Page 80 of The Highlander's Auctioned Wife
Ye daenaeget to send me away, then come back to me as if nothin’ happened. Ye daenaeget to toy with me, Gordon.
Laird Glendenning puffed his chest, clearly thrilled by Anna’s words.
At that moment, a shadow fell across Gordon’s face—one of his own creation—and though he didn’t look toward Laird Glendenning, the fair-haired man seemed to freeze, as if caught in an enchantment.
“Leave us,” Gordon said, his voice low and ominous.
Laird Glendenning deflated immediately, tripping over the tree root as he backed away. Scrambling to keep his balance, he shot a sharp glare at Gordon, muttering rude things under his breath, but he clearly valued his life more than anything else.
He wouldn’t risk getting on the wrong side of the Devil of the Highlands, even if it meant losing his chance to have a Lane girl for a wife twice over.
Still muttering, Laird Glendenning hurried across the gardens, obeying Gordon’s command.
Her “ suitor” might have been terrified of this man, but Anna wasn’t. Dropping her portfolio to the grass, she stepped over a second tree root, getting as close to Gordon as she dared, glowering right up into his beautiful gray eye.
“I should be askin’yeto leave,” she hissed, her heart aching. “After the… disdain and disrespect and hurt ye put me through, I ought to toss ye out on yer arse. Iwould,if I wouldnae break me back in the attempt. But I willnae hesitate to call for the guards and have them do it for me.”
His smile returned. “But yearehesitatin’, lass. I’m still here.”
“Because I’m wonderin’ why on earth ye’re here,” she countered, breathing hard. “Ye made it quite clear that ye were done with me. What, did ye nae enjoy the taste of yer freedom so much, after I was gone? Are ye bored, is that it? Have ye come to torment me some more?”
He raised his hand to her cheek, lightly brushing his thumb over the rosy apple. “God, I missed ye.”
“What?” she choked, shuffling a step backward.
“I’ve missed ye,” he repeated.
It was the final straw, her anger bubbling up like a fountain, and nothing could stop its rise.
“How dare ye,” she seethed. “How dare ye come here and play with me feelings like this. Ye had yer chance, Gordon. I wasright there, ready to choose ye, and ye just sent me away like I was nothin’. Ye’re as bad as them in there,” she pointed back at the castle. “Ye never bothered to ask what I wanted. What Iactuallywanted.”
“Is it me, perhaps?” he asked, a note of infuriating laughter in his voice.
All that time, she could barely coax a chuckle out of him, and now he was… laughing at her? He was lucky he was so tall, or she’d have smacked him.
“That’s nae what I meant!” she barked, simmering.
“But ye have feelings for me?”
She shook her head, stooping to collect her portfolio. “I cannae do this,” she muttered, turning away. “Nay, Iwillnaedo this. Ye shouldnae have come, just as ye shouldnae have come to the first auction.”
He has nay right to give me hope… nay right at all.
She’d almost made it over the tree root opposite, when his hand closed around her wrist, spinning her around. Breathless, shegazed up at him, furious with herself for being half-glad that he had stopped her walking away. What was she, a glutton for punishment?
“Are ye happy, lass?” he said thickly, his grip relaxing on her wrist.
She scoffed. “Do I look happy to ye? Do ye think I’m rejoicin’ at the fact that I’m back where I started? I gotfour daysof freedom. Four days. Then, the men started arrivin’.” Her eyes pricked with hot tears. “Ye should have seen me face when me faither told me it was another auction. But ye couldnae, of course, because ye were nae here.”
“I’m nae happy either,” he told her quietly. “I miss ye, love. I miss ye and I daenae want to leave here without ye. I dinnae want to let ye go at all, but, as David has been tellin’ me, I’m a bloody idiot.”
She faltered, frowning at him. “What?”
She hadn’t missed the soft word “ love”, but wasn’t certain if she’d misheard.
“I thought I was doin’ the right thing, the noble thing, givin’ ye the chance to find love,” he explained, his brow furrowed. “I truly dinnae thinkIwas capable of love, of givin’ ye that, but… I had it pointed out to me that I was alreadyinlove. With ye.
“It’s why I couldnae say farewell to ye on the day ye left—I thought me heart would be torn from me chest if I had to watch ye go. It already felt like it was, even without seein’ ye leave. And wantin’ ye to have the most fulfillin’ life possible, even if it wasnae at me side—I’ve come to understand that that’s love in action.”
