Page 45 of Craved By a Highland Beast

Not a single day had passed since his parents’ deaths when he didn’t blame himself for their demise.

Bonnie didn’t respond and Evan didn’t know what else to say. The two of them were plunged in silence, time trickling by slowly as they sat there, clinging onto each other.

Evan had never spoken to anyone about the demise of his parents. He hadn’t even discussed it with Alaric, though his brother had tried to get him to talk several times since their deaths, only for Evan to refuse every time. It was doing more harm than good, he knew, and it didn’t hurt only him—it hurtAlaric, who wanted to talk about it only to be met with a brick wall of silence.

Alaric didn’t deserve this. Every time Evan thought he could speak to him about their parents, though, he regretted it the moment he opened his mouth and eventually decided to say nothing.

Perhaps if I tell Bonnie, it will be easier tae speak tae Alaric, too.

It felt easier, talking to her about it, simply because he knew Alaric would insist none of it was Evan’s fault, while at the same time blaming himself. It was what Evan was doing, after all—putting the blame on himself while knowing Alaric could have done nothing to prevent their deaths.

“Me parents are dead, too,” he said, the words like thorns in his throat as he spoke, tearing into his flesh. “They were murdered in the hands o’ Sassenachs. That’s why . . . that’s why I must fight Balliol. I ken what will happen if he remains in power, Bonnie. I ken how many people will suffer an’ I cannae allow it. They will stop at naething tae get what they want.”

It was all he could share about them. He couldn’t talk about the day he found them slain, his mother’s dress soaked in blood, his father’s blade still in his hand as he tried to save her and himself. He couldn’t talk about the night before, when they had all gone to bed thinking they would have a lifetime ahead of them—he, Alaric, and their sister Isabeau none the wiser to the catastrophethat was to follow. He couldn’t talk about the goodbye he never got to give them.

Distantly, he realized that his eyes were burning with tears that threatened to spill and he pulled back from Bonnie, quickly wiping away any evidence.

Bonnie, though, didn’t allow him to get too far. She reached for him, her hands cupping his face gently as she stared into his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Evan,” she said. “I’m sorry this happened tae ye. Tae yer parents.”

Evan nodded quietly. There was nothing more he could say. The words had run dry in his mouth and now all he could do was look into Bonnie’s eyes, wishing he could at least tell her how grateful he was for her, how much she meant to him.

That was why he had come to her chambers in the first place, he remembered—to tell her how he felt. And yet now the words wouldn’t come.

Instead, he did what he had been trying to do for so long. He leaned forward and kissed her, pressing his lips against hers gently for a brief moment.

But when he made to pull back, Bonnie didn’t let him. Her grip on him tightened and she deepened the kiss, lips parting to allow for a brush of his tongue against hers. Evan sighed softly in hermouth, his hands reaching for her, grabbing her waist to pull her in his lap, greedy to touch and explore every inch of her that he could.

Then, when they finally parted, it was easy to speak.

“I’m in love with ye,” he said and knew it to be the truth.

Bonnie stared up at Evan, her eyes wide with shock. Warmth spread over her chest and up to her face, and her heart lurched in her chest, skipping beat after beat. At first, she thought that she must have surely heard Evan wrong, but the more she looked at him, the clearer it became that not only had she heard him correctly, but also that he was serious.

Never would she have guessed that someone like Evan could have grown to love her like she loved him in such a short time. Bonnie had resigned herself to the fact that whatever existed between them was mostly one-sided and that—even if perhaps he would grow to love her one day—his actions were driven by desire and not love.

But now he had proven her wrong. Evan loved her. He wanted more than just a night with her.

“I am in love with ye,” Bonnie whispered. “I am.”

She had hardly finished speaking when Evan’s lips crashed against her own once more, claiming them in a searing kiss. His hands on her waist were like twin flames, burning even through her tunic, their warmth travelling all over her body and settling deep within her core, her desire like molten lava. There was no going back now, she knew. After all the times they had kissed, this had become inevitable, but now they had crossed a line they could never uncross.

An’ in me betrothed’s own castle, at that.

It didn’t matter to Bonnie. All that mattered was that she finally had what she had longed for ever since she had felt the first stirrings of love for Evan.

His lips trailed a heated path down her neck as he pressed kiss after kiss on her sensitive skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake. Bonnie let her head fall back with a gasp, losing herself in the pleasure, her eyes falling shut so she could feel Evan’s touch in its full intensity—every brush of his lips, every caress of his fingers, the ghost of his breath on her skin. It was almost too much. She had never experienced anything quite as maddening, her need for another body so inescapable that she couldn’t help but pull him closer and closer.

As she trailed her hands down his shoulders, his chest, she traced their grooves, the muscles strong and firm under her hands. Evan arched into it as if he, too, craved her touch; as if he was just as affected as she was, taken over by his desire for her. It was difficult to believe that after all the women he must have had in his lifetime, Bonnie could affect him like this, but whentheir kiss came to an end and she pulled back to look at him, she found him looking as dazed as she felt, eyes glazed with lust and unfocused, cheeks flushed a faint red.

Bonnie took a moment to admire the sharp lines of his features, the dark, hooded eyes, the thick dark hair that shone faintly under the morning sun. Her fingers traced the curve of his brows, the peaks of his cheekbones, then down to the cupid’s bow of his lips. Evan laughed softly, tongue darting out to flick over her thumb. It drew a responding laugh out of her and she leaned in to kiss him again, yelping in surprise when Evan flipped them over, laying her over the mattress and crawling over her body.

For a moment, he hesitated, looking at her as his hands found the hem of her tunic, pushing it up just a little over her thighs. It was only when Bonnie nodded that he continued to push the fabric up, baring her thighs, then her stomach and breasts. When he pulled it off entirely and tossed the bundled-up tunic aside, Bonnie couldn’t help but wrap her arms around herself, trying to hide as much of her body as she could, but Evan was quick to take her hands in his and bring them to his lips, pressing a kiss to each of her knuckles.

“I wish tae see ye,” he said. “Dinnae hide yerself from me.”

Heat spread over Bonnie’s body, her chest and face burning under Evan’s appreciative gaze. It was like a physical caress, the sensation of his eyes on her, roaming over the swell of her breasts, the valley of her stomach, taking in every detail as though he wanted to commit it all to memory.

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