Page 54 of Hard-Hearted Highlander
“What are you doing here?” she demanded as he neared her, her anger once again flaring out of nothing and everything.
He tilted his head to one side and frowned lightly. “You know why I am here—I wait for you.”
Bernadette’s heart skipped, which made her anger soar. She did not want to be pleased by that! She did not want to desire him! There was no end to this infatuation that wouldn’t hurt everyone involved, and yet she just stood there. “I don’t know what you said to her, but you said it poorly,” she said coldly. “Now she wants to seduce you!”
He laughed.
“It’s not the least bit amusing,” she snapped, and folded her arms across her body, holding herself tightly. “She doesn’t know what she is doing, and really, neither do I. I’ve somehow taken leave of all my senses and allowed you to kiss methreetimes—”
“Och, I’ve kissed you twice, lass. You kissed me once—”
“Yes, all right, twice then,” she said, the heat in her cheeks flaring. “But I am hermaid,sir, andthis,” she said, gesturing wildly between them, “is nothing but disaster in the making!”
He reached out, brushed a bit of hair from her eye and said with quiet authority, “Calm yourself, Bernadette.”
A drop of liquid silver slipped down her spine. He’d scarcely mentioned her at all, and had never said her given name. “Don’t tell me to calm myself,” she said, feeling slightly on the verge of hysteria. “And you’ve not been invited to address me by my given name! You do realize, don’t you, that your brooding has made a mess of everything?”
He smiled slightly, and a bit lopsidedly, as he touched her chin. The brush of his fingers sizzled on her skin. “You may call me Rabbie, aye? You’re no’ in England now. I’ve made a mess, have I? Of what, then? The very engagementyouadvised me to end?”
“You know very well what I mean,” she said, pushing his hand away. “You’re stubborn, and you’re perpetually despondent, and offensively impolite, and you don’t give the situation the consideration it so deserves—”
He suddenly grabbed her arms, pulled her forward and kissed her. It was a demanding kiss, a silencing kiss, and Bernadette responded to it, kissing him back.
But then she regained her senses and shoved against his chest. “What are youdoing? Haven’t we done enough?”
He stared at her, but his eyes were not dark and cold as she’d come to expect. Incredibly, there was a spark of amusement in them. He wasamusedby this predicament. For the first time since she’d met him,thisis what amused him? “This muststop,” she said, her voice shaking. “We just did it again! We betrayed Avaline for the fourth time!”
“Aye, as to that,” he said easily, “I’ve an idea to end it.”
Bernadette blinked. Her anger deflated. “You do?”
“I will explain to her that we Mackenzies are free traders. That ought to strike fear in her tender little heart, aye?”
“You’re what?”
“Smugglers, lass.”
Bernadette gaped at him. And then she burst into hysterical laughter.
Mackenzie didn’t move as much as a muscle, but patiently waited for to stop her gales of laughter. “You can’t possibly be serious! Who would believe such a thing?”
“You donna believe it?”
“Of course not!Smugglers.” She laughed again. “It’s absurd!”
“Is it?” he asked, his brows dipping. “Come, then, and I’ll show you.”
He turned back to his horse. Bernadette didn’t move from where she’d rooted herself. “You’re mad if you think I will ride with you again.”
Mackenzie impatiently turned back. “Och,donna be stubborn.”
“I won’t. It’s wrong—”
“Aye, you will,” he said, and strode back to where she stood, grabbed her by the wrist before Bernadette realized what he was doing and tugged her along. “I’ll have you see with your own bonny eyes so that you might convince your wee mistress that what I tell her is true.”
Like he’d done the last time, Mackenzie tossed her up on his horse and swung up behind her before she’d even found her balance. This time, however, he didn’t instruct her how to sit. He roughly pulled her back into his chest, anchoring her there in strong, possessive hold as he sent the horse trotting away from the sea.
And unlike last time, Bernadette complained of his treatment of her the entire way. “You can’t simply throw a person on a horse like a bag of grain and carry her off,” she said. “If there is something you wish to show me, you ought to invite me and receive my favorable reply. At least allow me to arrive wherever you mean to take me in the company of Avaline.”
