Highlander Unchained (19 page)

“You didn’t attend Tounis?”

He held her gaze stiffly, as if bracing himself for her scorn. “No, there was not the opportunity or the means. I can read Erse, but not Scots. A fact of which your brother is well aware.”

Flora frowned, not liking what that said about Hector. “May I see it?”

He hesitated. For some reason, he still seemed reluctant to give it to her. Then he slipped it out of his sporran and placed it in her hand. The stiff piece of wrinkled parchment crackled as Flora unfolded it carefully. She read it over quickly, trying to prevent her relief from showing.

Lifting her gaze to him, she saw the harsh flex of his jaw. “Shall I read it?”

He nodded.

“‘Release my sister or suffer the consequences. Consider this a warning. The only one you shall receive.’”

“Strange,” she said, her gaze narrowing on the piece of parchment. “He doesn’t address your demands at all.”

His expression went blank. “I think we can assume a refusal.”

Ignoring the stab of hurt, Flora schooled her features into a mask of indifference. “I feared as much. Perhaps you will believe me now. Hector will never willingly relinquish the castle. Not for me, anyway.”

This time, he didn’t argue with her.

There was no reason to hold her now. “You will release me, then?”

“No.”

The flat refusal reverberated through her, shaking her to the core. Until this moment, she hadn’t realized how important it was to her. She needed him to let her go so she could make her own choice on whether to stay. “But there is no other reason to keep me here.”

He didn’t say anything, just stared at her. Ruthless and determined.

Apprehension coiled inside her. There was only one reason to keep her. One that would confirm her worst fears. “You’ve changed your mind,” she said dully, barely able to get out the words. “You’ll force me to marry you.”

He gave her another penetrating stare. “A few more minutes, and I would not have needed to force anything.”

Flora gasped. Was that what he’d intended? To seduce her so that she would have to marry him? The blood drained from her face. She’d almost let him. “You bastard. How could you?”

“I want you,” he said bluntly.

“You don’t want me, you want what I can bring you,” she replied bitterly, unable to hide the despair in her voice. Her wealth, her connections, an end to the curse were all too tempting. He saw her not as a desirable woman, but as a marriage prize. Just like everyone else.

He held her gaze steadily, and didn’t deny it. “When will you realize that none of this is your choice?”

She flinched. How could he say something so cruel? She’d begun to trust him. She’d actually thought he might be someone she could…marry. Hot tears gathered behind her eyes and thickened her throat. “It is my choice. I’ve made it so.”

“You are who you are, Flora. You can’t change that.”

He didn’t understand. She grasped for a shred to hold on to, not wanting to believe she could have been so wrong. “Please don’t do this. Just let me go.” She might as well have been trying to melt granite. She wrapped her fingers around the hard muscle of his arm and squeezed. It didn’t give an inch. Impenetrable. Just like the rest of him.

His face was a stony mask. “I can’t.”

“Why?” Her voice broke.

He looked away, and she could see the tic in his neck. The only sign that he was not completely unaffected.

“Please.” She was begging now and trying to hold back the tears that threatened to storm at any moment. “Don’t hold me here. Let me go home.”

“And where is home, Flora?”

She made a strangled sound in her throat as his poisoned arrow struck its target. She didn’t have a home. She didn’t have anyone. Certainly not this cold, emotionless stranger. “Anywhere but here,” she whispered.

His eyes softened for an instant. “Is it really so bad being here with me?”

No.
That was exactly the problem. She’d allowed herself to believe that he was different. Like a fool, she’d begun to trust him. The lessons of her mother’s life had been in vain. She’d thought she was impervious, but she was wrong. When she thought of what had nearly happened between them, how she’d nearly succumbed, her stomach turned. She had to get away from here, before she traded her soul for a moment of pleasure in his arms.

“Let me go to Hector.”

His eyes narrowed. “Your brother will not protect you.”

“And you will?”

“With my life.”

He said it so matter-of-factly, she almost believed him.
Fool
.

“Have care of Hector, Flora. Do not trust him.”

