Some Like It Scot (29 page)

K
atie stretched like the proverbial cat in the windowsill. When her legs stretched beyond the length of the down-filled duvet covering her, she snatched them right back in again. It was a damn chilly windowsill.

She snuggled under the covers and enjoyed the luxury of waking up slowly, without any wheels moving under her. She had no idea how long she'd been asleep, but she knew exactly where she was. She turned her head and opened her eyes, but Graham's side of the bed was empty. She pouted, then laughed when she saw the note propped on his pillow with her name on it in big letters.

She pulled it over and opened it. Before she even read the first word, she took a moment to look at his handwriting. There was something intimate about a handwritten note. His was legible, but that was the most she could say for it. She smiled, charmed by the slanted scrawl. She read:
Darling Katie, this is so you know I've not left you and run off to the nearest ferry
. “Very funny.” But it was funny. And she rather liked the Darling Katie part. She could hear his accent as she read and made the appropriate adjustments in her mind.
I've gone into Aoibhneas to meet with Roan and Shay.
“So, that's how you'd spell that,” she murmured. Not a big help. She was going to stick with Port Joy.
I will bring sustenance with me upon my return. You may want to wait on the shower.
She wiggled her eyebrows at that and smiled to herself, thinking he wanted a little shower recreation. She was okay with that plan. Then she read on:
It's a bit tricky and I don't want you scalding yourself
. “Right.” She sighed. “Sometimes, you're such a scientist.”

She was smiling as she rolled out of bed, then danced a little on the cold stone floor until she jumped to a rug. “Clothes would be a very good thing right now.” She thought about all her luggage down in the entry vestibule, and cringed at the idea of getting it all up there. She thought maybe she'd just bring it up an armful of clothes at a time, until she had what she needed. “But will I be able to light the lantern thingies and not burn the place to the ground, that's the question.”

“Were ye plannin' on going up and down the stairs in your all together?”

She squealed and turned to find Graham standing just inside the door to the stairs. Only it hardly looked like him.

“I'm rather liking this kind of homecoming. Will be the first time I'll be wantin' to leave the fields early. Or just stay in.”

She would have grabbed the duvet, or searched for her clothes, wherever the hell they'd been flung to, but she was too busy standing there, goggling at Graham's drastically changed appearance, to care much about her own nudity. “Wow,” she said. Not pithy, but it did sum things up.

He took a moment, then realized she was staring at him with the same avid fascination he was staring at her but for a totally different reason. At that, he looked down at himself, then back at her. “Is something the matter?”

“I—uh, no. Not at all.” She couldn't take her eyes off him. “I've only seen you in your tartan.”
Well, and stunningly naked
.

“Oh,” he said, “aye. I hadn't thought of that.” He made a fast gesture at himself, then crossed to the kitchen area and sat down a large cloth sack, sliding the long straps from his shoulder.

He was so cute, she thought, all self-conscious. Look at him. What was there to be self-conscious about? The man was wearing trousers, a heavy cream button-down work shirt with a thin burgundy plaid stripe running through it, and heavy work boots. He was possibly the hottest thing she'd ever seen. The loose fitting khaki pants accentuated his narrow waist and crazy muscular thighs. And that shirt? What it did for his broad shoulders. She was a fan. But what really had her wanting to drag him straight back to bed was the way he'd pulled his hair back in a queue at his neck and the wire-rim scientist glasses.

Seriously. Hottest thing she'd ever seen.

He slid the glasses off as he tipped the bag on its side.

“No,” she said. “Don't do that.”

“Ye're no' hungry?”

She walked right into the kitchen, naked as a jaybird, quite thankful, for once, for no picture windows, and pushed his glasses back up onto his face.

“What—”

“I'm hungry.”

“I'm no' surprised, but I need to get—”

She started undoing the buttons on his shirt.

“Oh,” he said, letting go of the bag.

“Aye,” she said, pushing the shirt back off his shoulders.

