Page 45 of In Bed with a Highland Liar

“Mo ghraidh… ye look so bonnie,” said Aaden, pulling back just enough to spin her around. Lilith laughed as she twirled for him, her dress moving with the sway of her body. “Look at ye, ye must dance with me.”

Before she had any time to react, Aaden was already pulling her towards the musicians, where a large square space had been cleared for the dancing guests. Though it had stood empty only moments before, now that the others had seen her with Aaden there, they stood and began to flood the space, preparing for the first dance of the evening.

As the band started to play the next song, the two of them shared their first real dance. It was nothing like the one they had performed only days prior, when Lilith was doing her best to frustrate Aaden as much as she could, constantly trying to throw him off rhythm. She let him take the lead now, and Aaden glided around the room, pulling her gracefully along. Every time the dance brought them close, he leaned in closer and closer until their bodies were almost pressed flush against each other, seemingly uncaring about the crowd of people around them.

If they paid them any mind, they didn’t show it.

But it was the way he looked at her, eyes dark with lust, that had that familiar heat coiling in her core, her desire growing with every glance they exchanged. She hadn’t predicted how difficult it would be to simply exist near him without needing him all the time, without having to fight the little voice in her head which told her they could simply leave the feast for a while.

Perhaps when Freya comes, she can keep the guests entertained herself fer a while.

Lilith smiled and Aaden caught it, giving her a slightly bemused, yet curious look. When the dance brought them together once more, his arm wrapped around her waist, and he yanked her close, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear in a way that set goosebumps down her spine.

“I cannae wait until we’re alone,” he said. “All I wish is tae take this dress off ye.”

Blood rushed to Lilith’s face, her skin burning with embarrassment that she hoped she could blame on the temperature in the room. Though there was little chance anyone could have heard Aaden over the music and the conversations around them, she still glanced at the guests closest to them to make sure no one had heard, but once again, they didn’t seem to pay them any mind.

“Ye have already seen what is under it,” Lilith pointed out, just in time before the dance steps separated them once more. In the time it took them to get back together, Aaden’s gaze was glued on her, and Lilith could feel it like a physical touch on her skin, every place where it rested tingling with anticipation.

The moment Aaden could reach her again, she was once more ensnared in his embrace. “That is what makes me want more,” he said, just as the final notes of the song rang out around them.

Huffing out a laugh, Lilith slapped him playfully on the chest. “Behave. May I remind ye we are in the middle o’ the public an’ we’re nae wedded yet?”

“We should hurry up an’ wed, then,” said Aaden, his arm snaking around Lilith’s waist to lead her back towards the table at the far end of the great hall, where her father and Laird MacEwan already sat. Somewhere in the middle of the dance, Freya had joined them as well, and now she sat next to their father with a frown on her face as she watched everyone enjoying themselves.

When Lilith glanced at Aaden, he was already looking at her. “I will pour some wine fer us,” he said. “Go.”

Nodding gratefully at him, Lilith wove through the crowd until she reached the table and took a seat next to Freya. She gave her a chance to start a conversation herself, but Freya remained silent, sharing none of her thoughts with Lilith for perhaps the first time in their lives.

Across the room, Evander was talking to a group of women, laughing boisterously, his chest puffing out as though he was a great bird courting potential mates. Lilith couldn’t help the urge to roll her eyes at him. For all his promises, he hadn’t changed after all.

“He’s been jealous o’ Cameron, tryin’ tae forbid me from speakin’ tae him,” Freya said in a flat tone. “An’ ever since he’s started tae be jealous o’ me, he’s been tryin’ his best tae make me jealous o’ him. That is why he is speakin’ tae those lasses. Frankly, it’s immature an’ foolish.”

There was little Lilith could say to that, none of which could make her sister feel better. Now that she was observing Evander, she could see that he kept glancing at Freya, his gaze straying to her often and repeatedly, as though he wanted to make sure she was watching him. She couldn’t help but agree with her sister; he truly was a fool.

Lilith would be lying if she said that Freya’s recent arguments with Evander didn’t please her, though. There was an odd contrast between the satisfaction of knowing her sister could now see him for who he was and seeing how much it hurt her to reveal the truth, but the pain would be temporary—as long as Freya decided to cancel the wedding.

It was better for her to hurt for a few weeks than for the rest of her life.

“He isnae the man I first met,” Freya continued, her voice cracking on the last few words. With a sigh, Lilith reached for her hand and laced their fingers together, her heart slowing when Freya gave her a small, tentative smile. Despite everything, Freya was still trying her best to reassure Lilith, when it should have been the other way around, Lilith thought. “Or rather, he isnae who he pretended tae be. I dinnae think he changed. I think he simply stopped hidin’.”

For Freya to speak about Evander like this, it could only mean that he had crossed several lines. “What happened?” she asked. “What made ye see that?”

Freya drew in a deep, shaky breath, as though it pained her to speak about it. “He spoke so terribly about Cameron. An’ then, while he was yellin’ at me, he told me that men only appear tae be sweet an’ kind, sayin’ that they love us, until they can get what they want from a lass.”

The way Freya spoke those last few words made Lilith think there was more to the story than she was telling her. “Did he try tae dae somethin’ like that tae ye?”

Silently, Freya nodded. “Cameron stopped him.”

Lilith let out a sigh of relief, though it was short-lived as she turned to look at Evander once more. The sight of him, laughing and enjoying his time with the women who surrounded him, a drink in his hand and a cockiness in his stance, enraged her like few things had before. Her stomach churned, her mind conjuring up all the ways he could have hurt Freya when Lilith wasn’t there to protect her from him. As her fingers curled tightly around Freya’s own, she placed her other hand on Lilith’s, trying to soothe her, but there was no stopping the waves of anger that rolled through her, one after the other, until all she could see was Evander and all she wanted was to expose him for the awful man he was.

From the corner of her eye, she glanced at her father, who was still speaking with Laird MacEwan, none the wiser. “Ye havenae told faither. Why?”

“I will,” Freya said. “I… I wanted tae delay it, because he had already planned the feast, but I suppose it would have been better if I had told him ‘afore all this. What are we even celebratin’? I cannae go through with this weddin’, Lilith. An’ if I dinnae wed Evander, then ye dinnae have tae wed Aaden. The burden is off ye now an’ I’m sorry I ever placed it on yer shoulders. Yer free.”

Freya looked so defeated by it all. For the first time in her life, her eyes seemed dull, lifeless, her gaze unseeing, as though she couldn’t focus on any of her surroundings, lost in her own head. Lilith leaned closer, eager to tell her it was no burden, in the hopes that it would make Freya feel a little better, but before she could reveal that she and Aaden were in love and that she very much wanted this wedding, Evander interrupted them, suddenly materializing next to them.

“Come,” he said, offering his hand to Freya with one of those sickeningly sweet smiles of his. “Let us dance.”