Page 28 of Wedded to the Devilish Highlander
A chill lingered in the air, carried by the drafty corners of the ancient castle. Each flickering torch offered too little warmth, too little comfort, and the light danced on the walls like mocking shadows. She missed her room.
She turned again, this time into a long hallway dimmer than the last, lit only by guttering sconces and the faint glow of moonlight seeping through narrow windows. The scent of damp moss clung to the walls, and she began to wonder if she’d somehow ended up in the lower levels of the keep—perhaps near the stores or the cellars.
Her stomach twisted. It wasn’t fear, exactly. But she didn’t like not knowing where she was. As she stood there, debating whether to retrace her steps or keep pressing forward, a voice sounded from the shadows.
“Lost, are ye?”
Eileen jumped, her hand flying to her chest as she spun around. Her heel slipped slightly on the uneven stone, and she stumbled back against the wall.
“Good heavens!” she hissed, one hand braced on the cold stone. “Ye nearly gave me a fright, ye big oaf!”
Archer stood in the shadows without a care in the world, when everyone around seemed to be against him. If she’d seen him before hearing him, she wouldn’t have been scared a bit by how pleasant he looked, but it was the disembodied voice that scared her.
So, ye can be agreeable and nae completely menacing when ye want to be?
He did look handsome in the shadows, with his tight breeches containing his tree-trunk legs and his shirt taut across the chest she’d laid her hands on far too many times now. But it was surely the lack of light playing tricks on her.
Archer stepped into the light from a nearby archway, laughter barely contained in the curve of his mouth.
Eileen tried not to stare as the blasted Laird only became more handsome in the light, the quiet strength of his jawline, the richness of his green eyes like the grass on the moors, the way he held himself tall with confidence while not looking down on her. She could feel his warmth—the same warmth that had seeped into her body when she’d pressed herself to him in fear.
He looked far too pleased with himself. “Nearly?”
“Och! I was barely perturbed by yer sneakin’ presence,” Eileen scoffed, swatting at him and missing, completing the action more to stifle her desires in the dim hallway than anything else.
“Ye should see yer face,” he said, his voice brimming with mirth. “Like a startled lamb, ye are.”
Her heart stuttered in her chest, but she clenched her jaw and lifted her chin. “Ye think yerself clever, sneakin’ around likethat? Do ye like to stalk around yer castle in the shadows and scare the life out of poor lassies?”
“That depends on the lass,” he replied with a smile. “And I would hardly call ye poor. If any lass can take care of herself, I’d bet coin it would be ye.”
“Aye, yer thoughts and words are as sneaky as yer wanderings. Is that how ye get so many women into yer bed?”
“How do ye ken how many women I get into me bed, and why are ye thinkin’ so hard about that?”
“Och,” Eileen gasped. “I’m nae thinkin’ about ye in any such way.”
“Are ye jealous? Is that it?” Archer teased, his smile widening. “Ye dinnae want to pretend to be betrothed to a man who kens how to have fun?”
“It doesnae matter to me what ye do,” Eileen shot back.
“Are ye tryin’ to work out how ye can get into me bed?” Archer pressed.
Eileen choked on her words as she tried to get them out. She would be remiss if she denied thinking about the Laird’s body or how it would feel to be pressed to him naked. But it was one thing to think, and entirely another to do it. She would rather… She couldn’t think of what she’d rather do.
“Nay, I have nay intention of ever bein’ in yer bed,” she declared.
“That’s a shame,” Archer drawled. “I suppose ye cannae have everything.”
Still, he kept the cheeky smile on his lips as if he were confident that he could get what he wanted. She was glad for his overconfidence; it only helped her keep her desire at bay. He might have been kind to her and more attractive than almost every man she’d met, but she would not become another of his conquests.
She deftly tried to change the subject. “Ye still havenae told me why ye’re sneakin’ around the castle.”
Archer chortled as if they were engaged in banter, when she only wanted answers.
“Nae that I need to answer ye, but I wasnae sneakin’ around. I merely appeared. It’s nae me fault that ye wander the halls like a specter.”
He walked toward her, his arms crossed and his eyes glinting with amusement. “I think it strange that someone with as much fire as ye finds herself helpless in a corridor nay less.”