He reached to take the band from his hair.

“Really, just leave things alone.”

He lifted his hand away, held them both up, as if in surrender. But he was smiling. “Had I known ye liked the lonely scientist farmer look, I'd have left the tartan at home.”

She was licking his chest at the moment, but paused long enough to shake her head. “Oh, I'm having that kilt bronzed.”

He laughed, then scooped her up and over his shoulder.

She squealed and smacked his ass. “Wow. Remind me again why we thought we shouldn't be doing this?”

He tossed her gently into the center of the bed, then leapt in after. “Because we weren't in our right minds.”

“Right,” she said, pulling him over on top of her. “I'm so glad we have our wits about us now.”

“Aye. Wits.” He tugged her mouth down to his and the conversation dwindled.

The laughter, however, did not. This time it was playful and fun. If her heart hadn't been in jeopardy before, when he looked up from where he'd been feasting quite lingeringly over her nipples, as his glasses fogged, and he slid them down his nose to wiggle his eyebrows at her, she knew she was lost.

“Come here,” she said, laughing even as her throat closed over with sudden emotion. She tugged him up until he was on top of her, then carefully, slowly, slid his glasses off and gently set them somewhere back over her head. “Not booking passage to Oban this morning might be the best decision I've ever made in my life.”

“You mean after the one that had me carrying you out of the chapel.”

“Well, that, too,” she said, and leaned up to kiss his chin.

Playful and fun, suddenly shifted to gentle and sweet, as he dipped his mouth and kissed her slowly, with a mild rather than ravenous hunger. She could feel how ready his body was for her, and yet he took his time, lingering at the corners of her mouth, dropping sweet kisses along the side of her jaw. Teasing her earlobe, making her gasp, softly, as he kissed the pulse on the side of her neck.

In his home, surrounded by the things that truly mattered to him, it was easy to imagine him as the quiet, sensitive lover. It wasn't as if she hadn't seem glimpses of that side of him all along. But she'd seen the fierce protector in him, felt the warrior conqueror when he took her earlier. And she was falling for both men.

He moved his way back to her mouth, and when he pulled her more fully under him, he moved between her thighs, and took her in one, slow, deep thrust. She arched, gasped, and felt her body climb straight up that peak. But rather than build on that, and take her faster, thrust harder, he kept it slow, steady, climbing her up slowly, sweetly, until she thought she might sob from the need for release.

“Graham,” she said, on a choked plea.

“Shh,” he said, against the side of her neck. “We've all the time in the world. Let me…”

Love you.

Those were the words she heard, and it made her own heart take flight. He hadn't said them, but she knew, in that moment, it was what she wanted. Wherever her path took her—if she could find a way to stay on Kinloch—that was her intention. She wasn't giving up without the fight of her life. One thing McAuleys were really good at, was going after what they wanted. And getting it.

He slid an arm beneath her back and pulled her up that last bit, so he could slide the rest of the way. “Oh. That is…”

“I know,” he whispered against her neck.

She felt him gather, his body tensed, and he grew fuller, yet continued his slow, steady strokes.

“Graham,” she whispered.

“Darling Katie,” he said, then arched his back and groaned, long and low, as he pulsed into her until he shuddered from the strength of the release.

Her body shook right along with his. When he tried to move away, she held on tight. “Stay,” she asked him. “With me.”

His hold on her tightened until she thought she might faint, but it was the sweetest, instinctive hug she'd ever received. It was as honest a response as she could have hoped for.

When they could both finally breathe, he slipped from her, rolled to his side, and pulled her with him, keeping her close. “That was…”

“I know,” she said, pressing a kiss to his chest.

“I dinnae want to move. I think all my limbs have been turned to water.”

“I know exactly how you feel.”

“Let me catch my breath, then I'll take ye into the shower—”

“If you show me how it works—”

He tipped her face up to his. “I want to go on record right now.”

