Page 38

CHAPTER 38

Anna hurried to wipe the tears from her cheeks, blinking up at the man standing off to her left. She hadn’t even heard him approach, too engrossed in her drawing and too confident in her hiding place to believe that anyone might actually find her.

She couldn’t speak, dismay holding her throat in a vise, for this man was not the one she longed to see. Still, Laird Glendenning certainly wasn’t the worst Laird who could have found her, considering that most of the others who had come to the auction were little more than rabid dogs.

“I dinnae mean to intrude,” Laird Glendenning said, coming to perch on the thick root. “I was wanderin’ and I… thought I heard somethin’. I dinnae realize it was ye.”

Anna nodded, hugging the portfolio tighter to her chest.

“Is that yer journal?” he asked.

She shrugged.

“Have ye been writin’ about how much ye hate all of this?” He smiled, sighing deeply. “I hate it too, in truth.”

Anna frowned, finding her voice a little. “Ye do?”

“Aye, I do. I hate that I have to go through this whole rigmarole, when it’s clear as day that we’re supposed to be together,” he replied, her heart sinking at his words. “Destiny kept ye from marryin’ the Devil, and now destiny has brought us back together. Yer faither and maither have alluded to the fact that I’m their first choice, but there’s ‘procedure’ to consider, so nay one gets upset and starts a war.”

He leaned forward to try and take her hand, but Anna wouldn’t remove her grip from her portfolio, her eyes hardening as she stared up at him. Ardal might have been her parents’ first choice, but he certainly wasn’t hers.

Had she been given the freedom to actually make a decision for herself, she’d have chosen none of them. Ever. She’d be a spinster, enjoying the peace… missing Gordon and the closest thing she’d ever had to finding love.

All an illusion. Dinnae forget that. It wasnae real.

Ardal continued to smile as though he’d already won the auction. “Truly, Lady Anna, I am… beyond delighted to get another chance to start a family with ye. I promise, this will be over soon. We’ll be done with this charade and ye’ll be in me carriage, headin’ home with me to yer new life as me wife, and maither to me bairns. I cannae wait.”

“Seems ye’ve lost yer knack for chasin’ off vermin, lass,” a deep voice rumbled, like the thunder before a welcome summer storm. “I wonder if it’s because ye left a particular dress behind.”

Anna’s heart skipped several beats, as she turned slowly, and a figure—tall and broad as a bear, with the intimidation to match—stepped out from behind the tree.

Yet, he wasn’t the rough, unkempt Devil she’d first met. Gordon’s long, dark hair was held back with a strip of leather, his jaw freshly shaven, his léine clean and white, his collar exposing a perfect triangle of sun-warmed skin.

His eyepatch was missing, and his tempting mouth quirked into the hint of a smile. In all the daydreams and nightly dreams she’d had of him, he had never looked better than this.

What is he doin’ here? Her mind kicked her back to her senses, her suspicious gaze meeting his.

“I hope ye’re nae referrin’ to me as vermin?” Laird Glendenning said haughtily, rising from the tree root. When Gordon paid him no attention, he continued in a whiny voice, “Lady Anna has nay reason to chase me off. I’m to be her husband, after all.”

Gordon still didn’t so much as glance at Laird Glendenning, his lupine eye never leaving Anna’s face. There was something sad in his gaze, that ghost of a smile fading from his lips.

“He’s right… sort of,” Anna replied defiantly, getting to her feet. “I daenae have any reason to chase him away.”

Ye daenae get to send me away, then come back to me as if nothin’ happened. Ye daenae get to toy with me, Gordon.

Laird Glendenning puffed his chest, clearly thrilled by Anna’s words.

At that moment, a shadow fell across Gordon’s face—one of his own creation—and though he didn’t look toward Laird Glendenning, the fair-haired man seemed to freeze, as if caught in an enchantment.

“Leave us,” Gordon said, his voice low and ominous.

Laird Glendenning deflated immediately, tripping over the tree root as he backed away. Scrambling to keep his balance, he shot a sharp glare at Gordon, muttering rude things under his breath, but he clearly valued his life more than anything else.

He wouldn’t risk getting on the wrong side of the Devil of the Highlands, even if it meant losing his chance to have a Lane girl for a wife twice over.

Still muttering, Laird Glendenning hurried across the gardens, obeying Gordon’s command.

Her “ suitor” might have been terrified of this man, but Anna wasn’t. Dropping her portfolio to the grass, she stepped over a second tree root, getting as close to Gordon as she dared, glowering right up into his beautiful gray eye.

“I should be askin’ ye to leave,” she hissed, her heart aching. “After the… disdain and disrespect and hurt ye put me through, I ought to toss ye out on yer arse. I would, if I wouldnae break me back in the attempt. But I willnae hesitate to call for the guards and have them do it for me.”

His smile returned. “But ye are hesitatin’, lass. I’m still here.”

“Because I’m wonderin’ why on earth ye’re here,” she countered, breathing hard. “Ye made it quite clear that ye were done with me. What, did ye nae enjoy the taste of yer freedom so much, after I was gone? Are ye bored, is that it? Have ye come to torment me some more?”

He raised his hand to her cheek, lightly brushing his thumb over the rosy apple. “God, I missed ye.”

“What?” she choked, shuffling a step backward.

“I’ve missed ye,” he repeated.

It was the final straw, her anger bubbling up like a fountain, and nothing could stop its rise.

