Page 75 of Bride of Mist
Sighing, she slowly sank beneath the surface, feeling the warm waves creep up over her chin, her cheeks, her brow, her head.
It was peaceful under the water. Calm. Soothing. Quiet. Nothing like the chaos above the surface. In the warm waves, she could indulge in what Sung Li calledmozhao,silent meditation.
Indeed, she was so relaxed, she had almost floated away to serenity when she was abruptly yanked back to the surface by a pair of rough hands on her bare shoulders.
“What the devil are ye doin’, lass?” Dougal demanded, staring down at her, aghast.
Her irritation at the interruption quickly gave way to amusement. “Nothing. What did you think I was doing?”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. She could see the answer in his eyes. He thought she was drowning.
The look of concern on his face melted her heart. The strong ale loosened her tongue. “Ahh, you were rescuing me,” she realized, gazing up at him with a grateful, drowsy smile. “Thank you,” she purred.
He grunted in reply. “Och. Well. Ye’re no good to me dead.”
But she wasn’t fooled by his harsh words. His expression as he hunkered down beside her told a different tale. He let go of her shoulders. But his gaze lingered there before slipping down to her breasts and farther, to her nether curls wafting in the warm current.
She flushed with a curious brew of strong emotion. Excitement. Danger. Pleasure. All blended into one.
“I like the way you look at me,” she blurted.
Her words startled him, but that didn’t silence her. When she’d been drinking, very little could stop her, once she began to gush.
“No one looks at me like that,” she confessed. “No one notices me at Rivenloch. Sung Li says ’tis a gift. I can disappear in a crowd. Slip past enemy lines. Steal through the forest. I’m practically…invisible.” The last word caught in her throat. Her gift sometimes felt more like a curse than a blessing. “But you… You see me, don’t you?”
Dougal saw her. All too well. And if she didn’t stop gazing up at him with those sultry silver eyes…cooing to him in those seductive, dulcet tones…tempting him with her strong, soft, lovely body…he’d never be able to achieve the detachment necessary to use her for leverage.
He shouldn’t have had that last cup of ale. He was having trouble averting his eyes from the beautiful lass before him. Hell, he’d had trouble releasing her shoulders. Her bare, warm, wet, slippery shoulders. And now, when he should be stepping away, returning to the fire, he couldn’t seem to get his feet to budge.
Still, he managed to snarl out a gruff lie. “Aye, I see ye. I see ye as a valuable hostage.”
But even as he said the hurtful words, he realized he didn’t see her that way at all. In fact, he doubted he had the heart to harm a single hair on the lass’s head.
She should have taken his words as he intended—as a dampening insult.
But somehow she twisted them into flattery. “You think I’m valuable?”
That he couldn’t lie about. “O’ course ye’re valuable. Ye’re a loyal clanswoman, a talented warrior, a beautiful lass…”
“Beautiful?”
She acted as if she’d never heard the word. Was that even possible?
He feasted his eyes on the breathtaking lass with eyes that gleamed like raindrops, a mouth to rival a rose, and a body that begged for a man’s touch. Whether it was her beauty or the ale that left him besotted, he blurted out the truth. “Ye’re the most beautiful lass I’ve e’er seen.”
For a moment, she seemed stunned. Then she murmured, “No one’s e’er called me that before. You really think I’m beautiful?”
He nodded. The beast inside his braies agreed. It roused at the sight of the lovely lass.
She lowered shy eyes and murmured, “’Tis what I thought of you as well.”
“That I was a beautiful lass?” he asked with a one-sided grin.
She grinned back and flicked water at him. “You were not at all what I expected.”
“What did ye expect?”
“A monster. A savage. But you weren’t. You aren’t.” Her eyelids lowered with badly disguised longing. “Your eyes are so kind. Your mouth is so sweet. You’re the most handsome man I’ve e’er seen.”