“Okay,” she said, fighting a smile at his oh so serious tone. It was the twinkle in his eyes, though, that really caught at her heart. They were back to fun, but there was another layer to it. A more poignant tug in her chest, and the deep affection that had been growing for him all along, had reached a fully new plateau. “Go on.”

“You'll always be an independent free spirit, it's who you are. But I am finding that I enjoy, a great deal, taking care of you. In ways big and small. So if you can understand by allowing me these small pleasures, you're making me happy, perhaps it willnae be such a challenge for you to let go a little bit.”

“Would these little things include scrubbing my back in the shower?”

“It would be a most delightful place to start, aye.”

“Then I believe I am willing to give it a go.”

He grinned. “This is a partnership that might have a bit of merit.”

“I'm happy you feel that way,” she teased back.

He hadn't said a word about her earlier declaration, about wanting him to marry her. He'd played it as a joke at the time, but she was pretty sure he knew she'd never been more serious. Every moment they spent with each other served to strengthen what they could have together. She was going to have to trust that, trust him.

“How did the meeting go, with Roan and Shay?”

She'd expected, perhaps, a bit of frustration on his part, as she'd known he was a bit worried that his friends wouldn't support his desire to see the end to the Marriage Pact, but she hadn't been prepared for the way his expression immediately shuttered. Not when they'd made such huge strides in reaching a new level of trust with one another.

“Don't do that,” she said, but softly.

“Do what?”

“Shut yourself off. I take it the chat didn't go as you'd hoped.” She pushed up a little, and framed his hard jaw with her hand. “I'd like to think you could talk to me about everything. I'd like to have that freedom with you. I'll try and always keep an open mind, but you'll also know I will tell you how I honestly feel. I'd hope for the same trust and feedback from you.” She smiled at him. “I'm no' just looking for a partner in the shower, ye ken.”

His lips twitched, and she felt like she'd just made a major inroad.

“You're uncanny with that, ye know.”

“I've Scot blood in me.”

“You've a few things Scot in you, as a matter of fact.”

His comment elicited a surprised burble of laughter from her, and she swatted him. “I can't believe you just said that.”

“If I'm to trust you with the serious topics, then I should know I can trust you to handle my bawdy humor as well. What?” he asked, when she looked at him askance. “Do I no' strike you as the type?”

“I'm not so sure there is really anything you could do or say that would surprise me. You're an amazing dichotomy of so many different things. I haven't learned them all yet, so you might catch me off guard from time to time.”

“I find I dinnae mind that so much. You blush the most becoming shade of pink.”

She lifted up and kissed him on the chin. “So do you. So I understand the attraction. Just remember, fair's fair.”

“What have I done?” he said with mock horror.

“If you think it's successfully changing the topic, you'll find you're mistaken,” she told him. “So, tell me what went on with Roan and Shay. I take it they weren't receptive to your abolitionist ideas.”

“Not entirely, no.”

“Do you think they'll come around? Will you be able to persuade them?”

“They made a pretty good case for keeping the Pact intact.”

Surprise had her pushing up to a half sit so she could see his face more fully. “Really? Did that make you see things differently as well?”

He shook his head. “No' in the way they'd hoped. But they did make me think on the part of my job I talked to you about the other day.”

“That being?”

“Feeling as if I have a sense of what my people need from me in terms of personal direction. As I said, I understand economics, and keeping us a successful, thriving island in terms of our bottom line.”

“But you feared you didn't have a sense of how to maintain the emotional balance. You said you thought they were happy with your performance, though.”

“No one has said anything, no. But I fear if I pursue this path I am on, it will become an issue and swiftly. I dinnae want to disappoint them, and Roan and Shay made a case for giving them hope.”

“By marrying someone you don't love?”

His arms tightened around her, surprising her with the instinctive gesture. She tried not to react to it, but it made every part of her want to sing for joy, knowing he truly did want her. He might not be prepared to admit the full breadth of it yet, but some part of him already knew what was there, what could be there, between them.