She could taste it. She could smell it. She could...
Callie’s thoughts scattered as she tripped and fell over something on the stairs.
She felt her body pitch forward and all she could do was extend her arms in hopes of catching herself. But instead of falling, strong arms wrapped about her and pulled her against a chest as hard as the dark stone walls surrounding her.
Faster than she could blink, the man released her to stand on the stair above him.
“God’s blood, woman, watch where you’re going.”
Jamie opened his mouth to speak.
Reacting on instinct, Callie quickly covered his mouth with her hand and did her best English accent. “Forgive me, milord.”
It was only then she dared look at him.
Being on the tall side, she was used to standing eye-level with most men. But where she expected to see his head, she saw only wide, muscular shoulders encased by darkness.
Her heart pounded. For those were very large shoulders, indeed.
Callie frowned at his black clothes. Never before had she seen a man not of the Church dressed all in black. And this man was definitely no priest.
His mail, coif and surcoat that were darker than pitch, bore no markings on them whatsoever.
How very odd.
She tried to take a step back, but Jamie on the stair behind her and her narrow perch on the step prevented it.
Callie felt trapped all of a sudden, trapped by the knight’s powerful presence that seemed to seep into her very bones. This was a dangerous man. A deadly one. She felt it with every instinct she possessed.
She dared to look up his tanned, strong neck that bore a deep scars over his handsome face, to see the eyes of the devil himself. Those midnight black eyes burned with intelligence and fire. They seared her with an eerie light that made her tremble.
Callie swallowed.
Never had she seen such a man. Without a doubt, he was the fairest of face and form she’d ever beheld. His features were well defined and sculpted, his jaw strong and perfect, and dusted by just a hint of manly stubble.
Hair as black as his clothes fell past his shoulders in the style of her Highland brethren. And as she stared at him, she saw the tiniest of flaws on his face. An almost invisible scar above his left eyebrow.
But it was those black eyes that held her captive. Those deadly eyes, so dark that she couldn’t even see the pupil in them, that terrified her. For they were cold and empty. And worse, they narrowed on her with way too much interest.
Remembering that she was garbed as a servant and that the man before her was obviously a lord of some standing, Callie decided she had best make a hasty retreat.
She bobbed a quick curtsy to him, grabbed Jamie’s hand and ran down the last few steps and out the door.
Sin frowned at the door as it slammed shut. There had been something very odd about what had just happened. And it wasn’t the powerful, unexpected lust he had felt the moment those green eyes had met his gaze.
Nay, his instincts had been honed from years of training. They were trying to tell him something.
But all he could focus on was the image of the woman’s cupid’s-bow mouth, and the strange disappointment he felt over not knowing the color of her hair.
Indeed, her light blue veil was an abomination that did nothing for the green of her eyes or the fresh sun-kissed skin of her face.
She had been beguiling.
Captivating.
And refreshingly tall.
Standing well over six feet, he had seldom met a woman so close to his own height. Though she had been a bit too slender for his tastes, her breasts had appeared ample enough to satisfy even his lustful brother Braden.
