Page 46 of A Hellion for the Highland Hawk
“I daenae ken what lads do in yer strange world, but we never run from duty, lass,” he said, with a nod to Elsie. “It cannae be undone now.”
Nancy paled in the foggy morning light, trembling again, though it wasn’t so cold. When she stared at him, it wasn’t the fear or the anger that gave him pause, but the flicker of sadness that creased her brow and parted her lips.
A faint bristle of unease prickled down the back of his neck.
“Excuse me,” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest and hurried for the recess where she’d left her clothes the night before.
She didn’t bother to dress. She just gathered them in front of her, hiding as much of herself as she could, and took off up the steps as if something terrible were chasing her.
In her absence, Hunter shot his cousin a cold look. “Why did ye do that, eh?”
Elsie frowned. “What do ye mean?”
“I daenae want two brides who cannae think of anythin’ worse than marryin’ me,” he growled. “Yet, thanks to ye, I’d say it’s likely. Could ye nae have just woken us quietly and said nothin’?”
A haughty look tilted Elsie’s chin up. “Nay, actually, I couldnae. That wouldnae be the proper thing to do. That lass is the best thing that has happened to this castle in a long time, and I’m nae goin’ to let ye ruin her reputation or, indeed, lose interest and make her want to leave because ye couldnae resist her.”
“She doesnae belong here, Elsie,” he insisted, remembering Nancy’s tales from last night.
He couldn’t believe he was giving it any serious thought, but it was becoming clearer to him that this mysterious woman wasn’t just from another country across an ocean.
He’d heard of peculiar things happening in this part of the world for as long as he’d been alive. His mother and his aunt always told stories of the strange magic of the Highlands, particularly here between the mountains and the sea, where unnatural spirits, creatures, and myths had sought refuge.
Clearly, she was some manner of… realm-walker, able to pass between her world and his. A faerie, perhaps? Or a witch who lived among such creatures, who had been cast out of her world for some reason or another?
He wasn’t sure which, but the things she had told him last night were so otherworldly, so impossible to imagine, that he had no choice but to believe she was more than human.
I’ll probably be cursin’ me entire bloodline by marryin’ her.
“She wants to go home,” he added.
Elsie shrugged. “Well, she should have thought about that before she got herself… entangled with ye.Thiswill be her home, and I, for one, will be glad to have her here.” She eyed his bare chest with disapproval. “Now, make yerself decent and come to breakfast.”
“Daenae breathe a word of it until I’ve spoken to her,” Hunter said coldly, for his cousin wasn’t one of the people he tolerated giving him commands.
She blinked at his tone and the hard expression on his face, and dropped her chin to her chest. “I willnae, but… I’m nae the only one who saw. There were others. I cannae promise they’ll be quiet.”
“Then make them,” he retorted, striding past her to the steps. “Or I will, and my way willnae be as pleasant.”
CHAPTER 19
Nancy heldher face under the cold water in the basin that a maid must have set out for her. The nipping chill of it let her know she wasn’t dreaming, though she very much wished that she was.
Married? A wedding? What the hell is he thinking?
She should’ve known the second she stepped outside last night that going for a midnight swim was the worst idea in the world. Even if she hadn’t figured it out in the moment, she should’ve known better than to let that impossibly handsome, annoyingly tempting, breathtakingly sexy man get anywhere near her parted thighs.
It was blatantly obvious now that she was too weak to resist him. The moment he’d touched her, she’d been doomed.
But, oh no, I just hadto know what it felt like, didn’t I? I just had to be kissed by him. I just had to see where it would lead.
She almost laughed bitterly into the water, remembering her assertion that there couldn’t be any harm in it since she was leaving soon. A fortnight. Once Adeline came back with the method to time-travel back to where she was supposed to be.
She lifted her head out of the water with a gasp, muttering breathlessly to herself, “You couldn’t just keep it in your dress for two weeks? What the heck is wrong with you?” She shook her head. “See, this is why jeans are superior! If I’d been wearing jeans, he wouldn’t have been able to get near me.”
To make matters worse, the best orgasm of her life, the bestnightof her life, would now be forever tainted by being caught red-handed and slapped with a marriage proposal that she was fairly certain she wasn’t allowed to refuse.
She jumped at the sound of a soft knock on the door. Expecting it to be a maid, she grabbed a cloth and walked to the door as she dried her face.
