“I want to show you something, Siobhan,” he said softly, pushing his chair back and standing. “Will you come with me?”
Siobhan eyed him with some surprise. He was asking her to come with him? He was asking her to do something? In the daytime, with their clothes on? Because apart from the times he was seducing her into his bed—not that he had to work himself much—typically, he told her what he wanted her to do, rather than ask, like living here or seeing his doctor.
Siobhan was intrigued. “I will.”
He gave her a grin, holding out his hand to her. Siobhan took it, feeling the strength in his grip all the way to her heart.
“Are we going somewhere…outside the palace?” Lenox Palace was as lovely as she’d ever imagined on to be, when she’d snuggled under a tent of blankets as a child, in bed with a pilfered flashlight, reading fairy tales long after lights out.
The rooms were spacious and airy, with brightly woven tapestries hung on the thick stone walls supposedly to smother any chill drafts that might seep through the cracks, although Siobhan hadn’t been able to find so much as one crack in a wall—she’d peeped behind a few tapestries, just to see if there were any, or perhaps a hidden door leading to a secret passage. Historical curiosity.
Not that she was hunting for imperfections in either the palace or the palace’s King.
The sunrays streamed through hundreds of beautiful mullioned windows. Obviously, the people who inhabited it couldn’t bear to be cooped up inside when there was so much lush landscape to be enjoyed outdoors in the mountains and vales. A woman can easily fall in love in a place like this.
Yet, as beautiful and majestic as everything was, Siobhan found she felt much better outside and away from it.
“Yes, and just the two of us.” Angus flashed a grin as he led her outdoors. “Aren’t you supposed to be getting fresh air daily?”
She pursed her lips. He knew she walked every day in the palace gardens, with one of their bodyguards in tow just in case she had any further issues with her blood pressure.
It was nice to get out, but not like this was going to be.
They left the grounds and entered the garage, where Siobhan’s lavender Beetle was humbly parked in the middle of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of powerful driving machines. She liked the fact Angus had gone through all the trouble of bringing Jaxon’s gift here to Lekten, when he could simply have had sold her car and bought another much more expensive one, yet he had respected her desire to keep it.
Angus pulled a key fob from his pocket, pressed a button, and a DB11 Aston Martin winked its lights at them.
“Are we going all alone?” she asked, surprised, as he helped her into the passenger seat. “No bodyguards? No driver?”
He squeezed her hand lightly, helping her with her seat belt. “I drive fairly well you know.”
She laughed, unable to help it. “I will be the judge of that, Sir.”
Angus gave her a wink and shut the door, Siobhan let out a heartfelt sigh of happiness. Maybe this is the turning point.
When he got into the driver’s seat, she noticed him checking out her legs. From his expressive gaze, she could tell he was feeling desire—and battling it.
Because she was doing the same. “Would it be scandalous if I rode topless, Your Majesty?”
“Yes, but even worse, we’d be in a terrible crash. Possibly before we could even get out of the garage.
Siobhan laughed and put a hand on his leg.
They drove out of the city, in the direction of his mountain home, and passed the time in comfortable silence, Angus handling the car expertly.
They stopped by his house and Esmeralda was already at the door, waiting with a large wicker hamper in her hands and a smile on her face, Jumani carrying a blanket and pillows.
“That is perfect,” Angus said, taking the hamper she provided, and placing them in the back seat, and then doing the same with the pillows and blanket from Jumani. “Thank you.”
“Are we going on a picnic?” Siobhan asked. She had never been on a picnic before.
“Yes.” He smiled at her as he maneuvered the car back onto the road. “I want to show you my special place.”
“I like special places.” She snuggled into the seat, yawned and sighed, contented. Especially if they are linked with you.
26
Siobhan spent much of the drive dozing, much to Angus’s amusement.
He had never been known to put women to sleep but he was glad she was relaxed enough around him to rest.
He found, however, he rather missed her chatter, having become accustomed to her random remarks about perfectly ordinary things and perfectly dull-looking people. Lately, during particularly grueling days at work, he’d call her, knowing her good-natured, irrepressible small talk would soothe and entertain him.
“We’re here,” he turned to her after he pulled into a cul-de-sac and killed the engine.
“Was I asleep?” Siobhan yawned.
“And snoring.”
“I wasn’t!” She shot up, into a straight position, and looked at him in horror, but grinned when she saw the expression on his face.
Angus kissed her swiftly and slipped his hand under her shirt.
The Aston Martin, which was a comfortable ride, especially for someone of his powerful build, was now proving to be quite small for the acrobatics he had in mind. He would definitely have to bear that in mind when they next took a drive through the countryside. Forget the Aston. Bring the Bentley.
He touched one pert nipple with his thumb and felt her melt under the caress. She shifted on the seat, trying get him closer and bumping her knee on the gear shift.
“That’s about all we’ll be getting here,” he murmured against her lips with a frustrated sigh. “This car is too small for making love.”
She gave him another scorching kiss, “I’ll take a rain check.”
She’d never thought she would see the day when she would need a cold shower, but that seemed to be the effect he had on her. One glance, a fleeting touch, and she melted like a candle over an open flame.
