Page 88 of Steel & Surrender

He couldn’t tumble her again. Not until he’d said this.

“Well … there was one more thing on it. Something that mattered more to him than anything else. Something I didn’t tell ye.”

She stilled then, curiosity lighting in her eyes. “Really? Now ye have me intrigued. Go on.”

“He said that … that he wished to win the Forge Maiden’s heart.”

Brìghde blinked. For a heartbeat, she didn’t understand.

And then she did.

She stiffened, her smile fading. “What?”

“Ye probably had no idea … but Al was soft on ye. He had been for years … but he was shy with the lasses and never let on. A couple of months before his death, he told me of his list … and ye were on it.”

Greig paused then, his pulse quickening.

This wasn’t going well. He could see the change in her face, the narrowing of her eyes. But now that he’d begun, he had to finish. “I’ll admit I teased him over it.”

He’d actually done more than that, but he wouldn’t admit so. He didn’t want to hurt her. Quite frankly, he was ashamed of himself. “But Al made it clear that he wanted ye, and that, one day, he’d gather the courage to woo ye.”

Silence fell between them then.

Brìghde’s body was no longer languid and supple against his, but rigid.

As a result, his shaft softened once more inside her.

There was no thought of coupling now from either of them.

“And so … I was yer last challenge?” she said, her tone cooling. “The final thing to tick off Alistair’s list?”

“No—that’s not it at all. To tell ye the truth, right from the beginning, I discounted it. I didn’t tell ye because it wasn’t why I came to ye” —he broke off, dragging a hand through his hair— “God’s blood, I’m saying this badly. What I mean is … ye weren’t a task to me. Not ever. Believe me, wooing ye was the furthest thing from my mind.”

He tensed, his heart kicking.

Shite. He hadn’t meant to say that.

Hurt flared dark in her eyes. “The furthest thing from yer mind?”

“I was too sorry for myself to think about wooing anyone,” he said hurriedly, even as heat flared across his face. The devil’s cods, he was making a bloody mess of this.

“I don’t believe ye.” She then placed a hand on his chest and firmly pushed back, making it clear she no longer wanted to be joined with him.

Greig withdrew from her and yanked up his braies, hastily lacing them.

Meanwhile, Brìghde pulled up her lèine and kirtle, her movements sharp and jerky now. She then wriggled off the bench and pushed down her rumpled skirts.

“Ye are a man who can’t resist a challenge, Greig. How it must have bothered ye … that one last task, mocking ye.” Her gaze raked over him in a way that made his belly harden, as if she stripped him bare, as if she saw the truth of who he really was—and didn’t like it one bit. “I should have known.” Her voice was barely above a whisper now, even as anger burned in those grey eyes, turning them thunderous. “A man like ye doesn’t look twice at a woman like me … not unless there’s a reason. But, fool that I am, I let myself believe it.”

“Ye believed it because it’s the truth, Brì,” he replied, stepping forward, his hand lifting to take hers.

However, she shook her head and took a sharp step back, widening the gap between them. “No, Greig, no more lies. Ye’ve done enough damage.”

“Brìghde,” he said, his voice low and fierce, “listen to me. None of this was feigned. Surely, ye know me well enough to realize that’s not the sort of man I am? Do ye think I’d bother to court ye with false smiles and honeyed words? That’s not my way.”

And it wasn’t.

He was a charmless bastard.