Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Ailsa clutched the leather reins to keep balance as the horse cantered down the hill and towards the forest, the cool, misty air tugging at her skin as they rode.
She was not sure exactly where they were going, but she knew she had little choice but to go with him, especially after how he had made a fool of her down in the courtyard that morning.
She had known he had been watching her for a while, and perhaps, whether she’d confess it or not, there was a part of her that liked that.
A part of her that enjoyed knowing he was drinking her in like this, seeing her take on these men, brandishing a sword, capable of looking out for herself.
His guards were always watching her, but the longer she trained, the more certain she became that she would be able to handle herself should something happen.
Or should she need to get out of there in a hurry.
He had saddled up his horse by the time they reached the stables and hitched her on with ease.
The way he lifted her was a reminder of how little control she had over this situation, as it had been when he had flicked the blade from her hand like it was nothing.
His skills far outweighed hers, and since he was offering to help her learn, she’d be a fool not to take him up on it.
His arms were pressed on either side of her, keeping her in place, pinning her to the spot as though to make sure that she would not attempt to flee given half the chance.
Not that she would have made it far, not with him watching over her like that, but still it was a relief to be away from the guards, if only for a short while.
No eyes on her, no judgmental gaze watching her.
And to be alone with him… it brought back memories of what had happened on their wedding night, or, rather, what had not happened.
She was sure that he could feel the hitch of her breath as he held her close, just as it had been when he had disarmed her back at the Keep.
His strength scared her, but more than that, it thrilled her; imagining what he could do to her if he took the fancy and how easy it would be to let herself sink into the warmth of his obsession.
He brought the horse to a standstill at the edge of a small clearing and climbed down, offering her a hand; she ignored it, landing with a thump instead on her own two feet.
He paused for a moment, eyeing her.
“Ye’re distracted.”
“I’m nothing of the sort.”
He chuckled, shaking his head.
“Ye breathe heavily when ye’re nervous, lass,” he told her bluntly. “It’s written all over yer face. All through yer body. Ye cannae hide it from me.”
“And what if I am?” she replied defensively. “Ye’ve ridden me out to the middle of nowhere like this.”
“Distraction equals death,” he replied as he brushed past her, making his way to the edge of the clearing and crouching down. “Here, look.”
Though irritated, she did as she was told, reluctantly crouching down beside him. Now that she was closer, she could see a few odd details that looked out of place; a disturbed nest knocked loose from a tree, a few leaves and grass strands flattened where someone had made their way through.
“Ye see? Ye can tell that someone has been here,” he remarked. “Tracking tells ye who’s near. Who’s watching…”
Suddenly, the hair on the back of her neck stood up.
She’d had quite enough of being watched for the time being, she thought to herself, and she wanted nothing more than to tell him so.
But if she was to continue her training, then she needed to make sure that she convinced him she was capable of keeping up with him.
“I see it now,” she murmured, and he, still on his haunches, glanced over at her, eyeing her for a moment.
“Seeing won’t help ye much, lass,” he remarked. “Ye must take action when ye ken that someone is near.”
She didn’t reply. Was he talking down to her, trying to make her feel like a fool for not seeing this in the first place? She might have known her way around these parts as well as any local, but tracking skills were new to her.
“I have a challenge for ye,” he continued, as he straightened up.
Her eyes widened as she looked up at him. “What now?”
“I’ll go into the woods, and ye’ll have to find me,” he wagered. “Follow my tracks, the signals of where I’ve been, see if ye can track me down before I find ye.”
She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment.
“And what exactly do I get if I find ye first?” she demanded.
If he was going to make this a challenge, then she wanted to get something out of it.
He smirked.
“The satisfaction of knowing that ye have outsmarted me,” he replied. “I ken ye’d like that, eh, lass?”
She pressed her lips together to contain her grin at the thought of it.
Yes, she did like the sound of that. She wanted nothing more than to be able to prove to him, once and for all, that she was capable in all the ways that he seemed to think she wasn’t, and this might have been just the chance she was looking for to do that.
“And if ye find me first?”
She knew he would not offer such a thing without making sure that there was plenty in it for him, too, which was what worried her. He was the far more experienced tracker of the two, and she didn’t know what she would be putting herself at risk of if she agreed.
A flicker crossed his gaze, hard to read, but somehow leaving no room for confusion.
He lowered his voice, though there was nobody there to hear them but the horse.
“Then I’ll take what’s mine.”
She did not break his gaze, knowing all too well that he was trying to throw her off and refusing to let him.
“Fine,” she replied. “I’ll find ye. Go—”
But before she could so much as finish what she was saying, a devilish smile had licked up his lips, and he had taken off into the woods, leaving her standing there in silence.
She followed him at once, doubting that he would have been able to make it far. By the time she emerged into the clearing, though, he had vanished, leaving her with little to track where he had gone in the process.
For a moment, it felt like he had disappeared into thin air. But she cast her mind back to what he had pointed out to her when they had stepped off the horse; the flattened grass, the disturbed nest. There had to be some of that around here, otherwise he wouldn’t have been playing fair.
Not that, she supposed, he would play fair. Not when he knew what was on the line.
Finally, her gaze was drawn by what looked to be a snapped branch that had broken loose from one of the birch trees to her right. It wasn’t much, but it was something, the lead she needed to track him down.
Pushing aside the heavy branches, she ducked to make her way into the darkness, her heartbeat picking up the pace in her chest as she went to try and track him down.
He had moved, it seemed to her, like a specter through these woods.
