He dragged his gaze back up, savoring every inch in reverse. When he reached her face again, he thought his heart would stop. Her eyes held that same look of longing he remembered from the first time they met.
Blood pounded in his ears. He wanted her so badly he could taste the salt of her skin. With this fire sparking between them, the first time would be hot and fast. But then he would take her behind those bed curtains and spend the rest of the day making slow love to her. He would run his tongue over every—
“Lady Hume, you must put this on!”
The voice penetrated his reverie. Vaguely, he realized he’d been hearing Linnet’s voice for some time. Whatever was the child doing here?
“Lady Hume!” The girl was tugging on Isobel’s arm. “Isobel!”
This time, Isobel heard her. Before Stephen could cry out in protest, Isobel snatched the robe from Linnet’s hand and whipped it around her shoulders. She looked so beautiful with her cheeks flushed and her hair swept over one shoulder, Stephen could almost forgive Linnet the robe. Almost.
But the girl had to go. Now.
Linnet had to leave so Stephen could gather Isobel in his arms and take her behind those bed curtains—
Just what had Isobel been doing behind those bed curtains? Tousled and in her night shift in the middle of the afternoon?
Was there a man behind those curtains? De Roche? Nay, she would not. She could not. Jealousy settled in his belly like a corrosive poison.
“Are you ill?” he asked, keeping his voice calm with considerable effort. “Is that why you are abed at this hour?”
“I haven’t slept well lately. After Linnet left, I decided to rest awhile,” she said, pushing her hair back from her face. “But why are you here, Stephen?”
“I was returning Linnet.”
“From where?” she asked. “She only went to the kitchen.”
“You were here alone, asleep, with your door unbarred?” Stephen could not control his temper with so much emotion roiling inside him. “And you should not let the girl wander all over the castle on her own. For God’s sake, Isobel, the place is filled with soldiers.”
Isobel took Linnet’s hand and spoke to her in a soft voice. “Sir Stephen is right; you must be careful where you go alone. Most of the castle is safe, but avoid the places where soldiers congregate and other women are unlikely to be about.”
He was relieved Isobel was giving the girl sensible direction, though it was not as restrictive as he would like.
“An isolated area,” Isobel continued, “is even more dangerous.”
“Such as the storerooms along the outer wall,” he could not help putting in.
With her practice partners gone to Falaise, had Isobel taken to going alone to the storeroom? He took her arm to pull her aside and ask. As soon as he felt the heat of her skin through the thin fabric, lust blazed through him again.
Whatever he meant to tell her was gone from his head. All he could think to say was that he wanted to see her naked.
Isobel jerked her arm away as if his touch burned her, too. “Of course, the most dangerous place to be caught with a man is a bedchamber,” she said between clenched teeth. “Stephen, you must leave.”
Ludicrous as it was, he felt pleased that she was calling him just “Stephen” again. He loved to hear her say his name.
He bowed and left, baffled by his loss of control. If Linnet had not been there, he would have had Isobel on the bed before a word passed between them. Nay, they never would have made it to the bed. It would be on the floor, or against the wall—
The saints preserve him, he was light-headed from breathing so hard. He’d be better off lost to drink than lost in lust to a woman he could not have.
That was not quite the truth of it. Isobel was a woman heshouldnot have. She may not know it, but hecouldhave her. He did not mistake the look in her eyes. That made her all the more dangerous.
He truly must stay away from her now. God help them both if he could not.
Chapter Sixteen
March 1418
Stephen managed to avoid Isobel for a full week, though sometimes it seemed as if all the world conspired against him. How Robert found him here in the armory he could not guess.