Page 18 of The Highlander’s Untamed Lady

True to his word, the reverend proceeded with their union in haste. Even his speech seemed rushed. His stare, Evander noticed, continued to drift toward Diana. Irritation edged through him, and he was damn well ready to speak up about it when Richard looked to Diana and asked if she would take Evander to wed.

She shifted her gaze to Evander. Her lips pressed together and her brow furrowed. It was a look that could only be described as pained.

Diana took a step back and bumped into Hera. The wolf brushed past her and nuzzled Evander’s knee. He couldn’t help but chuckle and patted Hera’s large head.

“I think she is saying this is a good match.” He winked up at Diana.

She turned to look back at Zeus, but Evander stopped her. “Ye know he’s got a grudge against me,” Evander whispered to her.

This time Diana laughed, that warm, husky sound Evander enjoyed. “That he does.”

Together they both looked back at where Zeus sat in the center of the aisle, his golden stare level and unyielding. Not to be outdone, Kitzi scuttled over to Diana and ran a series of circles around her before yipping enough to get herself picked up into Diana’s arms like a squirming bairn.

“Just ye and me and a lot of pampered animals.” Evander lifted a shoulder in a helpless shrug and got another balance-jolting nudge from Hera.

“Yes.” Diana looked to the preacher. “Yes, I’ll marry him.”

Reverend Richard watched them with a bewildered expression on his face, as if he thought them both daft. Camden’s face twitched with a barely controlled smirk.

When it was Evander’s turn to agree to marry Diana, he bridged the gap between the menagerie of beasts between them and took her left hand with his right. A warm tingling sensation tickled from his palm and up his arm to spread through his body. He smiled down at her and nodded. “Aye, I’ll marry her.”

“In that case, I now pronounce you husband and wife,” said Reverend Richard. “And pets. You may kiss your beautiful bride.”

Evander slid Richard a look, knowing just how beautiful the man found the bride. Before Diana could shy away, Evander caressed her cheek, framing her jaw with his fingertips and leaned in close to her. She had a sweet, fresh scent about her, like the forest.

She gazed up at him with those wide blue eyes, and he leaned closer. His lips grazed hers, soft and warm, a touch gentle enough to almost not be felt, and yet his lips hummed with the sensation of having done so.

He eased back from Diana, and the grip of tension around his chest eased. He had done it. He had married Diana Stuart.

His people would have food for the winter and hopefully beyond.

Why then did it suddenly not feel quite enough?

Chapter Seven

Diana returned to Castle Leod bound in the shackles of marriage. The idea of the union settled over her with the weight of iron.

Fortunately, there was no procession leading them to the uncomfortable intimacy of a marriage chamber. Camden left them upon entry into the castle and Agnes summoned the beasts, great and small, with the promise of bones just cut from a roast.

All at once, everyone was gone, and Diana and Evander were alone.

He led her up the stairs, beyond her room, to a door she’d not had the opportunity as yet to see. But she knew what it was, where it led. Evander’s room.

She was a strong woman. One who could take on a grown man in battle, who could draw a man’s bow and pluck a flower from a tree with her arrow from an impossible distance. She could swing a sword, fire a pistol, kill a stag – all these things she could do as well as any man.

Standing now before Evander’s door with the knowledge of what awaited her within, it was suddenly difficult to even breathe.

Evander opened the door slowly. The hinges groaned in protest and Diana found herself wanting to issue forth her own complaint. He paused and glanced at her.

When she did not move, he turned the warmth of his deep green eyes on her. “I’m no’ going to hurt ye,” he said.

The breath pulled in and out of her lungs, but her lips tingled for more. Why couldn’t she properly draw air?

She entered and kept her stare fixed on him. The room was warm from the blazing fire in the hearth and delicately spiced with Evander’s scent. The furnishings were age-darkened, clearly passed down through generations. Two chairs before the hearth, a wardrobe, and a bed.

A bed.

That was where her visual exploration of the room ceased.