Page 18 of Lost with a Scot
“She’s no wench, brother,” Aiden said, his tone quiet. They were in an open corridor, and he didn’t want anyone to overhear them.
“Not a wench?” Brodie echoed, and got another elbow from Lydia. “Oi, wife, stop that,” he growled.
“Or what?” Lydia tilted her chin back in defiance.
“Or I’ll carry ye off to bed and when I’m done, ye will be half dead from pleasure and willna have any energy to jab me with your pretty elbows,that’swhat,” he said in warning.
Lydia’s eyes darkened as she shot him a seductive look. “Well, in that case...” She pulled her elbow back to strike him again.
“Ye two arna tired of tupping yet?” Aiden asked with an aggrieved sigh.
“No,” they replied in unison.
“Well, kindly restrain yerselves in front of Anna,” he ordered. “I’ll not have her thinking we are savages.”
“Andwhois Anna?” Lydia asked, her gaze straying to the closed door.
“Aye, who is she?” Brodie asked, understandably curious. Aiden took women to bed far less than his brothers. He had been with women, of course, and knew how to pleasure them, but he wasn’t like Brodie. When he mated his body to a woman’s, it was also a mating of the heart and soul.
That those past relationships hadn’t turned into something more was his own fault. His heart always held back, telling him there was something more. And now here was Anna, and there was an intensity of connection he felt with her he’d never felt with anyone else.
He wasn’t about to rush her into bed. He wanted to savor every moment he had with her.
He didn’t dare tell Brodie that; his brother would mock him for falling in love at first sight. But he knew that destiny was at play, that he was meant to love Anna, and had loved her since he was a boy, even if only in his dreams. That was something his brother would understand far less than love at first sight.
“I found her,” he said, still considering how to approach this.
Brodie and Lydia shared a concerned look.
“Aiden, dear,” Lydia began in her most motherly tone, “what do you mean youfoundher? Women aren’t like half-drowned kittens you find in a rainstorm that need fussing over and cuddling.”
“Well, now, just wait a moment, wife,” Brodie cut in. “Yelike a good cuddle.”
“That’snotwhat I meant.”
“I found her on the shore. She washed up from a shipwreck and washalf-drowned,” Aiden clarified.
“A shipwreck?” This captured his brother’s interest. “I see. We were riding the tail of that storm. Which ship? How many others survived?”
“She’s the only survivor, as far as I know. Apparently, it was theRuritanian Star. She has no memory beyond her first name, which is Anna.”
Lydia covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh, that’s awful...”
“She’s been weak as a kitten,” he added. “And to not ken who she is, that’s left her frightened and vulnerable. She has only her first name and the clothes she wore when she washed up on shore. She had a nightmare last night, and I fell asleep comforting her. Nothing more happened.”
“Oh...” Lydia’s already beautiful face transformed with compassion. “We must help her.”
Brodie rolled his eyes. “Now ye’re wanting to help the kitten too?”
“Of course, and so will you,” she said firmly. “You and Aiden will let another room—I will stay with her.”
“What? Now hold on a minute, wife.” Brodie put an arm around Lydia’s waist, keeping her where she was. “I want to sleep withye, not my brother.”
“It’s not proper for Aiden to stay with her alone,” Lydia insisted. “Even though we don’t know who she is, we must still treat her properly.”
“Since when do Kincade men care about propriety?” Brodie asked. “I kidnapped ye and carried ye off into the night, remember? I wasna proper then.”
At this, Lydia was the one who rolled her eyes. “This is different. This poor woman has no one to look out for her. You Kincade men are far more honorable than you pretend to be, and I simply want to help Aiden take care of this woman.”
