Page 71 of The Dragon Laird’s Obsession

Ailis looked at her sister. “Ye said that before.”

“And I was right.”

Ailis opened her mouth then closed it again. She could hardly argue.

Sorcha had once been terrified of her own marriage. Now, she looked at Rowan as though he were the only man in the world.

Ailis lowered her gaze to her plate.

What if that never happens to me?

At the other end of the table, the men had turned to matters of the clan. Rowan spoke with Gordon about patrols. Callan questioned the number of men stationed along the western boundary, while Malcolm leaned forward to discuss supplies for the arriving clans.

Gordon listened more than he spoke. And once or twice his gaze skimmed across the table and landed on her. She shivered each time she caught him watching her. That familiar tingle that made her nerves burn with a fiery sensation was present.

Ailis tried to distract herself from it, but she could not. She found herself remembering how they sat in silence in his chamber the night before and how she had enjoyed the silence.

Her days were usually full of noise and her own thoughts, and she had not realized one could simply be still and yet at peace.

Sorcha still spoke of flowers and ribbons while Ailis looked at Gordon some more. He spoke to Callan and Malcolm now, gesturing with his hands as she remembered how they felt when they trailed down her skin.

He looked different tonight. His hair was slicked back, and his lips were not set in that tight grimace they usually held.

He did not look merely like the gruff man who ordered her to muck stalls or tried to frighten her with his stern silence. He looked steady as he listened to the men at the table, and they also listened when he spoke.

Ailis found herself watching him despite herself.

Stop starin’, Ailis.

She reached for her quaich and gulped down the ale a little bit too fast, choking on it with an intense cough when the liquid slid quickly down her throat.

Gordon set his quaich down at the same time and looked at her again.

“Since the guests arrive the day after tomorrow,” he said, “we should hold the games two days before the bindin’.”

Ailis frowned. “What games?” she whispered.

Marion leaned closer to her and took over this time. “The usual Highland games. Tossing the bar, huntin’, ye ken? The clans’ warriors use the events to test their strength, and a lady is always the prize in the end.”

Callan had a boastful smile as he added, “The winner chooses a lady to spend time with and perhaps woo her. Ye, me dear sister, are the lady in question.”

Ailis’s eyes widened. “I shall be the prize? I thought I was already betrothed?”

Sorcha laughed next. “Ye are, sister, but that even makes ye a higher prize. While the other men compete for yer attention, yer intended shall fight to keep ye to himself.”

There was a gleam in Sorcha’s eyes that Ailis did not like so much.

Marion squealed with excitement and clapped her hands together. “It is all very thrillin’, is it nay?”

Ailis glanced toward Gordon and tried to gauge what he thought of all this.

Surely, he would nae see the need to compete for me, would he?

He was not the kind of man to. Yet she could not shake off the restless energy fizzing beneath her skin. She looked at Gordon again, and her stomach fluttered with a strange weightless sensation.

His mouth twitched faintly before he returned his attention to the men. “That leaves us one full day to secure the patrols and reinforce the western post. We want everyone here in the keep to be secure durin’ these activities.”

Malcolm nodded. “Especially with the chance of Laird Kerr attendin’.”