Page 6 of Unspoken
Better to spend her night with them than the MacKay.Spurred on by the terrifying thought, she hastened her steps toward the foot ofthe stairs. She intended to ponder on the strange and frightening phenomenonshe’d just experienced once safely locked away.
She jumped at the unexpected sound of heavy boots makingtheir way towards the hall. Within seconds, the man would cut her off from herintended hiding place.
Panicking, she snuffed her candle and shoved it inthe linen basket, hoping to dispel the fresh smoke. Then, she ducked into theclosest guest room doorway alcove and balefully eyed the closet and itscomparative safety, now steps out of reach.
Holding her breath, she flattened herself againstthe doorjamb, certain the darkness veiled her completely.
The weighty footsteps paused before rounding thecorner where Evelyn hid. Tremors weakened her legs, and a throbbing painpulsed in her jaw where she clenched it tightly. After a moment’s hesitation,the footsteps resumed and a large, dark shadow passed her hiding spot trailingthe clean smell of leather, earth, and heather.
Roderick MacLauchlan.
What washedoing out so late? And how wasit possible for him to make his way in the darkness without the aid of acandle? Even with eyes adjusted to the dimness, Evelyn had difficulty distinguishinghis hulking form.
He stopped ten paces beyond her and turned the keyin its lock. The lamplight of his room spilled from the open doorway and ontothe burnished skin of his bare torso. Fortunately, the illumination didn’treach her alcove.
Her breath caught again as she drank in the sightof his unclothed back. He momentarily filled the expanse of the entry, andthen disappeared into the room.
As his door latched, cloaking her in darkness oncemore, Evelyn sagged against the wall. A whispered prayer of relief escaped herlips. But before she was able to form a coherent thought, the door burst openand Roderick stepped out into the hallway pinning her where she stood with hisunrelenting glare.
Alarm spiked her heartbeat, and his nostrilsflared; as did a banked fire in his fathomless glittering eyes.
At that moment, Evelyn began to understand thenature of a Berserker. A man possessing the speed to leap across an entiredining room faster than the eyes could track. That could easily break a brawnyman’s thick bone with one hand. Someone who had acute hearing and night visionakin to that of a bird of prey and who could easily identify the scent of fear.
Evelyn couldn’t slow her breathing as they staredat each other. The way his eyes insolently traveled the length of her body,even with half of it covered by a heavy linen basket, caused peculiar warmth tospawn low in her belly, and tendrils of it to curl upwards toward her heart andspread out through her fingertips.
Embarrassed and confused, she lowered her gaze tothe expanse of his smooth, hairless chest. The rounded muscles flared into immenseshoulders, which ebbed and crested into the thickest biceps she’d ever seen.Long, thick and veined, his arms remained hairless until below his elbows wherea light dusting of black hair gleamed in the lamplight and crawled toward hiswrists. As he stepped out of the doorway, more hair caught her eye, this trailedbetween the obdurate ripples of muscle that made up his torso and disappearedinto his dark trews. The glossy strings of his damp ebony hair confirmed arecent bath.
The niggling warmth became a pervading flood andhot bewildering moisture pooled between her thighs, which she was suddenlyaware she’d been clenching together.
Roderick’s nostrils flared wider and he tightenedhis jaw, an unholy knowledge lurking in his otherworldly eyes.
After a tense moment, he broke their mesmerizingconnection to slowly gesture with his eyes toward the light of his room andthen looked back at her. He jerked his head toward the doorway a few times.An unmistakable invitation.
He was asking her into his bed.
Roderick remained patiently immobile as shebattled her uncertainty. What if bedding a berserker was dangerous? Could hecontrol his formidable strength? What if, in her ignorance, she did somethingto make him angry? Evelyn knew a little of what happened when a man took awoman. She’d come frighteningly close to understanding it in the convent whereshe’d spent her childhood. In any case, her entire limited experience lent herto believe that she was better off a virgin for the rest of her life.
Yet, a knowledge that lay dormant all of hertwenty years whispered that she unequivocally desired to see the rest of thismagnificent man.
Shifting her eyes to the cupboard, images of beingstashed in other closets and nooks danced before her. Listening toconversations no innocent child should be privy too and saving or damningpeople with hersightat the point of a bishop’s dirk. Crying in thenight as the blood of the innocent dead called out against her in herdreams.
The sound of irate masculine conversation carrieddown from the stairwell. Moorland’s Inn stood only three stories high and sheknew without a doubt who descended from the attic in search of her.
Hastily making her reckless decision, she duckedpast the half-naked warrior into his room, laundry basket and all.
Chapter Six
Evelyn couldn’t decide where to rest her jumpygaze. So, she examined the room she’d prepared earlier that afternoon. Itwasn’t one of the biggest accommodations the inn boasted, but agreeablenonetheless. A basin with a pitcher of fresh water perched on a stand next tothe window, and an oil lamp glowed golden atop a rough hewn chest next to the sturdybed.
The clean rushes on the floor rustled beneath herfootsteps as she set the basket down against an unoccupied space of the walland turned uncertainly to look at Roderick.
He cast a curious glance towards the stairs andshe worried that his exemplary hearing would hone in on the MacKay’s intenttoward her. If she caused an altercation, she’d be dismissed. The streets ofScotland were full of men like the MacKays.
“Ah, I’m Evelyn.”
He cocked his head toward the door as he studiedher, narrowing his eyes in displeasure at something he heard in the hall.
“Evelyn Woodhouse of Kent.” A note of desperationcrept into her voice and she took a step toward him. She didn’t want any moretrouble with the Mackays, nor the malevolent presence lurking in the forestoutside. She just wanted him to shut them away from all that. At least forthe night. “And you are Master Roderick MacLauchlan.”
