Page 24 of The Highlander's Auctioned Hellion
I dinnae wish to ken if that is how she feels about me.
He had grown too used to Duncan and Isla’s company, people who did not see him as a monster, who were accustomed to his scars. It was strange to think of new servants in the house applying such names to him.
The beast of Murray Castle. I can just hear it now.
He pushed off the doorframe, ducking into the room as the girls huddled together.
Callum hated how frightened they were of him. There had once been a time when he had imagined carrying them around the castle on his shoulders, playing with them around the lake, being a real uncle.
Now, all they were left with was an embittered beast with no clue how to connect with them at all.
Eilis and Amy exchanged a worried look, their expressions apologetic as they fidgeted in place.
“Go to bed,” he growled, holding back a groan as they stiffened and scampered away through the door behind him.
He wished he knew what to say to young children, to understand them, but this was like traversing a foreign land—he kept getting lost along the way.
Callum’s gaze moved to Lydia. Her spectacles were missing this evening, and it gave her face a different look. He liked the wire rims, perched on the end of her nose, but without them, her eyes looked brighter.
She was staring at the floor, the tips of her ears having turned red from being caught.
He stepped forward, and her breath hitched, but she still didn’t look at him.
A desperate need rose inside him to see her face upturned toward him again, just as it had been in the study when he had trapped her against the wall.
Something about seeing her beneath him had set a fire burning between his legs like nothing ever had.
What am I thinkin’? She isnae goin’ to want to get close to me. I even told her that I didnae have any interest in her.
“If ye wish to ask questions, then ye can ask them of me. Nae the wee bairns, andnaethe damned servants.”
Lydia chewed at her lip, her hand coming up to clutch at the neck of the robe she was wearing.
Then Callum’s mind caught up with the picture in front of him.
Lydia’s hair was dark, yes, but also molded to her back in thick, bunched curls. The robe around her shoulders was thin, sticking to her body in places as if her body were wet.
She just got out of the bath, I’d wager… and she has nae clothes on underneath that thing.
He swallowed, a surge of lust and need taking him by surprise. Not an hour before this, he had been telling her that he did not have any interest in any woman, and here he was fantasizing about ripping the thing from her back and having her against the wall.
“I’m sorry,” her little voice broke him out of his fantasy. “I didn’t think. The children surprised me, and they were asking me questions. I didn’t mean any offense.”
“Ye didnae mean any offense?” he asked, taking another step forward, so she was forced to back away from him again. “And what dae ye think callin’ me abeastwill dae exactly?”
Those defiant green eyes turned upward, and Callum’s groin throbbed at the way her mouth parted, as if she was fighting not to pout.
“I didn’t call you abeast. The girls merely quoted the servants doing so. I apologize for entertaining the discussion, but it was not something I planned.”
Callum’s eyebrows rose, surprised by the apology.
Lydia’s eyes moved over the scars on his face again, and it was unlike anyone else doing so. It was as if he could feel the touch, a finger running over his face. Gooseflesh rose over his skin as he watched her examine them, and then his anger spiked as she looked away, worrying at her lip.
“So how come ye are avoidin’ me gaze now?Daeye see me as a beast?”
Lydia was only a few inches from the wall now, her gaze firmly on the floor, her breath harsh and short.
“No,” she said firmly. “But you can be a little overbearing at times.”
