Page 55 of The Scot is Hers
“That’s a threat of murder, sir,” the doctor reminded him. “I’ve been paid well to keep the duel a secret, but I’ll no’ be silenced over an intentional slaying.”
“Do no’ threaten me, Doctor,” Joshua said. “Ye’re paid to keep your mouth shut, and ye’ll do it or suffer the consequences.”
He stormed from the ruins then, and the doctor said under his breath, “We’ll see what happens if ye get shot first. Might forget my medical bag.” And then he too was ambling from the rotting structure.
Euan, Lorne and Malcolm stood there awkwardly staring at them, and then finally, Lorne said, “I, uh, suppose we’ll see ye at the luncheon tables in a few minutes.”
“Verra good,” Alec said, his mouth twisted in anger.
When they were alone, Giselle turned to Alec, hating seeing him so bitter, especially when it was aimed at her. “Please do no’ do this.”
“Are ye going to set up a before dawn brunch to stop it?” he snapped.
“I might,” she quipped right back. Then she hedged a smile, even though there was no humor in his expression at all. She could practically feel his anger come off him in a waved charge. “I canna marry ye if ye’re dead. I beg ye. Is there no’ some other way to settle the score?”
“This is no’ about settling the score.” He marched toward the stones, pressing both fists to it and hanging his head, much as he had the first day she’d met him in that garden in Edinburgh.
“Aye, Alec, it is. The amount of ego just experienced on both your parts was enough to fill the Water of Leith.” The winding river that for those in Edinburgh was similar to the Thames in London. “If no’ to settle the score, then what?”
* * *
Alec felther hand on his back, the blood rushing in his head drowning out the noise of her approach. Her touch was soft, subtle, and if he weren’t so frustrated, so overcome with raw emotion, he’d have enjoyed the comfort of it.
“Say ye will no’ go through with this.”
“Why are ye trying to save him?” he growled, glancing at her briefly, immediately feeling bad for his ill-temper.
Giselle’s demeanor did not change. She stared at him with true concern. “I’m no’ trying to savehim. I only want to save ye.”
He jerked his gaze fully to the side, staring at the wide-eyed expression worrying her features. “Then trust me to do what is right. ’Tis no’ just my honor at stake, but yours too. I’m doing this for us both. Do ye know how hard it was for me no’ to murder him where he stood today? Good God, Giselle, I want to rip him to shreds for what he did to ye.”
Tears formed, made her eyes glassy, sending conflicting messages from what he’d gathered from her over the last day. What he’d just admitted made him sweat. He’d never opened his heart like that.
Giselle touched her fingers to her lips. “Well, then perhaps he will fall over a cliff on his way home, and I’ll no’ have to worry about losing ye. Or ye getting hurt. Or tossed in jail. I…” She sucked in a shaky breath. “I knew ye would no’ understand, but Alec.” Her voice caught, cutting her off. “I…”
“Ye actually want to marry me,” Alec said, the shock of the realization enough to jolt him into standing straight.
Giselle nodded, her gaze toward the ground. “Aye.”
Without thought for those who sat idly having luncheon on the other side of the stone walls, or the fact that there was no door here to keep those idlers out, Alec reached for her. With his hands on her waist, he drew her to him, and then he claimed her mouth. Kissed her with all the passion and turmoil within him. He pressed her back to the stones where his fists had been.
At first, he worried his kiss might be too much. Too much passion. Too much of his tongue demanding hers. Too much of everything.
But Giselle kissed him back with as much passion. Her fingers snaked into the hair on the back of his head and her leg…God, her leg. It lifted and tucked around his hip, bringing the heat of her sex closer to the rigid pulse of his cock. How he wanted to strip them both bare and sink into her warm, velvet depths. All it would take would be flipping her skirt and his kilt. The subtle shift of fabrics, and then he could drive deep within her heat. He ran his hand along that offered leg until he reached her arse, bringing her closer. A groan of pleasure escaped him, matched by a silken purr from her.
Giselle tasted of champagne and everything he’d ever wanted. She was the prize he’d been searching for, one that had always felt just out of reach, and here she was begging him to remain with her. Worried for his life, and not just for her own. How could he have thought otherwise?
Alec drew his mouth away to stare into her eyes. There was a pounding in his chest, a need to burst out with emotion he wasn’t sure how to put into words. “I’m sorry to have kissed ye so...forcefully.”
Giselle’s lips quirked in that familiar teasing way she had. “I kissed ye back the same. We need each other, Alec.”
“I do need ye.” He captured her mouth for another lengthy, passionate kiss, wishing that they didn’t have the rest of the house party sitting on the other side of the abbey walls, waiting for them, maybe even listening in. “I need your guests to leave the garden party.”
Giselle laughed. “I needyourguests to leave your castle.”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “Perhaps we should ask my mother to see that they disappear.”
“Well, perhaps no’ all of them. There are a few friends who would no’ be so bad staying around.” Then she turned serious. “We need time to explore each other, to talk. I feel as if there is so much that we still have yet to say.”
