“When do ye wish to marry?”
“Tonight,” he said.
*
After Miran andKuresh had made it half way around the loch, it occurred to her that there were no rabbits. Why had he lied to her? So Jamie and Helen could be alone? Or… What if Kuresh intended to seduce her? She stopped abruptly and propped a hand on her hip. “Why are we here?”
“Rabbits,” he said quietly.
“Rabbits? Ye are a bad liar.”
He frowned, his deep brown eyes growing black. “Never accuse me of being a liar again.”
“Or what?”
“This…” He tugged her into his arms and slanted his mouth across hers, kissing her firmly.
At first, Miran liked the way it felt, but then she remembered herself and who he was. She pushed him away violently and spat on the ground to rid herself of his taste. “See! Ye are a liar!”
Kuresh laughed then, something she’d never seen him do before. “Why am I a liar?”
“There arenorabbits.”
“Youare the rabbit. My beautiful one.”
Beautiful?He dared to compliment her? “Ye doona know me. And ye have no right to…”
He closed the distance between them again and kissed her even harder.
She nipped his bottom lip, drawing blood.
Alarmed, he stepped back, touching his mouth, then looking at the blood on his fingers. “You bit me.”
“Ye called me a rabbit. And when rabbits are frightened, they bite.”
Kuresh chuckled so hard she wanted to smack him. Miran dinna like being the center of attention or the brunt of any man’s bad jokes. “I will report ye to Laird Alex.”
“I will go with you and tell him how you kissed me a second time.”
She gaped at him. How many lies would he tell in one day? “More untruths.”
“Bending reality to your will isn’t lying.”
“Nay?” Then what was it exactly?
“I demand ye to take me back to Lady Helen and Jamie.” She stomped her foot.
“No.”
“What?”
“No. They deserve this time alone.”
“Then I will run back to the keep without ye.”
Kuresh looked beyond her, in the direction of the keep. “Go then. But be quick about it, woman, unless you want me to catch you and kiss you again.”
Miran stared at him in amazement. She was accustomed to arrogant Highlanders, especially her cousins. But Kuresh… though ruggedly handsome and dangerous with a sword, he was a foreigner—not a kinsman, not even a trusted ally. Just a stranger with a beautiful face who had taken advantage of her. “’S e plaigh a th’ annad,” she cursed, calling him a plague.
