“You did what?” She stared at him incredulously. “And Jamie didn’t kill you?”
“I’d like to see him try. But not that cousin. I meant Walter. Although I’m sure Douglas has heard it by now. I did announce it to the entire castle.”
That stunned her into silence. He seemed not to mind. He pulled her back against his chest, and soon the gentle swaying, warmth, and overwhelming feeling of being safe again were too much to resist. A bed and clean sheets couldn’t compare. Her eyes fluttered a few times, fighting it, but eventually she gave up and fell into an exhausted—and very deep—sleep.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Randolph was beginning to suspect that Hawk was either wrong or had played one of his jests on him. Over the three days it took for them to reach his newest castle in the Highlands, which was part of the old Lordship of Buchan, Izzie hadn’t given any indication that she thought his abduction romantic. She’d been deaf to his apologies and seemed to have no reaction to his declaration of love, no matter how many times he’d told her (he’d lost count). She hadn’t softened toward him one bit. If anything, the stubborn lass had only dug in her heels even more.
By the time they’d arrived at Lochindorb Castle, Randolph’s patience had worn thin. He’d ridden hundreds of miles, hadn’t slept more than a dozen hours since he’d learned she was missing, and had spent every minute of the long hours they’d searched for her scared out of his mind. When one of his men had seen what looked to be a body with light hair floating in the sea—it turned out to be kelp—he’d actually been ill. But Izzie acted as if it—as ifhe—meant nothing. What the Devil did he have to do to convince her? She couldn’t have fallen out of love with him that fast… could she?
His heart sank. She’d falleninlove with him quickly, what’s not to say the opposite couldn't be true as well? He’d hurt her. Badly, as he was coming to realize. He’d made her think not only that she wasn’t important to him, but that he thought she wasn’t good enough for him. Which was patently ridiculous. She complemented him in every way that mattered. She reminded him not to take himself so seriously, to find pleasure in life, and to relax. She grounded him. She stood up to him. She’d seen through him from the start, and with her he’d never had to play a part.
But by refusing to break the betrothal with Elizabeth, Izzie thought that made her second choice. She wasn’t—it had been his word he was thinking about—but she didn’t see it that way.
He’d been given a chance to prove how much she’d meant to him after they’d made love, but he’d been so sure that he could control his own feelings—that he was immune to them—he didn’t recognize them when they were practically banging him over the head. It had not only felt different, ithad beendifferent. He thought he’d experienced everything there was to experience in the bedchamber, but he realized he’d been missing out on the only thing that mattered: making love to someone you loved. It hadn’t been just his body finding pleasure, it had been his soul as well. Ironically, he’d thought she would see the truth when they made love, but instead it had been him.
He could see it clearly now, but Izzie didn’t seem to believe anything he said. Worse, she didn’t seem all that interested. She was acting as if it were too late. As if she didn’t care how he felt. But that couldn’t possibly be true… could it? Nay. He wasn’t going to give up until he convinced her—even if he suspected that more than once in the next few days he was just going to want to lock her in the tower and ravish her senseless until she agreed.
Thanks to her, he had a new nickname from Hawk—Brigand—and apparently it fit.
The long ride with her bottom pressing against his cock—he wasn’t going to give her the chance to escape—certainly wasn’t helping his newly formed barbarian instincts any. He’d been pushed to the edge by both her indifference to his apologies and the constant friction of a very soft bottom. How the lass could rouse his temper and his cock to such extraordinary lengths at the same time, he didn’t know.
It was a relief when they finally reached the ferry to make the short crossing to the castle. Once on the small island, she looked around, her eyes skimming with disbelief over the burned-out outbuildings and more than half slighted walls.
She spun on him angrily. “Thishorrible pile of stones belongs to you?” She paused to add sarcastically. “Do you by chance have a castle that actually has a roof on it?”
“It has a roof.” Although he wasn’t sure how effective it was. The English had done a pretty thorough job of razing everything made out of wood. The stone hadn’t fared much better. “I thought you would want to see the best. It will be my gift to you when you agree to marry me.”
She gaped at him as if he were mad. “If this is your best castle, Randy”—he might have to kill Hawk the next time he saw him for calling him that in front of her—“then I wonder about your reputation as one of your uncle’s most important knights. I also wonder about those reputed charm skills if you think to lure me to marriage with the promise of this ruin.”
“I didn’t say it was my best castle. I said it was the best—for you.”
Now she didn’t just look outraged, she also looked offended. “So I am worthy of a burned-out, slighted ruin?”
She was irritating him again. He had to clench his jaw to bite back the flare of temper. He was tempted to let her figure it out herself. “You are worthy of every great palace in the world. But I did not think it was fine towers, gold plate, velvet furnishings, and high ramparts that would please you. I love you, Izzie, and I thought this would show you how much.”
When she wasn’t busy driving him crazy, she was a clever lass—her quick wit and intelligence were two of the reasons he loved her—it didn’t take her long to figure it out. If he hadn’t been watching her so closely, he wouldn’t have seen the quick intake of breath and the swell of emotion sweep over her features. “You want me to help you rebuild it?”
The gesture had touched her. For a moment the look in her eyes even gave him hope. It was as if she were a child receiving a gift for the first time.
“It will be yours. You can rebuild it how you want. If you wish me to help, I should love to, but the decisions will be yours.”
She didn’t say anything right away. But after a minute, she composed herself and wrestled her emotions back under firm control. “I was wrong,” she said. “You deserve every bit of your reputation for charming women. But it isn’t going to work.” She lifted her chin, her eyes glinting with steel. “You will not bribe me into marriage.”
That wasn’t what he was doing, damn it. He just wanted to do something that would be meaningful to show her how much she meant to him. He took a threatening step toward her, the tension between them wound so tight he could practically feel it pulsing. Or maybe that was another part of him, damn it. “Perhaps I could think of another way. I did promise your cousin to ravish you again the next time I saw you.”
The flush that rose to her cheeks told him she was not as immune to the threat as she wanted to be. She lifted her eyes defiantly to his. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“I wouldn’t wager on it, love.”
The tone of his voice must have impressed her. Her eyes widened a little, and she took a definitive step back. “What happened to you? You are acting like a brigand.”
Christ, not her, too! Her calling him Randy was bad enough. “I fell in love, that’s what happened.” He paused. “I was scared out of my mind, Izzie. If he’d hurt you, it would have been my fault.”
His expression and the pained sound in his voice must have penetrated. It was with some compassion that she assured him, “Don’t be ridiculous. It had nothing to do with you. I should have expected something like that. I knew he would not just give up, but I’d convinced myself he had.”
“Because you wanted to leave. Because I drove you away. Because you didn’t think I cared about you. But I love you, Izzie.”
