some skin time, too-oo-ahh…”
The word trailed off with a whoosh of an exhale as Laird came out of the attached bathroom bare but for his gold pendant and the towel around his waist. He was drying his hair with another towel. His thickly muscled arms flexed while droplets of water sprinkled his massive chest, following the light sprinkling of hair across his pecs and trailing down his rippled abs like a waterfall. Dark hair clung to his thick thighs and calves.
“I wouldn’t be minding a little skin time there myself,” the nurse murmured then turned beet red when she caught Scarlett’s raised brow. “Beg your pardon, miss. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Figuring the nurse could be forgiven since Laird was indeed a sight to behold, Scarlett allowed herself a small, gratified smile. “He is something, isn’t he?”
“Oh, aye, I don’t blame you for keeping him for yourself at all. I know I would.”
Laird looked at Scarlett over the towel as he wiped his face and shot her a wink accompanied by a wicked grin. He’d heard their conversation. Conceited man. As if he didn’t already know how women drooled over him in his own time, now he’d own the twenty-first century as well. She’d have to make sure she did something to temper his ego. Couldn’t have him getting too cocky.
With one last lingering look, the nurse left them, closing the door behind her.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you did that on purpose,” Scarlett scolded him.
“Me?” His grin was all false innocence. “The bathing chamber is too tiny for me to turn around in. I had to come out to dry myself.”
“I understand, but the timing is suspect. Has this round of celibacy turned your attentions elsewhere?” She’d meant it as a joke but as they emerged, the words caught with some truth in her throat.
“Och, my sweet lass.” He released the towels and strode in all his glorious nudity to the hospital bed. He dropped down beside her, and his lips were on hers a second later. Hot, hard, and passionate, with promises of carnal delight that couldn’t be fulfilled quite yet. She moaned with pleasure then a disappointed sigh when he pulled away and stroked her cheek.
“Beidh mé grá duit that am féin.I told ye that long ago, aye? I will love ye across time itself. This journey of ours only gives me chance to prove it, aye? There will ne’er be another for me. In any time or any place. I’m fore’er yers.”
Another sigh, this one ripe with satisfaction, squeezed her heart. She raked her nails through his short beard. “And I am yours. Always.”
He kissed her again with aching tenderness then moved away to pull on his scrubs. Scarlett’s heart rate sped at the sight of his bare buttocks and muscled thighs before they were concealed. How could she be angry with anyone for a similar reaction to such splendor? Truly, she ought to sell tickets. The profits would solve their money problems tenfold.
Laird toweled his hair dry then slipped his shirt over his head. He’d taken to the convenience of a modern shower with a joy and enthusiasm he hadn’t exhibited for any other aspect of contemporary life. Including the limited clothing available to him. They’d really have to plan a shopping trip when and if Emmy and Connor retrieved her purse.
At least some underwear.
Laird needed another layer between certain parts of him and the thin scrubs. No wonder eyes followed him every time he left the room to find food.
Once dressed, he returned and slipped in close to her on the narrow bed. Gazing down at their bairn, he cupped her head with his hand. “What is this skin time the woman spoke of?”
“Skin contact is supposed to help with the same things the incubator does,” she told him. “Helping with her body heat and your heartbeat can soothe her, too. You should try it.”
“Aye, I will.” He nodded. “When I’m certain I willnae crush her. She terrifies me.”
“But she’s alive and well,” Scarlett whispered. “We did the appropriate thing in coming, I think.”
“Aye, now if we can only be assured of returning home when the time comes.” Knowing the subject weighed heavily on them both and didn’t need to be mulled over for the thousandth time, he changed the subject. “Hae ye thought aboot what we should name her?”
Scarlett dipped her head to press a light kiss to the baby’s pate. “No. I know we’d talked about some names but none of them suit her. We could name her after Emmy,” she proposed. “In thanks for her assistance.”
“I’d wager she would say she did nothing.”
A smile lifted her lips. “She would. But I like the name anyway. So maybe.” Her momentary bliss slipped away and her hand swept down the baby’s back again. “Why do you think Donell was so hell bent on saving her? I mean, doesn’t it seem odd after five years for him to come along? Just to make sure she survives?”
“Do ye believe he has some nefarious purpose?”
“Emmy told me that Donell said I wasn’t just one of his projects, buttheproject,” she told him. “Then to insist that the baby must live? I feel like he has some plan for her and I hate I don’t know what it is.”
Laird slipped his arm around her and pulled her close, pressing his lips to her temple. “He wouldnae save her only to hurt her, lass.”
“Why then? What could he possibly want with her?”
