Page 88 of Trapped with the Vicious Highlander
She could feel someone—it was Brodrick, judging from the woodsy scent she had grown familiar with—lift her off the floor.
“No. No. You—put me down,” she protested, growing more dizzy by the second.
“Relax, lass,” Brodrick said, his voice distant for some reason. “Ye’re a feather for someone like me.”
Then and only then did she succumb to the dizziness and let oblivion take over.
CHAPTER26
When Ava opened her eyes,she didn’t recognize where she was for the first minute. The room was different. Bigger than any of the rooms in the castle, except the Great Hall. There were a few chairs at the corners and candles flickering on several sconces. Only when her vision narrowed on the light did the realization dawn on her.
She didn’t recognize this room because it was Brodrick’s.
It was probably the only room in the castle she had never entered.
Her eyes flicked to the other side of the room, studying everything around her ever so slowly.
“Ye’re awake,” Brodrick’s voice called from beside her.
She turned her head to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, watching her with worried eyes.
Had he been sitting there the entire time?
“How long was I?—”
“Nae more than half an hour. Ye’re lucky ye only hit yer head,” Brodrick responded.
That triggered her memories, and she felt everything return. The grey-haired man, the gun pressed to her lower back, the arm around her throat, the rage on Brodrick’s face at the revelation.
The—
“Margaret,” she gasped, bolting upright.
“She’s safe. She’s with me sister, and they’re in her room. It is all right.”
Brodrick grabbed the cup of water resting on the table behind him and handed it to her. She drank and began to feel better almost immediately.
“Ye’re all right, lass. Dinnae ever scare me like that again,” Brodrick continued.
Ava nodded. “Aren’t you going to ask why I came back?”
“Do I need to?”
“Do you not want to know?”
Brodrick leaned closer. “I made a mistake, Ava. I was a coward. I didnae tell ye how I felt. The truth is that I have never felt this way about a woman. What I feel for ye… I dinnae ken what to do with it.”
Ava could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, but she didn’t stop him.
“I should have come out of the castle the morning of yer departure. I should have told ye I want to be with ye for the rest of me life. Because I am in love with ye, Ava.”
The tears rolled freely down her cheeks and dripped from her chin now.
“So, to answer yer question, ye came back because ye’re mine. Ye have always been mine. I will never let ye go again.”
And that made something inside her burst.
Ava cupped his face in her hands and kissed him. He returned the kiss, at first gentle and careful. His hands roamed over her body, only covered by the thinnest of her dress.
