“I am most certainly not!” She glared at him as her chest rose and fell from her efforts of trying to get away.
“Yer doing a fine job of pretending to be if yer nae,” he teased her again with a smirk, reveling in the fact that she’d gotten jealous of another woman receiving his attention. “Ye should have come out of hiding instead of skulking around the barrels. Ye would have learned the truth if ye did instead of coming to silly conclusions.”
“Oh, just bite me!” she snapped, turning red in the face, and tried to yank her arm away.
As quick as a flash, he spun her around once again and pushed her against the bark of a nearby tree, placing his hand behind her head to keep her from getting hurt. “Ye should stop being so insolent, lass, there may be consequences to yer actions in the future,” he growled almost seductively as the look of defiance in her eyes made the heat rise in his loins.
“Damn you and all of your consequences,” she whispered back in a husky tone as she glanced at his lips. The heat between them became palpable once again.
His lips were on hers before she had a chance to pull away, crushing down with an insatiable hunger that could only be quenched by her response.
She resisted at first but quickly gave in and pressed her body against his, moaning slightly as her tongue parted his lips and searched his mouth with equal hunger and passion.
He was surprised at first, but he quickly took the lead again, biting her lower lip and pressing her back into the bark with one hand on the small of her back and the other on her hip, gently messaging her tender flesh through her dress.
Melissa gasped as he dipped his head and kissed her neck, nibbling a path down her throat as she tugged at his shirt, placing her hands on the taut muscles of his abdomen.
“Yer a feisty little minx,” he whispered against her lips and drew back slightly. “Ye cannae undress me in the middle of the trees.” His teasing was light, while his breathing was labored. She drove him wild with her delicate hands on his skin.
“Shut up and kiss me.” Her voice was barely above a growl as she sought his lips once again, drawing him in closer with her hands on either side of his face.
Daniel used the hand that had been on the small of her back to yank up her dress, caressing the exposed flesh of her smooth thigh as her leg hitched over his hip, eliciting a whimper of pleasure from her lips.
He was about to devour her when a voice called out to him in the distance.
“Me Laird! Are ye out here?” Ewan’s voice carried through the trees, breaking through the cloud of passion that had fogged his mind.
Drawing back slightly, Daniel examined Melissa’s flushed face and the intense look in her eyes. “We’ll finish this conversation at a later stage, ye didnae see what ye think ye saw,” he said in a husky voice as he lowered her dress and stepped away from her, but not before giving her thigh a firm squeeze. He loved the feel of her firm curves.
“I thought ye might be out here.” His man at arms stepped onto the path. “I beg yer pardon, Me Laird, ye said to come an’ find ye once all of the documents were gathered,” he explained before turning to Melissa. “Ewan McCollin, Me Lady, at yer service.”
Daniel watched as Melissa quickly fixed her hair and stepped away from the tree as if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t. “Pleased to meet you.” She blushed and averted her gaze when Ewan noticed the disheveled state of her hair.
“She disnae need yer service,” Daniel said gruffly as he looked at the man’s unkempt and bushy beard. The thought of another man seeing her in a compromised state irritated him. “Let’s get on with it ‘afore the sun sets on us.” He turned toward Melissa and gave her a smile before walking away with his man at arms, his breaths still labored from the passion that coursed through his veins.
Keeping away from Melissa was a lot harder than Daniel had thought.
11
Melissa caught her breath as Daniel and his man at arms walked away, talking about castle business and papers that needed to be dealt with.
Straightening her dress and removing a few pieces of bark from her hair, she swallowed hard and bit on her lower lip. She’d been furious with Daniel, yet powerless against his advances. There was a hunger inside of her for his touch that drove her to decisions that weren’t entirely rational.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” she whispered to herself, she’d been absolutely certain of his guilt until he’d made her doubt. Her mind had immediately wondered if perhaps there hadn’t been a good explanation of who the woman was.
“Melissa?” The sweet voice from earlier distracted her from her thoughts, making her irrationally angry again. The woman had the nerve to address her directly by her Christian name after having an affair with her husband.
“My Lady will suffice, thank you very much.” Melissa turned to glare at the woman in anger after jumping slightly. “You’ve just missed Daniel.” She jerked her head in the direction of the trees where the two men had disappeared. “I’m afraid he just left.”
“Oh, dear.” Daniel’s supposed mistress pursed her lips and gripped the handle of the basket she was carrying a little tighter. “I can see that yer angry with me. I wasnae looking for Daniel,” she explained with a suppressed smile that drove Melissa insane. “He said that he hadn’t had the time to tell ye about me.”
Melissa felt offended and hurt that Daniel had discussed her with his mistress, and she wondered if he had asked the woman’s approval before going ahead with the marriage.
“No, Daniel did not mention your name,” she said coolly, pushing back her feelings of anger and bitter distaste. “But I can assure you that I have not forgotten the arrangement between us. He is free to do as he pleases with whomever he likes.” She felt an inexplicable wave of sadness and anger as she spoke.
The woman’s perfectly white brow wrinkled into a frown. “I dinnae ken about any agreement,” she said, shaking her head. “But I think that is between ye an’ the Laird.” She removed one hand from the basket and held it out to Melissa as she gingerly approached. “I am Beitris Null, healer at Castle McLaughlin and cousin to the Laird. Pleased to meet ye, Me Lady.”
“Oh.” Melissa’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “That’s why you two seemed as if you had known each other for a very long time,” she said, still slightly mistrusting of the woman and the situation, but a little relieved.
