Page 32 of A Virgin for the Vicious Highlander
Indeed, Murdoch was keen to get Cecilia out of the room so he could concentrate again.
“Actually, nay,” she declared boldly. “Ye have made it clear to me that ye have nay intention of holdin’ up yer end of the bargain. The snow has ceased fallin’ and has begun to melt, so I expect that me aunt, Dipper, and I will soon be on our way back to the convent.”
Away from here… away from Lennox.
He wondered if that meant she had not taken as much of a shine to his man-at-arms as he had thought, but he kept his expression blank and indifferent.
“I’m aware,” he uttered.
Her eyes narrowed on him. “Well, I just want to ken what changed.”
“Pardon?”
“What changed in a night?” she pressed. “Ye were a completely different person in that cabin, and I’d like to ken why there are two of ye—this cold beast before me, and the man who was there in the cabin with me, whispering things that?—”
“There’s nay difference,” he interrupted sharply, unwilling to be reminded of the things he had murmured in her ear and how desperately he had wanted to make them a reality. “I just didnae want ye to be cold.”
She shot him an almost withering look. “Och, well,thank yefor the hospitality. But that doesnae explain why ye said?—”
“I was checkin’ what manner of wildlin’ ye are,” he interrupted her again, recalling every word and the way she had arched her back, pushing against him, stirring his loins to a maddening heat. “To ensure ye were pure enough to return to the convent and take yer vows. I remain unconvinced, but that’s none of me business.”
He motioned for her to leave, but she stayed put, holding her ground.
“And that brings me nicely to me last order of business,” she said with determination in her voice, unfolding the paper she held toher chest. “Yerend of the bargain. And I’m nae goin’ anywhere until I have it.”
CHAPTER 14
Cecilia grippedthe paper to stop her hand from shaking, steeling her resolve. If she did not do this now, if she did not speak now, then perhaps she never would. Perhaps she would have the opportunity taken from her by the vows she would have no choice but to make, spending the rest of her days behind convent walls.
“Yer week here was me end of the bargain,” Murdoch said stiffly, his gaze stony.
She shook her head. “And me terms have changed. If I return to the convent, I willnae have any other option but to take me vows, but…” She could not breathe, her nerves wrapping around her lungs and squeezing them tight.
“But?” he prompted dismissively.
“For the information I’ve just given ye, I want to… try somethin’. I dinnae want to leave parts of me life—parts of what it means tobe alive—shrouded in mystery. So, aye, I want to try somethin’, and that’ll be yer end of the bargain. It’s at the top of me list.”
He leaned forward, steepling his hands beneath his chin as he stared at her. “I ken I’ll regret askin’, but what list?”
She held out the unfolded piece of paper, not showing him the side she had written her fantasies on. He would have to take her word for it that what she was about to requestwasat the top of the list.
“I wrote down everythin’ that I want to experience before… well, before I cannae anymore,” she murmured, unable to even speak the words ‘before I become a real nun’ aloud. It was too final, too awful, but perhaps it was what was always supposed to happen.
I was tempted by a devil, and the price is perpetual repentance… but not without a wee bit of sin first. Otherwise, what’s the point of repentin’?
She let that thought bolster her as she waited for Murdoch’s reply.
His brow creased in suspicion, but, after a moment, he shrugged. “What’s the first thing on yer list?”
She gulped, mustering all of her courage to speak two simple words. “A kiss.”
For a tense moment, he did nothing and said nothing, sitting in his chair with his usual blank expression. His eyes gleamed behind his half-mask, giving nothing away as to whether she would be scolded, dismissed, or satisfied.
The minutes ticked by, the air thickening in the too-warm room like fabric pulled too tight and threatening to tear. She could not bear the heavy silence a second longer.
“Did ye hear me?” she asked quietly. “Or is this where ye pretend to ignore me again so that ye dinnae?—”
He shot up from his chair without a word and strode around the desk, wrapping his powerful arms around her waist and pushing her back. She had no choice but to walk backward, half stumbling in the shadow of his towering figure. The bulk of him urged her to keep moving until she had nowhere left to go, her shoulders bumping against the wall.
