Page 16 of Craved By a Highland Beast

Bonnie fired her last arrow, sending it above the rest. At first, she had considered missing entirely, but then she thought that would be too obvious of a trick, and opted instead for a spot on the tree that would guarantee she would lose, accompanying the shot with the appropriate performance of getting disheartened.

Slowly, she lowered her bow, looking at the tree as though she couldn’t quite believe she had missed. Her mouth fell open in shock, her brows knitting together, and she let out a defeated sigh as Evan approached her.

“Dinnae fash,” he said. “Ye fought well. I simply fought better.”

An odd choice of words, Bonnie thought, as she began to walk backwards, trying to avoid letting Evan get too close. He seemed terribly pleased, and the last thing she wanted was to hear him gloat, so she tried to sidestep him and walk back inside—only to stumble in the dark on something large and yielding.

It was a bush, one that thankfully seemed to have no thorns. And yet its branches still scratched Bonnie’s arms, her tunic getting caught in them, the twigs groaning under her weight as she sank deeper and deeper. Having fallen rear-first, there was little she could do to stop her fall or push herself back up, her hands unable to reach solid ground.

In all the chaos, Evan’s laughter rang through the air, a sound too bright and gentle for such a man. Still, it was nothing but grating in Bonnie’s ears, the mocking nature of it angering her even more. It was all because of him. He had been the one to issue the challenge and then he had been the one to approach like that, giving Bonnie no choice but to stumble backwards to get away from him.

“Come,” he said, offering her his hand. For a moment, Bonnie looked at it as though it had personal offended her, but then weighed her options. She could either sit there until she untangled herself or someone else came by to help or she could accept the assistance.

She chose the latter. Evan’s hand was warm around her own, enveloping her palm and fingers entirely in its grasp. Just as he was about to pull, though, he stumbled as well, his free handshooting out to steady himself only for him to fall right into the bush next to her.

It was Bonnie’s turn to laugh as Evan cursed under his breath. He shook the entire bush as he tried to stand, rustling the leaves, snapping several twigs in the process, and groaning in pain more than once as he grabbed at the rough bark again and again.

“Is this amusin’ tae ye?” he asked, taking a moment to breathe.

“Very much,” said Bonnie without missing a beat.

Evan pinned her with a glare and planted his feet, finally managing to push himself up. Once he was free of the clutches of the bush, he grabbed Bonnie’s arm firmly and pulled her up with ease, as though it was hardly a chore to him. Bonnie guessed that it truly wasn’t.

He must be very strong. Stronger than Finlay, even.

With a huff, she dusted herself off as best as she could in the dark. Before she could walk past him, Evan reached towards her and gently plucked a leaf from her hair, forcing her to freeze for a moment, as if she were nothing more than a startled deer in the face on a hunt.

For what seemed like an eternity, neither of them moved. Bonnie’s treacherous heart thundered in her chest, so loud and fast that she feared Evan would hear it, as absurd as that thought seemed. Then, a strong breeze blew past them and the spell wasgone, leaving Bonnie to rush back inside, pushing her way past Evan.

She didn’t spare a single glance back as she headed to her room, all but stomping all the way there. Once she was behind the safety of her door, she leaned against it and drew in a deep, steadying breath, trying to make sense of what had happened between the two of them in that brief moment.

Whatever it was, she was certain she wasn’t supposed to like it.

Evan watched as Bonnie headed back inside the inn without another glance at him. In his fingers, he still held the leaf he had plucked from her hair and he looked at it for a brief moment, trying to figure out what it was that had possessed him to do such a thing.

The truth was that he knew precisely what had possessed him. Bonnie was a beautiful woman and despite the less than ideal way they had met, Evan found it difficult to resist that beauty. Bonnie was everything he wanted in a woman. Even her feisty, borderline rude attitude fascinated him much more than it should have, pulling him ever closer into her orbit. He had always had a weakness for girls who posed a challenge for him.

He usually tried to keep his mind off what that said about him.

With a sigh, he dropped the leaf and then picked up Bonnie’s bow and quiver, before walking over to the trees to gather all the arrows they had shot. Once he was sure he had collected them all, he too headed back inside to find Alaric precisely where he had left him, still sitting at their table.

Upon seeing him, Alaric raised a curious eyebrow. “What is all that?”

“We had a competition,” Evan said as he slid into the seat across from his brother.

“Did ye win?”

“O’ course I did.”

For all Bonnie had been so certain that she would be the one to win, Evan had easily managed to defeat her. When he saw how close her first two shots were, he had feared his own defeat for a moment, but then his suspicions that it was nothing but a lucky shot were confirmed when she failed to send the third arrow close to the other two.

“She is a good archer, though,” Evan added, as it was the truth. He had no problem recognizing skill in others—and it didn’t hurt that she hadn’t managed to beat him.

“She seemed upset when I saw her just the now,” Alaric said, and the accusation in his tone was merely thinly veiled. “Is it because o’ the contest or did ye dae somethin’ else?”

“I dinnae appreciate the tone, brother,” Evan said with a roll of his eyes. It was just like his brother to think he had done something to offend. “I dinnae ken . . . she is a strange lass.”

Alaric chuckled, giving Evan an unconvinced look. “I doubt she is any more strange than ye are. Either way, ye should be nicer tae her.”

---