Defending Destiny (The Warrior Chronicles) (9 page)

Lauren was right. He’d been a sanctimonious ass. Again. At the rate he was going, not only was he not going to find Daisy in his bed, he was going to push her into someone else’s.

That’s no’ gonna happen.

How in the bloody hell was he going to get her to smile at him so freely, when he just told her she had to purchase his body with her heart?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Magnus waited until he heard Daisy rustling around in her room to make himself known. He’d watched her interplay with Gerry, feeling insanely jealous, not of the physicality between them, although that was there too, but for the way Daisy smiled at the man. Butler had her smiling at him like she enjoyed his company. Like in that moment, he was the only man in her universe.

Daisy used to look at him like that. All the time. Magnus wanted that
I only want to be with you
light back in her eyes when she smiled at him.

…

By the time Daisy got back to New Kilmartin House, bedrooms had already been assigned. She knew which one was hers because her bags were at the foot of the bed. She made a quick survey of all seventeen bedrooms in the house, two of which should have been designated towel closets, and decided that, had she been allowed to choose, she would have picked the same room. It was spectacular.

She had a marvelous view of the hills and the surrounding countryside through the southern windows, and a bird’s-eye view of the museum and the churchyard from the east. The glen and the cairns, ancient burial mounds comprised of hand-sized stones, and even the edge of the closest loch, were visible toward the north. The panoramic view made her bedroom the best in the house as far as she was concerned.

The room itself was bright and cheery, done in shades of yellow, blue, green, and purple. Small paintings of thistles, daffodils, and images of the seaside hung on the walls, accentuating instead of competing with the exterior landscape.

Her favorite part of the room was the large bow window seat that curved under the large windows. She could sit cozied in with a good book and a cup of tea and be happy for hours reading, pausing occasionally to soak up the beauty out the window. The seat had a thick royal-blue cushion made of some sort of memory foam. Yellow throw pillows, big enough to lean on, graced every possible sitting area in the room, including the bench seat. The wooden seat lifted to house extra blankets and whatever else one might want to stuff inside. But that wasn’t the cool part. The cool part for Daisy was the built-in bookshelf in front of the lift-up storage space that was deep enough to hold paperbacks and smaller hardcovers. It was loaded with romance novels, thrillers, and spy-novels, as well as mysteries—some cozy, some more procedural, more
CSI
-ish in nature.
Heaven.
There was even the odd bit of erotica mixed in, which she planned to enjoy while soaking in the outrageously long tub.

Unfortunately, enjoying a bath, in fact enjoying this lovely room, was going to be far more stressful than it should have been.

It was connected by a shared bath with Magnus’ room.

Being that close to Magnus was going to play havoc with her libido and her other, more thinking senses. She was going to need those erotic paperbacks just for the release. She’d read the murder mysteries to remind herself that she couldn’t kill him because the perp always gets caught in the end. She’d read the romances to remind herself that happily-ever-after really was fiction. The only problem with that theory was that every member of her family managed to defy it. Even crazy Uncle Charlie managed to find love with his partner before both men died in a skydiving accident. Daisy sighed. She still missed Charlie and his unapologetic flamboyancy. Octogenarians shouldn’t jump out of perfectly good airplanes on purpose. Still, he’d loved well and true, and life had been good to him. So love and romance really could end happily.

“Damn you, Magnus. Why couldn’t you just stay away?” She had no business thinking about love and romance and lifemates. She wasn’t in the market. She really wasn’t.

Kneeling in front of her open duffle on the floor, Daisy perused its contents while trying to decide what to hang and what to stuff into the bureau drawers. She was also contemplating ways to lock her door so she wouldn’t be tempted to see if Magnus still slept naked.

Maybe she could push the bureau in front of the door. No, that would be a fire hazard. She could put her bed in front of the bathroom door, but then she’d have to use the bathroom on the first floor when, inevitably, she’d have to go in the middle of the night. She could just move her things into one of the broom closets masquerading as bedrooms; not much of a view, but they were the farthest rooms away from Magnus.

