Page 80 of Deception and Desire
“Aye, and tasty.”
“It’s been a week. How long will it take for her to realize I’m no’ speaking to her?” Lachlan wouldn’t admit that he’d begun searching for her around the next corner each day. Her face, the scent of honeysuckle and vanilla, and the memory of her touch would linger in his brain the rest of the day. But the nights… oh the nights. The old dream of a sparkling blue loch, a wet and glistening Fenella touching him, kissing him, sent him into a nocturnal sweat.
“She’s a stubborn lass, to be sure.” Colin grinned. “We’ll see who wins this contest.”
“It’s no’ a contest,” he growled.
It turned out to be a test of endurance, and he was losing. Two weeks of a brief daily encounter with the flaxen beauty, her huge sorrowful eyes imploring him to speak, those velvet lips parted in a watery smile.Sweet Mary!He’d been wronged by her, yet he was the one suffering.
“Ye really need to give in,” Colin said over a bumper of ale one night at the Pigeon. “I’m growing fat.”
MacGregor sat with them, his lips twitching in a semblance of a smile. “Pass some on to me, mon. I’m happy to do my part.”
Lachlan grunted and realized he sounded like the old man across from him. “This has to stop. I’m serious.”
Colin nodded, his smile fading. “Aye, ye’re right. It’s gone on long enough. We’ve just been waiting for ye to admit it.”
Finally, someone agreed with him. His mood lightened, and he ordered more ale. Now life would get back to some semblance of order. And maybe, just maybe, those lusty dreams would stop.
*
Lachlan studied theinvoices as he climbed the stairs. He’d already avoided Fenella earlier, so he knew she’d have left the building.
“Put these on the desk too, would ye?” asked Colin from the landing.
He looked up and took the stack of papers from his cousin. Entering the office, he heard a slight movement in the corner behind him. He turned, the door slammed shut with aclick,and Fenella stood before him with wide eyes.
“What the devil is going on?”
“The two of ye are staying in there until ye talk it out,” yelled Colin from the other side.
“Do ye think this will work?” He glowered at her.
Her stormy eyes narrowed. “This isn’tmydoing. Colin said you needed to speak with me and to wait here.”
“It’s true,” boomed the deep voice in the hall. “I’m leaving.”
“Ye might as well open the door now! This willna work.”
Silence.
Fenella sat on a chair and crossed her legs, her toe tapping against the desk, sending the apricot skirt swaying back and forth. The color seemed to bring out the natural glow of her cheeks.
She wore her hair in long ringlets, and with each bounce of her leg, the silky strands brushed against the nape of her neck. His fingers twitched. She licked her lips and the pounding began, blood rushing to his manhood. Memories of her supple skin, her response to his kisses, flooded him and he grew hard. Then he cursed.
“I’m sorry. I truly did not know Colin would do this.” She glanced at him then lowered her eyes again, her long lashes shadowed against her cheek. “May I speak?”
He didn’t trust his voice, or the emotions pounding his heart and brain, so he gave a curt nod.
“If I had not been so excited to be here—in Glasgow, at the mill—I might have been less of a scatter-brain. I’ve told you why I left London, how I was a misfit and ran away. When I saw the advertisement for this position and bumped into you the same day”—she sucked in a breath—“I thought it was fate.”
Lachlan snorted. He wasn’t giving in to her. She could say her piece and they’d be finished. Yet his eyes continued to stray to her lips as she spoke, the hands clasping and unclasping in her lap.
“I had no reason to pretend my father was dead. It was an honest mistake. If you remember, I spoke of him during our conversations. It wasn’t until Ian died and we were together that night, I realized the misunderstanding. But you were full of grief, and I was so surprised… I didn’t know what to do.”
Lachlan sighed. “It isna that, so much as the fact ye didna trust me with the truth. How can ye say ye love me and no’ tell me of yer mother?”
“You kept a secret from me,” she whispered.
