Page 10 of The Highlander’s Untamed Lady

Her skin was surprisingly soft against his, her fingers delicately tapered and feminine. She might be a bit of a hellcat, but she had the hands of a lady.

Hands he found himself not eager to let go, not when this was the first moment they had where they were not warring and she was not in a drugged stupor. He did not release his careful hold on her, but nor did she remove herself from his gentle grasp. She stared up at him with her mesmerizing blue eyes, and he found himself unable to look away.

Diana Stuart was a captivating woman, one he could easily see himself sharing a life with.

She pulled herself from his grasp and tentatively reached for the back of his neck. A warning echoed through his mind, one he should have listened to.

She caught his shoulders and drove her forehead into his. Pain exploded at the front of his head and white dots flickered in his vision. He brought his hands up to the injury.

Her fingers danced over his belt. “Bloody hell, where is your dagger?”

“I moved it after last time.” He lowered one hand to regard her. “I was trying to help ye sit up.”

She huffed out a sigh and sat back in the seat with heavy shadows under her eyes. “After you kidnapped me. How gallant.” She gave him a brittle smile. “Turn this carriage around and take me home.”

“And what will ye do there?” he asked.

She looked at him as if he were daft. “Go home to my father, tell him of your abducting me, and then watch you hang for your crimes.”

He stared at her for a long moment, at the resolve in her narrowed eyes. It was not often he had a twist of sympathy for someone so eager to see his death.

“Ye dinna know,” he said.

She jutted her chin upward in defiance, but she remained mute.

“I came here to get ye because I was summoned to do so,” he said. “By yer father.”

The news of Diana’s father hit her as sure as any punch. Had her father truly sent this man to take her away? Was he so desperate to be rid of her?

She tried to will away the memories of being a girl, the beautiful fond ones of doting and affection long before he deemed her too feral to love. After all he’d done to her in the last few years, was it any wonder he’d sent a man to kidnap her?

The pain of his lost love burned deep in her chest, beyond the shield she’d tried to raise. Her father had indulged her every wish when she was a child, until the day he realized he couldn’t control her. Her father, who controlled everything, who was used to being obeyed, could not handle her impertinence. The years of strife tore them apart – his insistence to make her do his bidding, her determination to remain free. Over time, that once-affectionate love had soured into resentful hatred.

Perhaps she ought to be glad Evander wasn’t there to kill her.

Still, she stared hard at him in challenge. “I don’t believe you.” Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. She hated such weakness in herself, that the soft place in her heart would so betray her.

The Mackenzie watched her with his green stare, and she realized to her great horror he watched her with pity.

Pity.

A knot hardened in the back of her throat. She kept her chin held upright to force resolve into her demeanor. He reached into a small box beside him and drew out a folded parchment. Wordlessly, he handed it to her.

A seal was pressed into a lump of off-white wax, broken where either end of the thick paper met. Her fingertips brushed over the indents and grooves of her father’s seal. She unfolded it carefully with trembling hands.

The words on the page ran together, loops and slashes of letters.

She shoved it back at him. “Read it for me.”

He took the parchment and shifted, his discomfort quite evident. “Are ye sure ye want me to do this?” he asked.

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

The Mackenzie’s eyes skimmed over the page, and she knew he was reading it once more to himself before doing so aloud. Time settled over her in an unbearable itch.

“Why are you taking so bloody long?” she snapped.

He looked up at her from over the top of the letter, those deep green eyes too soft to be anything good. “Because if I were to read a missive like this from my da, it would hurt.”