Page 29 of Highlander’s Captive Bride (Troubles of Highland Lasses #4)

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D ays of travel had a way of wearying even the toughest of folks. After several stacked back-to-back, Conor’s exhaustion seemed to go on forever. But then he saw her .

At once familiar and so entirely different, Nylah was a sight to behold. Any weariness he had felt was shunted away. His memories did not do her justice.

When he’d taken her hand in the chapel, Conor had seen nothing but a scared young lass. That was not the woman who stood before him now. The curves of her form were shapely, and her green eyes burned with intelligence and strength. The soft curls of her brown hair were schooled into the appropriate style for the Lady of the house.

Stranger still, as he tried to speak to her, Conor struggled to find the right thing to say. He’d been commanding soldiers for years, but faced with Nylah’s green eyes, he was at a loss. It had been so long, and as he looked at her, all he wanted to do was take her upstairs and soothe away the memories of war between her thighs.

Nylah curtsied low, and the grace with which she moved stirred that longing deep within Conor.

“Welcome home, Me Laird. We’re all so happy to have ye back.”

The room where they stood melted away as Conor stood before Nylah, admiring how she’d changed. The swell of her hips called to a deep, dark part of him, and the memory of the one chaste kiss he’d pressed to her lips at their wedding didn’t answer what her soft lips would feel like now.

As their eyes met, Conor saw a striking confidence beneath her calm features. She held the space next to him with a regal countenance, while others would be dwarfed by him. It was intriguing, alluring .

“Ye are a sight to return to.”

Conor found her face with his hand once more and reveled at the smooth skin of her cheek. A subtle flush crept beneath Nylah’s pale skin, and Conor’s gaze fell to where it bloomed from the top of her chest.

“Thank ye, Me Laird. I am relieved ye’re home safe, at last. Ye look… taller.”

Nylah shook her head, and Conor was amused by the brief embarrassment she showed. While it had been a few years since their wedding, they’d never consummated their marriage, making Nylah still a maiden. Images of trailing his fingers down Nylah’s untouched skin flooded his mind, and Conor had to shake the thoughts away.

“War has a way of changing a man, but I’ve yet to hear taller.” He smiled down at her. “Honestly, I’m just glad to be back with all my limbs attached.”

The laugh Nylah offered as he joked with her made his heart sing, and he wanted to hear more and more of it.

But then, the sounds of his men scuffling around him brought him back to the present moment.

“The men have been through a long, hard journey and survived a war. We should make the castle ready to accommodate them.” Conor gave a slight smirk. “And a bath sounds positively heavenly, having ridden meself sore.”

For a moment, Nylah’s eyes widened as if his words shocked her, but then a surprised smile stretched across her face, and she nodded. Conor studied her warm expression, enjoying how she had to look up at him from beneath her dark lashes. Since he had returned home, Nylah seemed very conscious of her actions around Conor, and it filled him with an odd joy that he didn’t wholly understand.

At once, however, Nylah straightened her posture and looked at the maid and footmen surrounding them all in the entry. “Caitlin, Fergus, please arrange rooms for our Laird’s men. I’m sure they’re exhausted from their journey.” She turned to the smaller group near the hall to the kitchens. “And food for them as well. A journey like that will certainly need Rosie’s hearty Scotch broth. Tell her I thank her for cooking up so late, aye, Reggie?”

“Of course, Me Lady.”

Reggie, who’d grown from a tiny sapling, was as thick and tall as an oak now, and Conor was sure Rosie’s cooking had had a fair part to do with that. The boy was lucky to have such a bonny mother in the kitchens.

Beyond the boy’s appearance, however, Conor was taken aback by the way his wife directed the servants. There was a calm warmth to her words that made the orders she delivered feel more like requests, and the genuine kindness that backed her words assured him that she treated them all quite well.

The smiles and nods from Reggie and Caitlin were also the real thing. McAlister Castle’s people clearly loved Nylah and saw her word as a bond. As Conor and his men followed after Nylah and a handful of maids, they walked them all to the dining hall, and Conor regarded his wife with fascination.

He wasn’t sure whether it was surprise, jealousy, or simply his being impressed by her, but Nylah’s command of the house was evident. She’d come a long way from the girl who’d never run her own castle. And while the sting of being so far away from home and unable to care for his clan like he had wanted sat in his chest, Conor was glad that his people had had Nylah there for them.

* * *

Food hot and steaming from the kitchens filtered into the dining hall and covered the long table in front of Conor with its beauty. His stomach rumbled as the smell of broth and meat filled his nostrils, and the nagging homesickness for a proper meal was finally sated.

Nylah sat to his left side and easily withstood the stream of questions and jaunty tales from his closest friends during the war. When the loud ruckus backed off to a dull roar, she turned to him and laid a hand on his forearm. Conor quickly turned his attention to her, the warmth of her palm seeping through the fabric to his skin.

“Me Laird, do you want me to retrieve Sienna so that ye might greet yer sister? I know she’ll be beside herself to see ye.”

“Surely she’s sleeping at this late hour?”

“Aye, I’m sure she is, but she wouldnae mind me waking her to see ye.”

The gesture was kind, and the desire to see his sister had burned within him since they had been but a day’s ride away. Still, waking her from a sound rest seemed like a harsh reunion.

“Nay, that’s fine. Let Sienna rest. I’ll see her soon enough in the morning when I’m refreshed and nae still smelling like the forest I rode through.”

Nylah smiled. “Of course, Me Laird.”

As Conor took the last bites of the delicious meal Rosie had whipped up like she had the gift of the Fae, Caitlin approached the table and lowered her head.

“Me Laird, yer bath has been drawn and is ready whenever ye wish.”

“Och, the timing ye have is impeccable.”

Conor turned to Nylah as he stood from the table, wiping his mouth with a smooth cloth and pushing in his chair. As he looked down at his wife, his thoughts again turned to the long nights he’d spent alone and how rectifying that as soon as possible was among his top priorities.

He smiled at her, his eyes again roaming over her body. “Thank ye, Nylah, for helping to get the men and me settled. I’ll take me leave now and finally rid meself of the last of me travels. I will be seeing ye soon.”

Conor’s voice held the hint of a question as he left, but as he followed Caitlin up the long stairs to his room, the excitement over a hot bath took over. There was much to do if he was going to uphold his promises to himself about the clan. Still, Conor worried that Nylah might prove a troublesome distraction. He hadn’t accounted for her beauty or the way it would captivate him, and for the first time in a while, he wondered if he might be in over his head.