Page 30 of Dark Side of the Laird
Logan glanced down at me, stroking his thumb across my cheek. “Nay, lass, but I would have married ye the moment ye agreed to be my lover.”
I buried my face in his chest, gripping tight to his linen shirt and breathing in his scent, burning it in my memory.
“I’ve put you in danger,” I said. “The king…”
“Shh.” He stroked his hands on my back, comforting me in the cocoon of his embrace. “The king will not harm me.”
“I know but—”
He gripped my shoulders and pulled me back as he bent toward me, so we were face to face. “Do ye recall what ye said yesterday in the storeroom?”
Ummm… yes. And none of it had anything to do with him leaving. I felt the heat rise in my cheeks.
“Not that, lass,” he laughed. “Ye said that together we would get through this, and ye were right. Trust me. Trust us.”
“I do.” I chewed on my lower lip, glancing down at the way his shirt opened, revealing just a splash of tan, muscled chest. “But, Logan, I’m not an idiot. The king will do whatever he wants and from what you’ve said he can be a vindictive man. What if he takes offense to what you want? What if he demands you stay there and he comes to fetch Isabella? What if he decides he’s had enough of his secret brother and…and…” I couldn’t even bring myself to say the words.
Logan frowned, the muscle in his jaw ticking. When he spoke, his voice was deadly calm and serious. “I swear by all that is holy that I will not marry that woman. Ye are the only one for me. No matter what she says, what she does, or what the king decries, she willnotbe my wife.”
By the end of his little tirade, his teeth were bared and he looked off into the distance as if contemplating some deadly obstacle.
I was getting him riled up and angry. Not the way I wanted to part with him. I wanted our last moments together, before three torturous weeks began, to be pleasant and memorable.
“I’m going to miss you.” I wrapped my arms around his middle and laid my head on his chest. “The bed will be so cold without you to curl up against.”
He chuckled, his chest rumbling against my ear. “Is that all ye think I’m good for? Warming your toes?”
I giggled. “And my hands.”
Logan stroked a heavy hand up and down my back, curled his finger around a tendril of my hair. “The time will fly. I promise. Just think about what’s to come. And if anything…” He trailed off as though he, too, didn’t want to travel down that path again.
“Tell me. We should leave no questions unanswered.”
“If ye find yourself to be in danger, for any reason, hide in the secret chamber.”
“Thesecret chamber?” I shuddered. I’d not been back to that dank, decrepit place since Logan showed me the doors. The doors that could lead to death or life.
“Aye. That chamber. No one will find ye there, unless they know of the door, and even then… There are places to hide.”
I smirked. “Yeah, and I might never come out again.”
“I need to give ye something.”
He pulled away and reached into his left boot, pulling out the special dirk he’d shown me before, with the hilt carved from a deer’s antler. Twisting it open, Logan once more revealed the iron key to the doors in the secret chamber.
“This key is verra important. It means everything to me.”
I shook my head and took a step back. “Then please don’t give it to me. I can’t be in charge of it. What if I lose it?”
“Ye won’t lose it.” Logan said it like it was a statement, a fact. So confident was he that I’d not dare lose it. “’Tis important, Emma, that ye listen to me verra carefully.”
He gazed intently into my eyes, making the pit of my stomach churn.
“Guard this with your life. Whoever has the key is the Guardian of Gealach.”
I shook my head violently. “No, no, no. I don’t want it. I can’t.” There was no way on God’s green earth, or hell’s high water that I was going to take on the role he requested of me. “I just can’t, Logan. I’m not strong like you. I don’t know how to take care of people. Before I came here I could barely take care of myself. You can’t do this. I can’t do this.”
Panic made me tremble and my stomach suddenly felt like it was on fire. Another step had me wobbling as my boot lace caught under my foot.
