Page 49 of In Bed with her Highland Foe

Kyven could no longer look away at all. She felt her cheeks turn red, a fire blazing beneath them, as she backed up toward the door and collided with it. She made no move to leave the room though, just ogling him, admiring him in all of his glory.

“Care tae try and look elsewhere, Kyven?” he teased her, and her stomach flinched once again. To see that flirtatious smile on his lips, to see him so unabashedly standing there, was making things worse. “Kyven?” He walked toward her.

She tried to flatten her back even more to the door, though it seemed an impossible thing.

This was a new Gilchrist, a version of him she hadn’t seen before as he neared her, never once looking away from her either.

“Something tells me ye rather like what ye see,” he observed in a deep tone, placing his hands gently on the door either side of her, his palms flat.

He was so near now that she could have reached out and placed her hands to his bare skin, exploring those scars and muscles. Her eyes shot from the handsome sharp lines of his face down to his chest.

“I… I didnae say that.” She managed to take her hands from her lips and utter the words. Still, she did not move away. She rather liked being encased within the confines of his arms, and wondered what it would be like if he just sidled his arms a little nearer to her and brushed her waist with his bare hands.

“Ye havenae run away yet,” he said with a smile, tilting his head down to her.

“Dinnae tease me like this,” she said sharply.

“Like what?” He suddenly hovered his lips over hers.

Oh, nay.

He could be in no doubt of her attraction to him now. She was standing there, chin turned up toward him, while he was completely naked. Was it so obvious how much she wished to kiss him? To throw herself at his bare body and beg to be explored by him as she explored him?

“I didnae ken ye had this side tae ye, Kyven,” he whispered, moving his lips nearer still. His arms bent, just an inch either side of her, so their bodies were brought closer.

“I… I dinnae ken what side ye mean.”

She had to stop this, had to control of herself at once. She sank down suddenly, diving under one of his arms to escape. He chuckled, making no move to follow her and walked away across the chamber. He picked up a towel from the top of a screen and ever so slowly, torturously so, he wrapped the towel around his waist, covering up his length and the tops of his legs. As he walked away from her and did it so slowly, he offered her the perfect view of his rear.

Her mouth became even drier than before.

“Did ye get yer head knocked last night in the attack as well?” she asked, stumbling down to sit on the edge of his bed. The cat hurried to nestle herself in Kyven’s lap and she stroked the animal distractedly, her eyes still trained on Gilchrist.

“Aye, I did,” he said, pointing at a heavy bruise that was mostly hidden on the side of his temple by his dark hair.

“That explains it then.”

“Explains what?”

“Ye approaching me completely… naked,” she murmured the word, her eyes trailing down the muscles on his back as he approached his fireplace. His shoulder blades were pronounced. She had a mad idea of reaching her arms up behind his back and gripping onto those shoulders, feeling the tone there as he moved above her.

Control of yerself, Kyven!

“That wasnae down tae the injury,” he said dismissively, picking up a bucket of hot water off the fire and pouring it into the copper tub. “Have nay fear of me, me lady.” The way he used her title suddenly made her feel small, no longer wanted in his chamber, no longer intimate with him. “Imagine a lady taking pleasure in her captain,” he chuckled. “I wouldnae blame ye fer running from me chamber right now.” He looked toward her as if he did indeed expect her to run, but she had already decided she was not going anywhere.

This strange flirtatious conversation, his nakedness, all of it rooted her to the spot.

Lottie started scrunching her paws in Kyven’s lap, trying to get her attention again. Kyven stroked her, though her eyes were still very much on Gilchrist.

“Look away again if ye dinnae wish fer that blush tae return.” He pointed at Kyven’s face.

“Why?” she asked.

He reached for the towel around his waist.

She purposefully looked away, hearing him as he climbed into the bath. The moment the splashes sounded, she looked back again, watching as he leaned back on the bathtub, wincing as he raised his injured arms and rested them on the bath ledge.

Slowly, Kyven moved the cat off her lap and stood.