Lightning split the sky, sharp and sudden, followed by a crack of thunder that echoed through the hills. Cool drops pelted my arms.
“Hurry up!” James called.
I did not answer at once.
I remained crouched there, watching the water for a moment longer, the unease inside me nearly bursting. This man was lying to me, and I had to escape him.
Chapter Ten – James
“We’re verra lucky there was a cave nearby,” I said, crouching before the fire I had just managed to start. I winced inwardly at my voice. It sounded tighter than I had meant. Wind howled outside the cave, a long, hollow sound that scraped along the stone, and lightning slashed the sky as rain pounded the rock in relentless sheets. The storm pressed close, as if it meant to trap us here.
I turned when Katreine did not respond and looked at her.
She sat on a rock, knees drawn to her chest, arms wrapped around them, soaking locks plastered against her beautiful face and clinging to the long, slender column of her neck. Water slid in thin trails down her skin, catching in the hollow of her throat before disappearing beneath her gown. Her bright, golden gaze was locked on me, watchful and almost wary, and something in that look set a slow, uneasy tension coiling in my gut.
Or was I imagining it? What could have changed since our easy talk as we rode, to when she had dismounted and gone to wash at the river?
God’s blood. It hit me. The lass had noted the direction of the river.
A tightness seized my chest, sudden and unrelenting. How to explain it? Or should I even try? Aye, I had to offer an explanation, but only if she asked me directly. If she didn’t, I’d simply try to reassure her that we were headed to the Dark Woods, giving her reason enough to doubt her own conclusions. I needed time to think, to plan, and to decide what to say.
“Are ye cold?” I asked, though what I truly wanted to know was what she was thinking.
“Aye,” she said at last. The single word was laced with the same wariness that swam in her gaze, quiet but unmistakable.
I went to my travel sack and tugged out a dry plaid, my movements sharper than usual, then strode to her and held it out. “Here. I’d take off yer wet cloak and lay it near the fire to dry.”
She stood, took the plaid from me with a murmured thanks, then moved past me toward the fire. The brief brush of her fingers against mine was gone almost before I could feel it, and the absence of that contact struck me harder than the contact itself. I watched her, unable to tear my gaze from the gentle sway of her hips, though even that awareness felt edged now with something tighter, more urgent.
When she shrugged off her wet cloak, the bodice of her gown loosened a bit more, revealing the fullness of her breasts just enough that I could well imagine what they would feel like in my hands and in my mouth. Lust gripped me, sharp and immediate, but it tangled with the tension already building in my chest, and I forced it down. This was not the time for lust. I needed to concentrate on making her feel safe, needed her calm, needed her to trust me.
I knew I’d have to tell her eventually where I was taking her, but I didn’t want to just yet, and it wasn’t simply because I didn’t want her to fight me. It was because I wanted to learn more about her, and she’d never tell me more once she discovered I had deceived her.
She carefully laid her cloak out to dry and wrapped my plaid around her shoulders. Her long, burnished strands were half inside the plaid and half out, and I had the urge to go to her and pull her hair free so it would spill over my plaid, which would soon change colors if I won the stronghold and the lairdship. I could imagine her wrapped in my new plaid, and the thought startled me, landing deeper than it should have. I didn’t needto be thinking about such things when I did not yet have the stronghold or the title.
“I’ve some bread,” I said, stalking back to my travel sack and rummaging through it, needing the distraction. “Unfortunately, we already drank the wine.”
Near the entrance of the cave, the horses whinnied, no doubt protesting the weather. They’d already been fed and watered, but the storm had unsettled them, their unease echoing faintly through the stone.
“Should we move them closer?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Nay, I made sure they were out of the weather’s reach. We’ll keep them there so any smells are as far away as possible for the night.”
“So ye think we can nae travel more today?”
“It was well past noon when we stopped, and based on the sky, the storm will rage for several more hours. Traveling in the dark is one thing, but traveling in the dark with wet ground where the horses can lose footing and ye injured is a risk I’m nae willing to take.” I took out the loaf of bread and walked to her, holding out a chunk.
She took it with a tight smile. “I would argue with ye, but I ken it’s futile.”
“Aye, it is,” I agreed, taking a bit of the bread, though something about her tone made the words feel less like jest and more like quiet acknowledgment.
“I have some wine,” she said, making her way to her horse to dig in her travel sack. I watched her go, watched her linger longer than necessary, rummaging, the unease in me tightening with each heartbeat. She stood in front of it, searching for a few moments, then strode back toward me with two wineskins.
She knelt right in front of me, her head directly in front of my manhood. By the gods, the woman was tempting me without even knowing it, or perhaps knowing it all too well. Desiresurged again, sharper now, tangled with something I could not quite name.
“If we’re stuck here, we might as well feast,” she said.
I could think of other things to do with her, but I clenched my teeth and nodded as I sat beside her and took the wineskin she offered. We sat in silence for a while, and I noticed she ate with the care of someone born in a great house, which made me think again of her family and the unanswered questions I had about her. Her history should not have mattered to me, but it did. I found my curiosity insatiable. “Who taught ye the healing arts?” I asked, deciding it was a harmless enough question that might lead her to reveal something about herself.
