He shivered, too, though he had faced worse on the battlefield when there had been no shelter from thunderstorms at all other than a sodden breacan over his head.He kicked open the door to their chamber, making Lisette gasp, and strode inside, roaring out commands to the maidservants hard on his heels.
“Stoke the fire!Pull back the covers on the bed!”
A flurry of commotion surrounded them as Conall set Lisette down on her feet in front of the fireplace.Without any more delay, he reached down to grab the hem of her wet tunic and pulled the garment over her head.
Logs crackled and flared into a bright warming blaze at the prodding of a stout serving maid with an iron poker, while the other two rushed forward with towels, only to have Conall grab them from their hands.It was him that swiftly dried Lisette from her head to her toes while doing his best to focus upon his task though she stood there naked and shaking.
Her beautiful body limned in firelight and her widened eyes never straying from his face, Conall swallowing hard that he would feel his lower body tighten with desire at such a dire moment.
Her lips still blue and her teeth chattering, but she shivered less, thankfully, Conall accepting a woolen blanket pulled from the armoire by one of the women to wrap around Lisette.Only then did he sweep her up again and deposit her upon the bed where he covered her with more blankets tucked up to her chin.
“M-my thanks, h-h-husband,” came her broken whisper, but Conall only nodded and went back to the fireplace where he picked up the poker and prodded the flames into an even hotter blaze.A knock upon the open door made him turn around to see a serving maid bearing a tray laden with steaming cups and bowls, his own silent thanks going out to Aislinn.
“Chicken broth, Laird Campbell…and warm cider.”
“Set it upon the table by the bed,” he said tersely, anxious for the servants to leave them in peace so he could strip out of his own wet clothes.As if guessing his thoughts, several of them gestured to the towels stacked upon a chair and then hurried from the room, the last maidservant closing the door with a thud behind her.
No sound now but the rain beating upon the window, the crackling of the flames, and Conall’s hard breathing, for he had not stopped yet for a moment to tend to himself.
“Conall…please.You’re still dripping wet…”
Lisette’s eyes wide and pleading as if she feared for him, he set to the task of swiftly undressing and toweling himself dry, leaving his damp hair ruffled and covering his face.
To his surprise, he heard a soft laugh from the bed, his gaze meeting Lisette’s after he had swept his hair out of his eyes.
To his relief, her color was much improved and not anywhere near as pale, though he could see that she still shivered.Within three strides, he had joined her in the bed and burrowed next to her beneath the covers, Conall pulling her against him to warm her.
A good thing, too, for her skin felt cold and made his flesh pucker with goosebumps.She pressed closer still as if craving the heat of his body, a sigh escaping her that evidenced her own relief.
“It was good tae hear you laugh, lass,” he murmured against her hair, thankfully drying from the heat in the room.At any other time he might have felt the warmth stifling, but now he was more than grateful for the dancing flames in the fireplace as her shivering began to ease.“Would you like some broth?”
“Not yet, stay with me,” came her whisper against his chest, making his skin pucker again, but this time not because her flesh was cold.“You did look funny with your hair so wild and tousled…like a boy’s.”
He could sense that she smiled, though he couldn’t see her face with Lisette snuggled against him.Her body felt warmer now and so willowy in his arms, which made him grimace and press his head into the pillow—och, was he a rutting beast to desire her so intensely when she was still recovering from this most recent scare?
“You saved me again,” she murmured, pressing her lips to where his heart thrummed faster to have her so near.The sweet tenderness of her kiss moved him more deeply than he could have ever imagined…and made him swallow hard to feel such fierce emotion, Conall drawing her even closer.
“I told you that I’d protect you tae my dying breath,” he murmured back, caressing the silkiness of her skin beneath the covers.“You gave me a fright when I couldna see you through the rain—och, it’s done now.Try tae rest, Lisette…”
She nodded against his chest, even that small movement making Conall clench his jaw and stare up at the brocade canopy above them—as if he could rest, too!
The last few nights spent apart from her had left him craving her presence, her nearness, the scent of her, the feel of her, though he had told himself that it was only the desire of a man for his wife.Yet something else stirred within him now for this woman who had been thrust into his life—aye, through no fault of her own!
When he had faced her in the bailey and told her that he couldn’t promise her love, he had known he lied, the wounded look in her eyes making him regret the words as soon as he’d uttered them.Yet he had immediately hardened himself and stifled again the war raging inside him that seemed to intensify with each passing day.
He didn’t want to love Lisette!Such emotion only brought heartache and pain—och, how many times now had he come close to losing her?
A sleeping elixir that might have caused her never to awake.
Snarling wolves.
A harsh and unrelenting journey that had left her weak and exhausted.
Now a thunderstorm with deadly lightning striking all around them—the flaming tree limb in the garden like a sign from heaven that some sinister force yearned to claim her.
What might happen on that day when he wasn’t there to help her?Protect her?Och, to think of it made Conall hug Lisette so tightly she roused from the sleepiness that had descended upon her and gasped, though at once he lowered his head to kiss her cheek and soothe her.
“Forgive me, wife…rest now.”
