Page 110 of The Highlander's Virgin Widow
But Keira shook her head gently anyway. No, the bastard had not touched her. He hadn’t even gotten to do anything to her before Evander had arrived.
She wanted to break down right there and then and tell him just how much of a lifesaver he had been. If he had arrived but a minute late, who knew what would have happened? Hudson would have probably pushed her out of the window.
She shook her head, trying to shove the thought away. Her eyes flicked to Hudson’s lifeless body, which still lay at the end of the room, utter disbelief written all over her face.
“Nae once did I ever think that Hudson could be the cause of me problems,” she muttered. “He killed Fletcher and tried to kill ye.”
“Well, ‘tis a good thing he didnae manage to do that before his death now, is it nae?”
Keira said nothing. She only continued to stare at the corpse at the other end of the room.
“Ye ken, now that we ken who was behind everything, ye can return to the castle. Ye nay longer have to leave.”
Keira turned to him. “Evander, I can never return to the castle again.”
The dull pain in almost every part of Evander’s body couldn’t compare to the pain he felt at her words. “Nay. Ye have to return. The castle is nothing without ye.”
He paused as if considering his words—or maybe because he felt a sharp pain in his side where Hudson had punched him.
“Iam nothing without ye.”
Keira narrowed her eyes at him. “Ye’re only saying that because we are still married. Ye dinnae have to worry. Ye have yet to claim me so we can break it off. When I leave, I willnae be yer wife anymore. Ye can marry anyone ye want, and I’ll be at peace trying to find a man who wants to marry mebecausehe loves me. Nae because he?—”
Evander sealed the words in her mouth with a kiss. It had come completely out of nowhere, but one minute Keira was speaking, and the next he cupped her face in his hands and crushed his lips to hers.
The kiss was soft, tender, as if they were afraid to hurt each other. He broke it and then looked deep into her hazel eyes, his throat bobbing with desperation.
“I love ye.”
Keira shook her head. “Evander, ye dinnae have to?—”
“I am being honest here, Keira. I have been in love with ye for as long as I can remember. Perhaps the very first day I met ye. I just never planned to do anything about it because—” He cleared his throat. “Because I didnae want to do to ye what me braither did to Shona.”
Keira’s heart softened.
“I tried to pretend that I dinnae love ye, but the truth is, I do. I really do. I love the way yer nose crinkles when ye talk, the way ye love to get on me nerves all the time. I love how ye knowingly call meMr. Kincaid?—”
She flashed him a toothy grin. “Whoever said it was intentional?”
“I have always loved ye, Keira. I was just never strong enough to admit it. At least until I realized I was going to lose ye.”
Silence pierced the tense air, Evander’s words settling into her like a heartbeat.
“So, aye. I truly—trulymean it with all me heart when I say that I am nothing without ye.”
Keira almost didn’t wait for him to finish before she pulled him in for another kiss—soft as before, but with more meaning. Hecould taste the tears that spilled over and ran down her cheeks at that moment.
“I love ye too,” she whispered.
Evander laughed—perhaps the first laugh she had ever heard from him—and grabbed her hands. “Then let us go home.”
Keira nodded.
“Aye, take me home, Mr. Kincaid.”
36
Stella’s face was the first thing Keira saw when they returned to the castle. She came out running across the courtyard as Keira and Evander rode past the fence, their hands steady on the reins.
