Page 36 of Intrigued By A Highlander

“What are you doing?” she demanded, though didn’t give him a chance to respond. “You don’t find me appealing. Why in heaven’s name would you kiss me?”

Knox sat up, shaking his head, then running his fingers through his hair. “Only the good Lord knows why, since it makes no sense to me.”

A chill shivered Dru and she realized she was naked. “Bloody hell,” she cried out and yanked the blanket only to expose Knox’s arousal. She shook her head, thinking he was larger than she recalled and threw the blanket at him and hurried to find the garments Lady Agatha had left for her.

“Why am I naked?” she demanded, grateful to the woman for including an undergarment with the shirt and plaid. She hurried it over her head, relieved it fell to her knees. “Why?” she repeated, her hands on her hips as she turned to Knox and turned her head away when she saw him standing naked beside the bed.

“Look at me, Dru,” he ordered. “NOW!”

She turned a defiant glare on him.

“This stops now,” he said as if he decreed it. “We may find ourselves in positions that might seem uncomfortable, but we are husband and wife. We did nothing wrong. You fell asleep in the tub and didn’t wake when I lifted you out or while I dried you or tucked you into bed. I did nothing more than care for you in a time of need. Something I would expect of myself as a husband, and I would expect of my wife to do for me. And do not remind me again that we are not truly husband and wife. We agreed to remain husband and wife for this mission and that is the end of that.”

He turned to grab his garments, his arousal growing, seeing her standing there, a wild fury in her eyes and strands of her red/blonde hair falling just as wildly around her head and face. He couldn’t help but wonder if she would couple with such wild fury as well. And, bloody hell, if an image of her naked on top of him, riding him hard and furiously, didn’t pop into his head and aroused him even more.

“Thank you.”

Her surprising remark had him turning his head and he was even more surprised to see tears in her eyes. He stepped toward her, but she held up her hand stopping him.

“I haven’t been cared for in—” She shook her head. “What seems like forever.”

“Who looked after you?” he asked, curious to know more about her.

“My mum, then she got sick, and I looked after her until she passed.”

“I am sorry for your loss. Is that how you wound up on the road, no permanent home?”

“Aye. There was only me and my mum, so I had no one to help me.”

He watched her roughly wipe away a tear that had trickled down her cheek like she was angry that she allowed it to fall.

“You’re not alone anymore,” he said, again sounding as if he decreed it.

“For now,” Dru said.

“Nay. Never again. I will find a place for you before we part, so you are safe.”

“Not likely,” she said annoyed. “I don’t need your charity. I’ll take care of myself.”

Knox wasn’t surprised that she rushed out of the room, but whether she liked it or not, he would see her kept safe no matter what it took.

Dru staredat the chaos in the Great Hall.

“It’s all your fault,” Lady Agatha yelled at her husband.

“The lad needs to learn not to lie to me,” Chieftain Liam argued.

“So, you have him walk with you and your wolfhound and berate him for lying as you walk through the village for all to hear?” Lady Agatha shook her finger at her husband. “That is heartless, Liam. There are better ways to teach our son. Now he’s gone and ran away. He’s only eleven years. He cannot survive on his own.”

“What happened?”

Dru jumped, not hearing her husband come up behind her.

“Ethan has run away,” Lady Agatha said.

“What can I do to help?” Knox asked.

“Go help his brothers find him since Liam is too much of an arse to go himself,” Lady Agatha’s dad said.

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