Page 21 of The Veiled Wish of a Highland Bride

“Why cannae ye just leave? Why do ye let him treat ye like this?”

If there was one thing that Mia hated more than being beaten, it was being considered weak. “What do ye mean,just leave? I am a woman. I have naething of my own. Where would I go?”

“Anywhere that takes yer fancy.”

Mia stared, mouth agape. She knew he was trying to help, but she was furious. He made it sound so easy. Her life was anything but.

“It must be nice for ye in yer large castle, rolling out orders with nae lady by yer side, doing whatever ye bloody well please. But most of us dinnae have a choice, my laird,” she hissed, poking a finger in Archie’s chest.

He grabbed onto her arms “Yecanrun away, Mia,” he said, almost pleadingly.

Mia struggled to get free of him, suddenly feeling trapped.

“Leave me be! Just leave me be!” she said, her frustration slowly turning into hurt. “Ye say ye understand my pain, but ye tell me only fibs. Ye can never understand a woman’s pain. Ye can never—”

Mia's voice began to break as she choked back her tears.

She couldn't cry. She didn't want to.

This has all been a mistake.

“Then, tell me. Explain yer hurt to me. Help me understand,” Archie said, releasing her arms. He looked at her with tenderness, and she felt herself break.

She could not hold back her tears.

"My father loathed my mother,” she whimpered. “He despised her so much for nae reason other than her inability to give him a son. She lost so many babes… The more years passed, the more my father drank. Before long, he started to hit her. I would watch as he hit her over and over and over again until I began to scream and cry,begginghim to stop. Later, my mother started drinking too.”

She stopped for breath and hugged herself tightly, shivering from the memory.

“Then one night,” she continued, sucking in a sharp breath, “when I was barely ten, she left… never even looked back to say goodbye."

Biting her cheek, she turned and saw Archibald watching her, something akin to fury on his face.

"And now I am terrified that is what is slowly happening to me. I dinnae ever want to end up like my mother. I dinnae ever want to have a husband like my father, but he married me off to a man who is almost just like him. I have to find a way to fix everything before it is too late for me."

Mia didn’t know when Archibald had taken her hand, but he held it against his chest. Her hands looked so small in his own. If he wanted, he could crush them.

His eyes were fraught with sympathy and kindness.

Archibald slowly raised his hands towards her face and wiped away her tears. The look in his eyes uttering words that Mia had only ever heard her mother say to her.

Ye are perfect. Ye are beautiful.

She stared into his luscious green orbs, feeling herself getting lost. The wind rustled the leaves above and around them. He stared right back at her, shifting his gaze from her eyes to her lips and back.

"Mia," he breathed, his voice a mere whisper. "Ye deserve all the love in the world and more. Never doubt it. There are men in this world who would burn it all down for a chance to kiss ye. I ken it with my whole heart.”

Mia parted her lips to speak, but she knew she did not have to say a single word for Archie to know that she wanted the same thing.

Taking one last glance at her, he pressed his lips against hers, gently parting them with his tongue. No preamble. No lesson.

Every nerve in Mia's body exploded, blood rushing through every part of her.

If this is what a kiss can do, what more is there to learn from this man?

Archibald’s tongue searched for hers in the warmth of her mouth, his lips gently suckling at her own, his teeth teasing her lower lip.

He broke away too quickly, causing Mia to unconsciously lean forward as though begging for more, her eyes still closed. When she opened them, she could see the triumphant smirk on his face.

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