She looked down, then back up. Her bravado slipped a fraction, and he saw it. His hand rose, gentle and steady, and he tilted her chin up till her eyes met his.
“So, ye really came out here because ye thought I was escaping?”
Emma sighed, but did not remove his hand. She didn’t know why, she just let it cup her chin and basked in the warmth of his touch. “I just wanted to make sure you would not… would not miss the wedding again.”
The words cost her. Pride chafed on the way out. She took the rest in two breaths and let it live or die between them.
Logan exhaled and stared at her. “Ye have truly been through a lot, have ye nae?”
“I stood in a dress while people watched a door that remained empty,” she uttered. “I heard the whispers travel like a disease. I watched my name go around rooms and come back smaller. I know you had serious reasons the first time. I know there was a fight and a wound. But my reputation cannot bear another door that does not open.”
Something shifted in his expression. It was not exactly pity. No, it was attention. He saw the picture as she meant him to.
“Still, ye shouldnae sneak up on armed men,” he insisted, the words softened by the shape of his mouth.
“Well then, armed men still should not vanish into forests on the eve of their weddings,” she said, the edge easing by a hair.
His eyes held hers, and for a minute, the silence between them felt heavier than any log. The wind rustled the branches once again and then stilled.
“I willnae miss it,” he promised. “Nae this time.”
The words hung in the air between them.
The knot in Emma’s chest loosened. She stepped closer before she could think better of it. He didn’t move away.
His hand was still on her chin. She looked up at him and saw his decision before he moved.
Her eyes were already closed before he kissed her.
His mouth claimed hers without asking first, and one hand slid to the back of her neck. The other locked around her waist and hauled her against him.Hard.
She opened her mouth, and he took it, kissing her like he had been thinking about it for weeks.Foryears.
Her hands grabbed his shirt because, for some reason, standing still suddenly required more effort. The shawl around her shoulders fell as he walked her backward two steps until thenearest bark pressed into her spine and his whole body was pressed against hers.
His stubble tickled her jaw. His teeth found her bottom lip. She made a garbled noise, and he answered it by kissing her deeper. There was nothing careful in it.
Her fingers slid into his hair, and when she pulled, he made a sound in the back of his throat that sent heat straight through her. She kissed him back harder.
Eventually, he loosened his grip on her waist, and the kiss turned softer, almost reverent. He pulled back enough to rest his forehead against hers, both of them gulping in air.
His thumb brushed her cheekbone once, while his other hand stayed on her waist.
“I promise ye, Emma,” he said, his voice rough. “I willnae miss our wedding again.”
He let the promise sit between them, then turned toward the path ahead. The trees still held their silver, and the wind stayed low. He strode deeper into the woods, and her footsteps followed.
He stopped and looked back. “Excuse me.”
She had gathered her shawl, the pin set firm, her chin jutted in a way that said she was not finished. “You cannot make a promise and then walk into the night as if that is the end of it. It is not.”
Frustration flared within him. “What else do ye want?”
“You have yet to explain why you were out here to begin with.”
Logan could have sent her back with a word, but he did not. He spoke the truth he had decided on long before she reached Scotland.
“I only came here to think, alright? Before I came back to take me place in the castle, I gave me men me word. One last journey when the castle steadies. We sail, we earn, we bring it home for the clan. It will take months. Then I am back.”
