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“I thought—”
“No,” she said shaking her head and her hand at him. “No, you didn’t think, not for one minute.”
Lachlan scratched his head and smiled. “Actually, I thought it was quite chivalrous of me.”
“So you wed me out of sympathy?”
He laughed. “You truly think that?”
“Why else would you wed me?”
He shrugged, smiled, and crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know, maybe because I love you?”
Why did he have to tempt with his charming smile? And why did his muscled chest invite, reminding her of the many times she had pillowed her head on it morning and night? She could almost hear the strong beat of his heart and the wildness of it after they had made love. Damn, damn, damn him for reminding her how much she missed and loved him, and she felt all the more unreasonable. “If you truly loved me you would have never wed me.”
He shook his head. “That makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” she argued. “You would have returned here and asked me to wed you.”
“And chance you denying me?”
“Aha,” she accused, shaking a finger in his face.
He grinned. “I knew you’d be stubborn and prickly about it.”
“And you wed me knowing it would irritate me?” she asked exasperated, especially with his smile. It was the smile she loved that always managed to charm and tantalize.
“Someone had to be sensible.”
“Now I’m not sensible?” She threw her hands up in the air.
“Not when it comes to love,” he confirmed with a chuckle.
“You think you have this all under control, don’t you.”
“Yes.”
“Well, you don’t,” she said. “And do you know why?”
“No, but I have a feeling you’re going to make it clear.”
She walked over to him and poked him in the chest. “It’s simple. You, my dear Lachlan, have yet to deal with Alyce Bunnock.”
He grabbed hold of her wrist and swung her around so that her back was pressed to his chest and he wrapped his arms around her, locking her against him, and whispered in her ear, “I look forward to it, dear wife.”
“You are not my husband,” she declared more weakly than she intended, his familiar scent tinged with earth and pine teasing her nostrils and senses.
“I have the papers to prove it.”
“They mean nothing to me,” she said sadly, for they didn’t. A proxy had signed where her signature should rest.
“In time—”
“Time will matter not,” she said, her sadness remaining, but her spark returning.
“Give us a chance,” he said and nuzzled her neck.
“Why should I?” she demanded.
“Because I love you and I believe you feel the same about me.”
She attempted to deny it and found herself unable to speak. She struggled with the truth, for she did love him, but he had hurt her by marrying her. He had been well aware why Alyce had been sent away, and why she had gone to the extreme and faked her death.
She closed her eyes against the torment. If she simply accepted Lachlan as her husband all would be well, after all she did love him. Why then did she feel so very betrayed by his actions?
He should have allowed her the choice. She had sent him away claiming she didn’t love him and as soon as he had discovered her true identity, he had wisely surmised the reason for her action.
With that assumption, he wed her without thought to how hard she had fought to make that choice herself. So then how could he claim to truly love her?
“I need to consider this,” she said and eased out of his arms, he reluctantly releasing her.
“That’s all I ask,” he said with a smile.
“Is it?”
His smile remained, though he tensed. “What do you mean?”
“You returned to Everagis, declaring it Sinclare land, making Andrew, in a sense, the laird here and with expectations of me returning home with you. You changed my life completely without consulting me, and then you tell me you love me.”
Lachlan rubbed the back of his neck. “My only excuse is that love has made a witless fool of me.”
“That excuse will not do, for I know you are no witless fool, love or not.”
A rap on the door before it swung open interrupted Lachlan’s response.
“I need to speak with you,” Piper said and Alyce knew something was amiss for Piper would not have disturbed them otherwise.
“Please excuse us,” she said to Lachlan and waited with a defiant glare for him to refuse and claim that as her husband he had a right to remain.
However, Lachlan bowed respectfully and walked out shutting the door firmly behind him.
A few moments after the latch clicked shut Piper spoke, though kept her tone low. “I’ve discovered that Lachlan has brought a man named Bogg with him and that his orders are to penetrate the mercenary camp and find what news he can of Lachlan’s brother.”
