She opened her eyes.
It was not yet fully light.The sky beyond the shuttered window had softened from black to the deep blue-grey of very early morning and the fire had burned to a low amber glow.The inn around them was still silent, the held breath before the day began.An hour, perhaps, before Maisie's kitchen stirred.
She had overslept.Badly.
Una cursed herself silently and with considerable feeling.She had lain down with every intention of waiting Cormac out, her things placed by the door, her route east mapped in her head, and she had closed her eyes for just one moment and slept like a bairn until near-dawn, cocooned in the man's warmth.She would have to wait until nightfall again, if he gave her another opportunity, which was becoming an increasingly doubtful prospect.
She permitted herself, since the damage was already done, to look at him.
He truly was a braw man.
Cormac remained in deep sleep and she allowed herself to watch him for a moment.He looked younger and more relaxed without the weight of the world on his shoulders.Dark lashes against his cheekbone.The clean line of his jaw carrying the shadow of a night's growth.He looked content and at peace.
And despite his chosen vocation he seemed to be a good man, at least toward her.He had protected Una more than once and made her feel cherished in ways she had not expected and could not entirely account for.Come to think of it, he and his men had not robbed anyone since she had been with them.They were headed to Edinburgh; he had paid Maisie more than enough coin for their stay.If they were such notorious raiders they ought to be pillaging every traveler and inn on the road, but they were not.In fact, once they had come within sight of the inn the masks had been discarded entirely and they had looked like nothing more than ordinary travelers.Well-armed ordinary travelers.
Una was slightly baffled by it all.
She was still frowning at the ceiling and turning it over in her mind when Cormac shifted.Just slightly, a small unconscious movement, a mumbled word, and then he settled again, his arm tightening a fraction across her waist as he sank back into sleep.
That was her cue.
Gently, very gently, she began to ease herself toward the edge of the bed.
***
SHE HAD MOVED PERHAPShalf a foot when the arm across her waist tightened.
"Morning, sweeting."
That voice.Low.Husky.Rough with sleep.Directly against her ear.
Una's eyes widened.
She shut them again immediately and feigned sleep.
A pause.
Then she felt the low rumble of laughter against her back.
"I ken ye are awake.I can hear ye thinking," he said.
She kept breathing.
"Ye went rigid as a fence post the moment I spoke.'Tis not convincing."
She opened her eyes."I was merely resting," she said.
"Ye were plotting," he replied."There is a difference."
She had nothing to say to that because it was true.
Outside the shutter the sky was the pale grey-blue of pre-dawn.The fire glowed low and steady.The inn was still quiet.She was lying with her back to his chest, his arm across her middle, his leg warm and heavy against hers, and she was extraordinarily aware of every single point of contact between them.
She began to move again.
"Dinnae do that," he said softly.
"Cormac—"
