Page 49 of The Dragon Laird’s Obsession

Ailis lifted it carefully.

The parchment had browned with age. The woman in it was hazy, painted with an unsteady hand, but Ailis could make out her face. She had soft eyes and red-gold hair that framed around her gentle smile.

Ailis’s breath left her as she noticed the woman in the painting wore the trinket in the chest.

Who was this woman to Gordon? A lover maybe?

That one thought filled her with a bothersome pang, even though it should not. He probably had taken many lovers over the years. Unlike a woman who would be ruined if word of it were even heard, a man had always had much more liberties.

The thought stuck Ailis beneath the ribs. Her stomach tightened so sharply she had to draw a breath through her nose. Suddenly, the idea of Gordon’s hands on another woman seemed unbearable. His mouth on another pair of lips…

Kissing her like he did me…

Her fingers curled into her skirts. A hot and vicious heat curled through her chest so immediate that she pressed a hand there as if she might physically hold it still.

She sat slowly on the floor then pulled open the chest’s second layer.

Her fingertips trembled around the next painting in there. It was the same woman, and even though the strokes were faint, there was a tenderness in the brushwork.

I cannae believe Gordon paints.

It was a passion she had always cherished, and seeing that he shared it made her wonder what else there was about him she did not know.

The thought made something strange flutter beneath her ribs.

His collection included paintings of hills, rivers, and Highland lands lush and green. Some were barely sketches while others were completed works. She spread them across the floor, one by one, studying the stroke patterns and running her fingertips over the dried lines.

Why is there nay single paintin’ on his walls?

Why did he keep such a talent hidden?

Ailis did not know how much time passed as she sat there and looked through them all. All she knew was that Gordon, the Dragon, was not the man she thought he was.

Gordon returned to the keep long after dusk.

The raid had left the village in a state of misery. Three cottages had been burned beyond repair, two families were sleeping beneath borrowed roofs, and Malcolm had taken men east along the old road to search for those responsible. They found the missing lass with the men who had taken her, not far from the Eastern borders.

The lass was too terrified to speak for now, but he intended to speak to her when she had recovered in the healers’ chambers. Her captors were in his dungeon, and his men were currently interrogating them.

Perhaps there is a way I could have better protected the villages? A way I would have predicted this would happen?

He thought of countless things he could have done differently and could not come up with any.

There was no way he would have known someone planned to attack his village, and even with his men on patrol, it had happened because he was not on high alert. Gordon had learned to always be watchful. But of late, his attention had been divided between other matters.

Ailis… Even now he thought of her. As if he was not tired and aching enough, he remembered her kiss. All I want right now is silence.

His chamber offered that, or it should have, but Gordon pushed open the door and stopped because he sensed a presence. His hand instinctively reached for the sword at his side. For a moment, he thought someone had broken in.

Then he saw her. Ailis lay asleep on the floor beside the open chests, his paintings scattered across the floor around her.

Sweet heavens.

His breath caught at the sight of her.

She had curled onto her side with one arm tucked beneath her cheek, her hair spilling around her face in soft brown strands. Several paintings lay scattered near her though most had been gathered into little piles as if she had been studying them one by one before exhaustion had overtaken her.

Moonlight spilled through the narrow window, touching her face. It was the only light Gordon needed. He had never slept by a hearth’s heat anyway.