“I guess she’s not going anywhere unless we take her there,” Enrick said, a smile in his words as he lifted her off the ground. “Lead the way.”
Grant grunted and loped back to his chamber. When he reached it, he shifted and heard his brother laying Colleen on the bed in the lady’s chamber.
“Be sure to bolt the door in her room,” Grant said. He heard the bolt slide closed and then Enrick joined Grant in his bedchamber.
“She’s more of a challenge than we thought she’d be. Thank God you caught her before she took a dangerous dunking in the sea,” Enrick said.
“Yeah, that’s why I wanted her door bolted. If she opens it, I’ll hear it. I’ll do the same in here.”
“All right. See you in the morning,” Enrick said, and Grant noticed the small smirk his brother wore.
“Hopefully, she’ll be feeling all right by then,” Grant said, then closed the door after his brother’s departure and bolted it. At the very least, if she tried to leave the chamber, she’d have to shift first to unbar the door. He hoped she’d sleep the rest of the night instead.
Now that he wasn’t leaping over seawalls and trying to secure her safety, he looked at her one last time. She was a pretty wolf with a reddish-brown mask. The lower half of her face was white all the way down her throat, and the white above her dark brown eyes emphasized them. With that and red fur in a strip down her nose, she looked just lovely. Her coloring reminded him of her grandmother’s, except that Neda’s had been grayer.
Satisfied Colleen wasn’t going anywhere, he returned to bed. This time he succumbed to a deep, bone-settling sleep.
Until a hand fell against his bare chest, giving him a near heart attack. He jumped back on the mattress, about to grab his sword, when he saw that the intruder was Colleen, snuggled under his blankets and sleeping in his bed! And naked.
“What are you doing in my bed?” Grant roared.
“Closer…to the…bathroom,” she said, her voice hushed with sleep, and yet she seemed to have enough awareness to know her own mind and that she would have her way in this, or else.
He absolutely refused to move into the lady’s chamber. He couldn’t, not if he wished to keep face with his men. They wouldn’t barge in on him, but the cleaning staff would smell his scent on the lady’s sheets. Then again, now they would smell the lady’s scent on his sheets.
He could not allow the woman to sleep in his bed! Yet what choice did he have? If she needed to reach the bathroom quickly, he had to admit that she should be closer to it.
Which meant he could not be here.
He quickly got out of bed as she turned to watch him, her eyes half-lidded. Aye, he was naked again. Despite her inebriated state, or maybe because of it, she seemed to enjoy looking him over. And that had the added disagreeable effect of arousing him when he shouldn’t be feeling that way in the least. He grabbed his kilt, the quickest thing within reach, and belted it around his waist, then left his chamber.
Hell and damnation. First day of the lass’s arrival and what happens? He’s rescuing her in the middle of the night for all to see. And now this. She was naked, sleeping in his bed, and he was off to look for a place to rest for the remainder of the night.
He definitely had to rethink the eating arrangements. The lass would get no whisky for the rest of her stay here. She could drink anything she liked as long as it was not alcoholic in nature. And after this night, he would sleep in his own bed while she slept on the lower floor in the White Room.
Chapter 5
Colleen woke feeling much better and vaguely remembered a very naked Grant coming out of his shower last night, looking red-skinned, soapy, and more than heated—in a steamed sort of way. She must have scalded him. She was sorry for that, but she hadn’t given it a thought when she flushed the toilet. Besides, if they didn’t have another bathroom for her to use, she really couldn’t have helped it.
She stretched in the bed, smelled Grant all over the sheets, and sat up quickly. What was she doing in his bed? Naked! Oh. My. God!
She rushed out of the room and returned to the adjoining one, shutting the door. Her skirt, blouse, bra, and panties were scattered on the Turkish rug all the way to the lady’s chamber door that led into the hall. She stared at her clothes, trying to recall what had happened last night. Had she wandered around the castle in the raw in the middle of the night? And when did she end up in Grant’s bed? And then she recalled—he had been in it! At the same time!
Naked!
She was burning up with mortification.
Then she paced. She needed a shower. She took a sniff. Why did she smell like the fishy sea? Then she vaguely remembered the rough surf, waves, rocks, but not much else. What had happened last night?
Thank God, Grant wasn’t around. Surely she could lock the bathroom door or his chamber door and get a quick shower until someone could tell her which bathroom she could use.
She picked up her clothes off the floor and set them on a chair. Afterward, she rummaged through her bag for some fresh ones and her shampoo, then stalked through the room into Grant’s. She was in the middle of her shower when she heard Enrick call out, “Grant?”
“He’s not here,” Colleen shouted back, hoping Enrick didn’t walk in on her while she showered. She realized she’d been in such a panic to shower quickly and get dressed before Grant caught her at it that she’d forgotten to lock his door. “He slept somewhere else last night.”
She hoped he had.
She smiled, thinking she had cooked Grant’s goose by letting his brother know Grant hadn’t been able to sleep in his own room, since she was certain he intended to move her into the White Room tonight.
“Okay, I’ll…look for him elsewhere,” Enrick said, sounding highly amused. The door to the chamber shut.
She hadn’t planned to make any changes in the management of the place. Not right away. She didn’t know why Grant thought he had to make her feel unwelcome.
Finished with her shower, she climbed out to grab a towel, which was way too far from the shower itself. That meant she was dripping water all over the tile floor when a male someone said, “My laird…”
She whipped a towel around her wet, naked body and shrieked.
***
Stretched out on a plaid recliner and half-asleep in the sitting alcove of the study, Grant felt as though someone was close by. He took a deep breath. Enrick. Grant opened his eyes to see his brother smiling down at him, arms folded across his chest. He was dressed properly in jeans and a shirt.