Mackinnons #02 For All the Right Reasons (44 page)

“I’m already sore,” she said, taking the drink. “What is it?”

“Brandy.” He smiled at the face she made when she sniffed it. “Go ahead. Take a sip. It’ll cure what ails you.”

“It smells like it could remove paint.”

“We save the cheaper stuff for that,” he said, moving to the chair across from her and sitting down, his legs stretched out in front of him.

Katherine took a sip, coughed for a spell and announced she was off liquor for good. “It tastes terrible.”

But Adrian merely laughed and told her to sip a little more. “After a few sips it’ll start tasting pretty good. Before long, you’ll feel like it’s been years since you’ve ever seen a horse.”

She eyed the contents of the glass skeptically.

“Katherine, you’ve known me for a long time, haven’t you?”

“Why are you asking me that? Weren’t you there?”

He laughed “Will you stop yapping and drink your brandy?” He sighed. “Trust me.”

“Those two words have gotten more women in trouble.”

“Would you stop being so obstinate and drink it? Even for someone as mild mannered as me, it’s a little trying at times to further the knowledge of someone who’s squirming like a worm in hot ashes.”

“I was thinking about having a cup of hot tea.”

“I’ve already told you once. Will you listen to what I’m saying this time? Take a few more sips. It gets better with each one.”

She picked up the glass and downed the contents.

“Jumping Jehoshaphat! I said
sip it
.” He shook his head, going for the decanter. “I can see I’ve got my work cut out for me.” He filled the glass again. “Now, let’s try this again. Pick the glass up Katherine, and take a
sip
.”

She took a sip, just to placate him, hoping he’d tire of his lessons and go on to something else. She put the glass down and unwound the towel from her head and began drying the ends briskly. “I’ve never seen your hair down or wet. It’s longer than I imagined.”

“It’s too long. I need to cut it off some.”

“I like it the way it is,” Alex said, walking up behind them. Katherine dipped her head to look at him from beneath her arm. He didn’t look at her. But he did look at Adrian. “Comfortable?” he asked, looking at Adrian.

“Remarkably so,” Adrian replied.

“Is that brandy?” Alex asked.

“There’s more on the side table,” Adrian replied. “Want me to pour you a glass?”

“I’ll get it myself.” He looked at the glass sitting next to Katherine.

“She hasn’t got the hang of it yet,” Adrian said.

Alex didn’t say anything, he just stood there looking at the glass, then turned away.

He poured himself a glass and returned to the fire, taking a chair to one side and a little behind Adrian. Katherine watched him take a sip of brandy. His hair was damp and he had on fresh clothes. She wondered if he had taken a bath. Alex took another sip of brandy and Katherine followed suit. Then she turned back to drying her hair.

The fire snapped, sending a shower of sparks up the chimney. Katherine shifted her position, sitting on one side, her legs curled back behind her. Once the excess moisture was out of her hair, she removed the towel and began brushing it, leaning her head forward and brushing the hair over her head.

A moment later she got up. “Where are you going?” Alex asked. “Why don’t you stay down here for a while longer?”

“I’m going to the kitchen to put on some water for tea. Can I get you anything?”

Alex shook his head. She looked at Adrian. “Nothing for me, thanks.”

They watched her leave. “Her hair is the color of hot coals,” Adrian said and Alex shot him a smoldering look. But that didn’t deter Adrian. “But it’s got much more life and fire in it than mere coals. It’s easy to see why a woman’s hair has been called her crowning glory.”

“That’s enough,” Alex said.

The cast-iron undertones of those two words would have been enough to send an ordinary person into concern for his safety, but Adrian, who was used to such chilling words from his brother, simply laughed. “So, the stress of the situation is finally wearing even your thick hide thin in places. I must hand it to you though. I never thought you’d last this long, especially knowing you’ve cared for her a lot longer than you’ve apparently realized.” Adrian leaned forward in his chair and fixed his eyes on his brother. “You
have
realized that by now, haven’t you.”

“Adrian, I’m warning you.”

Adrian leaned back and brought the tips of his fingers together. “Yes, I hear, but you know how your threats have always terrified me into doing exactly what you ask.”

