Page 6

“ I s this what ye plan to do? Seduce me?” His voice, while low and rough, still carried the same authoritative tone he had used the first time she had met him.

A gasp escaped her lips, and her eyes widened. Not only was he lying on her bed, but he was also completely shirtless. And the sight of him alone made chills run down her spine.

“Are ye nae going to say anything?” he prodded, still looking at her, the expectant expression on his face growing by the second.

“What in God’s name do ye think ye’re doing?” The words tumbled out of her mouth.

She scrambled off the bed, staring at him in disbelief. This was not happening. This was certainly not happening.

“This is me room. Have ye nay shame?!”

“Nay. It isnae yer room. ‘Tis the Laird’s room. And the last time I checked, that was me,” Evander pointed out, his voice ironically calm.

The candle in her hand continued to flicker, struggling against the draft seeping through the window.

“I had the spare room prepared for ye, ye brute!” she screamed, feeling the words scrape her throat.

“Like I said,” Evander asserted, his voice calm as ever, “I am the Laird. And this is me room. It should be anyway.”

Keira swallowed, feeling all the blood rush to her cheeks. She had never been in bed with a man. Not one who stayed alive long enough anyway.

It was the middle of the night, but anyone could walk into her room at any moment. Anyone could knock. But she already had her fair share of disgrace for the day. This should be the last thing she should have to deal with.

“Ye invaded me home, and now ye willnae let me sleep in peace? Ye plan to invade me dreams next, Mr. Kincaid?!”

“For the last time, woman, ‘tis Laird. Laird Kincaid. This arrangement isnae going to work if ye cannae show respect.”

“Respect?” Keira scoffed. “Did ye really just say that?”

Evander opened his mouth to speak, but something held him back. Something Keira could not explain. For the better half of the next minute, they continued staring at each other in complete silence.

All of a sudden, it dawned on her.

The candlelight .

He could see her. He could see her nightgown. He could see her body.

A loud gasp escaped her lips as she reached for the covers on the bed. She yanked a part of them off the mattress—and consequently off him, even though it was too late for her to realize it—to cover herself.

Regret for her action hit her almost immediately.

With one hand holding the candle and the other holding the covers to her body, she felt the flush spread down her entire body. She had been so worried about him seeing her that it had never occurred to her that she could see him as well.

His bare chest looked hard, as if it were sculpted by God himself. In the flickering candlelight, his shoulders looked massive and carried the kind of strength that could probably—no, most definitely —snap a man’s neck and cut him in half.

A thin layer of hair covered his chest and trailed down to the well-defined ridges of his stomach, which moved with every breath he took.

Keira swallowed, allowing herself, even if for a moment, to drink in the deep ridges of his stomach, the way the remainder of the covers hung dangerously low on his hips, revealing the veins that ran down his?—

“Are ye even listening to me?”

His voice snapped her back to the present, to the reality she was currently facing.

She swallowed again. She had heard nothing he said, but she couldn’t let him know that. So she resorted to changing the subject and, for once, taking her eyes off his chiseled body.

“Could ye please leave and find somewhere else to sleep for the night? Ye cannae expect the lady of the castle to find another place now just because ye decided to usurp?—”

“How many times am I going to tell ye that it was an agreement? I never invaded yer castle. It was surrendered to me.”

“It wasnae like ye gave me people much of a choice now, did ye? And what are ye doing in me room in the first place?”

Evander sat up on the bed, and then and only then was Keira able to glimpse what he was wearing underneath. A pair of dark trousers that hung loosely on his hips.

“What, ye thought after taking me castle, ye can take me body too?”

An angry frown creased his face. “Do ye take me for some kind of animal, Lady Blythe?”

He swung his legs over the mattress and rose to his feet. Keira, who was feeling more hemmed in with each passing second, turned around almost immediately. She didn’t want to see him, not when he was looming in the corner, staring at her.

“Ye havenae exactly shown me how different ye are from an animal.”

She heard footsteps— his footsteps—draw closer and squeezed her eyes shut. Before she could brace herself, she felt the firm hands she had unfortunately grown familiar with in the past few days grab her wrists and spin her around.

“If ye’re going to call me an animal,” Evander started, his eyes reflecting the glow of the nearby candle, “the least ye can do is at least look me in the eye while ye do it.”

Now that he was close, now that she could practically feel the heat radiating from his body, Keira didn’t know what to do with herself.

“Ye are way out of line, Mr. Kincaid. These are me quarters!” she protested. He instinctively flinched at the title.

“They’re the Laird’s quarters. And nay matter how hard ye try nae to acknowledge that, only one of us holds that title,” Evander retorted calmly.

Keira couldn’t believe he could still hold his cool.

She swallowed, completely at a loss for words.

It did not exactly help that she was trying her best to keep looking him right in the eyes when his chest was right in her face.

It was a strong battle of wills, resisting the urge to give in to temptation and look down at him—or even reach out and touch him.

She could feel his fingers tighten slightly around her wrists, his chest rising and falling, a thick silence settling between them. They were only a few inches apart, and it was hard for her to remember who leaned in first.

