Page 64 of It’s in his Highland Kiss

“How do I tempt you?” she asked him. “Simply by existing? Well, forgive me, Commander Forbes, but if that is your issue with me, then all you can do is kill me. I have never once done anything to tempt you!”

The commander turned around then, and the look that he gave Marion was one that made her freeze, her blood running cold in her veins. He looked murderous, and in that moment, she realised that inviting him to kill her had been a mistake.

“I should kill you,” he hissed, as he started to walk towards her, his boots thudding against the ground. “I should kill you and be done with you, but I made a promise to your parents, you see. I promised them that I would bring you back, and I am not the kind of man who breaks his promises. So no . . . no, I won’t kill you. But I will take what’s mine.”

With that, the commander grabbed Marion by the arm and pulled her to her feet with such force that he knocked her chair down onto the ground. Marion grunted as she was pulled against him, so close that she could smell the alcohol on his breath once more.

She pounded her fists against his chest, hurting herself more than she was hurting him. All that mattered to her, though, was to get away. Even death would be preferable to the fate that awaited her if she allowed the commander to have his way with her.

No. No, I won’t let him. I’ll die before I let him.

“Let me go!” she demanded, but her words fell on deaf ears. Commander Forbes was not only drunk on alcohol, but also lust, and his grip was a vice around her arm.

“Stop fighting,” the commander demanded, his grip only tightening around Marion. “This will be easier for you if you stop fighting me and just accept it. Soon enough, you’ll either be my wife or my mistress, whether you like it or not. I’m not the kind of man to whom you can say no, Marion.”

The commander pushed Marion, forcing her to bend over the table, disregarding the plates of food that were there, and the fact that her hair was suddenly dipped into one of them. Marion struggled against him, her breath shallow and laboured, and just as the commander grabbed her hands and held them behind her back, she stepped on his foot as hard as she could.

The commander yowled in pain, stumbling backwards, and suddenly, the tent was filled with men. Marion saw them there, their swords drawn, all of them prepared to fight—and die—for their commander.

“Leave us alone!” the commander shouted before any of them could ask what was wrong.

Marion could see the fury in his eyes, in the redness that had spread over his cheeks, in the way that his hair was unruly now, falling over his forehead. His men retreated quietly, none of them daring to make a remark.

“Don’t you touch me,” Marion hissed at the other man, stepping away from him slowly. “If you touch me, I’ll tell my parents everything.”

The laugh that the commander gave her at that was one that chilled her to the bone. “Your parents won’t care!” he said. “They’ll be happy to rid themselves of you! They only want you back because everyone is talking about you behind their backs. And oh . . . how happy they would be to marry you off to me. You’re already mine, Marion. You simply don’t know it yet.”

Even though Marion had always known that her parents had never loved her the way a parent should love their child, the commander’s words still hurt. She had always kept a sliver of hope that her parents loved her, in their own way, and that they were simply not very good at showing it.

Now she knew that she had been wrong to hope.

Just as her parents hadn’t managed to break her though, neither would the commander. She refused to submit to him, refused to give him the satisfaction of taking anything that he wanted from her without at least putting up a fight.

“Never,” Marion said, shaking her head. “I will never be yours. You’re not a man! You’re a monster! I don’t know how I’ve managed to put up with you for as long as I have, but you shall not have a moment longer of my life, do you hear? One of us will be carried out of this tent.”

The commander laughed, shaking his head as though the thought that Marion could kill him was amusing to him. “You’re only a woman. What will you do?”

As he spoke, the commander began to approach Marion, his gaze never leaving her. She continued to try and keep her distance, but there was only that far she could go in that tent, and she doubted that he would let her go outside.

It didn’t take her long to realise that she was trapped, and she didn’t have a single weapon. Perhaps she could grab the commander’s sword, she thought, if she got close enough to him and was quick enough, or she could take her chances with her knife, which wasn’t nearly as sharp.

Or perhaps she could use nothing but her fists and her nails and hope that the sheer panic and her refusal to submit to him would be enough to save her.

“I know what you’re thinking,” the commander said. “You’re wondering if anyone will help you, but no one will. My men would never turn against me, and there is no one in these parts who would come to your rescue even if you screamed.”

Marion didn’t try to correct the commander. She thought it was best to let him think that she was waiting for help instead of revealing her plan to him, hoping that she would at least have the element of surprise. Even if the commander ended up screaming in fear or agony as she killed him, and his men rushed to the tent and killed her, at least she would die happy, knowing that vile man would be dead too.

“Submit already!” the commander roared, making Marion flinch.

She had reached the edge of the tent, and there was nowhere left to go. All she could do was stand there and hope that the commander wouldn’t come any closer.

Of course, that was futile. The other man continued to approach her, and Marion had to bite her cheek to stop herself from crying out. She didn’t want to show him any weakness, and she had promised herself that any sound she made would be one of defiance.

“Don’t come any closer,” Marion said, her tone low and threatening. “I’m warning you, Commander. If you come any closer, I will do everything in my power to kill you.”

The commander scoffed at that, pointing a finger at Marion. He walked right up to her, the tip of his finger jabbing her right in the middle of her chest. “You think you can kill me?” he asked. “You think that threatening me will make me be afraid of you? You have no power here. What do you think you’ll do?”

As if to prove his point, the commander wrapped his hand around Marion’s throat, stopping her breath. For a moment, Marion panicked, her arms flailing helplessly around her, as she was caught by surprise. Then, she began to claw at the commander, her hands pushing him with all her might.