“Is this still your property?” Siobhan asked, as she undid her seat belt. “It’s beautiful.”
They got out of the car and walked in the direction of a small house until they came to a copse of trees near the end of a gravel path.
The weather was actually nice, the sun rapidly combating the slight chill in the air, and she hoped she would be shedding the cardigan before the day was out.
“It is,” Angus replied, opening the door. “I enjoyed coming here as a boy in the summertime, swimming, and fishing whenever I could sneak around my tutors.”
Siobhan climbed out of the car, attempting to picture Angus as a boy. Was he carefree or had he been stern from the time he came out of his mother’s womb? Would their child be the same? She wished for this child to grow up as she had after moving in with the Talbot family: a life full of love and laughter, with splashing in mud puddles on a rainy day, to staying up late to eat ice cream past bedtime.
She didn’t want him, or her, to be constrained by the title they were born into.
“Are you coming?”
Siobhan looked up to see Angus waiting for her to join him, his arms weighed down with the hamper, a blanket and two large pillows. He looked far from the king that everyone knew him as, and more like the sexy man she had first met. “Yes, I’m coming.”
Siobhan smelled the river before she saw it: sandy loam and the tang of fish. From their vantage point, she could see its bubbling water. It gushed down through the trees and into the meadow, sending sprays of water shooting high wherever it collided with a boulder.
“Look, there it is,” Angus pointed at a skeletal structure extending across the river. The bridge was three-fourths finished, with men working on it.
“Why are you building a bridge way out here in the middle of nowhere?” Siobhan asked.
“To save time.” Angus led her down the path and under the trees
near the river providing decent shade from the sun overhead. “This river runs down the middle of the Romani Village, separating two important pastures and is too deep for crossing. Right now, they have to drive their cattle a day south, cross where the river is shallow, then take another day driving north again. This will be a lot quicker. And safer.”
She watched as Angus spread out the blanket on the lawn, tossed the pillows over it, and motioned for her to sit. “Are we going there? To visit the Romanis?”
“Yes. Later.”
“I could get used to this,” she kicked off her shoes, sitting on the blanket, and relaxed on a pillow. She was feeling more like royalty than the king himself.
Angus watched as Siobhan got comfortable, some of the tension easing out of his body. She looked relaxed, not as tired as she looked when they left the palace, which was how he preferred it to be. The stress of her relocation was probably worse for her than he’d imagined and he found himself concerned about her and the baby.
He couldn’t lose either of them.
After unpacking the food from the hamper, he gestured for her to start. “Help yourself.”
“I’m famished. It must be this high mountain air,” she said. “I’m glad now Esmeralda overpacked the hamper.”
“I’m starved, too.” And it’s not only food I desire.
“What’s for lunch?”
“A little bit of everything.” Doing his best to ignore the effect Siobhan’s perfume had on his body, Angus opened the hamper and took out a still-hot, scent-wafting pie, mini sandwiches, pastries, cakes, and juices.
“Mmm…it smells good. There are pastries in here!” Extracting a pasty, she tore it in half and offered it to him. “Pastries are a glorious food. One I never get in London.”
“Why not?”
“Pasties aren’t good for the waistline,” she spoke around her food.
Angus resisted the urge to smile. Her manners would shock his mother, but he didn’t care one iota. “There’s nothing wrong with your waistline,” he replied.
She paused mid-chew.
He shrugged a shoulder and make a nonchalant face. “It’s perfectly ordinary.” Extraordinary.
She began chewing again. Swallowed. “Thank you? I suppose?”
“You are welcome.” Angus stretched out beside Siobhan, a triangle piece of pie in his hand. He couldn’t recall a time when he had done this.
“The only thing you should be thinking about is getting your strength back and gaining a little weight. If the wind starts to blow, I’ll have to tie you to myself with a rope so you don’t blow away.” He chuckled, popping the last bit of his pie in his mouth, watching as the sun put a rosy color on her face. “I guess Esmeralda was thinking the same thing when she packed that hamper.”
“I’m as strong as I ever was,” she replied, taking a bite of another pastry.
After a few minutes of companionable silence, Angus said, “I think we should set the date for our wedding.”
“Angus…” Siobhan sighed. “I haven’t decided about it yet and the more I think about it, the more I am convinced love must enter the equation when we are talking about marrying for the sake of raising a child.”
“You don’t understand,” he muttered.
Oh, yes, I do now. “Then enlighten me.”
The silence stretched between them until he finally clicked his tongue impatiently. “Okay, we all have all the three basic reasons for getting married and living a happy life for many years. One. Do we have good times when we are together?”
“I guess.”
He smirked at her. “You…guess?”
“Okay, we do. Angus, you can’t sum things up like—”
“No. It’s your turn to do the listening now. Two. Do I, or do I not, turn you on?”
She wondered whether it had turned him on, knowing how powerful the effect he had on her was. “That’s unfair. You know you do.”
“I know.” His mouth curled in sensuous satisfaction as his mind lingered on the very seductive image of her writhing under his exploring hands.
