Page 38 of The Highlander's Auctioned Bride
“Then take me,” she whispered.
He gave a feral growl as he dropped her back on the bed and her legs fell open as he pushed the nightgown up and over her body. His eyes roamed over her skin as he did it. When he pulled it over her head, he stood back to stare at her. If he hadn’t looked at her with such banked-up greedy lust, she might have felt shy that she was fully naked while he remained clothed.
“Ye are the greatest temptation I have ever kent,” he said as he lowered himself over her, his mouth licking at her neck as his hands caressed her breast before fondling it. His thumb and forefinger pinched the peak, making Maisie jolt as a strange pulse of electric pleasure-pain sparked from the site of it.
As he stormed up the bed to capture her mouth she moaned softly as his tongue met hers. She shuddered and pulled him toward her as he?—
There was a heavy knock on the door.
James froze above her as he pulled away, looking back at the door.
“It isnae a good time!” he shouted.
“Me laird, my apologies, but this is urgent.”
Maisie watched as the mask of the laird fell back into place, and she fell back against the mattress as he released her unceremoniously and crawled off the bed, righting his clothes.
Awkward, and feeling horribly exposed, she pulled a blanket over her body, wanting to hide herself away.
“That’s Bram’s voice,” he explained, as though it warranted his behavior. “Somethin’ must be wrong.”
He quickly walked to the door and had a murmured conversation with the man there. She couldn’t discern a single word, but her body was thrumming with abandoned need and desire.
At last, James stormed back in, not giving her a single glance as he dug through the pile of clothes and grabbed his jacket.
“James? What’s goin’ on?” Maisie asked, sitting back up to her knees.
“There’s a riot in one of the villages—it’s bad,” James said, still avoiding her eyes.
“But—” she went to ask.
“It’ll have to wait,” he said sternly, all trace of softness gone.
The chill in the air and the chill in her thoughts stiffened her body. It was as though she were looking at a completely different man. He had been so tender, so soft, sowanting,and now he was a beast again.
“But—”
She saw him gather himself together with a momentous effort. He looked up at the ceiling and then back at her with what could have been remorse but might simply have been exasperation.
“I ken what I said, Maisie, but this isclanbusiness. I cannae stay here, nae under the circumstances.”
She said nothing, feeling cold all over. Perhaps he did have to go, but the clinical manner in which he was leaving made her feel dirty. He had exposed her in more ways than one and then thrown her aside when duty came calling.
He hasnae even said he is sorry.
“This is what I have to dae.”
Without so much as a backward glance, he donned his jacket and left the room. For a short while, she heard low murmuring just outside the door, and then all was silent.
And there Maisie sat, naked and cold, abandoned by the one man she would have to come to rely on more than any other in the world. Hot tears stung her eyes.
“Curse ye, James MacLennan,” she sobbed as she curled up around her pillow and cried herself to sleep.
CHAPTER 14
Maisie wokeup to an empty bed, still in James’s room. The mattress beside her was cold, it was clear the laird had not returned after he had left.
He said it would be different. He said I didnae have to be lonely anymore. Was that all a lie? For what?
