Page 49 of In Bed with a Highland Liar

This explained nothing, after all. The true identity of his mother had nothing to do with all the lies he had told her, as far as she was concerned.

“When Ruadh found out, he was furious,” Aaden continued. “He exiled me an’ me faither an’ that is why I am with the McDowell Clan. I’ve been with them fer most o’ me life. They took us in when we had nae one else. But Ruadh never forgot about it an’ he always forced me faither tae dae his biddin’. An’ now he’s forcin’ me.”

The more Aaden revealed, the more confused Lilith was. It took her a few moments to connect the dots, if only because Laird MacEwan had seemed like a perfectly good man to everyone in the short time he had spent with them in Castle Stewart.

“He is the one who wants me faither’s gold an’ land,” Lilith said and Aaden nodded, confirming her suspicions.

But that didn’t explain why Aaden felt compelled to do his bidding, why he followed Laird MacEwan’s orders when he knew how much it would hurt Lilith and her family.

“Why?” she asked, her voice now wavering too. “Why did ye dae it?”

“I had nae choice,” Aaden said. “He… he has me maither, Lilith. I dinnae even ken where he is keepin’ her but he threatened tae kill her if I didnae dae as he asked.”

A fresh wave of tears poured out of Aaden’s eyes and this time, he didn’t even attempt to stop them. He only buried his face in his hands and sat there quietly, making no sound even as his shoulders shook. Lilith was too shocked by what he had revealed to do anything but sit there with her mouth hanging open for several moments, unable to believe it.

How could someone be so cruel as to imprison and threaten to kill his own wife and mother of his children? Lilith had thought that Aaden and Evander were good liars, but Laird MacEwan was the best of them all, fooling everyone into thinking he was kind and gracious.

“Does Evander ken all this?” she asked. She needed to know. “Is it… is he part o’ the whole plan?”

Aaden didn’t look up as he spoke. “He only kent he would get a good wife an’ gold out o’ this. He doesnae ken about our maither. He doesnae even ken I am her son.”

“This is…” Lilith’s voice trailed off, not knowing how to finish her sentence. There were no words that sufficiently described the insanity of the situation and she doubted that anything she could say would be enough to console Aaden or give him any hope.

Could she truly claim that Laird MacEwan wouldn’t hurt his mother now that his plan had failed? She hardly knew the man and it turned out that everything she thought she knew about him was wrong.

Aaden finally lifted his head to look at her and though his eyes still shone with tears, there was a new strength to him, a determination in the tight press of his lips. “It is why I swore tae never fall in love with a lass. I saw what love did tae me faither an’ how it trapped him in a life o’ despair an’ pain. He never stopped lovin’ me maither an’ she never stopped lovin’ him. All they wanted was tae be happy together but she had been promised tae Ruadh an’ he didnae care they were in love. He married her despite it. He forced it upon her.”

It was a different kind of pain from the one Lilith had witnessed from her own parents, but similar enough for her to understand. Aaden had told her before of his reasons for never wanting to fall in love and she had once shared the opinion, but then she had gone ahead and fallen for him regardless, like a fool.

“I didnae ken I would meet ye,” Aaden continued. He shifted a little closer to Lilith, dragging his legs over the floor. “I didnae ken… I didnae ken how helpless I would be when it came tae ye, Lilith. I tried, I truly did. I tried tae tell meself I wouldnae fall in love with ye but I couldnae help it. Ye’re so stubborn, so headstrong an’ fierce.”

This wasn’t where Lilith expected this to go. At first, it had sounded like a confession, but now it seemed more like a list of her flaws. She frowned in confusion and made to speak, but Aaden continued before she could utter a single word.

“An’ I love that about ye. I love yer smile, I love how kind ye are even if ye dinnae always show it. I love that ye’re fearless. I love yer body, I love yer mind, I love the way ye purse yer lips when ye find somethin’ funny but ye dinnae want anyone tae ken. I love ye, Lilith. I love all o’ ye an’ I’ve kent fer a while I am doomed. I will always love ye, nae matter what.”

Lilith was frozen into silence once more. Men had claimed to love her before, but no one had ever said anything like this to her. Aaden hadn’t even told her he loved her—this was the first time she was hearing it from his lips and though she would have believed it only a few hours prior, now it only dug the pit in her stomach deeper, this confession that she didn’t know whether or not she should trust.

“Why should I believe ye?” she asked him. “Why should I believe ye now, after everythin’?”

“Let me prove it tae ye,” Aaden said. He sounded desperate as he crawled even closer, hands resting on her thighs as if in supplication. “Please.”

Lilith looked down at him, voice soft when she spoke. “How?”

Instead of responding, Aaden reached up, cradling her cheek in his hand. He pulled himself close and kissed her—a barely-there brush of lips at first before he stopped, pulling back to look at her.

“Can I⁠—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Lilith nodded fervently and he surged against her, claiming her mouth in a hurried frenzy.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Aaden’s mouth was shockingly hot against Lilith’s skin as he kissed down her neck, a stark contrast to the cold air around them and to his hands, which still carried some of the chill of the storm, sending shivers down her spine as they brushed over the patch of bare skin on her shoulder.

There was a small voice in the back of her head which told her she should be wary of him and his promises, but she had no reason to doubt him now. Everything he had told her added up—it explained all the lies, all the hiding. How could she doubt the tears he had shed for his mother? How could she doubt him when he seemed to be in such anguish over all of this?

Maybe what she was doing was unwise, but there was no stopping the flood of want that coursed through her every time he touched her, the feel of his hands exhilarating even over the blanket that separated them.

Conflicting emotions reached a rolling boil inside Lilith, but out of them all, it was lust which stood out, winning over the rest. She reached for Aaden, pulling him closer and kissing him again, pressing their bodies together, desperate to feel him close. She let the blanket fall off her shoulders and pool around her waist, and Aaden gasped at the sight of her, his fingers trailing a gentle path down her skin until they found her nipples, rolling the hardened nubs until he drew a soft moan out of her. Lowering his head, he pulled one of them in his mouth, sucking gently on her sensitive skin, and Lilith arched into the heat of it, her body seeking more.