No. I won’t go. I won’t barricade myself in either, like some sort of Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde.
She loved this room, and hated the idea of moving because she couldn’t control herself.

Daisy eyed the queen-sized canopy bed with its fluffy down comforter, oversized pillows, and satin sheets. If she was going to war with her inner slut, she’d go down swinging. She made up her mind to stick it out in the relative comfort of the trenches Magnus or Lauren, or for all she knew, both picked out for her. No matter how daunting the prospect.

“You’ve faced down armed Chilean treasure hunters outside Machu Pichu and ninja wannabes with their honed and polished katanas in Chicago. Get a grip, woman. You can bunk next to one jewelry-making Highlander. Jeeze.”

The room began to hum with energy and she suddenly knew she wasn’t alone. There was only one person who could make her molecules vibrate at that particular frequency. Daisy looked up and there he was leaning against the doorjamb, invading her space.

“I knew about your adventure in Peru,” Magnus said. “Jordon still turns white as a sheet if anyone so much as mentions Mayans. But crossing swords in Chicago? That one your father doesn’t know about.”

Magnus didn’t add that neither did he until two seconds ago. He didn’t have to. Daisy made that particular trip alone, and no one, most especially no one in her family, knew about it. She didn’t want them to.

“Chicago is a mysterious place, my friend. You can find all kinds of trouble there.”
Especially when you’re looking for it.

Daisy’s changed the subject to the only one she wanted to talk about, hoping that Magnus would let her sword crossing go. She narrowed her eyes and jerked her chin up at him, picking a fight. “Why are you sharing a room with me when you’ve made it clear you don’t want me?”

“I’m not,” he said matter-of-factly. “And I do want you. Get used to it. That’s not going to change, no matter how much you scowl at me. You’re no good at it, by the way. Although I do like the way your sweet face squishes up when try. It’s kind of cute. Your attempt to distract me from Chicago is working.” He rubbed a brow. “But only because I’m more interested in the future than the past.”

Magnus crossed his arms over his chest and cocked one foot in front of the other, leaning more deeply into the doorjamb. He wasn’t smiling, but he wasn’t upset by the “go away” vibe she was sending either. In fact, his expression said they could have been talking about the weather or what to have for dinner. Then something real and important flashed in his gray eyes. His demeanor was still relaxed, but he seemed to be processing her every facial expression on hyper-alert mode and filing it away for future reference. She felt like a science experiment.

Daisy ignored everything after his statement about not rooming with her, mainly because the rest made her want to throw something at his head. She eyed one of the thicker murder mysteries, but decided against it. “You may not be in the same room, technically speaking, but you’re close enough.”

He made an amused sound that had her rethinking the merits of flying paperbacks as projectile weaponry.

Needing to move, and hoping that if she looked busy he’d take a hint and leave her alone, Daisy grabbed a handful of clothing, not caring anymore what should be hung and what could be stuffed into the dresser portion of the bureau. She stood with a handful of clothing, turned her back on him, and moved to the cedar-lined bureau. Opening the top drawer, she started shoving stuff inside so haphazardly she knew she’d have to do it all over again, all the while muttering to herself. A family trait she really should get rid of before she passed it along to unsuspecting offspring.

Daisy wanted Magnus gone. She wanted him naked in the shower. She wanted to pull the sheer curtains of her canopy around the bed and watch him pose for her on the bed.

“Wanting hasn’t done me any favors so far, and now I’m thinking of things I
never
wanted.”

She finished throwing a handful of underwear into the drawer and was about to turn and get more from her duffle when she ran into Magnus. She hadn’t heard him move. She’d been busy contemplating the traits she didn’t want to pass onto her non-existent children. Children she hadn’t contemplated ever having until a second ago. Magnus had her tripping over her thoughts. She felt like she was inhabiting some parallel universe, thinking strange thoughts in a strangely familiar land about a life that had nothing to do with the one she was currently living.

