Page 24 of A Healer for the Ruthless Highlander
“If ye disobey me, I will ken how to punish ye,” Kenneth threatened.
Before Leana could gather her scattered thoughts, he leaned in and bit her lower lip as she let out a moan of desire.
“Remember, lass. Ye may be the one givin’ orders in the surgery, but outside of it, ye belong tome. So ye’ll be a good lass and nae disobey me. Ye’ll please me as yer master.”
And then he pulled away, once again.
For the first time, Leana gave him the closest thing to a submissive look she could muster. “I’ll remember that, Laird MacReid,” she breathed, before pulling away.
Then, she walked, if not ran, toward the door without looking back. Trying to put some distance between them.
As she hurried back to her room, she felt her heart racing dizzyingly in her chest.
CHAPTER 9
A sigh leftLeana’s lips the second she woke up.
Nay, Leana. Ye cannae have those thoughts. Nae about him.
Her breathing was labored, and she was unable to concentrate on anything. She couldn’t even sleep because, try as she might, thoughts of Kenneth wouldn’t stop haunting her.
Worse, her heart was racing. And though she tried to calm herself, she couldn’t. It was as if her thoughts had taken control of her body as well, preventing her from reacting the way she wanted to.
Another Leana would have put all thoughts of Laird MacReid out of her mind. She would have shrugged off the encounter, knowing it was an error of judgment, and returned to her life and routine as if nothing had happened.
She had always been a pragmatic woman, in control of her feelings and desires, but not this time. For Laird MacReid proved to be the exception.
Frustrated, Leana groaned and covered her face with the sheets. At that moment, she hated herself, especially for remembering the encounter with Kenneth so vividly. For having captured the image of him sitting half-naked in the middle of his study, his silvery gaze fixed on her in that rapturous way that drove her mad…
An uncomfortable heat began to spread through her body, and as she recalled what happened right before she left his study, the heat became more intense, to the point where she could almost feel it simmering in her blood.
“Ye have to stop this, Leana. Ye’re a prisoner here. Ye cannae entertain such thoughts of him!” she scolded herself.
But it was all in vain.
Even if she tried, she couldn’t pretend that she didn’t know what that heat meant. Because she did. She had felt desire before—of course, she had—but never like this. Never so intensely.
“Leana, stop it,” she muttered to herself.
And yet she couldn’t help but think about the feel of his muscular body pinning her to the door. The moment whenboth of them had finally succumbed to temptation. The moment when her lips collided with his, eager for more…
She hated feeling that way about him. What a fool she was to want him!
She hated that she was willing to go back to the man who had imprisoned her in his castle in the first place—he had kidnapped her! But apparently, that was not enough to make her hate him, for her body had a will and a feeling of its own.
Agitated, she threw back the covers and climbed out of bed. She could not stay still, for that would mean giving in to her innermost desires, and there was no way she would ever give the Laird that pleasure again.
“I forbid ye to feel anythin’ for this man, Leana Beaton,” she hissed to herself as she approached the washstand in the corner of the room.
She splashed her face with cold water and let it run down her neck and her chest. The sensation was invigorating, waking her up and dissipating the heat. It made no sense for her to feel so feverish, not when it was so cold outside. But just thinking about Kenneth…
“Nay. Stop it, Leana!” she snapped, looking at her reflection in the mirror above the washbasin.
Unruly, wavy hair framed her face. Her wild, wavy hair bounced with every sharp word, as if sharing in her indignation—untamed, unyielding, just like her. Strands broke free from their loose arrangement, rebelling against order, mirroring the fire in her voice as she unleashed a scolding that echoed the ones she used to give her sisters.
While she was examining her reflection, she heard a noise on the other side of the door.
She leaned back and looked in that direction. “Who is it?” she called.
