Page 97 of The Highlander Steals a Virgin
No words passed between them, but both were still breathing as if they’d stolen the air from each other’s lungs.
She shifted in his arms like a sigh, the softness of her thigh still draped over his. The fire slowly fell to embers, but the heatbetween them lingered, sealed into the sheets and the air and the throb in his chest.
He stared up at the dark ceiling, one hand resting on the curve of her spine.
It should have been perfect.
She’d chosen to stay. At least, hethoughtshe had. That’s what she’d started to say. That’s what she’d whispered before he kissed her like a man undone.
And hehadundone.
Everything.
Now, she stirred, pulling the blanket to her chest, and sat up slowly, her fingers trailing across the flat of his stomach as she moved.
“We should —” she began softly.
“Aye,” he said before she could finish. He sat up too, rubbing a hand down his face, then reached to the side for his shirt.
They dressed in a haze of candlelight and quiet. Early evening tracking through the curtains.
Rhys caught the glint of her profile in the looking glass as she stood near the hearth, fixing the laces at her collar.
That silence he’d welcomed on the trail and at the loch wasn’t welcome now.
It was heavy.
And it was his fault.
He could feel it brewing between them, the unspoken thing. He should have let her say it.
Rhys cleared his throat and leaned his shoulder against the stone wall. “I should’ve let ye finish what ye were going to say, lass.”
She paused, her fingers stilling in her hair.
“Ye werenae done… were ye?”
She turned toward him slowly. Her lips parted, eyes round, and then she gave him the smallest, almost apologetic grimace.
“Nay,” she said. “I wasnae.”
Rhys’s heart dropped in his chest.
He looked down, jaw clenched. “Ye’re goin’ back.”
A statement. But it came out like a question.
There was a beat of silence, and then, Amara replied quietly. “Aye.”
One word. Gentle. Honest.
Like it had taken her whole body to say it.
Rhys forced himself to nod.
Before she could speak again, he reached for his coat and stepped toward the door.
She took his arm without hesitation.
