Page 10 of Highland Seduction

“As I said, I would get to Berwick as soon as possible.”

In response, Ainsley urged her mount forward. She sped down the mountain to the stream below, a ride she could take, quite literally, with her eyes closed. After the incident, she left little to chance. Insisting Broden teach her skills with a knife. Increasing her training on horseback. Learning all she could about surviving in the woods. Some of those skills would serve her well now as Tor approached, his eyes wide.

“Ye could have broken yer neck on that hill.”

“I can ride,” she said. “As well as any man.”

“I will be staying mostly on the road. It would take too much time to alter the route otherwise. To find suitable bed and board.”

If only he knew. “I am as capable as ye of sleeping on a bedroll.”

The thought terrified her, of course, but had she not been preparing for this?

He looked up to Castle Shaw above them, as if the answers he sought would be provided there.

“Why?” she asked again. “Do ye no’ wish for me to control my own fate as ye do yers? Ye would have me remain here to await yer return? Wonder each day if ye found them? Wonder what will become of me?”

He no longer smiled. “Truly, ye dinnae know?”

Ainsley was certain he jested with her. “As I said, I can ride. I—”

Tor rolled his eyes. “As ye displayed quite clearly. But ye’re innocent in the ways of men and women if ye continue to ask me the question of why ye cannae come with me, Ainsley.”

Why her name on his lips gave her a rush of pleasure, Ainsley was sure she did not want to know. “We’ve no time for riddles, husband.”

“We will never be granted an annulment if the marriage is consummated, wife.”

“That is yer concern? ’Tis hardly one at all. There is no danger of that, I can assure ye.”

Again he rode up to her, much too closely.

“Nay?”

“Nay.”

“As I said, ye’re innocent in the ways of men and women. Ye may despise me, dear Ainsley, but only a fool would have missed the way ye looked at me last eve.” She opened her mouth to argue, but Tor continued. “And because I am no fool, I will admit to doing the same. Do I like ye? Nay, I dinnae, for the simple reason ye’re a Shaw. But I will tell ye true, I want to pull yer lips to me and taste them even now. And no woman has touched her tongue to mine and pulled away.”

“I can assure ye, there is no part of me that wishes to kiss ye. And certainly no’ to touch yer tongue to mine,” she said, repulsed. Her sister had talked of it, but in truth, Ainsley hardly believed her. She’d been kissed before. Four times, in fact. And not once had her suitors done such a thing, nor would she welcome it.

“I can assure ye,” her husband growled. “By the time we reach Berwick, ye will be begging me to kiss ye in that way.”

She ignored the clenching that accompanied his words. “So ye will take me?”

“I will no’ fight with ye each day. Do ye agree to a truce, of sorts?”

“Perhaps.”

It was not the answer he looked for, and Ainsley nearly laughed at his expression.

“Will ye take me?” she repeated.

“Against my better judgment, aye.”

“Good.” She nodded. “Then let us prepare. There is someone we should speak to before we leave. Someone I believe might offer wise counsel if it is an annulment we will be seeking.”

“We leave today,” he said.

Ainsley was about to argue with him until she realized her husband could change his mind about her accompanying him. And then she would be forced to find an escort to Berwick, because she would not remain here to wait for her life’s course to be determined. So, ignoring the way he looked at her, and how it made Ainsley feel inside, she spurred her mount forward once again, this time back up the hill. And laughed when her husband cursed aloud.