“Come here, beautiful.” When we could breathe again, I moved her legs to the side and she crawled up to nestle into my side. As much as I wanted to make love to her again, I wanted to cuddle with her more. Feel her against me. Touch her. Talk to her. Get to know all the things about her I’d been dreaming about for the last two years.
“This is a first for me,” she whispered after a moment.
“A first?” I asked curiously.
“I’ve never had sex in this house before.”
“No?” I wrapped my arms around her. “I don’t know if I should be proud, or if I should be terrified that your grandfather’s going to come storming in here with a shotgun or something.”
She giggled. “He’s far too dignified for that. He’d merely corner you tomorrow and demand you do the right thing.”
“Like, marry you?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, that’s easy. I was imagining a shotgun wedding and a death grip on my balls.”
She laughed, curling against me. “You make me happy, Dax. Very, very happy.”
“You make me happy, too.”
“I can’t stay much longer, but I don’t want to move.”
“I don’t want you to.” I held her tightly, thinking I could get used to this.
I woke to the sound of Merrie’s whispered voice.
“Dax! Isla! Wake up, lass!”
We turned over in alarm, noting the sunshine streaming through the window. I was also acutely aware of my naked body intertwined with Isla’s.
“What—” Isla tried to focus.
“Come on then! Your grandfather is showing a guest around the house and he’s bound to see you coming out of your young gentleman’s room! Quickly, now, get dressed!” She threw a piece of fabric in our general direction. “Put on your robe and get back to your room. Hurry up, now!”
Isla sat up, grabbing for what appeared to be a robe as I discreetly pulled up the sheet.
“Sorry!” she whispered, chuckling as our eyes met.
“See you at breakfast?” I tried to keep from laughing.
Merrie had turned her back on us but was tapping her foot impatiently.
Isla leaned down to give me a quick kiss and grabbed her phone.
“See you at breakfast.”
She hurried behind Merrie, and I heard them talking as they made their way into the hall.
“Your mother was afraid you might have fallen asleep and sent me to fetch you,” Merrie was saying.
“Did you get an eyeful?” Isla teased, laughing.
“Not my first time seeing a man’s member, I’ll have you know.”
I almost laughed too, shaking my head as I squinted at the time on my phone and their voices faded.
Merrie was a fun-loving sweetheart, so although she’d probably been a little embarrassed about seeing me naked, my gut told me she wasn’t actually upset or Constance wouldn’t have sent her to wake us. According to Ian, she’d caught the boys doing all kinds of naughty things in the barn and the pool over the years, so she’d undoubtedly already seen it all from the kids. Except I wasn’t a kid anymore and neither was Isla. And I was already over this sneaking around. As soon as I could change the reservation, we were moving to the hotel.
11
Isla
Ian, Everly and several of their friends were arriving today, so Dax and I used the morning to check into the hotel. The house would be packed, starting today, which meant there was less chance my grandfather would notice I was gone. Not that it was a big deal. I went away all the time, whether it was a girls’ trip or weekends with guys I’d dated in the past. He didn’t care what we did when we were away from home; he only had rules about what we did under his roof. It made sense but it didn’t, since the youngest of us was now twenty-two.
I wasn’t going to try and figure him out at this stage of his life, so Dax and I slipped out early with our things. His parents weren’t arriving until next week, but we were relatively sure Granddad wasn’t keeping tabs on where everyone was sleeping. At least, no one that wasn’t one of his grandchildren. I longed to ask my mother if she would ever have a man spend the night, but my gut told me she never would. As far as I knew, she still wasn’t over my father, and that made me sad. I’d loved my father dearly, but he’d been gone five years and Mum was only fifty. She had at least a quarter-century of life left and that was a long time to be alone.
It was something I’d thought about quite a bit in the last year or so. Not just for my mother, but for myself. I was twenty-eight and really hadn’t had a serious boyfriend since college. I’d dated, but even before I met Dax, I’d been busy and distracted. First by my postgraduate studies, then finishing my dissertation, and then with teaching and research. There hadn’t been time for a man and it hadn’t been until I’d gotten to know Dax that I’d considered it.
Now that we were intimately involved, I realized it was nice to have someone there for you. Falling asleep in his arms had been heavenly, so I was really looking forward to waking up in them as well. It wasn’t going to be until tomorrow, though, and I glanced at the time.
“We should get back to the house,” I told Dax. “Ian’s plane has landed, so they should be there within the hour.”
“We have time.” Dax grabbed me around the waist and pulled me close to him.
“For what?” I teased, smiling up at him.
He dipped his head and kissed me, his mouth taking mine as if he owned it. My lips parted of their own accord, giving as good as I got, our tongues swirling and dancing.
“Fuck, I need to be inside of you,” he whispered.
“Yes.” I didn’t resist as he yanked off my jeans and then his own. We didn’t even