Again she tried not to laugh at the bitter irony. “He is my brother. And unlike you, he doesn’t want anything from me.”

Loathing for him, for herself, banished the hurt, leaving an aching emptiness in her chest. The cold residue of disillusionment.

“A minute ago, you wanted me as much as I wanted you.” He slid his thumb across her mouth. “Has anything really changed?”

And curse her traitorous body, she trembled. The rippling effect of his touch shuddered through her. Heart pounding, she jerked away, knowing that he knew exactly what he did to her. Her body wanted him. “You might succeed in seducing me.” For if she stayed much longer, it seemed inevitable. She gazed deep into his eyes so there would be no mistake. “But I will never agree to marry you.”

He hardened himself against the urge to reach out to her again and simply let her go. This time. Though he was tempted to prove to her just how wrong she was.

She was already his. She just didn’t know it yet. The moment he’d touched her, her fate had been sealed. If she thought she had any control over this undeniable force between them, she was only fooling herself. She didn’t know how powerful the yearnings of the body could be.

But he did.

Never had he wanted anything as badly as he wanted Flora. And he’d almost had her, but he’d been well caught in a trap of his own making. All thoughts of seduction, of coercing her into marrying him, had fallen to the wayside the moment he’d held her in his arms. When she’d pressed her soft body against him and opened her mouth to him so sweet and eager, something had imploded in his chest. His only thought had been to please her.

He thought of how wet and hot she’d been, how her sweet little hips had pressed against his hand, how preciously close she’d been to release.

He cursed the sudden rush of heat to his groin, his cock brought to quick life by the memories. His body still throbbed from the abrupt curtailment of their passion.

Damn Hector.

His heart skipped a beat at the sound of the door opening, thinking foolishly that it might be Flora coming back. But it was only his sister.

“What happened?” Gilly asked anxiously. “I saw Flora rush out of here, looking close to tears.”

“There’s nothing to worry about, Gilly. Go back to your chamber.”

“Does it have something to do with the messenger I saw arriving earlier?”

He frowned. It wasn’t like Gilly to ignore his instructions. Flora was having more of an influence over his sisters than he realized. And he didn’t like it. He was about to repeat his directive when Gilly placed her hand on his arm, an affectionate sisterly gesture—and also, he realized, a rare one. When had his sisters stopped touching him? As girls, they always climbed all over him, giggling with some jest or prank.

“Please, I’m not a child. I only want to help.”

He gave her a long look, seeing the adorable face—no longer of a child, but of a young woman almost six and ten—and felt a sharp pang of melancholy. Of longing. How had it happened? How had his sisters grown up without his realizing it? He knew there was nothing he could have done to change it; he’d been consumed with fighting and protecting his clan. But that didn’t mean he did not regret that circumstances were not different. That he’d not had more time for his brother and sisters. Regret made all the more poignant by his brother’s imprisonment. But he would get him back.

“Please,” Gilly repeated.

Lachlan didn’t discuss clan business with his sisters, partially out of consideration for their innocence. He thought he was protecting them by keeping his troubles from them. But this time, he relented. A wry smile turned his mouth. His sisters, it seemed, weren’t the only ones affected by Flora MacLeod. “It was a message from Duart.”

“Flora’s brother? But I didn’t think you
really
intended to write to him and propose the exchange?”

“I didn’t.” He hadn’t sent Hector a letter at all. It had all been a ruse to buy him precious time for wooing his recalcitrant bride.

“Then how did he find out so quickly that Flora was here?”

He’d been wondering the same thing. He could only hope that Hector wouldn’t alert Rory. There would be hell to pay if the MacLeod discovered what Lachlan had done before he secured her agreement.

“I don’t know,” he answered. “But I intend to find out.” He didn’t want to consider that one of his own people could betray him. But who else would know? He’d have to think on it.

“What did the note say?”

He felt the anger flare inside him again. Hector’s jabs were petty but struck hard nonetheless. He pulled it out and handed it to her. Gilly unfolded it and handed it right back to him, her brows furrowed. “It’s in Scots.”

“Exactly.”

