Page 19 of Her Forbidden Highlander Husband

She shook her head. “They don’t.”

He grinned. “Very well. I vow I will tell you the truth, always.”

She nodded as he washed. He turned back to her, still wearing his shirt, which covered him to his thighs.

“Do you need help with your gown?” During their travels, she’d slept in her gown, but now she could be more comfortable in the privacy of their room.

“I can do it myself,” she said and slid off the bed to move into a dark corner of the room. When she returned, she placed her gown on the trunk and slipped into bed in just her shift.

“Do you wish for me to sleep on the floor?” he asked. When she opened her mouth, he held up his hand. “The truth.”

Her lips pressed together for a moment before she answered. “You don’t need to sleep on the floor. If you’d planned to press me on my duties, you’d have done so before now. And if you changed your mind, it wouldn’t much matter if I gave you permission to lie next to me or across the room.”

While he wished her decision was founded on trust rather than common sense, he gave a nod and climbed into bed next to her. After extinguishing the light, he shifted until he was comfortable. Her arm warmed his where they brushed briefly.

In the darkness, he listened to her breathing as he readied himself for his next question. He wanted to ask permission to kiss her. This morning she hadn’t been ready, but maybe now it’d be different.

…

In the end, he didn’t press the matter. They’d have the rest of their lives for kisses. One more night wouldn’t matter.

When she shifted in her sleep, her arm rested next to his. He focused on that contact until he dozed off. At some point in the night, one of them—or perhaps both—had moved closer together. He’d woken with her back tucked against his chest. His arm draped over her waist and her perfect bottom was pressed tight to his hardness.

He didn’t dare move and distress her. Unfortunately, his cock did its own business and lurched out against her. When she gasped, he realized she was awake as well. So much for figuring out how he might extricate himself from their tangle without distressing her.

“I’m sorry. I truly didn’t intend to take liberties.” His voice was rough with sleep but clear with remorse.

“Liam, I—” Whatever she might have said was interrupted when Gwennie popped up at Ev’s side of the bed, her hands full of wooden rabbits. Once the pile of bunnies was in the bed, Gwennie struggled to crawl up herself. Liam reached across his wife and grasped the girl’s nightgown to help her up.

She sat cross-legged and held out the first bunny to him expectantly. Not giving up his spot, he told a story of a bunny who woke up in her own bed for the first time in her new home and was excited and a little scared.

As always, Gwennie thought it should end with the trip down the river to meet up with a seal, and Liam gave in.

Normally, he wasn’t in bed this late. Being war chief meant early drills and checking in with the border guards. He donned his kilt and ruffled Gwennie’s hair before heading for the door.

“I’ll see you at the midday meal,” he said and left them when Ev said nothing in return.

This wasn’t at all how he’d imagined their life together in his adolescent fantasies, but he wouldn’t give up.

After a hard morning of drills, Liam looked forward to seeing Ev and Gwennie in the hall, but they weren’t there. He didn’t think anything of it, since Kenna and her children were absent as well.

No doubt they’d all gone to visit Mari at her home on the other side of the village.

At the end of the day, however, he felt uneasy when he saw Kenna and Mari alone in the hall. Perhaps Ev was waiting in their room. But the only thing waiting in his room was emptiness and a note.

Liam,

Please forgive the cowardice of leaving only a letter, but I didn’t know how to tell you I couldn’t stay. You’ve been nothing but kind since you arrived at Scalloway and I will forever be grateful for what you did for Gwendolyn and me. I’m sorry I can’t be the wife you wanted.

Ev

He crumbled the paper and tossed it into a corner of his room before washing for dinner. Pain quickly turned to anger.

His wife had left him with nothing more than a few words scratched onto a piece of parchment. She’d used him to get away from her father, and now that she was free, she no longer needed him.

He’d been cast aside and was alone again.

Chapter Twelve