Page 25 of Taming the Highland Beauty

“Thank you,” he said to Declan as he carried her from the chamber and set her gently upon the straw-filled mattress. He deftly unfastened her cloak and removed it from her shoulders, setting it at the base of the bed before backing away. “You need to rest.”

She caught his hand, stalling his movements. “Where will you sleep?” she asked, looking about the hazy chamber for another resting place.

“I doubt I will be able to sleep, so I will stand guard,” he said, his voice tight.

“I believe Declan is earnest in his desire to help, so there is no need for a guard. Besides, you need to rest as well.” She scooted over, making a space for him beside her. “We can share.”

“That would not be wise.” His gaze moved from her feet upward. Raw hunger burned in his eyes.

A shiver tingled through her as she met his gaze. He smelled of sandalwood and musk. The seductive mix made her bold, clouding thoughts of anything but him. “I have been a prisoner in Fairyland and the forest most of my life. I have seen little and experienced less. If I only have three more days on this earth, then I do not want to spend them doing only what is safe, or wise.”

His pulse beat wildly at his temple. She tugged him closer and just when she thought he would object, he relaxed. “Keiran, Aria, and Graeme told me a little about Fairyland and what Oberon did to them. I cannot imagine the horrors you have suffered at that fairy’s hands.”

“I do not wish to dwell on the past. The here and now is all that is available. I choose to focus on these precious moments, and I would ask that you kiss me again.”

He angled his head and lowered his mouth until she could feel his breath on her lips. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she pressed upwards, taking what she so desperately wanted . . . to feel something other than fear. There had been enough fear in her life. It was time for something more.

*

Callum’s emotions warred inside him as he tasted Gille’s sweet innocence, as he wrapped himself in her touch. It had been far too long since he’d last kissed a woman. Far too long since he’d been unsettled by anything. And Gille unsettled him in every way.

From the moment they had first met in the forest, he had been assailed by unfamiliar emotions and feelings, half of which he could neither name nor identify. She did something to him he could not comprehend. Part of him wanted to hold her, to kiss her, and the other part wanted to run as far and as fast away from her as he could.

He broke the kiss and stared down into her face. Her gentle green eyes searched his, but it was the concern there that touched him deep in his heart. Callum reached out to lay his hand against the flush of her cheek. The softness of her skin never failed to amaze or warm him. Magic ran through her blood. She had been born to the fae, a race he used to tell himself he despised for all they had done to his family. But since he had come to know her, he could see she was no different than any of the MacLeods. Fae blood also ran through them.

She watched him so intently that it made his throat tight. There was so much emotion in those green eyes of hers: the same desire that coursed through him reflected there. But he was, first and foremost, a gentleman. His mother and Lottie had both made certain of that. And he would not take advantage of Gille in this time of vulnerability. He sat back, then stood. “You said you were a prisoner in Fairyland.”

Disappointment flared in her eyes, so much so that he almost moved back to the bed. It took great strength to turn away and move to the opposite wall, putting some distance between them. “Was there ever a time you were free?” He shook his head, trying to clear his senses of the taste of her, the feel of her warm and willing in his arms.

“When I was young and not yet noticed by the fairy king, I used to run and play like the other fae children. That carefree life did not last long, however. As soon as Pearl tried to steal Aria into the human realm for the first time, Oberon took notice of us all and we were forced to hide in the shadows.”

“That sounds terribly lonely.”

She shrugged.

“I know a thing or two about loneliness.” Callum’s memories of being alone were still there, just below the surface. That emptiness inside, when stirred, had bordered on panic.

A frown touched her lips. “How could you be lonely in a castle full of people?”

“There were not others at the castle. Alastair, Tormod, and Orrick all fled after our mother’s death, taking many of our warriors with them and leaving Rowena and me alone with a madman for more years than I care to remember.”

“Your father?”

“When he died, it was almost a relief. Then only Mrs Morgan, our chatelaine, Mrs Honey, our cook, Thomas Becks, our steward, and Lottie, our healer, remained with my sister and me.”

“What about the Grey Lady?”

Callum felt the corner of his mouth quirk upwards. “She was in the castle all those years Rowena and I were growing up, but we had no idea since our mother was locked in the Fairy Tower along with Gwendolyn and her siblings.”

Gille gasped. “Truly?”

He nodded. “So, you see we both suffered a kind of imprisonment, though I am certain your situation was far worse.”

“Then you must know how desperate I am to break my curse and finally live my life bathed in sunlight and surrounded by people who care about me.”

“Tomorrow we will find that pelt.” Callum clenched his fist at his side, fighting a sudden feeling of helplessness. In adulthood, it had become his custom to shape events in the way he wished them to go, not hope and pray that everything would work out as he wished. “I cannot believe we were lost in the woods for two days.”

She sobered. “Oberon will do everything in his power to keep us from succeeding.”