He traced a finger down the back of her neck as she gasped and stared up at him. A shaft of lust shot through her. Her hand shook and Connor took her glass from her before she dropped it setting both their glasses on a nearby table. His eyes dark with desire, he turned them away from the others in the room and looked down at her with that hot gaze.
“When we come together,” he continued in his low brogue. “Don’t ye want me to fuck you, lass?” She gasped as he said the word, her lips parted and as shiny as if she had just licked them. He wanted to kiss her badly.
Emmy gasped as the word came out with his accent nearly rhyming with ‘book’. With that intonation, the word lost all offensiveness. Instead she quivered inside. Still, closing her eyes in denial of the word, Emmy shook her head despite the heat that was rising within her. “Or,” he whispered his breath tickling her ear, “do ye want me to make love to ye?” He drew out the last four words with his deepest brogue and Emmy’s legs nearly collapsed under her.
Clenching his arm, Emmy savored the images that flashed behind her closed eyes. She swallowed thickly and took a deep, shuddering breath. “Oh, Connor. My God!” she whispered hoarsely. “What you do to me.”
“If it’s anything like what ye do to me, then we’re in trouble,” he guaranteed.
“I always thought that having ‘weak knees’ was just a euphemism,” she admitted breathlessly, “but it’s really true. Sometimes I can barely stand when I am around you.”
His dark eyes grew molten at her confession. “And sometimes parts of me stand too much when I am around ye.” His voice was low and gruff, but Emmy understood his meaning only too well.
“Yup, we’re in trouble,” she confirmed and recovered her wine taking a long drink and fanning herself with her hand. She noticed Dory and Ian approaching and smiled, thankful for the distraction. “Dory, you are looking so much better!” she enthused perhaps overmuch.
Dory blushed and smiled running a hand over her large stomach now unfettered by the corset and covered with a much more suitable gown that was cut with several large pleats in the front to allow for her girth. Truthfully she now looked huge in comparison to her appearance just hours before. “I feel better,” the woman confessed. “The babies have been carrying on all afternoon. I had never imagined it could feel like this!”
“Wonderful, isn’t it?” Emmy grinned.
“Very much so now that I understand it,” the woman confessed. “Truly I wish you had come much sooner so I might have had a greater appreciation of what has been happening.”
“I’ll remind you that you said that when your ankles are so swollen you can barely walk and your back is killing you,” Emmy teased.
“She already has been doing that,” Ian said playfully earning a swat from his wife but he just kissed her cheek earning another blush from his wife. Connor looked on in amazement. Who would have thought Dory could unwind enough in public to allow a kiss from Ian without scolding him roundly for it? It was astonishing.
“I want to thank you as well, my lady,” Ian continued taking Emmy’s hand earnestly, “for everything you have done for us and for our babies.”
“And I thank you for the beautiful gown, despite the blackmail which accompanied it, but truly, I have done nothing,” Emmy protested.
“Oh, but you have!” Dory argued taking Emmy’s other hand. “We both feel like you’ve made such a difference for us since you’ve been here. I can’t believe it’s only been a few days! It’s almost like truly having a sister again.”
“Well, thank you,” Emmy murmured but Connor’s head was spinning. What did Dory mean by that? ‘Almost’ like having a sister? Again? Surely it was just a turn of phrase? Perhaps they hadn’t been close before Heather left?
“I am just happy I can help,” Emmy offered unaware of the confusion that had staggered Connor’s mind.
“I do hope that you will be here to help with the delivery?” Ian asked. “We wouldn’t have it any other way. Please say you’ll stay?’
“Please, say you will,” Dory echoed. Emmy looked up at Connor with a questioning glance wondering at his opinion of their plea but he was staring at Dory with a frown again creasing his brow tapping his lips with a considering finger. He looked puzzled and Emmy wondered at the cause.
Didn’t he want her to stay now? But perhaps this was the reason she was here! Maybe this was the whole point of this…this journey she had taken. In her past, maybe Dory did not survive the birth. Could that be it? Was that something like, Heaven forbid? God’s will that she come here to this time and place to save a woman’s life? Oh, she wanted to run up to her room and flip through her guidebook immediately to see if there was any mention of this family in particular. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? Perhaps it was all there!
“My lady?” Ian questioned jogging her back to the moment and she started with a smile.
“I would be delighted to help in any way I can when the time comes.”
“Thank you!” Dory smiled again and even reached over to hug her briefly. Emmy was startled but returned her embrace.
“Ahh, there is Chilton to call us for dinner at last!” Dory announced. “I for one am famished! Shall we?”
Ian held his arm out to his wife and they all looked at Connor expectantly. Connor however was lost in a study between Heather and Dory as he looked back and forth between them. They were the same height, same build. Excepting of Dory’s current condition, Dory had always been as slim as his Heather. Their features were identical, same mouth, nose and bright blue eyes. The
