Page 30 of The Highlander's Dare
Graham’s chest tightened at the words, a mirroring emotion in his own heart. “Aye, anything ye need.” Graham squeezed his brother’s shoulder. “Ye’ve saved the clan.”
“This doesna mean ye’re off the hook with Lady Clara.”
“I dinna plan to be, which is why I’m glad ye found me. We are to fight together, ye and I, tomorrow in the melee against the Ross brothers.”
Graham shook his head. “I canna. I’m leaving tomorrow morning, taking Isolde back to the Sutherland holding.”
“I need ye, brother. I canna fight them alone. And I canna turn away from the challenge, for it is over Lady Clara, and I… I am in love with her.” It was not only the first time he’d said the words aloud but the first time he’d let the words even spring into his consciousness, having thrust them aside every time they tried to surface before. And now he wanted to shout them from the rooftops.
Aye, he loved her. So damn much.
“I’ll no’ leave ye stranded,” Cormac said, gripping his brother’s arm. “By this time tomorrow, we’ll have defeated the Rosses and hopefully foiled any of their plans for the coup to overthrow King Richard.”
Graham shook his head. “I wouldna put it past the bastards to continue. Ye’d best beware that Brodie willna stop until ye’re dead, and he’s made Isolde a widow only to wed her again.”
Cormac nodded. “Ye have a point, and I’d wager a guess it will be the same with Baston. The Ross lads are no’ used to losing, and especially no’ to men they deem inferior, such as ourselves.”
“We did it,” Graham said.
“So ye believe Clara will marry ye, then?”
“No’ quite, but ’tis coming.” He recalled the way she’d quivered in his arms the night before.
“Tell me ye have no’ bedded her yet,” Cormac groaned.
“I’ve no’, but I dinna think I can say the same for ye.” Graham raised a challenging brow. “I am so proud of ye, brother,” he teased.
Cormac slugged him in the arm, and Graham was about to return the favor when his brother reminded him of the blow that he’d taken not too many hours before on the field from Edmund the Braw.
“I’ve secured my end of the deal, brother. Now ye must go and convince Lady Clara to wed ye. The extra coin will keep our clan in good standing, feed our people, for generations to come.”
“I will,” Graham nodded.
“Ye’re certain she’ll agree?”
“The lass melts in my hands like butter.”
Cormac shook his head. “Ye’re no’ the only one who can melt butter.”
Graham chuckled. “Glad to see ye finally figured out women.”
“Those Ross bastards never could compete with us, and they didna even see us coming.”
9
Clara stood outside the tent listening to the tail end of a conversation she very much wished she’d heard the beginning of. Was Graham truly talking about her as though she were a piece of meat carved off a lamb to be served upon a platter to the hungriest man?
Bastard!
Seething, she turned away from the tent and marched back up toward the castle before she found one of his weapons and drew it on him. He was supposed to be her savior, her way out of a disastrous betrothal, and now he sought to turn the tables on her?
Nay, correction. Hehadsuccessfully turned the tables on her from the very beginning, knowing from the moment he’d first met her that he intended to seduce her and steal her away from Baston. Every move, word, gesture—from that first pour of wine and devilish grin, to waiting for her in the corridor somehow knowing she’d leave the great hall to find him. How had he guessed?
How had he been able to break down her defenses so quickly and cause her to fall so recklessly, heedlessly, into his trap? And lord had he… With every kiss, every touch, she’d felt the fortifications around her heart crumbling. Even now, she’d gone to the tent eager to tell him that tonight they would move into the final phase in her plan, which was an assignation. And oh how she’d been longing to feel his mouth on hers again. How he would have laughed to hear her say she wanted him to kiss her.
Heat filled her cheeks as mortification set deep, and at the same time, anger made her tremble.
She’d been willing to go so far as to give him her virginity for the sake of losing the betrothal. And Graham Sutherland would have taken that prize, gobbled it down like any other treat and kept moving on with his plan: wedding her, and likely discarding her as soon as her dowry showed up on Sutherland shores.
