Page 50 of The Laird's Secret Bairn

“I’ll be expecting ye in the attic tonight, lass.” His eyes held hers, dark and certain, leaving no room for argument. “See that ye daenae disobey me twice in one day.”

Skye placed her hand over her chest, trying to calm her racing heart.

It wasn’t fear making her pulse skitter. She recognized that much, even when she tried to convince herself that it was anything but anticipation and desire. Fear didn’t feel like that. Fear did not settle warm and low in her belly, leaving her counting down the hours to nightfall.

She was excited. She couldn’t deny it anymore. Desperately, she wanted her heart to steady, but it refused to listen and kept racing. Maybe she truly had lost her mind by agreeing to any of this in the first place.

But here she was, looking forward to meeting him in the attic later that night.

One word. It was all it would take for her to end this. But she didn’t, despite their previous argument.

“Tonight, then,” she whispered to herself, her cheeks flushing at the thought of what Dougal might do.

Would he touch her the same way he had before? How much further would he go?

She wasn’t sure, but her imagination was running wild. She supposed she was going to have to wait and see tonight what he planned to do with her.

18

Dougal found her in the attic when he arrived, pages spread across her lap, candlelight catching the furrow between her eyebrows that meant she was thinking too hard about something she couldn’t quite pin down.

It seemed that she had arrived early and been waiting longer than he had intended, which was his fault. He had some work to do, papers to review. It took him longer than he would have liked, his mind still preoccupied by Skye and Lily’s safety.

“How does the story go tonight, lass?”

Skye glanced up, her cheeks coloring the way they always did when he caught her unaware. “I… daenae ken, truthfully. It seems I am stuck once again.”

“Ye daenae ken? Ye’ve always got something to say about it.”

“The real Lion is far too confusing to write.” She set the pages aside, studying him with a tilt of her head. Dougal didn’t miss the accusation in her eyes, but he wore it like a badge of pride since he could rattle her so much. “And much less scary than the one I invented.”

Well, that was unexpected.

He settled into the chair across from her, unable to suppress a smirk. “Is that so?”

After their argument the other night, he did not expect her to say such a thing, but she seemed to mean it.

She locked eyes with him, refusing to look away. She was growing braver by the day. Dougal wasn’t sure what to make of it, but a small part of him certainly found it exciting. Unpredictability was not what he would have expected from her.

“It is.” She lifted her chin, though the color in her cheeks hadn’t faded. “But me sister told me I should still fear ye. She warned me many times before I came here.”

“And why is that?”

“Because a man like ye could always break me heart.” The words came out quiet, an admission she seemed to regret the moment it left her.

“Yer sister is right.” He said it plainly, no cruelty in it, only truth. His chest tightened at the sight of her searching his face for a jest that wasn’t coming. “I’ve never claimed to be safe, Skye. In fact, I remember telling ye the opposite. I’ve warned ye again and again that I am nae a safe man.”

“I ken it.” She twisted her fingers together in her lap. “I think I kent it from the very start.”

“And yet ye’re still here,” he felt the need to point out.

Skye could have ended this at any point before the month was over. She could have returned to her family, leaving everything unsaid between them. Dougal would have moved on, continuing to raise Lily. He imagined Skye would have continued to write once she got over her writer’s block.

“Aye.” She fixed him with a stubborn yet soft look. “But why did ye want to meet again? What more is there to say?”

“I told ye I would push ye, lass,” he reminded her, causing her to blush.

He rose, crossing to kneel before her chair the way he had before, though this time his hands found her wrists slowly, giving her every chance to stop him.