Page 60 of Highland Ruse

“Aren’t you afraid Elizabeth’s innocence will be compromised if you stay in the room alone with me?” Her coquettish tone was both irritating and arousing at the same time.

No doubt she knew exactly what she was doing.

“I think we’re well past that.” Kaid kept his tone as intimate as she’d made hers.

She tensed and he put up a hand. “I dinna want to injure ye when we fought before. I willna fear as much next time.”

“That doesn’t frighten me,” she said. The edge in her voice did not match the delicate yellow gown she wore or the fine tendrils framing the face he’d spent far too long memorizing.

She was hard and dangerous and so damn beautiful, it was all he could do to keep from reaching out to her.

“It wasna meant to,” Kaid said. “I have no intention of hurting ye.”

“So abducting helpless noblewomen and holding them captive in your home are where your crimes stop?” She shook her head with what he recognized as helpless frustration.

She was trapped and she knew it.

But he was helplessly frustrated too.

He hadn’t wanted this. Hell, he hated being in this situation. But it was the only thing he could possibly do to negotiate peace.

She turned away from him and strode past the large wooden chest at the foot of the bed, toward the heavy green curtains pulled aside from the window. Sunlight streamed over her face, lighting her skin like smooth cream, and his fingers yearned for a bit of charcoal.

“You plan to use me for negotiation still.” She stared out at something he could not see. “You told them I was Elizabeth.”

“I sent riders to Edirdovar Castle as soon as we arrived.”

Delilah shook her head. “And how do you know it was not MacKenzie who hired me?”

“If he wanted me, he’d use my people to get at me—the same as he did my da.” It ached him to recall the loss they’d all suffered that fateful day.

Delilah cast her gaze downward and nodded in understanding. “You’re right. It was not him who hired me, but I’d prefer not to say who did. It has no importance regarding MacKenzie.”

Kaid nodded. He would honor her request—for now.

“You want me to play Elizabeth for MacKenzie,” she surmised. “I won’t do it. Tell your people I’m Elizabeth, that’s fine—it doesn’t matter who I am. But I will not go to MacKenzie.”

He’d expected as much. She felt betrayed, and he understood. “I was thinking of another way ye could help.”

She raised a brow.

“The people’s anger toward MacKenzie is more hurtful than helpful,” he said. “If ye could show some goodwill toward them, it may ease some of their burden.”

Her acquiescence to this part of the plan was vital. She had to be open to seeing what MacKenzie had done. “Please,” he said in a low voice.

She stared up at him and a memory blossomed in his mind of the last time she’d looked at him so boldly. When they’d lain together. When he’d sampled everything sweet and wonderful about her.

Before she turned on him.

Her cheeks flushed to a bonny pink and he knew she was remembering too. She turned her bold stare from him, for it was no longer bold and he knew she did not want him to see the thoughts they shared.

“Very well.” She lifted her head in a proud manner, the same as she had when he first abducted her. Perhaps in the manner the true Elizabeth Seymour would. “It’s far better than sitting in a room and waiting for time to pass.”

The pressure in Kaid’s chest eased. The first part of his plan had worked.

Now for Delilah to be convinced to truly help.

Chapter Sixteen