She thought for a minute, before a look of disgust appeared on her face. “I see.”

“Yes, wasn’t it fortunate that the only person in the castle who could read it happened to be standing right beside me?” he said bitterly, unable to hide his sarcasm. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Normally, he didn’t react to Hector’s barbs, but Flora’s presence had caused him to lash out. Without intending it, she had a way of making him feel somehow lacking.

“You let Flora read it?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t have much choice.”

“What did it say?”

“Hector’s typical threats, nothing more. No doubt the main purpose was to shame me in front of his sister.” Hector never wasted an opportunity to prod Lachlan for his so-called barbarity. “I’m sure he’d be pleased to know how well it worked.” He would pay for that. As if Lachlan needed any more reason for revenge. He’d been looking forward to the day he would destroy Hector since he was nine years old.

Gilly scrunched up her nose. “That doesn’t sound like Flora.”

He hadn’t thought so, either. But why else would she ask to leave right after she’d discovered that he hadn’t been educated? Even after what had happened between them.

“Flora was raised in the Lowlands,” he said tensely. “With their biases.”

Gilly shook her head. “She’s not like that. She would not ill judge you for something that could not be helped. You forget, she’s been giving Mary and me daily instruction in Scots and Latin. Not once have I ever felt her pity or scorn. I don’t think your lack of education would in any way change her opinion of you.”

Lachlan shook his head, amazed how quickly Flora had won the loyalty of his sisters. Still, there was a ring of truth to what Gilly said. He looked at his young sister with increased estimation. Was she right? Had he misinterpreted Flora’s reasons for wanting to leave?

If so, his misplaced anger might have caused more damage than he’d realized.

Gilly studied him, clearly puzzled. “I still don’t understand why she was so upset.”

“She wanted to leave. I told her it was impossible.”

Gilly was watching him with a strange look on her face. “You care for her.”

His jaw clenched. “No.”

“Would it be so bad if you did?” she asked softly.

It would make it harder. And doing what needed to be done was already difficult, with each day as he learned more and more about her past and started to understand that beneath the headstrong exterior was a deep-seated fear of ending up like her mother, of helplessness, and of being at the mercy of those who might seek to control her.
Like me.
Justified or not.

And now she was aware of his intentions for marriage. It definitely made his job more difficult, but having one less secret between them gave him some measure of relief. But his goal hadn’t changed. For more reasons than one, he couldn’t let her go.

“Nothing has changed,” he said. “If anything, the situation has grown graver.”

Gilly nodded, sobered by the reminder. He watched as the conflicting emotions crossed her face. He could commiserate. He felt the same way, but unlike his sister, he’d become adept at masking his thoughts and feelings.

Finally, she lifted her gaze to his hesitantly. “You won’t hurt her?” she asked in a small voice.

“No.” A flash of Flora’s luminous blue eyes shimmering with unshed tears, staring at him accusingly, swam before his eyes. He was no longer sure it could be avoided. “Not if it can be helped,” he amended.

“What will you do?”

“What must be done.” His options were few.

They stood there for some time in shared silence. The direness of the situation held them both in its solemn thrall.

How could one wee lass hold so many lives in the palm of her tiny hand?

Hector Maclean grunted deeply with each thrust, but he was finding little pleasure in the act. Not even the lush body spread out naked before him helped. His mind kept straying to the latest outrage committed by his nemesis.

He was not a patient man by nature, and the nearly twenty-five years he had waited to destroy Lachlan Maclean had taken their toll. The Laird of Coll had been a thorn in his side for years, but Hector vowed this latest insult would be the last. Abducting his sister. He thrust harder. Interfering with his plans. He ground his hips against her roughly. Coll would pay for the insult. With his life.

Damn bitch, he was losing his erection. “Move,” he ordered.

The whey-faced little maid did as ordered and began to sway back and forth on her hands and knees, reaching back with her plump bottom to meet his thrusts. He could still feel her reluctance, but at least in taking her from behind, he didn’t have to see her face.

He reached around to squeeze her enormous breasts, which hung so low that they almost touched the ground, pinching her flat nipples to a peak.