“Thank ye,” she said.
“Ye are most welcome. Are ye still vexed with me for carrying ye out of yer bedchamber?”
She shook her head. “I’d be a shrew indeed to be vexed in light of what ye have done for me. Ye are verra thoughtful.”
He suddenly looked chagrinned. “Nay. I’m greedy.”
She cocked her eyebrows in question.
He swiped a hand over his stubble. “I had a fantasy to bathe ye andwithye, but I’m famished,” he admitted ruefully. “I was hoping that if I fed ye and gave ye wine, ye’d let me have my way again.” He grinned like a naughty lad, and she simply had to chuckle.
“About being famished,” she said, seeing an opportunity to address one of the things she wanted to discuss with him.
“Aye?”
“Dunnae ye think ye are being too harsh nae allowing Fardley any food or drink while ye train in this heat?”
“Nay,” Alex answered, his tone ringing with an air of finality and authority that made her hackles rise. She swatted them down. He was used to being obeyed without question, and here she was, his new wife, questioning his decisions. She needed to go about this in a more delicate way.
She nodded, trying to recall how Bridgette had used her wiles to attain what she wanted with Lachlan, and how Marion used her feminine cunning to convince Lena’s stubborn, overbearing brother Iain to hear and accept Marion’s opinion. Lena didn’t really care to be deceptive, but in this case, she’d make an exception since Alex was foolishly endangering himself with his punishment of Fardley. He could become gravely ill training all day without eating or drinking, and if Donald’s earlier teasing words were to be believed, Fardley’s training was likely to take many days.
“I’m sure ye are correct, Husband,” she said, pitching her voice low and running her hand down Alex’s bare, chiseled chest. “Ye are wise and knowledgeable in the ways of training warriors, and ye arelaird,” she added for good measure while trailing her fingertips over the defined planes of his stomach muscles down to his braies, which he must have slipped on in his own bedchamber after departing hers. She tickled a finger under the upper edge of his braies, and he hissed his pleasure, causing a sharp sensation to pulse in Lena’s belly and even lower to her core.
“I’m simply a woman,” she continued in almost a purr, relishing the sudden surge of power his obvious desire for her made her feel. “I fear for yer well-being. I heard that ye were nae taking food or drink, either, and it makes me fash so for ye. Ye dunnae wish me to fash, do ye?” She stared up at him, hoping her ruse had worked.
He caught the fingertips she’d been tracing up his stomach, and he brought them to his lips where he pressed a kiss to them. “I see what ye’re doing, and I’m pleased that ye now have the boldness to do it, amused that ye believe it would work on me, and filled with regret that I must continue to vex ye, but I kinnae alter the punishment I’ve set.”
Pursing her lips, she tugged her hand away and glared at Alex, which elicited a devastating smile from him. The man was impossible. He had the ability to make her elated and irritated at the same time. “Will ye nae ever hear my opinions and take my advice in matters of the clan?” she demanded.
“I will, but nae in matters that are to keep ye from harm.”
“How is punishing Fardley protecting me?” she demanded.
“He showed that he did nae ken how to accurately assess a situation, and he must be able to do that if he is to correctly judge my enemies, which are yers now, too. A good warrior must perceive their enemy’s actions before they make them. Regarding perceiving actions…” Alex gave Lena a look that she was sure would make most men tremble, but she’d come to know his tender side, so she stared boldly back, provoking a disgruntled sigh from him. “Dunnae forget what I told ye about trying to defend me from any who might be my enemies,” he said, his tone unyielding. “I’ll nae abide ye putting yerself at risk.”
“Is that an order?” She set her hands on her hips as her heart thumped angrily against her ribs. Findlay had ordered her about, and it hurt that Alex might do the same, even if his dictates were born out of a desire to keep her safe. But he took away her right to choose with such actions. How could he not see that?
Unmistakable irritation flickered across his face but did not linger. “I dunnae wish to order ye about, Lena, but if ye need to be commanded to do as I say, then aye, it is an edict.”
She could feel her eyes narrowing and her pulse escalating. “So, just to be clear, any time ye believe something may put me in peril, ye will give me a directive nae to do it?”
“Aye,” he immediately replied, apparently needing no time to think about it.
Men! They are so very frustrating!
“I’m nae to have the same rights as ye?” she asked on a growl as she poked him in the chest. “Ye will do as ye please while I’m to obey ye always like a well-trained hound?”
He went to catch the finger she’d poked him with, but she snatched her hand away. This time, distinct weariness settled on his features. “Everything I do,” he said slowly, “I do to keep ye safe. If that means ye are cross with me now, I regret it, even despise it, but I kinnae change my actions. I would rather die than allow harm to come to ye, so it’s verra easy to live with yer being cross. What I could nae live with would be kenning that harm came to ye because I had allowed ye to do something that put ye in danger, simply so ye would nae be vexed with me.”
“Why must ye put it that way?” she wailed, even as she curled her hands into fists. She could not stay truly angry, knowing what he did came from a desperate need to protect her, and now she could not share with him her suspicions about Greer’s treatment at her brother’s hand. She feared that if she did, he would forbid her to go to the kitchens and see Greer until it was settled. Or he might not be cautious at all, even when told of Greer’s warning. Lena sensed the situation with Greer and her brother required caution and sensible plotting. And what of the situation with Marsaili? Lena had to tell Alex what she had learned, but if he decided Marsaili was a threat to her, would he keep them apart? And what if he was really was planning on joining forces with the Steward as Marsaili believed he might be? Lena sighed. She had to know, though there was a part of her that did not want to learn anything to shatter the fragile happiness she’d discovered with Alex.
“Does that mean ye are nae so vexed with me that ye will refuse to eat and bathe with me now?” Alex asked, interrupting her musings.
She glanced from her husband, to the food, to the bath. Whatever she was going to learn, she would prefer to hear it while clean and with a full stomach. Heartbreak was likelier easy to take that way. Directly after the bath, she’d speak with him about Marsaili.
“Lena, are ye purposely nae answering me?” he asked, smirking.
“Nay, just lost in thought. Let us eat and bathe.”