“How dare ye,” she seethed. “How dare ye come here and play with me feelings like this. Ye had yer chance, Gordon. I was right there , ready to choose ye, and ye just sent me away like I was nothin’. Ye’re as bad as them in there,” she pointed back at the castle. “Ye never bothered to ask what I wanted. What I actually wanted.”

“Is it me, perhaps?” he asked, a note of infuriating laughter in his voice.

All that time, she could barely coax a chuckle out of him, and now he was… laughing at her? He was lucky he was so tall, or she’d have smacked him.

“That’s nae what I meant!” she barked, simmering.

“But ye have feelings for me?”

She shook her head, stooping to collect her portfolio. “I cannae do this,” she muttered, turning away. “Nay, I willnae do this. Ye shouldnae have come, just as ye shouldnae have come to the first auction.”

He has nay right to give me hope… nay right at all.

She’d almost made it over the tree root opposite, when his hand closed around her wrist, spinning her around. Breathless, she gazed up at him, furious with herself for being half-glad that he had stopped her walking away. What was she, a glutton for punishment?

“Are ye happy, lass?” he said thickly, his grip relaxing on her wrist.

She scoffed. “Do I look happy to ye? Do ye think I’m rejoicin’ at the fact that I’m back where I started? I got four days of freedom. Four days. Then, the men started arrivin’.” Her eyes pricked with hot tears. “Ye should have seen me face when me faither told me it was another auction. But ye couldnae, of course, because ye were nae here.”

“I’m nae happy either,” he told her quietly. “I miss ye, love. I miss ye and I daenae want to leave here without ye. I dinnae want to let ye go at all, but, as David has been tellin’ me, I’m a bloody idiot.”

She faltered, frowning at him. “What?”

She hadn’t missed the soft word “ love”, but wasn’t certain if she’d misheard.

“I thought I was doin’ the right thing, the noble thing, givin’ ye the chance to find love,” he explained, his brow furrowed. “I truly dinnae think I was capable of love, of givin’ ye that, but… I had it pointed out to me that I was already in love. With ye.

“It’s why I couldnae say farewell to ye on the day ye left—I thought me heart would be torn from me chest if I had to watch ye go. It already felt like it was, even without seein’ ye leave. And wantin’ ye to have the most fulfillin’ life possible, even if it wasnae at me side—I’ve come to understand that that’s love in action.”

Anna couldn’t breathe, fearing that if she exhaled the air in her lungs, it might blow away what was clearly some vivid daydream. Obviously, she had fallen asleep beside the tree, and this was just a figment of her imagination. This couldn’t possibly be real.

Gordon mustered a small smile. “In me defense, I thought ye were just settlin’ for the best of a bad lot. I thought that if I married ye, after the threat was gone, I’d be forcin’ ye somehow, takin’ away yer choice as I did when I arranged the weddin’.” He paused. “I thought ye still believed that all I wanted was an heir, nae just ye, for who ye are, whether there are bairns or nae. But I’m here now because I want ye to choose me, because I… love ye.”

“Ye love me?” she whispered.

He nodded. “Turns out, I have a heart after all. And it’s yers if ye want it.”

All the fight abandoned her body, sweeping away like charcoal dust off a fresh page. She closed the small gap between them, rising up on tiptoe as she threw her arms around his neck, feeling his arms wrap around her waist in return.

For a moment, she just gazed at him, needing to be certain that all of this was real and the happiness blooming in her chest wasn’t going to shatter in the next moment.

His lips soothed her worries, the passionate crush of his kiss confirming that he was real, he was there, and that he loved her. She didn’t waste another moment, melting into his embrace, kissing him with all of the longing that had been building up in the week or so that they had been separated, claiming him as hers with all of the fervor she possessed.

“I love ye,” he whispered, kissing her neck. “I love ye.” He kissed her shoulder. “I love ye.” His teeth grazed her earlobe. “And God, I’ve missed ye.” His mouth found hers again, a sound like pain and pleasure both rumbling in the back of his throat, sparking a fresh wave of desire.

Holding his face, unable to get enough of him, she murmured against his mouth, “I love ye too.” She kissed him harder. “I missed ye, so very much.”

They kissed fiercely, a smile forming on her lips as he pushed her back into the tree, reminding her of the first time. As he pressed her against that shaded trunk, a noise rose above the breathy sounds of their passion: the crumple of paper, underfoot.

Gordon withdrew, eyebrow raised as he stared down at the ground. The drawing had slipped from Anna’s grasp in her hunger to be close to him.

“Nay!” she gasped. “That’s nae for ye!”

But he smiled and stooped to retrieve it, a sparkle of amusement in his gray eye as he observed the sketch. “Freshly drawn, too.”

Anna’s cheeks flushed with heat. “Aye, well what was I to do when ye banned me from yer sight and yer touch? All I had was me papers and me charcoal.” She managed a shy smile. “Like I said, I missed ye terribly.”

“I thank ye for this gift,” he said softly, folding up the piece of paper. “I mean to have an entire gallery, in truth.”

“Nay chance!” She laughed, though he seemed perfectly serious.

Stowing the drawing away, he came back into her arms, kissing her slowly, tantalizingly. And as she lost herself in him once more, she realized what she wanted as a reunion gift.

It didn’t matter that there was an entire castle filled with suitors who would be wondering where she was; she had already found what she’d been looking for.

Boldly, she took Gordon’s hand, and led him away from the ash tree, sneaking toward the gate that would take them down into the woods. No one would think to look for her there. They would be entirely, perfectly alone.