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door, jolting her out of her daze. She wondered if she had imagined it. But then the knock came again.

“Keira?” a familiar voice rang through the door.

“Me friend,” she muttered, as if she owed him an explanation.

Evander released her wrists, and she pushed him away, her hands feeling his chest for a moment. She tried as much as possible not to think of it as she turned to the door, her heartbeat matching the pace at which she hurried to pull it open.

She hated him at that moment. She hated how he made her flush and how composed and in control he seemed to be almost all the time.

She hated that she knew he was trying to annoy her, and yet she continued to fall for it every single time.

She hated how predictable he made her. She hated how hard his chest felt beneath her palms.

On the other side of the door stood a woman just as tall as Keira. Her blue eyes gleamed in the flickering light from the candle she was holding, and her blonde hair was pulled back from her face.

“Lesley,” Keira greeted, her voice wavering for the better half of a second. She cleared her throat almost immediately. “’Tis quite late, is it nae?”

“It is,” Lesley responded, her voice devoid of any hint of fatigue. It made Keira realize that her friend had not been sleeping at all. “I heard ye come in, and I ken how tired ye get when ye go out to these meetings with the villagers. I thought ye would want some tea.”

Keira swallowed. “Oh.”

Lesley raised the teapot with her other hand, watching the steam rise in the air.

“What would I ever do in this castle without ye?” Keira breathed, taking the teapot with both hands, appreciating the warmth of it.

“Och well, ye might nae do much for long, from what I’ve heard anyway.”

Keira tightened her grip on the teapot. “What have ye heard?”

“Oh, just news about the new Laird. They say he’s a dangerous man. Do ye fully ken what ye’re stepping into, Keira?”

A moment of silence passed between them as Keira pulled the door closer to her. The last thing she wanted was for her friend to see the very man she was talking about in her room.

And shirtless.

“They say he doesnae look kindly on people who go against him. I heard from some people at the market today that he could fight and kill men with his bare hands. Are ye certain he is the kind of man ye want to surrender the castle to?”

Lesley’s words made her skin crawl.

Did she know the extent of the brutality of this stranger she had let—or had reluctantly watched—break into her castle, despite all her protests? What if she was putting the lives of her clansfolk and staff in danger?

“What do ye think about the whole thing? Ye think he’s speaking the truth? That he’s here to stay?”

Keira forced the widest smile she could muster. Lesley was a fierce and incredibly protective woman, but her fear and worries were completely understandable. For now, it was her job to dissuade them.

“Dinnae worry about the stranger, Lesley. ‘Tis all just a big misunderstanding. He and his people willnae be staying here for long,” she reassured.

“Are ye certain? And have ye mentioned that to his men, who have turned the stables into their own house of horrors?” Lesley scoffed.

“He will be leaving soon. I am certain of that,” Keira reiterated. “I am truly grateful for the tea, Lesley,” she added, managing to keep her voice—and her head—steady.

Lesley nodded. “I suppose I shall leave ye be. Sleep well.”

Keira nodded and watched her friend disappear down the hallway, her blonde hair melting into the darkness.

She shut the door behind her, the back of her neck prickling hot with his gaze.

She walked to the dresser and grabbed a cup.

Then she poured the tea into the cup, still feeling his eyes on her the entire time.

The silence that dominated their air could crush a parchment.

She took a few sips of the tea before placing the pot and the cup on the table.

She did not know what Lesley had put in the tea, but it worked because she could feel her frayed nerves slowly settle.

“Yer maid?” Evander asked a while later, still lingering by the window, his barely visible figure a contrast to the dark and starless night.

“What does it matter to ye?”

“It matters because ye lied to her. Ye told her I willnae stay here for long.”

Keira scoffed. “Look, Mr. Kincaid?—”

“ Laird .” The way he cut her off was almost mechanical.

“Ye cannae tell, but I have had quite the long day. Find somewhere else to sleep for the night, and we’ll talk about this tomorrow. If ye decide to crawl into bed with me again, I will scream.”

What in the world did Lesley put in that tea?

Why did she feel calm saying all of that?

“Then ye’ll have something in common with the women I’ve crawled into bed with.”

Keira frowned, and her breath hitched. “What?”

“Oh, ye ken. Screaming. The only difference is that ye’ll be screaming me name instead, lass.”

A cold shiver crept down her back. For some reason, his words managed to linger in the air more than they usually did.

“But I shall leave ye be for the night. Ye’re right, we have much to discuss in the morning.”

He walked away from the window to the edge of the bed, grabbed his shirt, and walked toward her.

He stopped in front of her, and for a minute, Keira wondered if he could hear her heart pounding in her chest.

“Ye look bonny when ye’re flushed.”

Again, those words, like the last, lingered in the air.

Keira didn’t respond. She had nothing to say. All she could do was watch him put on his shirt and walk to the door.

Even when he closed the door behind him, she remained rooted to the spot, transfixed by the encounter they’d just had. The cold night air did almost nothing to move her from where she stood as the question grew louder in her mind.

Who was this man, and how did he manage to get under her skin?