Page 30 of A Highland Bride Disciplined

The two women sat in silence for a moment, letting the heat from the fire press against their skin like a second cloak.

Then Effie spoke again, softer now. “D’ye think he’ll stay this time?”

Scarlett stared into the flames. “I think he’ll stay until he finds someone else to blame.”

“For the baby?”

“For everything.”

Effie pulled her knees to her chest. “I think maybe he came back for ye.”

Scarlett snorted. “He came back because I commanded him to. Do ye ken how much that must’ve stung? A MacLennan daughter sendin’ a Murray man orders like a bloody hound. A very tall, very arrogant, occasionally handsome hound.”

“Still. He came back. Because hiswifeinsisted upon it.”

Scarlett hesitated. “Aye… he did.”

Effie watched her. “And?”

“And what?”

Effie rolled her eyes. “Oh, come now. Ye cannae sit here, flushed and brooding, and expect me nae to ask. What happened between ye two?Beforehe left?”

Scarlett turned her face away. “Nothin’ worth repeatin’.”

“That’s nae the answer of a woman who felt nothin’.”

Scarlett bit her lip.

She’d felt something. Still did, against all rational thought, she did. That temper. Pride. His smug set mouth, as if always right on the edge of saying something cruel…

She had never admitted it, not even to herself. But the memory of their wedding night, thealmostof it, still clung to her like the taste of honey left too long on the tongue. Sweet, but impossible to swallow.

Effie leaned forward, resting her chin on her knees. “Ye love him?”

Scarlett scoffed. “Lovehim? I could throttle him.”

“That’s nae quite a nay, is it?”

Scarlett pinched the bridge of her nose. “Iloathehim, Effie.”

Effie nodded seriously. “Ye loathe him in a way that makes yer toes curl.”

“Effie Adams!”

“I’veseenhow ye look at him. I’ve seen how ye look when yethinkabout him. Like he’s both the fire and the burn.”

Scarlett looked down at her hands, fingers twitching.

She remembered the way Kian had looked at her in the study. That hot, careful intensity like he was trying to memorize her face and command her into silence all at once. The way he had steppedtooclose. It was like his presence alone was supposed to burn her alive.

And it had.

Sweet hells it does.

“I hate him,” she muttered again, but her traitorous hand lifted and brushed against the spot where his lips had caressed her neck, just below her ear.

Effie bumped her arm. “Oh, aye...”