The room grew silent save the occasional snap and sputter of the fire. Katherine came back into the room. As she approached the fireplace, she could feel the silence stretch uncomfortably. She glanced at Alex and found him contemplative, his gaze a bit melancholy as he stared steadily at the flames leaping behind her. She sat down and looked at Adrian, curious at the cat-that-ate-the-cream expression on his face.
What is going on here?

Feeling a bit uneasy, she looked away and gave her attention to her hair, but she soon found her calm interrupted by the feeling she was being watched. Stealing a second look at Alex, she observed him for a moment, realizing that his brooding gaze wasn’t directed at the flames leaping behind her at all. He was, in fact, staring directly at her.

Alex made no effort to conceal the blatant gaze that raked over her to a breathtaking degree. She was aware of each and every part of her body he touched with his eyes, feeling it as acutely as if it had been the palm of his hand. From her head to her feet, he looked her over, stopping at all the points in between. The possession she saw in his eyes was almost physical. Her body grew warm, her breathing coming strong and slow.

Katherine had picked up the brush, but she wasn’t using it. She looked back at him, the brush gripped tightly in her hand, and still suspended in midair. Her surprised mouth was slightly parted, and in her mesmerized gaze was an expression of wondering reverence tinged with apprehension. Not being in on what had been happening between Alex and Adrian, Katherine found Alex’s expression difficult to understand, but Adrian, apparently, was having no problem. He came to his feet and stood there for a moment looking first at his brother, and then at his brother’s wife. There was an oddly shrewd smile in his eyes. “I know the Bible says it’s better to marry than to burn,” he said, walking quietly from the room. “I had no idea you could do both.”

Chapter Nineteen

Katherine felt Adrian’s departure had signaled a change in things between herself and Alex, the beginning of… Something was all she could think to call it.
Something, but what?

The disturbing intentness of Alex’s gaze compelled Katherine to look away. She ran the brush slowly through her hair a couple of times, brushing with more vigor when she heard him rise and come toward her. He stopped next to her, his boots brushing against her leg. The indrawn breath was a natural reflex to such a rash display as actually allowing his boot to touch her leg. But she did not look up.

Her body jerked at the thud of a log tossed into the fire, the hungry leap of flames and responsive shower of sparks. The silence, the strain was a painful thing that pulled at the very heart of her, making each breath she drew enter her lungs like a sharp slicing blow with a knife. She waited, drawing the brush through heir hair with deliberate slowness, waiting, waiting.
Do something, say something,
her mind screamed.
Don’t keep me waiting like this.

She listened to the scrape of his boots as he turned and walked back to his chair. Frustrated, she picked up the rhythm with the brush until it matched the reckless pounding of her heart.

She had never thought of tension as a palpable thing. Hoping to ease the strain that pulled at both of them, Katherine said, “I shall never forget the things I saw today. I don’t know how to thank you.”

Immediately she felt the heat of his gaze. “Don’t you?” The sound of something as basic as the brush of fabric as he crossed his legs grated on her nerves. She felt like screaming. “I think you misjudge yourself,” he said, his voice low and throbbing. “I think you know very well how to thank me.”

Somewhere above them a door closed, but neither of them acknowledged the distraction. She wondered at her own expression when she saw the normally relaxed features of Alex’s face were hard and drawn in cynical appraisal.
Stop looking at me like that. Stop denying what we’re about.
“It’s getting late,” she said.

He glanced at his watch. “It’s half past nine.” He took a sip of brandy, swirling the amber liquid in the glass before putting it down.
You’re seeing the man where you once saw the boy,
she thought
. You’re seeing a husband where you once saw a friend. Is that what frightens you, Katherine?
She laid the brush aside and for lack of anything else to do, she began plaiting her hair.

“I like your hair that way. Leave it down…at least for tonight.”

At least for tonight
. Her heart leaped at the thought of it. Dryness clawed at her throat. She drew her knees up to her chest, hoping to ease the wildness of a heart pounding so fast it felt close to exploding from her chest. Unable to take the tension, the strain any longer, she sprang to her feet. “This is ridiculous!”

“I agree. Especially when there is one thing we could do that would put us both at ease.”

