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“Little rebel!”

He moved so fast that she didn’t have time to register when he had pinned her beneath him.

“Let us test how weak I can make ye, wife,” he breathed over her lips.

The sun hung high in the sky when they made their way downstairs. Isla hoped that she looked decent and not like a woman who had just been ravished by her husband twice.

If she were being honest, she would have preferred it if they stayed in his room for the rest of the day. There, they were just Isla and Alisdair, not Laird and Lady Macleod.

“Ye’re blushing, wife,” Alisdair teased as he led her down the corridor.

“It is rather hot,” she said quickly.

“Aye, that is true,” he drawled.

“Control yerself, ye brute,” she hissed.

“I think I am doing a very good job controlling meself.” He lowered his lips to her ear. “Especially since corridors nowadays keep reminding me of our weddin’ night.”

Isla smacked him on the elbow. “That was for being hot and then cold all the time. Ye made me head spin.”

“I apologized for that, little rebel,” he whispered wickedly. “Thoroughly.”

“Ye are incorrigible.”

He pulled her to a quiet corner, caging her in with his body. “I didnae want to leave the bed either, Isla,” he murmured into her ear. “But we need to show our faces for lunch at least. And I still need to send that damned tax report.”

She huffed in protest.

“Daenae worry, wife,” he added softly. “We can spend all night together.”

Isla shivered at the promise in his voice. She tried to feign indignation, but looking up at him, feeling his body so close, it was futile.

He led her to the Great Hall, his hand resting against the small of her back, protective and possessive at the same time.

“Look who has decided to join us!” Duncan boomed.

“Duncan,” Alisdair warned.

“I am just sayin’ that it’s a great honor to have the Laird and the Lady at our table, when they obviously would rather be on other furniture.”

“Duncan!” Lady Moira scolded.

Isla felt her cheeks flush. Duncan, daring or not, had spoken the truth. She would rather be in Alisdair’s bed.

“Please sit,” Lady Moira urged.

Alisdair hurried ahead to pull out the chair beside his own and smiled up at Isla.

She stared at him. In the brief time they had been married, she had never once seen him treat her with anything but avoidance—until now.

The gesture didn’t go unnoticed by everyone in the hall either, for they all stopped what they were doing and looked at them.

“That is quite a change of pace,” she muttered as she sat down.

Alisdair leaned into her ear. “I didnae hear any complaints about me pace last night. And this mornin’.”

“Alisdair!” she hissed.