There was so little to go on, she at first did not know where to start.
And it did not help that her mind had been drawn back to the way that he had looked at her when he had laid out his side of this wager; how certain he seemed that he would get what he wanted from her.
And how, perhaps, there was a part of her that hoped he would.
As she made her way further into the woods, small signs started to announce themselves to her. A flower crushed underfoot, grass that had been flattened in several concurrent spots like someone had just rushed over it.
Her gaze flicked to the trees, making sure that he had not climbed one, that he was not waiting to leap down on her right then and there before she had a chance to fight for herself.
She made her way through the darkened trees, head low as she looked to the ground for a sign of where he had gone.
But he left little behind, little that she could go on, at least. Every now and then, she thought she caught sight of a snatch of his shirt out of the corner of her eye, the smell of him in the air as though she had only just missed him.
But when she turned, it was nothing. Her eyes searched for crushed grass, fallen leaves, disturbed branches, anything. Her ears strained for the barest hint of sound—
And, all at once, she caught something. Something behind her. Her ears were pricked enough that she could make out movement in the trees beyond.
Whipping around triumphantly, she expected to meet his gaze, to see that look of frustration on his face when he realized that she had found him.
But, instead, she was met with nothing but the gaping blackness between the trees. She squinted into it, determined to make out some kind of shape, something that would let her know that this had not been entirely wasted.
But before she could look too hard, the sound came from behind her once more, and she knew she had been caught.
Arms closed around her, a shadow emerging from the darkness before she could muster a word of protest, and she spun around on the spot to find that he had already managed to catch up with her.
He pushed her back into a tree, his eyes gleaming with the thrill of the chase. Her body was pinned in place, her heart thudding in her chest.
She could have ducked beneath his arm and darted out into the forest if she truly wanted to prove her skills, but there was something about the way he looked at her that made it impossible to so much as think about pulling herself loose.
“I got ye, lass,” he murmured, a grin curling up his lips.
His hand moved to her waist, and her belly warmed with the memory of the way he had touched her on their wedding night. Even now, she craved it, the warmth of his hands on her, the feeling of his fingers moving with such practiced passion between her legs.
“Why now?” she shot back, trying her best to keep her mind distracted from the overheated want in her body.
He moved closer, his nose just an inch or two from hers, his lips so close that she could almost taste the sweetness of his breath.
“What do ye mean?”
“Why all this attention now?” she demanded.
Her head was swimming, almost painfully, and she knew that if he kissed her, she would not be able to resist him for another instant. Even now, a part of her wanted to plead with him to give her the same pleasure that he had that night, even though she knew she would have been mad to.
That was exactly what he wanted, for her to fall apart in his touch, and she knew it all too clearly.
He slipped his hand to her chin, his finger pressed against the underside to guide her gaze to his.
She met it steadily, almost defiantly, silently insisting that he give her an answer.
He owed her at least that before she let whatever passion that stood between them take control of her once and for all.
“Because I yearn for that sharp tongue of yers, lass,” he replied, dragging his nose across her cheek, inhaling the scent of her greedily, like he wished for nothing more than to sink into the enveloping grip of their passion.
And, at last, his mouth found hers.
His tongue parted her lips like he wanted to taste her tongue right then and there, remind himself of what about it he had missed so much.
Her hands flexed at her sides for a moment, considering what it might be like to resist him, just to see what his reaction would be.
But, unable to hold back any longer, she pushed them into his hair, her tongue sweeping back against his as he pushed her against the tree.
One hand slipped to her leg, gripping her thigh through her skirts.
Even with the fabric between them, it felt like he could have reached inside of her from that very spot.
The passion was pooling now where it had before, a need for him that seemed to overwhelm everything else.
She knew that they were out in the woods, was aware on some distant level that someone might catch sight of them in such a scandalous pose, but when his tongue brushed another caress against hers and he began to bunch the fabric of her dress in his hand, she could not have cared.
Then—
“M’Laird!”
A voice cut through the quiet around them, and he drew back at once, blinking.
For a moment, she thought she had imagined it. But then, a moment later, it came again, the voice more urgent than before.
“M’Laird, are ye there?”
He tore himself away from her, a low growl in his throat like it was the very last thing he wanted to do, and grasped her hand, pulling her behind him as they made their way out of the woods.
She was still breathless from the kiss, his stubble leaving a graze against her skin that still throbbed with every step as she struggled to keep up with him.
On the other side of the clearing, one of the guards was standing, his hand still wrapped in the reins of the horse he must have ridden down here on.
As soon as he laid eyes on Tavish, she could see the panic on his face, and it was clear something must have happened in his absence to cause such a reaction.
“M’Laird, thank God,” he exclaimed, and he waved them over, hardly seeming to notice the tension still hanging in the air between them, much to her relief. “There’s been an attack at the village of Naoburgh, they need ye there at once!”
Cold dread rushed over Ailsa’s mind as she took it in. An attack? Who would have been attacking a village in his lands? And what would they want with him down there now, too?
By the time she looked over at Tavish, she could see that something had shifted within him, something moving to brush aside the passion that they had just shared to make room for his duties as Laird.
He nodded curtly, making for his horse.
“Take her back to the Keep,” he called to the guard as he swung his leg over his steed.
She parted her lips, intending, for a moment, to argue with him, but when she saw the look on his face, she knew that it would have done her little good.
He had already made his mind up, and the best she could hope was that, whatever had happened, it would not leave him in too foul a mood when he returned.
Because she wasn’t sure she could cope with his anger when she still felt barely able to handle his desire.