Page 64 of Highland Ruse

His people were not all so pleased with him. They would not all agree he was a good laird.

The castle came into view in the distance. Dots of rain flecked from the sky and peppered their faces. “They want a war on MacKenzie,” he said.

“Which is why you are a good laird,” she replied. “They want to act on brutal impulse and yet you devised a plan to keep everyone safe while securing peace instead of offering blood for blood.”

He stopped and waited until she met his gaze. “And that plan has now been compromised.”

She gave a sad smile. “By me.”

Uncertainty showed for the first time in her expression.

The rain came then, in great fat plops against their heads and amid a chaos of violent winds. Kaid caught Delilah by the arms in a protective motion he knew she did not need.

“To the castle!” he shouted.

Delilah turned to him with a glint in her eye. “I’ll race you there.”

No sooner had he nodded than she was off like a spooked deer, graceful, powerful, and impossibly fast despite the heavy skirts billowing around her legs.

Together they ran down the path and over the large meadow behind the village. The wet, earthy scent of fresh rain spun through the air around them. The storm whipped and shoved at their hapless forms until their hair and clothing were sodden and clinging to them.

Kaid pushed hard enough to leave his muscles burning with the exertion, yet she still made it to the gates before him.

The guards eyed her with suspicion as she passed, but Kaid shook his head and did not slow until they were both within the castle. Heavy clouds had blotted out the sun and left the main room shrouded by the dark ferocity of the storm.

He closed the door behind them and inadvertently plunged the open stone room into a tomblike silence.

Delilah gave a breathless laugh, her cheeks rosy from the exertion. “I won.”

Her voice came out loud in the quiet. She smothered a hand over her mouth and grinned.

Kaid stepped closer to her. “So ye did.” He couldn’t keep the joy from his face any more than he could stop staring.

Her hair had slipped free of its pins, and the stylish court dress she wore had lost its rigid shape, so the skirts hung limp around her legs. Rainwater glistened against her flesh, beautifully highlighting the curve of her collarbones, her graceful neck, the generous swell of her breasts.

She looked wild and free and altogether too inviting.

“What do I win?” Her eyes searched his with a silent plea he wanted more than anything to answer.

“What is it ye want?” he asked.

She watched him with a playful expression, the same carefree way she’d looked at him when they were traveling. When they’d kissed. When they’d loved.

She may have won the race, but he knew right then and there what he wanted. To find out more about this woman who raced in the rain and didn’t fret over her disheveled appearance—who laughed and cared and loved with the most beautiful passion.

He wanted Delilah.

Chapter Seventeen

Delilah knew all too poignantly what she wanted.

To not be in the situation she was in, having to choose between her loyalty to Sylvi and what she knew was right.

To stay in this heady moment of flirtation and forget everything else.

And Kaid.

God, how she wanted Kaid. But more than that, she wanted him to want her. As Delilah, not Elizabeth.