“Bluidy hell,” he grunted, letting her slip out of his embrace as he doubled over. “Ye knocked the wind right out of me, love.” Stretching upright, he gazed at her flushed countenance with some amusement. “Have ye ever considered stepping intae the ring? Ye would do some serious damage with that right hook.”
Brynne’s hands went to her hips. “Do not call me that. I am not your ‘love’.”
“Ye were once,” he reminded her. “Not so long ago.”
“Alifetimeago. What are you doing here, Lachlan? What do you want?”
It was the first time he’d heard her say his name in a year, and he savored the sound of it on her lips as he would the first sip of a vintage scotch straight from the oak barrel.
“Ye,” he said roughly, dragging a hand through his tangled mane. Loose from the leather tie he normally used to bind them, the auburn locks brushed his shoulders. “I wantye, Bry. That’s why I’ve come. That’s why I’m here. Tae win ye back.”
The color drained from her cheeks, leaving her as pale as the white sheets he’d seen flapping in the wind on the far side of the manor. Slightly alarmed by her lack of pallor, and the way she suddenly swayed on her feet, he reached an arm to steady her, but she slapped his hand away.
“No,” she said forcefully. “No to all of it. I do not know what possessed you to think anything has changed between us, but nothing has. Nothingwill. All you’ve done by coming here is waste your time and tire a good horse.” The flecks of emerald in her eyes intensified with her heightened emotions, giving the illusion that her irises had shifted from brown to green.
From personal experience, Lachlan knew they only did that when she was genuinely furious…or in the midst of lovemaking.
“We can change it if we want,” he said with a Scot’s bred-into-the-bone stubbornness. Unable to help himself, he closed the distance between them with a single stride and cupped her cheek in his large palm. She glared up at him, a she-wolf ready to bite. “I made a mistake, Bry. I should have told ye the truth–”
“Yes,” she interrupted. “You should have. About a lot of things. But you lied, Lachlan.Youlied. And you ruined us.”
“I’m many things,mo lean nan.” As his temper flared, he unconsciously slipped into the native Gaelic that he’d learned at his grandmother’s knee. “A liar isna one of them.”
“What is an omission, if not a lie that hasn’t been spoken yet?” Deftly, she twisted her head to the side and ducked under his arm. “You may not have lied outright, but you didn’t tell me the truth, either. If you had–” She stopped short. Gave a clipped, irritated shake of her head. “It doesn’t matter. The past cannot be changed, and there is no possible future where we are together.”
He’d been expecting this reaction.
Had braced himself for it.
But it still hurt like a bloody son of a bitch.
Especially since he couldn’t help but compare how they were now to what they’d been. Towhothey’d been. Two young, naïve lovers ready to tackle the world and all the troubles it contained. Never guessing that the troubles on their own doorstep were far larger than any ills that awaited them beyond it.
“There are things we need tae discuss,” he said roughly. “Matters that need to be handled. If we could sit down and have a civil discussion over tea and biscuits–”
“Tea and biscuits?” she said incredulously. “Tea and biscuits?There’s no amount of tea in the world that would fix what you broke, Lachlan. And the only thing that needs to behandledis our annulment. Which can be done through our solicitors. I’ll send a letter to London in the morning.”
He gritted his teeth. “I dinna want an annulment.”
“And I do not want to go through this again. I refuse. Do you understand me? Irefuse.” Her chest rose as she took a deep breath, and fell as she released it. “You need to leave.”
“Little songbird–”
“Leave!” she cried, and the glitter of tears he saw in her eyes stopped him cold.
His Bry never cried.
Never.
Lachlan knew he was a right bastard for bringing her this pain again. But he wasn’t the only guilty party…and she wasn’t the only one hurting. There were two sides to this Shakespearean tragedy, and while he may have shouldered most of the blame for what had happened to them, he didn’t lay claim to all of it.
“Right then,” he said. “I’ll go. There are some supplies I need in the village.”
“Supplies?” A line of bewilderment creased her fair brow. “Supplies for what?”
“Why, for me stay.” At her blank stare, his smile hardened. “Ye didna think I came all this way tae just turn around and leave again, did ye? Ye’re my wife, Lady Brynne Campbell. I’m yer husband. And it’s high time we shared the same roof…and the same bed.”
Her eyes widened, her lips parted in outrage, but before she could muster a reply, he turned on his heel and loped away.
