Page 20 of Captured by a Laird
“Many marriages are made under similar circumstances,” he said after pausing to take a deep breath. “Once ye think it over, you’ll see that this arrangement can benefit us both.”
“Oh?” she said, raising her eyebrows. “What possible benefit could this marriage bring to me?”
“For one thing, you’ll have a better man than Blackadder to warm your bed,” he bit out.
She blushed to her roots. “Don’t be disgusting.”
David was not accustomed to being thwarted—or to being called disgusting. Though he was aware of his appeal to the lasses, he was not vain about it, probably because he never cared much one way or another if a particular one said aye or nay.
Until now.
“Ye cannot make me do this.” She went to the window and turned her back to him. “Please go.”
He considered the two obvious means of persuading her. Both were distasteful, but she was forcing his hand. The first one he discarded immediately. Though he was certain she would crumple if he threatened her daughters, he could not make even a pretense of doing that.
That left him with the second obvious method, which he did not like much better. She jumped when he came up behind her and rested his hands on the wall on either side of her, trapping her with his body. Heat seared through him when he leaned forward and his chest touched her back.
“You’re not the first lady to wed her captor,” he said next to her ear. “How do ye suppose that’s usually accomplished?”
“Ye can stick a blade in my heart,” she said, “but I will not say vows to you.”
“Ah, lass, I fear stabbing ye would thwart my goal.”
“Nothing less will persuade me to wed ye,” she said.
David sighed inwardly. Why did the lass have to be so damned stubborn?
“I don’t need a marriage contract to take ye to bed,” he said, hating himself. “’Tis up to you which we do first.”
“What?” She whirled in his arms. “Are ye threatening to degrade me?”
Despite the fury in her eyes, her closeness made it difficult for him to concentrate. She smelled like heaven, and her breasts were touching his chest.
“What I intend is to make ye my wife.” He made himself say the rest. “If ye don’t agree to it now, ye will once ye carry my babe.”
“Once I…once I…” She made an ineffectual attempt to shove him away. “Oh, you are a vile, vile man!”
“I am,” he agreed. “And one way or another, you shall be this vile man’s wife.”
***
David pondered his next move as he stomped up and down the courtyard, waiting for his brothers’ arrival. Threatening his future wife yesterday had not been his wisest decision. All it had accomplished was to make her more obstinate and make him feel like shite.
What in the hell was holding his brothers up? He wanted to get this wedding over with. He was not as confident as he led Lady Alison to believe that the Douglases would not arrive in force. Her brothers could have sent a false message for him to intercept in the hope of surprising him. And if the Blackadders learned he was here, they would come with every fighting man in their clan to try to thwart his plan.
Once the contract was signed and the marriage consummated, there was not a damned thing the Douglases or the Blackadders could do about it.
Except kill him.
He could not wait another day to bind the lady to him. The risk was too great. But how was he to accomplish it without holding a blade to the stubborn lass’s throat? He was at ease leading men, confident in his skills and judgment. As for women, they’d always come to him with little effort on his part. When one became troublesome, he moved on to another.
None of his experience helped him know how to persuade a lass to become his wife when she did not want to. He’d given the lady a day to calm down, so perhaps she had thought it through and was prepared to accept him. Whether she was or not, the marriage would take place today.
As he paced across the courtyard again, his attention was diverted by a charred patch of earth. Odd, how it burned in the shape of a rectangle. He was about to ask someone what had caused it when the guards shouted that his brothers were nearing the castle.
A short time later, the gate creaked open, and David was relieved to see Robbie and Will ride in with a guard of twenty Hume warriors. He always felt better having his brothers close by where he could watch over them—and he wanted to get this wedding over and done with.
“I’m marrying Blackadder’s widow today,” David told his brothers as soon as they dismounted. “Come, ye shall meet the lady and her daughters before ye change for the wedding.”