Daisy backed away. Magnus held up a pair of her panties. He scrutinized them like he’d never held women’s underwear before. Daisy recognized the pair and her face flamed. She felt her few freckles begin to sizzle.
Damn the man.

Magnus moved his hands back and forth, causing the black satin tassel to shimmy and shake against the white and crimson silk, dotted with cherry blossoms. The panties were the one pair she’d purchased simply because they made her feel beautiful. She’d paid an absolute fortune for them without even thinking about it. Usually, she wore cotton bikini bottoms.

She purchased the panties and matching bra for herself, but, she’d been thinking of Magnus when she tried them on. No man had seen her in them.
Why did I pack that set?

Daisy closed her eyes. A sound escaped at the gentle way Magnus ran one finger over the tassel.

Magnus’ head shot up at the sound and something in his expression screamed “satisfied male beast.” Then he smiled and the heat rushing through her deepened. His voice rumbled when he spoke. It was intimate and filled with more than a little of his native land. He was seducing her without trying. “More than half the time when I listen to what you’re saying to me, I have no idea what you’re really thinking.”

He paused and smiled that smile men smile when they know they’re going to hold you pressed to them, skin on skin, very soon. It did nothing to keep her bones from threatening to liquefy. Lord and Lady, she needed him gone. Then his smile turned more teasing as he gently folded her panties into a small square. Slowly, he put them in the front pocket of his jeans. He watched Daisy’s every reaction, carefully weighing the telltale responses she couldn’t hide, no matter how still she forced herself to be.

“I’ll be keeping these,” he said, patting his front pocket, “until you come and get them. Come and get them now, lass. You know right where they are and I promise I won’t do a thing to stop you. Once I leave this room, you’ll never know for sure where they are. You’ll have to feel a whole lot more of me to find them if you wait. Come on, Daisy, have at me.”

He held his arms out wide in a gesture of mock peace, palms up to appear less threatening. It wasn’t the way he raised an eyebrow, challenging her, or the way he stepped so close she could smell the salt on his skin. No, it wasn’t either of those things. It was the satisfied gleam in his sterling-colored eyes and the longing it engendered in her that had her reaching for the closest thing to throw at his head. The bookshelf was too far away, so she threw the only thing she could reach.

It happened to be a Raggedy Ann doll that had been new decades ago.

His reflexes were lightning fast and her floppy, hand-sewn weapon bounced off the far wall when he ducked. As a missile of mass destruction, it left something to be desired.

Magnus laughed, a deep, heartfelt sound. He lowered his arms, and in a gesture better suited to an age long past, he executed a perfect royal bow. “So be it, milady. Let the games begin.”

Bringing out the playful Magnus she’d fallen in love with all those years ago was unfair. She wanted to play with him. He was at the threshold when she finally found her tongue.

“I’m getting a lock for my door.”

His smile didn’t falter. In fact, it widened. “Excellent. Then we’ll be sharing your bed faster than I anticipated. The second you try to lock anything, in fact.”

Now she wanted to kill him.

He was out the door before she made it to the book shelf.

From the hallway she heard him. The smile was still in his voice. She was glad at least one of them was enjoying themselves. “I still sleep naked, in case you were wondering.”

Since she was wondering exactly that, she screamed at him, “I wasn’t!”

“Liar. Your nose is going to grow, little flower.” His soft chuckle, as his voice faded, burned the tips of her ears.

…

For his part, Magnus walked away with a lightness in his step he hadn’t felt in years. The butterfly wings of hope fluttered in his heart. Daisy wasn’t as immune to him as she pretended to be. All it took to open her up a little was a reversion to the person he used to be when he was with her. He felt the outside of his pocket. The small scrap of silk he’d tucked away there was burning its way through his jeans. It was a piece of Daisy he had every intention of giving back. He wanted to see her wearing them. He would see her wearing them in his dreams until then.