Eloise’s stomach tightened. “It is nothin',” she said quickly.
“Who is it from? A secret lover?” he growled.
She gasped. “What? How can ye say such a thing?”
“A woman that looks like ye is bound to have admirers. Is that why ye truly ran from yer engagement from Drummond? Because there is another?” he sneered.
“Ye wound me with yer accusations, Laird. It is from me cousin, Beatrice.”
James unfolded the letter. Eloise’s breath caught.
He read silently. The room felt impossibly still as his eyes moved across the page. Eloise watched him, her chest rising up and down as she breathed heavily.
Finally, he lowered it slightly. The hardness in his expression softened, just barely.
He exhaled once. “I see,” he said quietly. Then he placed it back on the desk without comment.
Eloise stared at him. “Do ye?” she asked, voice sharper now. “Because from where I stand, I have simply exchanged one controllin' Laird for another.”
James’s head lifted immediately. “Nay,” he said firmly. “Ye will nae say that.”
Eloise took a step toward him. “Why nae?” she challenged. “Ye break into me room, demand me letters, threaten me space, accuse me of treachery. How is that different?”
“Because I would never treat ye like Drummond would,” he said. “Never.”
Eloise shook her head. “Ye expect me to believe that when ye command me as though I have nay will?”
James stepped closer again, voice lowering. “I command ye because I am trying to keep ye away from that vile man.”
Eloise’s breath hitched. “What about me choices? Me decency?”
James looked at her differently then, no longer just controlled, but strained.
“Ye daenae understand what ye stir in this place… in me,” he said.
“Then explain it to me.”
James reached for her then, not carefully but with sudden urgency, pulling her into him. He pressed his lips against hers. She felt her knees go weak almost instantly.
The kiss came like breaking restraint. It was intense, overwhelming. Days of silence, arguments, tension collapsing into contact.
Eloise froze for only a heartbeat before she responded, just as fiercely, her hands gripping his shirt as though anchoring herself. Her first kiss, and it felt nothing like she had imagined. It felt like being pulled into a storm she had already been standing inside.
Her thoughts scattered completely. She felt the force of him, the control that had always angered her now twisting into something she could not deny. Desire rose sharp and unguarded, confusing and consuming. For a brief moment, she thought she might surrender, not to fear, but to him. To the way he held her like she mattered too much to let go. Her hands tightened against him, answering without permission.
I am undone.
A soft moan escaped her mouth. James pulled back abruptly.
The loss of him was immediate, almost painful. Eloise swayed slightly, breath uneven, lips still tingling with shock and want.
James stepped back as though he had been burned, jaw tight, eyes dark with conflict.
“Nay,” he said harshly, not to her, but to himself. His hand dragged once through his hair, frustration breaking through his control.
“This…” he muttered, voice strained, “this is exactly what I cannae allow.”
Eloise stared at him, stunned and shaken. “James…” she began, but he cut her off by stepping further away.
