Page 42 of The Highlander Steals a Virgin
His hand tangled in her hair, and he pulled. Her chin tilted up toward him and her lips parted. Heart throbbing. Heat exploding between her hips.
“Ye will be moved to another room in the morning.”
He said and stepped back.
The sudden cold where his body had been was like ice.
Amara’s mouth parted, heart racing wildly. “What?”
But Rhys didn’t look back.
And now she felt truly lost and utterly alone.
The torches along the corridor sputtered as if mocking her, and shadows flickered hauntingly. She pushed off from the wall slowly, her knees weak and her fingertips still tingling from where they’d clenched the front of his tunic.
What just happened?
It had been anger but not only that. She’d seen the fire in his eyes, felt the hardness of his body pressed against hers. His grip hadn’t hurt, but it had stolen her breath, and his voice still echoed in her skull. Every part of her still buzzed with him. For him.
And then he’d left her.
Amara took a shaky step forward, then another, trying to remember how they’d even gotten to this part of the keep. Winding turns and stairwells, corridors with no windows. It all looked different now, foreign, hollow.
The best she could she retraced her steps and thought desperately to run into Myles or William or Nina, but she didn’t risk calling out anyone’s name. Her slippered feet padded silently over the stone as she walked, lost, down corridor after corridor. Her throat was dry and her pulse loud in her ears.
At one point she had to stop, palm flat against the wall as dizziness overtook her.
Daenae cry. Nae here. Nae now. Ye have to get back to yer chambers.
She swallowed down the lump in her throat, and continued on.
Just when she thought she might give up, a familiar voice called out from behind her.
“Lady Amara?”
She turned quickly, breath catching.
Nina stood a few paces behind her, wide-eyed and holding a folded shawl. “Saints above, I thought ye might have been a spirit!”
Amara straightened her spine. “Nay, nay — daenae fash. I went for a walk and took a wrong turn. Was just tryin’ to remember me steps.”
Nina smiled kindly but said nothing. “Follow me, me lady.”
When Amara reached her chamber and the door shut behind her, she stood frozen for a moment. Then, as if her strings had been cut, she collapsed face-first into the mattress.
And cried herself to sleep. For the second night in a row.
14
Rhys stared at the empty goblet in his hand, the wine long gone and the fire in his hearth now burning low. Maps and scrolls lay unfurled across the desk in front of him, but none of the words held shape in his mind.
She hadnae come to dinner…
Not that he truly excepted her to. Not after the sorry way he left her.
Still, he had sent up a tray. He hadn’t meant for things to go the way they had. She infuriated him, yes, but god be good, she moved something in him he hadn’t felt, ever.
A knock. Light, polite, but firm.
