He liked to sleep on his back, and he hoped she didn’t peek out again or she would see his arousal beneath the blanket pointed upward as straight as a poker—och, God, how was he ever going to get some sleep?
“Good night, Rowen.”
She didn’t answer and he hadn’t expected her to, but at least she was safe and warm and not a shattered corpse upon the ground.
That grim thought made him send a prayer of thanks heavenward that he had caught her just in time…and made it all the harder not to roll over and hug her, a fierce wave of emotion washing over him.
He had never felt so intensely protective of any woman before, but why not this one? She was his wife, after all, for better or worse…
* * *
Rowen lay stilland tense beneath the covers, listening to Alec’s steady breathing beside her.
She had positioned herself as close to the edge of the mattress as possible, aye, any further and she would tumble out onto the floor.
Still, she felt the warmth radiating from his body as if he lay much closer, though she knew he had held to his side of the bed.
Mayhap her threat that she would make him wish he had never known her if he broke his sworn vow not to touch her had struck home.
Aye, she could hope, but she didn’t trust him any more than she could sleep with him lying next to her no matter she had never felt so exhausted.
Why wouldn’t she after so terrible a day?
First she had been married against her will and then fainted dead away from hunger.
Then she had drank and eaten herself into retching her guts out…followed by a scrubbing and hair-washing that had left her skin flushed pink and her scalp hurting from Gaira’s and those maidservants’ vigorous ministrations to remove all traces of getting sick all over herself.
Then a nightgown pulled down over her head and she had been deposited into bed where she had slept for an hour or two, who could say? All she knew was that she had awoken with a start and with a frantic desire to escape before Alec returned to assert his marital rights and ravish her—though she would have fought him tooth and nail.
She had desperately rushed to the tower roof and clambered up onto the rampart to rail at the heavens, angels, and God himself for the undeserved plight she had been made to suffer…the cold wind whipping at her and rain lashing her face.
She hadn’t truly intended to cast herself from the tower, but at least she had won a vow from Alec that she had never expected—och, the man must be mad to think she would ever welcome him with open arms as her husband!
That thought alone making Rowen snuggle deeper into her pillow and pull the covers more tightly under her chin, her movement eliciting a low groan from Alec as if she might have awakened him.
Ah, God, she hoped not. Mayhap in a drowsy state he would forget his oath altogether and reach out for her, her gaze flying to the poker by the fireplace?—
“Dinna dare move from this bed, woman, I told you I wouldna touch you. Now go tae sleep!”
Stunned that Alec could have read her thoughts, Rowen closed her eyes and inched a little further away from him while she heard another groan—this time of exasperation.
Yet he said no more and a few moments later, he had fallen asleep again from the cadence of his breathing, even as remembering another unexpected vow from Alec made her face flush with warmth.
You’re my wife now and I will protect you tae my last breath. Do you hear me, Rowen? No one in this place will dare tae speak a word against you or harm you in any way, I swear it!
Och, if only she could believe him! Yet how could she? Her blood was Sutherland and his, Mackay, and nothing would ever change the fact that their clans had feuded for generations.
Damn the man…open arms, indeed.
CHAPTER5
“Must you leave today?” Alec asked of his father, who stood ready to mount his pitch-black steed and join his men already assembled and waiting for him near the castle gates. The two shaggy wolfhounds ran around them in circles, barking as if eager to be on their way as Donald nodded.
“Aye, son, you’re the laird here now and you’ve much that demands your attention. Your warriors tae train for the day those accursed English descend upon us, land and tenants to oversee—aye, and a wife tae tame, God help you.”
Alec nodded and gave a wry laugh, but Donald didn’t appear amused at all. He sighed heavily and fixed his gaze upon Alec.
“I thought for certain last night you were going tae be made a widower on the same day you were wed, but you caught the lass just in time. I dinna imagine you consummated the marriage after all that ruckus?”
