Page 27 of Love Beyond Words
“I willna lie to ye. Ye look foul.”
Harry turned to leave but called back to him as he left.
“I canna believe ye had a naked woman in yer bed and dinna know it. That must have been some journey. I doona believe I could ever be so tired.”
Chapter 15
“Marcus…”
“Yes, Laurel?”
Marcus was sitting on the floor, his back against the side of the bed so that I was entirely shielded from his view as I bathed. He didn’t want to be forced to answer questions about last night alone and I didn’t want to be alone. I had to spill my secret shame to someone or I feared I would burst.
“I did a bad thing. A very bad thing.”
“What could you have possibly done?”
He didn’t sound like he believed me at all.
“You remember how I said that when I woke up, Raudrich and I were both on separate sides of the bed?”
“Yes. What about it?”
Thoroughly clean and freezing—the water had cooled quickly—I stepped out of the tub, dried myself off, and slipped back into my dress.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly true.”
“What?” Marcus flew off the floor and I had to run to block him from charging out the door.
“Hang on. Let me explain.”
He was shaking again.
“What’s there to explain? He either touched you or he didn’t. Last night, you said he didn’t. Now, you say he did. I’m back to wanting to kill him.”
“Don’t jump to a conclusion. There’s a lot to explain, actually. You see,” I couldn’t even look at him while I said it. I stared down at my bare feet. “When I woke up, I was in his arms, my head on his chest, my legs intertwined with his. It was…intimate.”
I glanced up at Marcus to gauge his reaction. He looked like he was about to blow a gasket. I held up a hand to stop him.
“Hang on. Let me finish. You see, I had a very interesting dream last night. At least, I thought it was a dream until I woke up in Raudrich’s arms. Initially, I freaked out, which you already know. But what you don’t know is that as I stood there watching you and Harry hash this out, I remembered something from the beginning of what I thought was a dream. Raudrich didn’t initiate contact with me. I was the one who rolled over in the bed and snuggled into him. I touched him. He didn’t touch me.”
Marcus stepped back and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.” I threw my hands up to cover my face. “I know I was sleeping, but still…I shamelessly felt him up. I even…” I hesitated and then lowered my voice as if I were worried the stone walls wouldn’t keep my voice inside, “aroused him. Then I freaked out and broke his ribs.”
A smile slowly spread across Marcus’ face as he silently crossed his arms and stared at me.
I dramatically slid down to the floor. “Why are you smiling?”
“You think this man will be angry about this?”
“Of course, he is.”
Marcus shook his head.
“I’ll admit that I’m sure he’s not too pleased about the cracked ribs, but if you think he’s upset you rubbed yourself against him, you know nothing about men. Besides, he was asleep until you kicked him off the bed. He may not even remember that you touched him.”
