Page 40 of Highlander’s Beautiful Liar

Her pain was written all over her face as she stood. “This was a mistake. I should go.”

“Cora.”

Ignoring him, she walked to the horses. “Do not worry. I won’t return to the keep right away. I will take my time so everyone believes we enjoyed ourselves.”

“Ye are not leaving.” Jumping to his feet, he reached out and took her hand. “Ye were the one who started this conversation.”

“Because I cannot figure you out! I have no idea what you want from me! You look at me and you touch me at night as if you adore me, but in the morning, you are never there. During the day, you avoid me, and when we are together at dinner, everything is an act. I fear the day that you look at me with resentment and hatred.”

“And ye are willing to share me to avoid that?” he hissed. “I wilnae share ye, Cora. I wilnae have ye looking at other men or wishing ye are with them when I am in yer bed. Do ye understand me?”

Her eyes filled with tears. “You thought I was with Innes before our marriage bed.”

“And I was wrong. Ye were innocent. I should never have said that.” His grip tightened just a little. “Doona cry, Cora.”

“I don’t want to share you either.”

“I have noticed no women looking at me. I had no plans to marry, and I doona regret that I didnae marry for love. When I am with ye”—he swallowed hard—“there is no one else, Cora. No other woman.”

She opened her mouth, but he heard the familiar twang of string vibrating. He pulled her to the ground and covered her just as the arrow grazed his arm. He didn’t even register the pain as another arrow embedded into the tree trunk next to them.

“Stay down,” he growled as he pulled her up against him and dragged her behind the tree. “You stay here, and you do not get up until I return.”

Her eyes rounded. “Alec, you are bleeding.”

“Stay here!”

Keeping low, he darted behind the next tree and glanced around. Someone had just tried to kill his wife, and he wasn’t about to let that stand.

16

Shock kept Cora where she was until she looked down at her hands. They were covered in blood from Alec’s wound, and her stomach twisted. What if he didn’t return? What if whoever shot those arrows attacked him and he was too weak from blood loss to defend himself?

She couldn’t lose him.

Taking a deep breath, she scrambled to her feet and tried to follow behind him. There was an eerie silence in the wood. No sounds of an attacker and nothing from Alec. Even the birds weren’t singing, but maybe the sound of her own heart pounding was drowning everything out.

What if he was already dead?

Trying to hold back her sobs, she kept moving forward as she searched for him. Finally, when she couldn’t take it anymore, she called out his name. Softly at first until the panic overtook her.

“Cora!”

It was an angry growl as she neared a grouping of bushes, and she nearly wept with relief when he stepped out. “I told ye to stay put!”

“I thought something had happened to you. Oh, we have to get you back. You’re still bleeding.” Maybe it was adrenaline, but she found the strength to rip her skirts and wrap his wound. “You can send someone out for the archer later.”

“He’s long gone.” Alec’s eyes blazed with anger as he looked around. “Aye, we need to get ye back, and then ye arena going anywhere without a guard.”

“You think the arrow was meant for me?” Twisting the fabric, she knotted it tightly.

“I promised to protect ye. I wilnae let anything happen to ye.”

Forcing a smile, she nodded. “Come. We need to see the healer.”

There was a flurry of activity when they returned. Alec, a little weak, still managed to bark out orders before she could convince him to see the healer. Even then, he was still ordering patrols throughout the forest.

Afterward, when he was supposed to be resting, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood. “Alec, what are you doing? Please,” she pleaded.