Page 58 of Love Beyond Words
Sydney wiggled her eyebrows knowingly at him, and he laughed at how silly she looked.
“It’s the girl, huh? She’s very pretty. Although, she’s quite shy, isn’t she? I haven’t heard her say a word.”
He’d never seen anything in Laurel that made him believe she was shy.
“None of us gave her a chance to speak, did we? Ye’ll like her. She’s one of Morna’s lassies, same as ye.”
“Ah. I thought she looked, I don’t know, out of time somehow. So…do you love her?”
“In truth, she’s little more than a stranger to me still, but I do think that I could.”
Sydney smiled and looked at him knowingly.
“If Morna sent her, you know you don’t really have much of a choice right? Her matches always work out. I should know. Might as well not fight it or try to slow it down for manners’ sake. If you feel it—which, from that slaphappy smile on your face, you do—just give in. You’ll wind up in the same place either way. You may as well make the journey a little easier on yourself.”
He suspected that Sydney was right, but he’d not say anything like that to Laurel just yet. The last thing he wanted to do was push her away by coming on too strongly.
“I doona doubt any of that, lass.”
“Where’s she at now?”
He could scarcely breathe each time he thought of it.
“In my bed.”
Sydney’s mouth fell open as she jumped up from the chair and moved to pull him to his feet.
“Then, what are you doing sitting around talking to me? We’ve got the daytime for that mess. Go and tend to your woman. Bed her well. Help her touch the heavens. Rock her world. Make her toes curl. You can totally do it.”
Raudrich laughed at Sydney’s bawdy remarks.
“Ach, lass, I’m sure that Pinkie dinna know what to do with ye. Ye do say the strangest things.”
“It’s what we out-of-time lassies do, Raudrich. If I were you, I’d get used to it. I suspect you’ll be hearing it for a very long time.”
Chapter 35
I was still dressed and awake when Raudrich finally made it up to the room. He sighed at the sight of me sitting next to the dwindling fire when he entered.
“Ach, Laurel, ye truly dinna need to stay awake for my sake. I knew ’twas likely to take me some time to calm Sydney down. Ye must be bone-weary, lass. Stand and I’ll tuck ye into bed nice and warm then I’ll hold ye while ye sleep.”
While I appreciated his thoughtfulness, I was still much too aroused from our journey back from the tavern to sleep. Standing, I walked over to him and reached to run my fingers through his hair.
“I do want you to hold me while I sleep, but if it’s all well and fine by you, I’d like to do a few other things with you first.”
I’d definitely had more ale than I’d realized. Either that or the characters I was trying my best to imitate had straight up decided to possess me. Such bluntness wasn’t at all in my nature.
It felt nice, though. Perhaps, I should work on saying what I wanted more often.
And seeing the lift in his expression at my words made me tingle with anticipation. He wanted me too, just as badly—possibly worse—than I wanted him.
“Are ye sure, lass? I’d consider it an honor to simply sleep next to ye. Ye needn’t feel any obligation.”
“Raudrich…” I stood on my tiptoes to reach him. After kissing him until he began to tremble, I trailed my lips toward his ear where I whispered, “I want you. I’ve already had you in my dreams, but tonight I want you in real life. I want to see you and taste you and feel you moving inside of me. Undress me and take me to your bed.”
His response was immediate as he spun me away from him.
“This dress, lass, it suits ye.”
