She nodded again.
“Then ye know what to do, lass.”
CHAPTER 15
Ian feared for his health.
Sìleas was driving him near witless with lust. It could not be good for a man to want a woman this much without satisfaction. Collecting the kisses he said she owed him only made the torture worse.
He lay awake at night imagining her creamy skin in the moonlight. Every time he heard her voice in the next room or caught a glimpse of her across the yard, he hoped she had come to seek him out, to tell him she was ready.
He imagined her walking toward him, slowly, with her hips swaying and a sparkle in her eyes. Then she would rest the flat of her hands on his chest and say, “I’ve made up my mind. I want ye in my bed, Ian MacDonald.”
Ian shook his head and set down his hammer before he did damage to himself. Every time he backed her into a corner to steal a kiss, someone would come in and distract her. A few times he got his hand on her breast—ach, he was hard just thinking of that—but no further.
He could not take much more of this.
And he didn’t have time to waste. With Samhain just over a fortnight away, they needed to do something dramatic. He had discussed it with Connor and Duncan when he went to get them from the cave that day at Teàrlag’s. All of them agreed that the best way to sway their clansman into backing Connor was to take Knock Castle.
To justify attacking the MacKinnons, Ian needed to remove any question as to his right to Knock Castle as Sìleas’s husband. Of course, they could take the castle without a rightful claim—it was done all the time—but that would draw the Crown into the dispute. Connor and the MacDonalds didn’t need that kind of trouble on top of what they already had.
Which meant Ian needed to consummate his marriage. Bed his bride. ’Twas fortunate, indeed, that the needs of the clan matched his own precisely.
Everything was arranged. Ian had convinced his mother and Niall that taking his father out on a sail around Seal Island would do them all good. Of course, Alex had no trouble persuading Dina to disappear with him for the afternoon.
Finally, Ian would have Sìleas alone.
He found her in the kitchen. She was leaning over the worktable, pressing an oat mixture into the bottom of a flat pan. He sucked in his breath as he imagined lying on that table and having her work over him. She looked fetching with her hair pinned up, save for a few loose tendrils curling down her neck and the sides of her face.
“Smells good,” he said. The kitchen was warm and smelled of oats and honey.
She started at the sound of his voice and looked up, wide-eyed. “I didn’t hear ye come in.”
“What’s that you’re making?”
“A treat for your da,” she said with a smile. “He has a sweet tooth, ye know. And I’ll have some left over to take to Annie up the road. She’s just had a new babe.”
Ian rolled up his sleeves and came around the table to stand beside her. “I used to help my mother in the kitchen.”
She gave him a sideways glance. “I’m sure you were a verra big help to her.”
“Ach, I’m hurt ye don’t believe me,” he said. “Come, I’ll show ye how good I am.”
She raised her eyebrows, showing him she suspected he wasn’t just talking about his cooking skills.
He wasn’t.
She dipped a wooden spoon into the honey jar and dribbled honey over the oat mixture.
“Dina was supposed to be helping me.” She gave the wooden spoon a hard whack against the side of the pan. “There it’s done.”
“Ye won’t be seeing Dina this afternoon,” Ian said, taking the spoon from her to lick the honey off. “She and Alex are… keeping each other company.”
Her hands stilled, and her cheeks turned a couple of shades of red. “So that’s the way of it.”
Ian was pleased for the opportunity to warn her off Alex. “I hope Dina doesn’t expect to be the only one.”
“I hope Alex doesn’t, either.”