She turned the parchment over, seeing the red and black wax that sealed the parchment marked with the emblem of the MacLeod clan. She tore open the envelope, unfurling the letter and raising it closer to her eyes.
It was from Kai.
‘Ava, love, meet me in the woods. Ye remember our spot where we often ran off tae when we were children? Meet me there. Yer faither never needs tae ken.”
“What will ye daeo?” Lyla asked, having read the letter over Ava’s shoulder.
Ava’s head told her it was unwise to go. She was risking angering her father again, yet her heart had clearly already answered the question.
“I shall go tae meet him. Make sure nay one kens?” she begged her sister.
“I give ye me word.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“Ava?” Kai called into the woods.
She was there, running toward him. She trudged through the snow, her breathing heavy as she tried to reach him.
I’m like a starving man.
Kai raced to meet her halfway. Now that he knew she loved him too, now that he knew the future he had always wanted was possible, he was not willing to let go of it without a fight.
As he reached her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up, pulling her into him for a kiss. Without hesitating, she kissed him back, her hands across his neck, clinging on tight. They kissed with passion and need, both gripping onto one another tightly.
“God, I missed ye,” he whispered between kisses.
“I missed ye too,” she murmured, closing her eyes as she leaned toward him for another kiss.
When he eventually put her down, he found it hard not to kiss her and pull him to her again. He needed her touch, was desperate for it.
“Kai?” she said, trying to get his attention when his lips took hers again. “Kai!”
He leaned back.
“Dinnae,” he begged. “I ken what ye are going tae say. Fer Lyla’s sake, ye’re going tae marry him, arenae ye? Because he can give ye the money yer faither wants.”
I dinnae have the same money tae offer her.
A lump formed in Kai’s throat. As the younger brother of a laird, he had money to his name but it was nothing like that of Laird Grant’s. Domhnall would give him what he could, but Kai was no laird. Even if he asked her father to marry Ava, he knew that Laird MacKinnon would not give his blessing.
“Kai…” Her eyes filled with tears.
It is the only answer she needs tae give me.
“Then tae hell with it all.” He released her.
“Tae hell with what?” she murmured, drying her tears with the backs of her hands. The snow had stopped falling at last, but it was so cold, it was a wonder those tears hadn’t turned to icicles.
“Forget our families. Run away with me, Ava.” He moved toward her.
“Run away!?” she spluttered. “Have ye taken leave of yer senses, Kai?”
“Why is it so mad?” he asked, shaking his head. “I love ye and ye love me. We’d be happy married. Come away with me, forget this world. We can start again.”
It is mad. I ken it is.
He couldn’t imagine a life where his brothers and sisters weren’t in it, but if escaping everything about their lives meant having Ava to himself, wasn’t that the best plan?
