Page 13 of Bound By Deception

“I’m no lord,” he replied, turning to her.

A pair of piercing woad-blue eyes settled upon her. They were startling in their hue—not a color she was used to seeing among her people.

But his eyes weren’t the only startling thing about him.

From the back, the man’s size had given the impression of brutishness. She’d expected a coarse, lumpy face with a heavy brow and bullish jaw—but her husband-to-be had chiseled, sharp features that gave him a hawkish look.

His jaw was strong yet lean and shadowed with stubble, and he had a well-molded mouth. There was a severity to his facethough, as if it smiled rarely. Her gaze traveled down then, taking in his broad chest and narrow waist and hips. He wore a leather vest with a knife belt strapped across the front and tight leather breeches. His arms were bare and covered in druidic tattoos. A knotted swirl of dark-blue markings wrapped itself around his heavily muscled bicep and disappeared under his vest before traveling across his collarbone to his neck.

Bree glanced back up to his face. Aye, he was a Marav toad—and far less handsome than males of her race—but all the same, Bree had to admit that he wasn’t foul to look upon.

Just as well,she reminded herself grimly.For you will be spreading your legs for him soon enough.

Pushing aside the disturbing thought—for the fact that she’d soon couple with a man responsible for hunting and killing countless Shee made her feel sick—Bree ducked her head.

“Like what you see?” The question was blunt.

Bree stiffened. She hadn’t realized she’d been staring. She needed to watch that. A Maid of Albia didn’t gawk. He’d wonder where her manners were.

Cailean mac Brochan moved close then, looming over her. “Lift your head,” he commanded. Bree raised her chin and angled her head back to meet that unnerving gaze. Making such bold eye contact with him was unsettling, especially now that they were standing just a foot apart.

She inhaled the smell of him then: leather and male musk, with a hint of clove. It wasn’t unpleasant, not like some of the foul odors she’d endured on the way up to the broch. However, he didn’t smell like a male of her own people. Gavyn’s scent was fresh as a mountain glade. This man’s scent was darker, sharper.

In truth, he unsettled her. And this close, she could smell magic on him too—pine and campfire—an odor that made her stomach clench.

This was why she’d had to leave her old self behind. She couldn’t come before this man glamored. But even though she was Marav now, worry crept in.

This man wasn’t like others of his race. He was the chief-enforcer, a powerful warrior-druid who cloaked himself in earth magic and had a fae hound at his side. What if he smelled her lie?

His gaze roamed Bree’s face now. Ever since turning to look at her, his expression had remained stony. She’d expected the Marav to be easier to read than her own people, but this man gave her nothing.

“You’re not what I expected,” he said after a lengthy pause, his tone disapproving.

“No?” she asked lightly.

“No.”

Trying to ignore the sudden dampness to her palms, Bree forced a polite smile. “How so?”

“I thought you’d be fresher-faced, shy. But there’s a boldness to you.” Accusation crept into his voice.

Curse it. She wasn’t doing a great job at pretending to be Fia. Bree ducked her head once more. “I’m just excited to finally meet you,” she murmured.

“There’s no point in acting meek,” he snapped, scowling. “In your letters, you told me you were two and twenty … was that a lie?”

Bree swallowed, raising her chin to meet his eye once more. “No … I’ve always looked more mature than my age.”

Even in her Marav form, she looked no older than a woman of twenty-five or so. However, this sharp-eyed individual had seen what she’d been sure he wouldn’t—that her eyes weren’t young.

He continued to stare down at her, and Bree resisted the urge to squirm.

Squirm? She hadn’t felt this uncomfortable under a male gaze in years.

“Aye, well … you’ll do, I suppose,” he muttered after a pause.

Bree stiffened.Rude bastard.

In her Shee form, she wasbeautiful.Lovely enough to bring a mere mortal like him to his knees. “I hope that I’m pleasing to you,” she said, careful to keep her voice sweet and low.

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