Page 20 of Married to the Icy Highlander
“Ye will keep a civil tongue, woman!” Neil commanded, his eyes flashing with that fire that made her hot and bothered. “Ye willnae speak to me like that again. If ye have something to say, ye will do it in private.”
“Or what?” Ceana scoffed. “Ye’ll drag me around like a doll through yer castle?”
“Ye dinnae want to ken what I will do to ensure that ye behave yerself,” he said with a smirk.
It shouldn’t affect her in the way it did. Her cheeks flushed with shame, for she didn’t exactly hate the way he was speaking to her like she ought to.
“If ye wanted a meek, obedient wife, then ye shouldnae have married me!”
“But I did. Though I ken who yer heart wants!” He glared at her.
Every inch of her being wanted nothing more than for him to scoop her back up into his arms and finish what they had started. She had lain in bed all night, tossing and turning with all the memories of his touch and the way thingscould haveended had that damned letter not fallen out of her skirts. It wasn’t fair that he had jumped to such conclusions.
“Ye dinnae ken a single thing about me!” Ceana spat back, matching every bit of his venom.
Words hung on the tip of Neil’s tongue—things that he wanted to shout to escalate the situation even further. But he reined himself in.
“Well then, if ye seeksatisfaction, ye ken what ye have to do.”
“Ye cannae be serious about that,” Ceana huffed, her hands on her hips as she looked up at him.
“I am,” he answered flatly. “Yewillbeg. I’m certain of it.”
“If ye want me to beg, I will need to spend time with ye—but I’ll have to like ye enough to ask for yer company.”
Neil took a half step closer, instantly calling her on her bluff. “Beg.”
Ceana’s fingernails dug into her hips as she fought to keep her composure. “I willnae.”
“Och, I think ye will,” Neil teased as he lifted a hand and trailed his index finger down the center of her bodice.
It was impossible to feel his touch through the layers of fabric, but heat pooled in her core all the same.
With a frown, Ceana swatted his hand away, putting a modicum of distance between them. But she couldn’t hide the way her breath had quickened. “Nay matter what ye say, we must get to ken one another first. Ye dinnae want to claim me—ye’ve made that clear—so now we will do things on me terms.”
“Ye mean to set another rule, wife?” Neil asked, amused.
“Aye. Every day, we must spendonehour doin’ something together,” she answered firmly.
It was suddenly far too warm outside for her. She felt the urge to dunk her face in cool water to settle herself because, clearly, being this close to him was an issue that she didn’t know how to handle.
Neil dipped his head—she was going to consider that as his acceptance. “I’m glad me wife is so confident in me prowess.”
Ceana almost giggled. She bit the inside of her cheek instead. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of thinking that he could make her laugh. That would be a point in his favor, and she was determined to win.
She narrowed her eyes at him, pulling on the scraps of her stubbornness and outright resisting her attraction to him as she quickly turned on her heel and stomped back inside the castle.
9
The lass was a pest.
In a single day, Ceana had managed to worm her way so far under his skin that there was almost no hope of extricating her. Despite the bargain that he felt strongly about, Neil knew that it was going to take no small amount of effort to keep from inviting himself into her bedroom again tonight.
It was his right, after all, as her husband. Duties and privileges that she had agreed to before they had wed. But then things had changed and shifted between them. Somehow, instead of being the one who drove her to the brink of insanity in bed, she was the one making him feel crazed. Never before had a lass irritated him so much nor been half as tempting as Ceana.
That was how he found himself at the village pub, even though he knew that her family’s whiskey couldn’t do anything to keep his mind off her. At least the whiskey itself would help dampen his desire.
Or so he hoped.
