Page 80 of The Highlander Steals a Virgin
Then Daisy’s voice called from the courtyard beyond, and Amara turned to follow.
She found him in the courtyard, just as he’d promised. Daisy at his side.
Rhys stood near the far archway, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword, the other tucked behind his back. The afternoon sun made his dark hair shine like coal and cast sharp shadows along the lines of his face.
He looked every inch the laird, and then he smiled.
Then he just looked like Rhys.
His eyes dropped briefly to her waist. “Ye look radiant.”
She flushed despite herself. “I try.”
“Come.” He offered his arm. “Let me show ye somethin'.”
She took it without hesitation. Daisy hummed and smiled, watching her father and Amara. “Where are we goin’, Da?”
“Well, Lady Amara and I are just goin’ on a long, long walk around the grounds. I was showin’ her all of the spots along the perimeter of the keep grounds where we might be vulnerable to an attack. Are ye nae comin’ with us?”
“Oh,” Daisy said, clearly disappointed. “I guess…” she concluded, rolling her eyes and shuffling her feet as she followed behind them.
Rhys led Amara and Daisy to the far end of the keep grounds, in an almost planned stop at the stables. The stablemaster waved Daisy over, and the gladly skipped toward him. “I’m just goin’ to check on the ponies, da! Come get me on yer way to supper!”
He laughed and waved after her, and the sound vibrated Amara’s very tight core.
Rhys guided them through the outer wall and along a path that curved gently around the base of the keep, past a low orchard and into a wood that smelled of pine and sweet earth. Birds darted overhead, their song tangled in the rustle of leaves.
Amara breathed it in. The smell, the quiet, the man beside her.
Rhys was quieter than usual, but it wasn’t the same guarded silence from days past. This felt easier. Looser.
They crested a hill, and he pointed toward the slope below.
“There’s a glen there where the deer lie in summer,” he said. “And a loch beyond it. Deep and cold.”
Her heart caught. “Oh, I… I think I’ve already found that.” Amara winced as if ruining a secret she hadn’t known he was about to share.
He turned to her with raised eyebrows and a playful grin tugging at the corners of his lips. “Ye have?”
“Aye. It was the day before last. When ye told me to explore the grounds… and I…”
“Explored the grounds,” Rhys allowed.
“Aye,” she said, still with a grimace.
“I daenae ken why ye have situated yer face as such. Would ye think I would be mad?”
“I mean, I think it wasactuallypast the boundaries.”
“Nay, the keep grounds go until the village on the West, the other side of the loch ye found, and through the forest to the South and East. Ye havenae even begun,” he said, and he winked.
He winked? Actually winked!
“Well, I guess I havenae then. I only went past the pines and down a hidden trail to the loch. It felt like I shouldn’t be there. Like it was sacred.”
“Oh,thistrail? Aye. Itis,” he said, his voice lower now.
“Why is it sacred?”
