Page 96

“Tell me.” He wanted to reach for her. To comfort her. But the source of her upset was likely his inability to open himself to her fully. “Gillian, you never did tell me—”

“I heard what you said to your brother.”

He didn’t understand, and said as much.

She repeated. “‘Nay, I didn’t want her. Not Gillian nor any wife. Not after Catrina. And then Emma.’”

He thought back to the conversation. “Gillian, did you not hear the rest?”

“Nay, I left and—”

“You did not speak to me afterward. Listen to me.” He clenched and unclenched his fists, unsure what else to do with them to keep from reaching for her. “I asked Aidan what either woman had to do with you. ’Tis as I said to you. I was not in love with Catrina or Emma—”

“That’s not what upset me.”

“Then what is?”

She frowned. “I know you did not want me—”

“Gillian, that is not at all what I meant. Look at the way I’m standing right now, all because I’m desperate to touch you. Do you think I didn’t know how wrong it was to kiss you in that garden? I do not ravish innocent women.”

“I know that.”

“Or make it my custom to find myself alone with them. But you . . .” For a wild moment he thought to tell her the truth. To say, “I love you, Gillian.” But what if she did not feel the same?

She was forced to marry you.

He laughed at the absurdity of the thought. His worries were just the same as hers. How had he never thought about it that way before?

I will tell her. On the day we finally make love again, I will tell her. To hell with the consequences.

“I understand why you asked for this agreement, but please, Gillian. Let me out of it for just one kiss.”

He needed to touch her or die trying.

She raised her chin, a final defiance, before she nodded.

It was all the agreement he needed.

Graeme pulled her toward him, pouring everything he felt into her. He coaxed open her mouth and slayed her tongue with his own. Their moans mingled as the past days of frustrated desire melted away. In an instant he was hard, ready for an act that could not happen today.

But, by God, he would take whatever she offered and give no quarter in return.

He cupped her face, moving her head in just the right direction for their mouths to fit perfectly together. In the end, neither one pulled back, but a firm knock at the door intruded on what had been the greatest kiss of his life.

“My lord? My lady?”

“Go away,” he shouted.

“Lady Gillian?”

Graeme did not recognize the voice, but whoever was on the other side of that door was no longer going to reside at Highgate Castle if he continued shouting their names.

Just as he brought his lips down once more, satisfied the visitor had gone away, the voice called out again.

“I apologize to intrude, my lady. But it’s your sister.”

Gillian broke away and ran to the door so quickly that it took Graeme a moment to realize she was no longer in his arms. She opened the door with enough force to slam it against the stone wall behind it.