“With yer sister being who she is,” he remarked. “I thought you’d ken what it was like to be fussed over.”
“Well, my sister might be a Laird’s wife, but that’s not how any of us grew up,” she replied. “My father, he was… he had some issues with his finances, I suppose you’d say.”
“Is that so, aye?”
“Yes,” she replied, with a nod. “That was why he was going to…”
She stopped herself in her tracks. What was she thinking, coming out with something like that to him? She glanced away from him, hoping that he hadn’t paid attention to what had just come out of her mouth, but as soon as she fell silent, his eyes narrowed.
“He was going to…?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she replied, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
But, before she could brush it off entirely, he reached for her face, catching her chin in his hand and drawing her around to look at him.
“There’s nothing I won’t know about you, lass,” he murmured to her. His fingertips were slightly rough on her skin, and she found her breath knocked from her lungs as she stared back at him. His firmness with her did things to her she didn’t know were possible. Her mind flew back to the night in the stables, when he had kissed her, his tongue in her mouth like he was speaking a million secrets beyond her lips.
He smoothed his thumb across her cheek and dropped his hand by his side again. The moment he let go of her, she realized she wasn’t breathing, and she gasped in a long breath. She could hardly tell if it was fear or something else that coursed through her when he laid hands on her like that, but she knew, deep down inside, that she wanted more.
“What was yer father going to do?” he pressed, and she closed her eyes for a moment before she responded. She wished she could leave all of this in the past, but she knew it would not be so easy. This man was her husband now, and what he wanted from her, he would get.
“He was going to marry me to another man,” she muttered, her chin dropping to her chest. She couldn’t look at him. She could feel the anger pulsing from him in waves at the mere mention of another man, and she forced herself to meet his gaze once more.
“He was going towhat?”
“He was going to… there was this man, a rich man, he wanted to marry me to,” she explained, as quickly as she could. She wanted to get this over with. It was hard to tell if the anger in his eyes was aimed at her or at the story she was telling him, and she didn’t much like the thought of leaving that doubt to stew much longer.
“My father has some debts to pay off, and he had offered him a decent amount for my hand in marriage,” she continued, her voice shaking as she recounted the truth of the fate shehad so narrowly avoided. “He was… older, I suppose. And he’d struggled to find a bride close to his age, so he picked me, hoping I would be able to bear children for him.”
“Yer father was going to sell you to some pervert to pay off his debts?”
His voice was simmering with fury. She managed to nod. She didn’t know him well enough yet to understand if this anger was coming her way, or at her father, or at someone else entirely. He was still such an enigma to her, even though she wore his wedding band on her finger—an irony that was not lost on her.
“That’s why you agreed to marry me with such ease,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I wondered why you agreed so quickly.”
“You thought I would turn you down?” she wondered aloud, surprised. Nothing in the way he had carried himself, the things he had said or done, had suggested to her that he’d ever doubted for a moment that she would be his one day. He seemed certain that he was due anything he desired, and she was just another in a long line of things he wanted to own.
He stared at her for a moment, his eyes flicking back and forth between hers.
“I’d no’ thought you’d make it so easy fer me.”
“Oh, I thought…”
She trailed off. She didn’t know if she could say what was truly on her mind, not without exposing more than she was ready to. He leaned forward with interest, raising his eyebrows at her.
“You thought what, lass?”
She hesitated for a moment, but then, deciding there was no point in trying to hide from him, she said it.
“I thought you’d get everything you want.”
A grin curled up his lips, slowly, like the wolf on the wall hanging opposite them.
“Aye, I do,” he replied, and he lifted his hand to her face again. This time, his touch was more tender, so soft and gentle that it sent a current of excitement rushing down her arm. She drew in a sharp breath, wishing she wasn’t making it so obvious, but at the same time, unable to deny how much she wanted him, how badly she needed him.
“And what is it that you want, exactly?” she whispered. She knew the answer, but she needed to hear him say it. She needed to hear him tell her how much he desired her. It was the only thing that mattered to her in that moment. Even though he had married her, even though he had made her his wife, she still wanted him to say those sacred words, more important than any vows they could have spoken to each other.
He flicked his tongue over his lips before he spoke, considering his answer. And then, at last, he said it.
