“Isla,” he commanded, closing the heavy door with a click that echoed in the small space. “What is the matter?”
She spun around, her eyes flashing green fire, her composure completely gone as she shook her hair down, falling past her shoulders.
“Me private life, according to ye, is none of yer business, Yer Grace,” she said with a restrained sob. “I am merely takin’ a moment to breathe. Do I have yer permission to do that much?”
“Do not be like this,” he said as he strode toward her, shaking his head from side to side as his own locks began to fall out of place. “You fled the ballroom as if the devil himself were on your heels. You are causing comment where we do not need it.”
“And ye were the one causin’ a scene, nae me!” she snapped, planting her hands on her hips and refusing to back down.“Seizin’ me from Lamfort, claimin’ me like property! That is nay way to talk to another peer, nor to yer wife... at least nae in public. I ken ye daenae like me, Benedict!”
“That is no way to talk to your husband,” he countered, his voice a low, warning rumble.
“Why do ye pretend to care about me, only to bring me crashin’ back down?”
“You are impossibly wrong in your assumptions. You must see reason.”
“Or what?” she challenged, her voice trembling slightly. “Or what will you do? Will ye toss me away again? Will ye reprimand me a child?”
He took the final two steps that separated them, his sheer size engulfing her. His heat radiated, forcing her to tilt her chin back to meet his gaze.
“I will just have to teach you how to behave then,” he murmured, pinning her against the wall in an instant with his hands on either side of her head, his eyes burning into hers.
His thoughts suddenly rushed to that stolen moment in the hall, just a short time ago at Ealdwick. He was impossibly hard and frustrated, being so close to her, yet so far.
Isla pushed against his granite chest. “I daenae want ye to touch me, ye brute,” she cried. “If ye are goin’ to find me so appallin’ that ye must toss me away when I daenae do exactly as ye wish, then leave me be!”
Her words, sharp and desperate, cut through his lustful haze. His body went rigid, and the burning intensity in his eyes flickered, replaced by a sudden, stunned shock. He slowly eased the pressure of his hands as he cupped her cheeks in his hands.
“Appalling?” he asked, the word slow and heavy. “You think I find you appalling?”
“Yes,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “Like everyone else. Ye called our kiss a mistake, and ye refuse to look at me… even when we are alone. Look at… me face. What else am I to believe?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“I daenae believe ye,” she said with a quiet sob.
“You think I find these appalling?”
His hands, large and calloused, lifted slowly, deliberately, and traced the uneven texture of the scar that ran across her cheek and down her jaw and to her chest.
His touch was feather-light, reverent even, sending a jolt of liquid fire through her veins that pooled between her legs.
“I do not,” he breathed as he brought his hands back up to her face. “You earned these marks while protecting your siblings, did you not? When a beast attacked you, and you survived to tell the tale?”
Isla could only nod, suddenly breathless.
“Then I admire them,” he stated, his voice dropping to a seductive, throaty register that made her knees weak. “I find them noble. They are proof of your courage, Isla. The marks of a true warrior. The proof of a woman whose fierce loyalty I chose to bring into my home. I chose you, Isla.”
The last of her resistance crumbled with those four words.
I chose you, Isla.
His mouth descended once more, crushing hers with desperate intensity.
This kiss was a demand, a savage claim, and a profound apology all wrapped in one. He devoured her mouth, his hands moving to cup her face, his thumbs stroking the very scars he had just praised.
Isla moaned into his mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving herself over to the force of his desire. Her polished composure dissolved, leaving only the fierce, passionate woman beneath who so dreadfully needed her husband.
He broke the kiss only to travel down her neck, finding the sweet, sensitive hollow beneath her ear.
