“Aye, tonight, ye’ll meet me in the kitchen.” She watched his eyebrows as they raised. “I want ye tae warm some milk up fer us in the kitchen, as ye have done so many times before.”
“Wonderful. Let’s get started.” He stood, clapping his hands together.
What passed was a very distracting day for Ava. Watching Kai clean her weapons meant plenty of opportunity for Kai to make various jests about how a man should keep his weaponry in good order. His double entendre left her with heated cheeks. On their ride, his hands lingered as he had helped her on and off the horse, though he had insisted he was only playing the role of a good servant by being so courteous toward her.
After a dinner with plenty of wine that had left Ava reaching out with her foot toward Kai and the two of them teasing one another under the table with brief touches, right under the nose of Laird Blair Grant, who fortunately didn’t seem to notice, Ava was even more distracted.
After they had all shared a drink in the great hall, rather than retire to bed, Ava headed for the kitchen, with a meaningful glance toward Kai who winked back at her, clearly knowing where he was to meet her. By the time she reached the kitchen, all was dark and silent inside, with the servants having gone to bed. Ava lit two candles to keep them company and rested them on the table, just as Kai appeared behind her.
He leaned against the doorframe, that same mischievous smile he had had all day.
“Ye look far too delighted with yerself,” she said teasingly. “Here I thought being a servant fer a day would torment yer patience.”
“As yer servant? Never. Now, let me get that milk on.” He started a fire and prepared to heat the milk as she sat down on the other side of the kitchen table. “How have ye enjoyed having a servant fer the day?”
“I’ve greatly enjoyed having ye at me beck and call,” she assured him. “Tomorrow, I shall have tae get used tae the fact there will be nay man ready tae drop tae his knees tae tie up me bootlaces.” She giggled. It was hardly something she ever needed doing for her, as she was perfectly happy to do such tasks herself, but Kai’s company all day had been something she was powerless to resist.
“Anything else ye’d like from me before midnight comes and I am nay longer yer servant?”
“I have just have one more thing I want tae ask of ye.” Ava wasn’t sure if it was the wine she’d had with dinner that had made her more confident, the fact they were secluded together in the kitchen or if it was the heightened tension that had been passing between them all day, but she couldn’t resist. There was one thing more she wanted from him, and she had to ask.
“What’s that?” Kai said, still smiling from their jest as he turned to place down the cup of milk in front of her, his last task complete.
“Kai?” Ava softened her voice, waiting for him to look up from the cups to meet her gaze. “I want ye tae… kiss me.”
His grasp slipped on his own cup. How it managed to stay upright and not spill milk everywhere she didn’t know. Dumbstruck, he stared at her.
“Ye dinnae need tae look at me like that.” She regretted it at once. “Ye didnae seem tae mind our last kisses.”
“Mind them!? Is that what ye think?” He was suddenly on his feet. She copied his movement, ignoring her cup as she turned to the door.
“Never mind.”
“What? Ye cannae make a request like that then stalk out the door.”
“I wasnae stalking.” She halted in the doorway, looking back at him accusingly. “Just because I never mastered the way ye tried tae teach me tae walk like a harlot, swinging her hips–”
“That isnae what I was teaching ye tae dae!”
“I dinnae stalk,” she insisted, seeing red now. She cursed the tense day they had shared and the fact that the wine from earlier that evening had given her the confidence to ask at all. She wanted to get out of there. “I’m going tae bed.”
“Nay, ye’re nae.”
“What dae ye mean I’m nae? Kai!” She practically squealed his name for he was suddenly on her side of the room. He slammed the kitchen door shut, and somehow in her effort to back up from him, she had ended up flat against the wood with him stood before her. He wasn’t touching her, yet, though his hands were on either side of her palms.
“Ye’re staying right here. I’m yer slave, am I nae? I have tae give ye everything ye ask fer today.”
“If that is the only reason ye would kiss me, then forget I asked it. I thought that a kiss was on yer mind, but apparently nae. Clearly, I was a fool tae think ye ever liked those kisses in the first place –”
“Are ye mad!?” Kai snapped loudly, the anger in his face so plain that she flattened her spine to the door. “I’m always holdingmeself back from ye, Ava. Believe me, ye dinnae want tae ken how many times in me mind I have pictured kissing ye, wanting ye tae think of me and only me. Dinnae think fer a single second that I didnae want any of those kisses.”
“What dae ye mean?” Ava felt like her heart had leapt into her mouth. “Kai? How many times have ye wanted tae kiss me? How many?”
“In the name of the wee man, Ava, does it matter!?” he got even louder.
“Hush! Dae ye want someone tae come running?”
“Then stop me mouth another way,” he said heatedly, leaning toward her.
