He was kissing his way up her neck, making her shiver—and not from the cold.“Margaret might have taken it from the room before we arrived.”His words tickled warmly against her throat.“It would have been even wetter than the sheets.”
“Perhaps,” she said with a distracted sigh.“The pillows are gone, too.I suppose everything on top would have been wetter.What now?”
He lifted his head and scanned the fancy red brocade bed hangings.
“No,” she said with a choked laugh.“They’re far too high to detach.And we can’t destroy Violet’s lovely new guest room—she dressed this bed so beautifully.”
“For all the good it’s done us.”Though the sentiment was negative, his tone sounded much less defeated than she felt.“Hell,leannan, are you going to let a missing sheet or blanket stop us?”
If he was still hopeful, perhaps she should be, too.“Maybe we don’t need a covering.”
Maybe she wouldn’t get poked as much as she feared.
“That’s my lass.”Wasting no time, he threw off his remaining clothes and backed her toward the bed, aiming for the side where the towels were laid out.When she felt the feather tick behind her, she sank onto it, reaching to pull him down with her.
“Ugh!”she exclaimed, bounding back up.She hadn’t been poked.Instead she’d got soaked.“How many pitchers of water did she spill on here?Five?”
Trick scooped up the towels and began dabbing at the mattress.For all of ten seconds.“The bed is drenched,” he said, stating the obvious.“We will have to wait for it to dry naturally.”
“That could take all night!”
“And half of tomorrow as well,” Trick agreed.
“We’ll be on our way home by then,” Kendra wailed.“This is so unfair!”
“Hush, lassie.People are sleeping in here.”
“Clearly they aren’t,” she said, rolling her eyes toward the other chamber.Disgusted, she headed to the wardrobe, pulling her dress off as she went.“Let me swap this wet gown for a nightgown, then we’ll head down to Cas and Pol’s room.”
“Kendra…”
Shivering in just her damp chemise, she turned back to face him in all his aroused glory.Her breath caught in her throat.
She swallowed hard.“Yes?”
“You’re giving up?”
“You’re not?”she asked, incredulous.
For a moment, he just gazed at her, commanding her attention.
A beat of silence passed between them.The pit of her stomach began tingling.
“There’s no smelly cheese in here,” he said at last.“We’re not overwhelmingly sleepy.The door is intact.I’m not seeing any cats.And I want you,” he continued, his voice taking on that tinge of a Scottish accent she heard when he got emotional.“And I’m thinking you want me.”
She found herself caught in his fathomless amber eyes.“I do,” she breathed.
“Then why should we give up?”
“The bed is soaked.”
“Since when do we need a bed?”he asked in a tone that sent her back to a long-ago day in Scotland, to an ancient dungeon deep in the earth.Like in a dream, she remembered him lifting her, wrapping her legs around his middle, a rough stone wall against her back…
She wasn’t sure whether the sound she made was a gasp or a snigger.“I’m not twenty-three anymore.And there’s no free wall space in here.”
She watched his gaze sweep the room—the big window, the fireplace, the many pieces of heavy carved furniture—before lingering on the small parquet table and its two plush chairs.
Now she sniggered for real.“I’m not making love on one of Violet’s brand-new velvet chairs.We don’t even have a blanket to cover it.And don’t eventhinkabout the table,” she added, figuring she was reading his mind.“It’s on a pedestal.It will tilt.”
