Page 44 of Awoken
He’d meant his words to soothe her, but after his departure, she found it difficult to relax.
Glancing across the space, Leanna’s attention settled upon Ross.
He hadn’t spoken since they’d entered the hut, and in the murky light, she saw that his expression was grim, his gaze shuttered.
“Ye are worried, aren’t ye?” she asked finally. “Ye don’t trust them either.”
He shrugged, his gaze shifting to the flames dancing in the hearth.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have come here,” Leanna said, plucking at a stray thread on her cloak.
Ross’s attention flicked up, and he frowned. “I can’t help think that we’re safer here than anywhere else right now.”
“So why the furrowed brow?”
“Because ye wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for me.”
Leanna huffed. “If ye hadn’t abducted me, MacKinnon would have just sent someone else to do it.”
“Aye … but I’ve known for some time the kind of man he is, and I ignored my gut. Ye aren’t out of danger yet. MacKinnon will never let this go.”
Leanna swallowed a lump in her throat at these words. She wanted to dispute them, yet she knew that Ross was right. Duncan MacKinnon had a madness within him where she was concerned, and he wouldn’t take Ross’s betrayal lightly either. She imagined his rage, and shivered.
“Are ye cold?” Ross asked.
Leanna shook her head.
“Here.” He shrugged off his traveling cloak and handed it to her.
Leanna’s lips parted to tell him that her shiver had been due to dread, not the chill. She was already wearing Lady Drew’s cloak, and it wasn’t that cold in here. However, her fear of MacKinnon wasn’t something she felt like discussing right now, so she took the cloak without argument.
And as she did, their fingers brushed.
Ross’s face tensed, and she heard his sharp intake of breath. Their gazes locked for an instant, and then Leanna drew back, averting her gaze.
Why was her heart suddenly beating so quickly?
Wrapping the woolen cloak about her, Leanna attempted to settle her racing pulse. After a few moments, she glanced Ross’s way once more and saw that he was staring moodily down at the fire before him.
“Ross,” she began softly. “Before the outlaws appeared, ye said something … that ye were glad ye hadn’t wed Lady Caitrin … or ye wouldn’t have met me.”
He glanced up, and for the first time since entering the hut, his mouth curved into a wry smile. “Ye remember that, do ye?”
“Aye.” Leanna’s already thudding heart started to beat wildly then, and she suddenly regretted speaking so frankly. She wasn’t sure why she’d even brought it up. Was it out of vanity? Did she need to hear sweet words from a man who’d willingly abducted her? She now felt more than a little foolish and out of her depth in this conversation.
Ross glanced away, his mouth pursing. “Aye, Leanna … as ye have probably realized, I didn’t help ye flee out of purely unselfish motives.” He broke off there, a muscle feathering in his jaw. “I’d like to say that I’ve assisted ye because I couldn’t bear to see a woman in distress … but ye already know that I’m not a saint. The truth is that I couldn’t bear the thought of MacKinnon having ye, ruining ye. Somehow, ye have touched me, awoken something I thought never existed within me.”
Leanna’s breathing stilled, heat flooding across her chest. Surely, she was hearing things? When she didn’t reply to his comment, Ross looked up and met her eye. He then gave a bitter laugh. “I know … ye didn’t think yer opinion of me could get any lower?”
“Ye care for me?” The question was bald, direct—and necessary. It suddenly felt close and airless inside the hut, and under two cloaks, Leanna was starting to sweat.
Ross’s throat bobbed. “Aye.”
Their gazes continued to hold. Time drew out, and the tension between them grew so taut that Leanna suddenly realized she was trembling. What was wrong with her? She was aware then that although she was entering her twenty-first summer, she’d led a sheltered life, protected by her father and then by the high walls of Kilbride Abbey. She knew little about the world, or about men.
Ross Campbell wasn’t like the men she’d grown up among. He’d already told her of his harsh upbringing, of his drive to better himself. In order to rise to Captain of The Dunan Guard, he’d developed a hard shell—one that she’d somehow managed to penetrate.
But even so, she didn’t know how to handle a man like this, or what to say to him.
