Page 36 of A Highland Bride Taken
When Mabel’s brow creased with confusion, he continued.
“The last time I saw Aiden, he was just a little bairn. Me grandfaither came for him. He wanted an heir, and since he couldnae produce one, he decided that he could just take one of his son-in-law’s sons, despite me maither’s protests. He did this because he kenned Muir was a small clan, unfit to challenge his clan to war. So he took Maither and Aidan and left.
“I grew up with me faither. I swore that I would get Aiden back and better protect me clan. But things didnae go as planned. Faither died when I was a young man, and soon I was knee deep in wars, fending off the other clans who thought that a young laird equaled a weak one and were trying to conquer our lands. I tried to get information about me braither, and I was told he had gotten married and was living quite happily with his wife.
“Me guilt for abandoning him for so long didnae allow me to meet him. I made excuses for meself. I didnae want to tarnish his happiness with me presence, as I was the embodiment of thepast he was running from. I promised meself that I would see him after the next war and the next. Years passed while I made these excuses, until the day he died without ever meeting me. I lost me chance to be with me braither, to be in the lives of me nephews because of sheer cowardice.”
He stared across the loch, sadness and anger warring on his features.
His pain radiated off him in waves, so potent that she wanted so badly to comfort him.
Before she could think better of it, she rested a hand on the side of his face, the one that bore scars. Evidence of his protective nature and his willingness to lay down his life for those he swore to protect.
He turned his head at her touch, his eyes boring into hers with such intensity that her breath caught in her throat. She was about to withdraw her hand when he leaned into her palm, surprising her.
“Ye have them now, and ye are doing yer best to care for them as one would their own,” she murmured. “It would take time, but they will grow to trust ye. Love ye, even. Ye’re their kin, and the fact that they are here shows that yer braither cared for ye more than ye assumed.”
He fell silent, so she let her thumb run along the edge of the scar she had longed to touch. It was rough underneath her skin, and she longed to ask for the story behind it.
Her eyes flicked up to find him staring at her.
“Me Lady,” he said, cradling her hand gently. “Me scars are quite fearsome, ye ken. Do they nae bother ye?”
For the first time, Mabel noted the vulnerability beneath the tough exterior he presented to the world.
It occurred to her then that beneath the facade of Laird Muir, he was still that young man who had to deal with losing his family several times over, before finally losing them permanently to death.
Somehow, she did not think he had anyone to console him. They thought him tough and strong, but beneath all of that, he was still human—he was still flesh and blood.
Her eyes softened. “They dinnae bother me. They are a testament to the strength of yer character. They are part of what makes ye ye,” she said, stroking his face until he closed his eyes with a sigh.
When he opened them again, they had darkened, roaming over her face until they settled on her lips, heating her skin with desire.
She knew he wanted to kiss her, and she craved it with all her being. So when he leaned forward and took her lips, she let him, opening to let him inside.
As he devoured her mouth and stoked desire in the depths of her belly, she hoped that she could give him some comfort from the demons that plagued him.
15
The days following their walk were more of the same, and even though she still woke up alone in her bed every day, she could sense that something had shifted between them. The proof was there in the soft look in his eyes during the rare times when they were together with the boys, enjoying breakfast or tucking them into their beds.
Whatever it was that was brimming between them, the Laird seemed hellbent on avoiding being alone with her. She understood the reason for his actions, but it did not quell the disappointment deep in her gut, neither did it prevent her from waking up every morning sweating, her breathing labored from a scalding dream which featured several variation of scenes where her husband kissed her passionately and touched her, fanning the flames of her desire.
With every dream, she worried that her self-control had grown thin and that she might attack the poor man just to satisfy that desire.
She had married the Laird in order to stay close to Connor and Ollie, but she found herself getting distracted by him. A part of her felt guilty about her distraction, but she consoled herself with the fact that the Laird had gotten closer to the boys over the past few days.
They had shed some of the trepidation they felt around him, but she could still feel that they did not trust him completely. It was in the restrained way they greeted him. In the guarded way they accepted his help.
Even if she couldn’t do anything about the state of her marriage, she was sure she could do something about the relationship between the boys and their uncle.
After much thought, she decided that since children bonded more over play than anything, they needed to play with their uncle outdoors, in the bright sunshine.
She was going to organize a picnic, she thought with a smile. She just needed to convince the Laird first.
Squaring her shoulders, she marched towards his study. When she stopped before the wooden door, she took a deep breath and knocked twice in rapid succession.
“Enter,” his deep voice came from within.