She huffed and rolled her eyes at him. She’d read somewhere that that was sometimes how it worked. One could physically be attracted to someone else, at least for a while, not because they were your type, but because they were so mad—keen on you that it was an irresistible tug on the ego. Of course, after a while, it might become boring and he would lose interest in her.
“Three.” He ticked another finger. “Would I, or would I not, make sure that your and our child’s every material need is met?”
She shook her head. “You’re asking the obvious, Dragon.”
“That’s what life is all about. The obvious.” He moved the hamper away and rolled on his side, resting on his elbow. “The minute we start layering it with shades of grey, we start getting caught in quicksand.”
“That’s a horrible image.” She knew just how persuasive he could be when he put his mind to it. Whatever he wanted, he had once told her, he got. Simple as that. And sure, when he looked at her like this—caressing her with his golden eyes, willing her to yield to his supposed words of wisdom—she could almost believe he had a point; love was just a word that was meaningless and harmful. Almost, but not quite.
“Shall I tell you something very obvious, Angel?” he asked huskily.
She gazed into his slumberous eyes, shivers racing impossibly through her body. No, don’t tell me any obvious things anymore.
Because nothing with Angus was as obvious as he liked to pretend, least of all when he was attempting to appear as pure as the snow. She knew verbally he could run rings around her, and that quicksand he had mentioned…well, she would find herself well and truly drowning in it.
The atmosphere was suddenly charged.
Her skin prickled at the thought of him rolling over her, claiming her mouth, nuzzling at her breasts, and burying himself between her thighs. There. In the open.
“What?”
His hand pushed away a lock of hair the breeze blew on her face, and let his fingers brush her face, neck, breasts, making her gasp at the contact. “We haven’t made love in the open.”
The way he seemed to know what she was thinking was disconcerting. “You…you can’t divert me with…by…”
“With? By?” he mimicked, amused, back in control, and scooted closer to her. He shot her one of those crooked grins that made her toes curl. “Anyone would think I had sent you into a tailspin.”
He leaned in towards her and crushed her open mouth under his, and Siobhan’s mind emptied of all thought as a blistering passion was unleashed. Hands that wanted desperately to keep him away while they talked, curled around his neck. She couldn’t get enough of his kisses.
He rolled onto his back and pulled her over until she was on his lap, where she could feel his stiffened member beneath her.
Her dress was front-opening via a series of tiny, fiddly imitation-pearl buttons. Even though he felt on the verge of exploding, wanting to rip them apart, Angus was going to take his time. He began undoing the tiny buttons one by one, savoring the sight of her creamy flesh as it was gradually exposed to his hungry eyes.
“This is crazy.” Is it, though? She would go through her life haunted by the memory of his touch. She should be greedy and take this now, say yes.
Her lace bra was a flimsy barrier for her breasts. Through the white lace, her pink nipples peeped at him, making his taste buds go into overdrive.
“What if someone drives up this lane and sees us?” She curved, pliant, against his hands.
Her dress was now opened to the waist, but instead of pulling it down, Angus reached behind and expertly unclasped her bra, and as it loosened he pushed it down so that her heavy breasts spilled free.
Everywhere around them was deserted. In the distance, she could spot some cows relaxing in the shade of a copse of trees and nothing more. It was idyllic.
“No one drives up here,” he told her thickly, taking her glasses off. He didn’t want her lo
oking at anything but him.
Siobhan watched his beautiful dark head come up. She closed her eyes, arching back so that she could present her breasts to him. She managed to ask, “Then why is there a road?”
“For randy adults like us who can’t hold on any longer,” he answered, before closing his mouth over a nipple.
As he sucked on them, she felt that familiar fire course through her body, igniting those wanton urges which he had discovered and made his own.
He adored her breasts. Of that, there was little doubt, and she would enjoy his adoration, even if it was only of her body, the least important part of her as far as she was concerned.
“Now tell me that this is a bad idea,” he whispered to her mouth, slipping his hand under the hemline of her dress which had ridden halfway up her thighs and toyed provocatively with the lacy waistband of her underwear, running his finger along her already rounding stomach in a repetitive movement that was driving her crazy.
“What?”
“Us marrying.”
“Angus…” Why am I allowing him to do this? “Stop. I don’t want this.”
The unease which he had felt all the times when she had given him her speech about love and romance, returned with double force.
Angus held her face in both his hands, looked at her seriously, because forcing himself on a woman when she said no, even if her body said yes, was not his style.
“You mean that?” he breathed huskily. He let one hand fall, and this time, his fingers dipped under her panties, caressing the silkiness of her pubic hair, and running over the crease which was teasing him with its promise of honeyed sweetness.
Siobhan could feel herself drowning in his amazing eyes. Even when she blinked to clear her head, she still felt giddy. “Yes—No—I don’t know…”
“How can I change your mind?” Angus asked softly, pushing his fingers deeper into her inviting cleft, and then cupping her with his hand. He could feel her dampness against his fingers, an unbelievable turn-on. As was the knowledge even in the midst of her rant she still couldn’t resist him, still couldn’t deny the demands of her own body.