Her nostrils flared with understanding. “You are enjoying this, aren’t you?”

The fire behind her was hot. But the look in his eyes was hotter. “Not half as much as I could,” he said.

“I’m going to bed,” she said angrily.

He let her words ride until she gathered up her towel and brush and started away. “Katherine.”

She was no more man a foot from him when he spoke her name. She paused and looked at him, anger still in her voice. “What?”

“Come here.”

“I’m not your horse.”

He chuckled. “I know that. If you were, I’d take you for a ride you’d never forget.” Then he added, “I may anyway.”

“Try it,” she said, backing away and clenching the hairbrush like it was a weapon, “and you’ll be sorry.”

He was on his feet now, taking one step for each of hers, but his were bigger. “Will you stop this?” she said, seeing how he was gaining on her. “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be done!”

He almost choked on that one. “Are you an expert then?” He went on smoothly, “Assuming we’re both talking about the same thing, why don’t you enlighten me? Just how is
it
supposed to be done?”

“Don’t you know?”

He laughed. “It’s been a long time and my memory seems to have failed me. Why don’t you give me a hint.”

She eyed him for a moment. “Oh, never mind. Why should we stick to convention when absolutely
nothing
about this marriage is conventional. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m married or not!”

“Why is that?”

“Because I don’t
feel
married.” She was feeling good and frustrated now.

“Katherine, come here.”

“Why?”

“Because I want you to.”

“I know that, Alex. But why do you want me to?”

“Do you want me to be specific?”

She nodded.
Tell me you love me, Alex. Tell me now
.

“Because I want to make love to you.” He saw the sudden flare of disappointment across her lovely features and understood the cause of it. “I want you to feel married, Katherine.”

“Well, I don’t, and if the past is any indication, I probably won’t. And on top of that, the way you’re going about everything…” she said angrily, “it just isn’t done this way! You don’t tease a person until their brain is addled.” She remembered how he had said,
Because I want to make love to you
, and she got mad all over again. “
And
you don’t schedule it by appointment!”

A slow, reluctant smile tugged at those sensual lips of his, and he shook his head. “What would you have me do? Send you to your room to put on a matronly gown and lie stiffly in the bed, agonizing over the brutalities your husband will soon commit against your body?” He stepped closer, close enough to reach out and touch her, his hands coming out to take the towel and brush from her and drop them to the floor. Katherine’s heart began to hammer in expectation. His hand came up to her face, his finger lightly tracing the curve of her jaw. “Is that what you want, sweet Katherine? Would you prefer to go to your room now and wait?
That’s
the way it’s
conventionally
done, then when I come to you, you’ll be stiff and scared and dry as a bone. And that will give me the opportunity to show you that your husband is the animal all the ladies at church assured you he would be. But I’ll stick to convention, keeping the room dark so I won’t ease your fears by allowing you to see how much I desired you, or so I won’t see if the way I’ve imagined you is the way you really look. I’d be sure to not raise your gown any higher than necessary, or touch you, or hold you, or kiss you, or do any of the things I wanted to do. I wouldn’t want to show you my feelings and ease what was to come.” His hand was behind her neck now, his other hand against the flat of her back. He pulled her against him, his lips brushing her mouth as he spoke. “Oh, I could do these things according to convention, all right. I could
assert my conjugal rights
as impersonally as a stallion mounts a mare. But I won’t do that Katherine, because I’d leave you bleeding and hurt and vowing to never submit to such savagery again.” His hand was rubbing her back, the warmth of it penetrating her stiffness like liniment, the steady current of his breath brushing her face like assurance. “I’ll apologize now, if making you my wife isn’t all you hoped it would be. I can’t make you any promises that it won’t hurt. And I can’t promise it’ll be what you’ve been led to expect. But I will promise you this, I won’t leave your bed, Katherine, until I’ve heard you beg for more.”

He swept her into his arms and carried her up the stairs. Her mind hammered with indecision. She had made the statement that she wouldn’t make love with him until she shared his room, something she did not do. Not a woman to back off her word, no matter how much she wanted Alex, she did some quick thinking. With a soft, feminine sigh, she put her arms around his neck and whispered, “I’ve decided to move into your room now.”