“Nay, ’tis fine, Mavis. I will help Dwyn with her bath,” Geordie said quietly.
The woman’s eyes widened, her jaw dropping with shock, and she swung her head toward Dwyn, who was just as wide-eyed and agapewith shock. The two gaped at each other with dismay for a moment, and then Geordie said, “Thank ye, Mavis. Ye may go.”
The woman looked as if she might argue, but then something in Geordie’s expression gave her pause and she merely mumbled,“I hope ye ken what ye’re doing, lad,” and rushed from the room, leaving Dwyn to stare at Geordie, her face hot with whatshe felt sure was a blush as she watched him close the door behind the woman and then turn to move back toward her.
Forcing herself to close her mouth, she cleared her throat, and then said nervously, “Ye were jesting, surely, m’laird? I’msure even now Rory is sending me sisters up to help . . .” She let the words trail away when he began to shake his head. “Yewere no’ jesting?” she asked weakly.
Pausing in front of her, he took in her expression and said, “I want to marry ye, Dwyn. I want ye fer me wife. Agree to marryme.”
“Aye,” Dwyn breathed, and then blinked and shook her head when his face broke out in a smile and he reached for her. “I mean,nay, m’laird.”
Geordie paused, surprise crossing his face. “Nay?”
“Ye do no’ want to marry,” she reminded him miserably. “And I’ll no’ let yer brother force ye to marry me just because someonewitnessed what we did in the orchard and tattled to him. Ye’d hate me fer it if I allowed that.”
Geordie relaxed and bent to clasp her by the waist to lift her up off the bed. “Kneel,” he instructed as he lowered her again,and Dwyn automatically bent her legs to kneel as he set her back down facing him on the edge of the bed.
“No one tattled to Aulay,” Geordie announced now, setting to work on her lacings. “At least, if they did, he did no’ bringit up before I told him I wished to marry ye.”
“Which ye did because ye feared someone had seen and would tell,” she reasoned.
“Nay,” he corrected gently as her neckline loosened. “Because I want to marry ye, lass.”
Dwyn shook her head and caught the top of her gown to her chest as it began to fall away. “But ye do no’ wish to marry. Iheard yer brother telling his wife ye’d said that.”
“I did no’ when I first got here, that is true,” he acknowledged. “But spending time with ye changed me mind.”
Dwyn was so amazed at this news she simply stared at him as he stepped back and bent to pick up something. One of her slippers,she realized when he straightened and leaned around her to slip it onto the foot Rory had said she could now stand on. Onceit was firmly on her foot, he straightened, clasped her by the waist and carried her to the tub.
“Stand only on yer slippered foot,” Geordie reminded her before setting her down.
Dwyn kept her gown up with one hand, but reached for his arm with the other as she teetered briefly before adjusting to standingon one foot. Once she was sure she wouldn’t fall, she released him though, and returned that hand to her chest to help holdher gown up.
“I canno’ bathe ye with yer gown on, lass,” he said huskily. “Ye need to let it go.”
When Dwyn raised her head to peer at him with wide-eyed alarm, he smiled faintly and asked, “Where’s the brave lass who baredher breasts to me in the orchard? She’s the lass I admired so much I went to me brother and said I planned to marry her.”
Dwyn stared at him briefly, a small battle taking place in her head, and then she straightened her shoulders and let her handsdrop. The wrinkled gown immediately slid down her body to pool around her feet. Dwyn swallowed and raised her chin as hisgaze followed the same path, gliding over her breasts, down over her stomach, to her hips and the spot between her legs wherehis kisses had given her such pleasure, before finally following her legs to her feet, one slightly up and back to preventit touching the ground, and the other still in its slipper. Then his gaze followed the same path back up, before settlingon her face.
Dwyn noted the hunger in his eyes and felt heat and tingling roll through her body in response. His voice was a low, roughgrowl when he said, “I’m going to lift ye up and ye need to slip off yer slipper ere I place ye in the tub.”
Swallowing, she nodded once, and then braced herself as he stepped forward. Dwyn closed her eyes as his warm rough hands closedon the naked skin of her waist, and then opened them again as he lifted her. She reached instinctively for his shoulders tobrace herself, and then stared past his head as she concentrated on getting her slipper off. A startled gasp slipped fromher when something brushed one of her nipples and she glanced down to see that he’d raised her until her breasts were in frontof his mouth. She watched silently as his mouth closed over one, and then closed her eyes as he began to draw on the nipple,sending a sharp shaft of pleasure through her.
Dwyn blinked her eyes open again when he released her nipple and ordered, “Hold yer hair up so it does no’ get wet.”
Reaching back, she gathered the long strands and lifted them, until he had lowered her into the tub. Then she let them fallover the edge of the tub where they wouldn’t
