“Well,maybe ye should take advice from someone who actually had terrible parents!” Piper’s voice rose. “Someone who kens what it’s like to be ignored and pushed aside and made to feel like ye’re nae worth yer parents’ time! Because that’s what ye’re doin’ to Masie and Connor, whether ye realize it or nae!”
Elijah wasright in front of her now, so close that Piper had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. The air between them crackled with tension—anger and something else, something that made her skin feel too hot and too tight.
“Ye daenae getto speak to me like this,” he said, his voice low and dangerous.
“Why nae? Because ye’re a laird?”Piper lifted her chin defiantly, refusing to be intimidated even though her heart was racing. “Because ye’re used to everyone agreein’ with ye and tellin’ ye what ye want to hear? Well, I’m nae like that. I cannae be like that. So, if ye want me to stay, ye’re goin’ to have to accept that I’ll speak me mind.”
“Ye cannae defy me, lassie.”Elijah’s voice dropped to a growl that sent shivers down her spine. His eyes were dark, dangerous, fixed on her with an intensity that stole her breath. “Ye cannae stand here in yer nightgown, arguin’ with me, challengin’ me authority, and expect me to just?—”
He stopped abruptly,his jaw clenching so hard Piper could see the muscle jump beneath his beard.
“Expect ye to what?”Piper demanded, though her voice came out breathier than she intended. “To listen? To consider that maybe, just maybe, I might have a point?”
“Ye becamemine the moment ye signed yer name on that contract,” Elijah said, his voice rough and raw.
“I’m nae yers,”Piper interrupted, though the words felt like a lie even as she said them. “I’m a governess. That’s all. The contract says so.”
“Does it?”His gaze dropped to her mouth, and Piper’s breath caught. “Because right now, standin’ here with ye lookin’ at me like that, with yer lips parted and yer eyes flashin’ and that ridiculous nightgown showin’ every curve of yer body—Christ, Piper, ye have nay idea what ye’re doin’ to me.”
Piper suddenly became acutelyaware of what she was wearing. Or rather, what she wasn’t wearing.
The thin nightgownAmara had given her was practically transparent in the firelight, and the way Elijah was looking at her—like he wanted to devour her whole—made heat flood through her body.
“I’m nae… I dinnae…”she stammered, crossing her arms over her chest in a belated attempt at modesty.
“Daenae.”Elijah’s hand shot out, catching her wrist before she could complete the movement. His touch burned. “Daenae hide from me.”
“This is inappropriate,”Piper managed, though she made no move to pull away.
Elijah thumb strokedthe inside of her wrist where her pulse hammered frantically.
Piper knew this was dangerous,reckless, everything she’d promised herself she wouldn’t allow.
But the words totell him to stop wouldn’t come.
Because some traitorouspart of herdidwant this. Wanted to know what it felt like to be wanted by a man like Elijah Quinn. Wanted to believe, even for a moment, that someone could look at her plump, imperfect body with desire instead of disgust.
“I…”she tried, but Elijah’s other hand came up to cup her face, his thumb brushing across her cheekbone with devastating gentleness.
Elijah made a low sound,triumph or surrender, she couldn’t tell which, and then his mouth was on hers.
The kiss was hard,demanding, nothing like the gentle touches Alexandra had once told her a first kiss should be. His lips moved against hers with a hunger that stole her breath, and when his hand slid to the back of her head, fingers tangling in her hair, Piper’s knees went weak.
This isnae happenin’.This cannae be happenin’.
But it was.Elijah Quinn was kissing her. And God help her, she was kissing him back.
Her hands came up—topush him away, surely, that’s what they meant to do—but instead they fisted in his shirt, pulling him closer.
She’d never been kissedbefore, had no idea what she was doing, but instinct took over. When Elijah’s tongue traced her lower lip, she gasped at the sensation, and he took advantage immediately, deepening the kiss until Piper felt dizzy with it.
He wants me.He actually wants me.
The thought was dizzying,impossible. Men didn’t want women like her. Men wanted thin, beautiful women. Delicate women who looked good on their arms.
Yet here was Elijah,kissing her like she was air and he was drowning.
His hand slidfrom her face down to her neck, his thumb stroking the sensitive skin there where her pulse hammered. Piper shivered, and Elijah pulled back just enough to trail his lips along her jaw, down to where her heartbeat betrayed her desperate arousal.
