“How do ye know the difference, lass? What other man has brought ye to the edge of pleasure like me?”
She shrugged him off, but Alex wouldna relent, he grabbed her arm again. “Well?”
“Do ye think ye’re the only man to offer me his love and name?”
She’d grown to hate his arrogance since she’d been back. But underneath it all, she still saw slivers of vulnerability. A man who had lost too much.
“Have ye given yerself to another, woman?”
“That is a private matter.”
“I disagree,” he growled.
“Ye wouldna believe me either way. If ye must know, have one of the midwives examine me.”
“A suggestion I will seriously consider.” He released her.
She’d like to see one of the MacKay midwives try and get her to lie down on a bed and lift her skirts. Did Alex really believe she’d shame herself by having sex out of wedlock? Honor meant everything to her, as it did Alex. Why were men judged by their character and women judged solely by their virginity?
“I’d like to return to my room.”
“And I want ye to stay.”
She gave up and found a patch of grass to sit on and started to hum her favorite song.
“What tune is that, lass?”
She glared at him. How could his mood change so easily? Had he lost his mind? “I doona remember the words,” she lied, “just the melody.”
In truth, the song spoke of two young lovers who were doomed to marry other people.
…Her golden eyes are upon me no more.
Her golden hair no longer feels like silk in my calloused hands.
Her sweet lips no longer utter my name, but the name of the man her father sold her to.
A husband who no deserves her.
A man who I would kill.
But I ken, I am in her heart—which is worth all the silver and gold in Scotland.
Worth the blood of my own Highland heart.
Her memory alone will carry me into the next life,
Where I’ll stand before the Almighty and ask of him what I know he’ll ask of me.
Give a reckoning of the man ye were and will be.
And I’ll say of my golden eyed lass—I am no a man without her—why did ye take her from me?
And if the Almighty doesna have an answer, I’ll no have one for Him…
It had stayed with her since the night of her wedding.
“I am uncivilized,” he admitted as he stooped in front of her. “Prone to rage and jealousy. The idea of another man touching ye, kissing ye…” He dinna finish the thought, but slanted his mouth over hers, testing her willingness to kiss him back.
