Page 15 of Her Scot of the Morrow
I was about to tell him it had to, as long as he was with Lorna, and worse yet, if I was destined for Dugal, but Flame startled me when he scurried out from under the bed. Clearly able to see me too, he looked at me and perked his ears before looking at the door.
“’Tis all right,” I heard a soft voice say from the other side of the door. “My mother-by-marriage sent me with a change of clothing for our guest.”
“Ye mean our prisoner,” the guard groused while opening the door. He allowed in a pretty young woman with softly rounded cheeks and deep olive-green eyes, whom I liked immediately despite not knowing her. But Ididknow her, didn’t I? Because I only needed to look at her to know she had to be Lilias, my newly discovered half sister, and I didn’t fail to notice how the guard watched her like a hawk, either.
“My laird and husband requested ye wear these,” Lilias said, loud enough for the guard to hear as she handed Sloan the folded clothes. “He willnae see ye in MacLeod colors whilst yer on Sutherland land in his castle, ye ken?”
“Despite being here at the king’s behest and speaking kindly on behalf of the Sutherlands?” Sloan returned, sounding frustrated for the guard’s sake despite the kindness that flickered in his eyes when he looked at Lilias.
“Aye.” I swore she looked right at me and offered a small smile of reassurance before looking at Sloan again. “Ye’re to change, and then the guard shall escort ye to the dining chamber.”
She turned away, but not before I swore she winked at where Flame had tucked himself under the bed once more, and left the chamber quickly, allowing the guard to close the door behind her.
“She could see me, Sloan,”I said, convinced.“And Flame, too. I’m certain of it.”
“’Twould not surprise me as her gifts lie in communicating with animals.” He sifted through the clothing as if looking for something.“And it stands to reason if that's where her powers lie, and Flame can see within the Morrow, then she can too.”
“How interesting,”I murmured, finding it not just intriguing but perhaps a little too convenient all things considered.“What are you looking for, anyway?”
“Anything Lilias might have tucked in here, given she helped Flame get the Viking dagger into that trunk, so if anyone here is going to help us, ‘twill be her.”It seemed he found what he was looking for because he smiled and pulled out a tiny scroll.“Ah ha!”
“Hey, wait a minute,”I exclaimed, recognizing the parchment and handwriting when he unrolled it.“I think that might be for me.”
“Aye?”
“Yes.”I smiled, relieved to have heard from her, however brief the message.“It’s from Storm.”
“So it seems,”he murmured, reading it.
Whatever you do, Willow, don’t let him use magic to change clothing. Elspet and Dugal are waiting for that, hoping to find you. xo
No sooner did we read the words than the tiny piece of parchment caught on a gust of wind, flew through the window, hit a narrow slice of late-day sunlight, and vanished.
“Storm certainly does appear to be tracking all this, aye?”he marveled, though I heard the hesitation in his voice because there seemed to be so much going on behind the scenes.“As does Lilias.”
“Yeah, and it sounds like they’re working together, which is a good thing,” I said.“Especially if you were considering chanting yourself into those clothes.”
“I was,”he conceded, eyeing them with disgust.“If I have to wear the bloody things.”
I said nothing to that because I didn’t like Dugal growing so hostile so fast. Not when I believed Sloan should be given diplomatic immunity. If they even had that here, because he was doing everything he said he would to the best of his ability, at least as far as they knew, so this didn’t bode well.
Nevertheless, Sloan honored their request and undressed while I stood by, trying not to gawk, but it was damn difficult. I had seen him partially undressed when he was a teenager, but that boy had nothing on this man. Not even a teeny, tiny bit, not that there was anything small about him.
I swallowed hard, and heat burned under my skin even in the Morrow, at the sight of his broad-shouldered, muscular torso, to everything below, because gone was the bashful boy who only let me see so much. Instead, it became abundantly clear based on the slow, easy smile he issued me that he was enjoying this every bit as much as I was.
Something made more than obvious by his impressive erection.
Forget a heavy swallow, it became impossible to breathe when I didn’t look away like I should have because he wasn’t mine. For the life of me, I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off it if I tried. My traitorous gaze lingered, imagining it was mine and how good it would feel inside me, before a heavy rap came at the door, and snapped me out of my lustful reverie.
A good thing, too, because Sloan was promised to another, and I needed to remember that.
Especially when I laid eyes on Lorna, very soon after.
CHAPTER TEN
–Sloan–
THE LAST THING I wanted to hear was an insistent rap at my door as I changed out of my MacLeod colors, loathing every minute of it, until I realized Willow was watching me. I was more than aroused at the feel of her eyes on me and seeing how my nudity affected her.
