“I’ll leave ye to it, then.” Ewan turned to leave, pausing with his hand on the doorknob when Daniel spoke again.
“I dinnae want to be looking for ye, Ewan,” Daniel said coolly, an underlying threat in his voice. “Dinnae leave the castle, I’d hate to have to send the men looking for ye if I need ye again.”
“Aye, Me Laird,” Ewan answered and shut the door behind him as he left the room.
Daniel kept his eyes on the door, wondering about the man he had entrusted the running of the castle to in his absence. Ewan had always been an honest man that could be trusted with just about anything, yet something had changed since the engagement. There was a shifty look in his eyes, a hunger and ambition for something more that hadn’t been there before.
The look of panic in Ewan’s eyes reminded Daniel of a deer looking down the wrong end of an arrow. Shaking his head, he walked over to the window and looked at the quickly fading sun. He’d spent the bulk of the afternoon going over all the documents with Ewan and hadn’t had a chance to check up on Melissa again.
The stress of the situation with Ewan left his body as he remembered how furious she had been when she’d spotted him with Beitris under the trees. He found Melissa to be utterly adorable and irresistible whenever she was angry with him. He would have gone all the way with her in the orchard if Ewan hadn’t come along and interrupted them.
A frown creased his brow once again when he realized that he’d completely forgotten about his vow to never sire an heir. Melissa was doing things to him that no other woman had ever made him feel. He’d have to watch himself around her and not allow their flirtations to get the better of him.
Shaking his head, he pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d have to put that aside for now, the next few days would take him away from the castle as he visited all of the merchants. There had to be a reasonable explanation as to why there had been a hike in all of the prices. He would accept any other explanation, but not Ewan stealing from him, not until he was absolutely certain of what had happened.
The break would do him good as he got a safe distance from Melissa and all the ways she confused his feelings and thoughts.
Melissa sat on a bench overlooking the small lake behind the castle with a book in her hands. Her mind had wandered away from the pages almost as soon as she’d sat, unable to focus on anything else besides what had transpired between her and Daniel beneath the trees.
The way he had touched her had made her long for more, more of his lips, more of his touch, and more of the heat that had awoken in her innermost being. There was an insatiable hunger in her soul that couldn’t be quenched by anything other than Daniel and his caresses.
“Ye dinnae seem to be very productive.” Daniel’s voice drew her attention away from the lake, instantly making her irritable again. He still maintained his uncanny capacity to annoy her with a single sentence, despite the attraction that now existed between them.
“That’s because you don’t know what being productive means.” She snapped the book shut and glared at him as he came to sit beside her on the stone bench. “I could have been thinking over all the ways I could improve the running of your household,” she threw in. “You should learn to not assume.”
The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk as he looked at her. “An’ what are all of the ways that ye’ve come up with to improve me household?” he asked with a smirk as he placed his arm behind her.
“That’s…” She struggled for words when she realized that she hadn’t expected him to call her bluff. “That’s not something you should concern yourself with. Don’t you have better things to do with your time?” She quickly recovered. “Like working in the orchards, for instance?”
“I see yer still angry about the woman ye saw me with.” His eyes twinkled as he teased her. He lightly brushed her shoulder with his fingers as he shifted a little closer.
“You mean your cousin Beitris?” she said confidently, reveling in the surprise that spread across his face.
“Ye have been busy since I last saw ye yesterday.” His surprise was quickly replaced by a confident smirk once again.
Melissa hated the way he could be smug and attractive all at the same time. It made her want to lean in and kiss him with all of her pent-up fury.
“I have, actually. Far more than you have. She took me to her cottage, and we healed a little girl. What have you done since last you harassed me yesterday?”
“Harassed ye?” His voice became thicker, and his eyes darkened as he leaned in a little closer and whispered, “Ye didnae seem as if ye werenae enjoying the harassment.” He held her gaze as he spoke. “On the contrary, the sounds coming from yer lips seemed to imply that ye were enjoying it a little too much.”
Heat rose in her loins once again as she looked at his lips, breathing a little harder as she recalled the feeling of them pressed against hers. Her hands tightened on the spine of the book in her lap. “You didn’t exactly give me a chance to speak,” she whispered back, leaning a little closer as if her body had a mind of its own, a problem that only seemed to occur whenever Daniel was around.
‘‘I dinnae need to hear what yer saying when yer body is agreeing.” His voice became huskier. “Yer reactions do all the talking for ye.”
“Is there a reason you came out here?” she asked, her lips mere inches away from his. “Or did you simply come to vex me again?”
“Aye, I did have a reason. I had a mind to finish the discussion we started yesterday.”
She could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin as his gaze fell down to her chest. “But I also came to tell ye that I’d be away on business for a day or two.”
“Sounds to me like you’re running away.” Her lips remained parted as her voice took on a sensual quality. “It would appear that you can’t handle the fight that you have started.”
“Is that a challenge?” His tone matched hers as his head dipped a little closer, bringing the heat of his body nearer to her.
“If you’d like to take it as one.” She suddenly became quite flustered as her eyes fluttered shut, their heads resting against each other.
“I beg yer pardon, Me Laird,” Isla’s voice interrupted the moment, making them both sit up and look.
