Love Between the Lines ✔️ DRAFT 1 COMPLETE

Chapter 15

Despite the family rules, Fionn snuck me into his room from the secret door in his closet. We stayed up late talking until we fell asleep together. The morning came, and I woke up in FIonn's arms. I rolled over to face him, smiling as he snored lightly in his sleep.

"Psst." I brushed my fingers across his forehead. "Fionn."

"Mm." Fionn's eyes fluttered open, landing on me. "Merry Christmas, Em."

I sat up in bed. "Merry Christmas. I can't believe it's here. I still can't believe we're here, together."

He leaned over and kissed me. "I can. I sort of knew since we first met that there was something about you that intrigued me."

I laughed. "I thought you hated me when we first met."

Fionn's eyes sparkled with mischief. "I thought you were stubborn. But that's one of the things I like about you, and without that stubbornness, we wouldn't be together."

I wrapped my arms around his neck while he placed his on my hips, drawing me into his lap under the covers. "That's true. Your stubbornness drew me to you as well."

Fionn leaned me back on the bed, and I let my lips linger against his mouth as his hands slid up my back over my pajama top. My fingers pushed lightly against his chest.

"Fi, we might not want to do that right now," I murmured.

He raised his eyebrows, the corners of his mouth quirking up into a teasing smile. "Fi?"

"What?" I crossed my arms over my chest in mock offense. "I get a nickname, why can't you have one?"

Fionn laughed, tickling my sides. "You're cute, you know that?"

A knock at the door had the two of us jumping apart as if a bolt of lightning had struck. I smoothed down my hair and moved to the side of the room while Fionn went to answer it.

"Merry Christmas!" Catriona sing-songed. She poked her head into the room, grinning when she saw me. "You two really don't understand the 'sneaking around' concept do you?"

Her brother rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Cat. Em was just saying good morning."

Cat smirked. "I bet. C'mon you two, mum's made us pancakes." She turned on her heel, her blonde hair swishing behind her.

I turned to Fionn. "I guess we should go downstairs before anyone gets suspicious that we're up to no good."

He grinned. "Or maybe we should just stay up here..." he trailed off, tickling my sides and bringing me back down on the bed beside him.

We rolled around together for a minute before I surrendered. Fionn pulled me to my feet and we padded down the stairs, our fingers clasped together.

"Good morning!" Maisie called cheerfully from the kitchen. "Emilie, I didn't know what kind of pancakes you like so I made chocolate chip, blueberry, and strawberry. We have cream and cinnamon for toppings."

"And of course, extra chocolate chips!" Catriona added, dumping a handful onto her plate as she served herself by the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

I shifted my weight and took in the sight before me. Wow, she really had gone all out. No one had ever done something like that for me before.

"Thank you so much, Mrs. MacLeod. This looks incredible," I said.

"My pleasure, love." She beamed at me. "And please, as I said last night, just call me Maisie."

"One Americano coffee," Fionn announced, handing me a cup with a wink. "Just the way you like it."

"Thanks." I grinned up at him.