Page 35 of Tempting the Highland Devil
The veins in the man’s head bulged out as Arran pressed down on his neck. “I will speak,” he croaked before Arran released him and moved back to watch him cough and struggle to breathe.
“Who sent ye here? I want a name!”
“I…I dinnae ken who he was. I dinnae ken, I swear it to ye. We received our orders via a letter. We have worked for him countless times, and we get paid in gold. I am only a mercenary.”
The man’s eyes widened as he pleaded for his life. “Please, spare me. I dinnae ken who our master is. I only act as I am told, please.”
“What was yer order?”
He swallowed, and Arran did not miss the stroke of terror in his wide eyes.
“He asked us to bring the lady to him. We had orders nay to hurt her, but we were told to kill ye if we needed to.”
Arran’s blood roared with a higher surge after the man revealed his mission. He clenched his fist tight and tried to battle with the urge to ram his fist in the man’s face.
Who would want Yvaine? And for what reason?Arran could not think of a single person that would want his wife. Referring to her as his wife filled him with a strong surge of energy.
Protecting her is my responsibility, and I will risk my life to do it.Arran didn’t think as he drew his sword and stabbed the man kneeling before him in the gut.
He withdrew once he saw his face slacken, wiped his blade clean with the dead man’s cloth, then sheathed it again. When he turned around, Yvaine’s eyes were huge, her mouth parted open in a wide gap.
He didn’t miss her body trembling as she turned ashen white. “Why did ye do that? Was it so necessary that ye end his life?”
Yvaine did not think as she rushed past him, knelt down, and searched for a pulse. “He’s dead.”
“He is supposed to be. I stabbed the man in the gut.”
Yvaine shot him a wild glare. “He pleaded for his life,” she argued and rose to her feet. “Ye should show mercy, me laird.”
“Dinnae call me that. I hate it when ye call me that, and ye ken it.”
She rolled her eyes, huffed, then followed behind him as they crossed over the bodies of their attackers and made it to their horses.
“The man tried to take ye. Did ye expect that I would let him live? So he can attempt to do it all over again?”
“I believe in the good of people. If ye showed him mercy, then perhaps he would have helped ye in return? Perhaps he could have worked to expose who sent him and been loyal to ye?”
Arran could still taste Yvaine on his lips even as she hammered him with her thoughts on kindness. He tried not to think of the kiss or why he did it. In that moment, he had been unable to hold back or stop himself from craving her nearness.
Does she know what she does to me?Arran doubted it. If Yvaine knew how dangerously close he was to taking her right there in the wild, she would run from him.
If she knew how much she tested the reins of his control, she would avoid coming this close.
“Can we nay talk about this?” he asked when he turned to find her struggling to untie the reins of her horse. “I killed the man who tried to take ye. I have killed many men; ye ken this.”
“He begged ye for mercy.”
“Ye are being foolish right now!”
She gasped, and her entire skin reddened. “Did ye just insult me?”
Yvaine raised her skirts as she marched towards him and stood right in front of him. She had changed from the white lace wedding dress before they left MacLennan, and the bright colored one she now wore flaunted her curves.
“How dare ye insult me? I willnae stand for it. I think ye should have let the man live. That doesnae make me foolish.”
“I dinnae mean it,” he answered. “I am sorry.” Arran brushed off the rise of heat that scorched through him at her nearness. She smelled like roses and a deep mix of lavender. It had to be her hair. Arran found himself staring at her lips. His gaze stroked over her face and reached her eyes again.
Her gaze softened as she found her voice again. “Ye think showin’ kindness is a weakness,” she continued. “Ye think showin’ any emotion is a weakness. I dinnae think that it is, and I am tryin’ to tell ye that.”
