Page 5 of Claimed By a Ruthless Scot
“Careful,” she urged playfully, though her fingers tightened around her cup. “Ye may yet regret that confidence.”
“I often dae,” he replied with a mischievous shrug. “But never without enjoying it first.”
The shrug was easy, practiced and far too disarming. He was a distraction. She recognized it with the same instinct that told her when to watch the door and when to move on. Yet, she did neither.
The food arrived, and hunger won its battle with prudence. Elaina ate quickly but neatly, aware of his gaze without meeting it, feeling it like pressure along her skin. She kept herself composed, but her attention kept slipping back to him against better judgment.
“Ye are nae from here,” she heard him say.
“Nay.”
She refused to look up. That would only draw her into a deeper conversation with him, and that was the last thing she wanted.
“Traveling alone?”
He elongated the wordalonelanguidly, insinuating God knows what. She felt like smacking him. Instead, she offered curt responses in hopes that he would leave her alone.
“Aye.”
“That is uncommon.”
“So is minding one’s own business,” she retorted, finally glancing up. The look she gave him was warning enough, or at least, it should have been.
He chuckled. “Point taken.”
He leaned back in his chair with an ease that suggested he was accustomed to standing his ground without force. “Still,” he went on lightly, “a woman traveling alone, hood up and eyes always on the doors, either ye are very brave, or very determined nae tae be noticed.”
“Or very tired of being questioned,” Elaina replied, lifting her cup and meeting his gaze over its rim, daring him to press further.
His mouth curved, and it made him even more handsome, if such a thing were even possible. She hated herself for noticing it, and hated more that she did not immediately look away.
“I would never dream of questioning ye.”
“Nay?” she asked coolly. “Ye have done little else.”
“Observation is nae interrogation,” he pointed out. “Though I confess, I am tempted.”
He leaned forward just enough for her to notice, lowering his voice slightly as he addressed her. The subtle, distracting scent of smoke and clean wool reached her.
She set the cup down. “Ye will resist.”
She meant it as a command, both to herself and to him.
“I doubt it,” he said frankly.
The honesty of it sent a quick, unwelcome thrill through. That earned him a sharper look. She expected insolence and found instead something disarmingly sincere. His eyes lingered on her face, not in a way that stripped or appraised, but as though committing her to memory.
“Ye look as though ye are deciding whether tae flee,” he mused softly, “or throw yer drink in me face. Both mean I still have nae managed tae win ye over.”
“If I were tae dae either,” she replied, disregarding the slight blush that covered her cheeks, “I would nae announce it beforehand.”
He laughed again, lower this time. “Then I shall consider meself warned.”
A brief silence followed, one that stretched rather than settled. Elaina was acutely aware of him then: the breadth of his shoulders, the warmth of his attention and the fact that heseemed utterly unconcerned with the impression he made, certain she would notice regardless.
“Ye have nae asked where I am going,” she spoke, tilting her head as she did so.
“I assumed,” he answered, “that if ye wished me tae ken, ye would tell me.”
