Page 104 of Promised to the Forbidden Laird

Something changed in his expression. The waterfall continued behind them, but the lightness of the moment receded.

Roy looked toward the far bank. “It doesnae last.”

“Naething does.”

“That is the difficulty.”

Donaldina waited. He drew one knee upward and rested his arm across it. Water traced the scars upon his skin.

“Everything I have allowed myself tae keep has been taken eventually,” he spoke in words that were nearly lost beneath the fall.

Donaldina shifted closer.

“Me mother. Men I considered brothers. Lachlan.” His jaw tightened around the name. “Every time I believed something might remain, the world corrected me.”

“That wasnae yer doing.”

“It begins tae feel like it.”

Roy looked at his hands. “I learned tae hold things at a distance. A man can survive loss more easily if he never permits himself tae believe something belongs beside him.”

Donaldina’s chest ached. “Is that what ye have been doing with me?”

“I tried.”

She almost smiled. “Poorly.”

“Aye.”

His gaze rose to hers. There was no guard left within it. The openness frightened her because she understood what it cost him.

“Ye are the first thing I have wanted tae keep close,” he admitted. “Even kenning what wanting ye may cost.”

Donaldina could scarcely breathe.

Roy turned away, as though the confession had stripped him too bare.

“I thought distance might protect ye. If Cormac believed the accord meant naething tae me⁠—”

“He would still want Dun Ard.”

“Aye.”

“If ye left, he would still want control of me.”

“Aye.”

“And if ye treated me coldly enough, I would merely be wounded while remaining in danger.”

Roy closed his eyes. “That wasnae me intention.”

“Nae. But it would have been the result.”

Donaldina placed her hand over his. He looked down at their joined fingers.

“I am nae something ye can protect by pushing me away,” she whispered. “Nor am I another possession fate may steal because ye dared tae value it.”

“Donaldina—”