Page 70 of The Highlander's Auctioned Wife
Gordon’s expression hardened. “I wasnae talkin’ to ye.” He glanced at David, who looked just as shocked to see Anna. “Ye, leave us.”
“But what about—” David began to say, but Gordon cut him off.
“I willnae repeat meself.”
David bowed his head. “I’ll meet ye… where I mentioned.”
With that, he hurried out, squeezing past Anna and into the hallway beyond: a half-derelict, structurally suspect passage that seemed to leak even though it wasn’t raining outside. And with his departure, Anna understood that she would be entirely alone with Gordon, so far from the main body of the castle that no one would intrude. Indeed, it had taken her charming no fewer than eight servants to even learn about this secret place.
“What are ye doin’ here?” Gordon said coldly, as he picked up the sword he had, apparently, been making, and dunked it in a bucket of water. It hissed, steam rising.
“It may have escaped yer notice,” she replied haughtily, “but we’re due to be married tomorrow, and ye’ve been avoidin’ me for days.”
He left the sword in the bucket, setting down his hammer. “If memory serves,yewere the one avoidin’ me. Do ye nae want me to comply with yer wishes anymore?”
“I think we’re beyond that, considerin’ ye went ahead with this weddin’ without consultin’ me,” she shot back, struggling to hold on to the thread of thought that had brought her down there in the first place. “But I came to say that I ken why ye did it.”
He seemed to be looking for something, searching the crooked shelves, peering underneath old chairs and tables that appeared to be destined for the furnace of his forge. “And why is that?”
“Ye’ve been tryin’ to push me away, because ye’re scared of what might happen to me if ye start to care,” she replied, steeling hernerve. “Ye kenned it would anger me and make me doubt yer reasons for marryin’ me if ye went against me wishes.That’swhy ye did it.”
He stopped what he was doing, and leaned against a weathered workbench. He had never given much away with his expression, but as Anna looked at him, she thought she saw a shadow pass across his face: a look she didn’t like one bit. Something cruel and strange, that didn’t belong to him, regardless of the devilish nickname he had been given.
“Or I couldnae be bothered with yer games,” he said flatly. “I told ye at the beginnin’, I daenae like games.”
A stinging pain struck Anna in the stomach, just below her ribs. “I wasnae playin’ games. I was tryin’ to get to ken ye.”
“What more do ye need to ken about me that ye daenae already ken?” He pushed away from the workbench, walking slowly toward her.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Everythin’. I… have come to realize, Gordon, that I ken nothin’ about ye. Nae really. Nothin’ of substance.”
His good eye warmed for just a moment, his brow furrowing as if he was in pain too. He stopped half a step away from her, raising his hand to her cheek but not touching her.
“Are ye scared of me, lass?” he asked thickly.
She shook her head, the clarity of her mind fogging up with the proximity of him, forgetting all the things she’d rehearsed saying on the way to find him, forgetting the answers that she craved. Whatever wondrous spell it was that he kept casting on her, she didn’t want it to end; she longed to be enmeshed in his enchantment for as long as possible.
“What do ye need to ken about me that’s more than this?” he whispered, closing the distance, his arm sweeping around her waist, pulling her to him as his lips found hers in a searing graze, hotter than any furnace.
CHAPTER 33
Anna melted,her eyes closing as she grasped for the shirt that wasn’t there, her fingernails finding his sweat-slicked skin. It was like the first gulp of air after almost drowning, though she hadn’t realized that the past few days without himhadbeen akin to suffocation, submerged in the banality, the boredom of his absence.
Her palms smoothed over his bare chest, sliding over his shoulders, one hand gliding up into his hair. She wanted him. Not tomorrow, but now. She wanted the wedding night beneath the willow tree that he had teased her with, right here in his private forge.
Breathless, she kissed him harder, making up for all that lost time, gasping as he pulled her closer and his hands grasped at her dress, as if he was trying very hard not to rip it off her. She’d heard that absence could make the heart grow fonder, but no one had mentioned that it could make her mind half-mad, making her abandon all sense and reason.
She kissed him with everything she possessed and everything she hoped for, perhaps believing that this moment could somehow make it all right between them again.
Whydidshe need answers, when his kiss spoke volumes? This couldn’t be the kiss of a man who didn’t care, who couldn’t find it in himself to love her one day, who wanted to push her away from him. She refused to accept that, when she was right there in his arms, feeling his lips on hers, making everything better.
All of a sudden, he scooped her up, carrying her to the workbench. She clung to him, kissing him without pause, losing herself in him. And when he set her down on the edge of the workbench, standing between her thighs, she locked her leg around his to keep him there, to feel the effect she had on him.
He growled in the back of his throat, kissing her as if she was all that mattered. His hand gripped her thigh, while his other hand cradled the back of her neck, slowly urging her to bend backward, meaning to lie her down on the workbench.
To give me what I desire…
“Wait!” she panted, pushing against his chest.
