Page 57 of Highlander’s Forbidden Fruit

“Nae,” Evanna shook her head, tears streaming down her face. “I’m nae alright.”

The weight of the dress wasn’t the only thing pulling her down. She was overcome with hopelessness and dejection. Just when she thought things would get easier, they just got harder and harder. After weeks of preparations, convincing her father to consider John as a potential son-in-law, and months of convincing herself that John was the logical choice in a life partner; here she was in the middle of the storm, her body aching just for a graze of Aleck’s touch.

How could she be so weak? How could her heart still long for someone she could never have?

“What is it?” Aleck asked, gently tugging her chin up to look at her better. “Is it Sarah? Is that why yer upset?”

Evanna shook her head, wiped her face of tears, and pushed away from him. Her dress sagged at the front, and she had to hold it up so her breasts wouldn’t spill out.

“Then what has ye so upset?” he asked, his hand encircling her elbow.

“Ye,” Evanna said jerking her elbow free of his grasp. “Ye have me upset, Aleck Bryce.”

“Me?” he looked perplexed, firelight playing along his naked skin. The water-logged breeches riding so low on his hips she could see where the line of hair on his torso disappeared in his pants. “What have I done?”

He was so distractingly good-looking. And Evanna no longer cared. Aleck was a fool if he didn’t already know how she felt. “Ye’ve gone and broken my heart. Tell me,” she asked, poking a finger into his chest. “If ye had a heart capable of love why could it nae ha’been me?”

Aleck’s eyes widened, and he looked flummoxed. Evanna was somewhat gratified. She had known all along that he was oblivious to her feelings.

“I have loved ye since we were bairns, Aleck. Were ye so blind to me that ye could nae see? I was yer shadow, ye were the sun I spent my days going around, did ye nae ken that I love ye?”

Aleck didn’t say a word. He might as well have been carved of stone. Rage flared in her again at his stony silence.

“Now I have to marry for convenience, and it’ll take me away from the only home I’ve ever known.”

“I thought England was where yer heart was.”

Typical! Evanna rolled her eyes. Her declaration of love got nothing out of him, but her statement on Glenlivet did.

“Glenlivet is my home. It’s my Da’s lands, the place my Ma is buried, where I first learned to walk and to love. How can England have my heart when my heart beats for ye?”

Aleck blinked uncertainly. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “All those months ye were away…”

“I wanted to come back. I would nae have left if ye had given me any hope. But yer a heartless man, Aleck Bryce. And that is why I’m upset. Because nae matter how much my head tells me John is a better man for me, my heart betrays me every time yer near.”

She turned away from him to gaze into the fire, her feet burying into the tartans that Aleck had left on the floor. She picked one of them up and wrapped it around her freezing shoulders. Now that she had given voice to her feelings, she felt lighter. She no longer cared what he thought of her, as long as she was rid of these secret feelings. They had been a burden to carry in silence all these years.

Aleck shifted behind her. She paid him no mind. Her eyes watched the dance of the flames as they devoured the kindling. When he touched her bare back, it came as a surprise to her, and her breath hitched in her throat like a piece of cloth caught on a thorn bush. His rough fingers continued to unbutton her dress.

“All those months ye were away,” Aleck continued as if Evanna had said nothing, his voice hoarse with emotion. “I have nae slept peacefully. For where ye go, Evanna MacLeod, ye carry my heart with ye.”

The dress slipped off to pool around her ankles. Her shift was wet and stuck to her like a second skin. Evanna gasped as the warm heat from the fire touched her bare cold legs. She crossed her arms over her breasts, her nipples tight and hard, tingling as her arm grazed against them.

Her mind could not comprehend the words Aleck was whispering in her ears as his hands slid up and down her back, warming her limbs.

“I have dreamt of ye every night since I became a man and craved a woman. Ye have been the only woman I have ever desired,” he crooned. “Ye drive me mad with distraction. I have known nae woman but ye. Ye torment my dreams, ye torment every waking moment yer not there. I am only yers, Evanna. I always was.”

Unable to believe him, Evanna looked up into his eyes. They were intense deep green pools filled with warm desire. There was no room for doubt between them anymore. The fire that burned between them was real and fueled at both ends.

“Why did ye nae say?” she asked, choking on a sob. So many years she had wasted pining for him, running away from heartache, when she could have known happiness in his arms.

“I didnae think I was worthy of a woman like ye. And when ye met John, I was convinced of it.”

“Oh, Aleck! We’ve both been fools!” Evanna cried, clutching his arms around her waist, resting her back against him.

“Indeed,” he nuzzled her neck. “I more so than ye. If I’d only seen what ye were trying to show me and had nae convinced myself it couldnae possibly be for me.”

“I heard ye in church the night I ran away,” she suddenly confessed. Now that the truth was out, she didn’t want to keep anything from him. “Ye were there to confess about yer dreams.”