Bound by Wish and Mistletoe (Highland Legends, Book 1.5) (3 page)

“There. Not so difficult,” he said.

She eyed him in silence for long moments, unable to read his behavior as kindness or mockery. Her gaze slowly dropped to the food. The beast had left her a fraction of what she’d packed, but the small portion would suffice for the night. She tried to grasp the apple wedge with two fingers, reasoning it was foolish to let any of it go to waste for her pride, but with her wrists bound so tightly, maneuvering to pick it up proved awkward.

“Allow me,” he said.

Robert put the apple aside, and she watched as he tore the hard bread into smaller pieces before lifting the first bite up to her. Her mouth fell open over the shock of a man tending to a woman with such care, which gave him the perfect opportunity to place the food between her lips.

It surprised her when he took great effort not to touch her. In fact, he leaned so close into her body, his nearness afforded her some of his heat without any trace of contact.

She closed her mouth and chewed slowly, staring at him.

“You doona need to worry, Susanna. You’re under our protection. When we’re back at the castle, all your fears will fade away.”

Robert stared at her with an intensity that made her breath catch.

Nervous, she glanced toward Duncan and Seamus, but they’d already settled onto their plaids, each man facing outward, their backs to the fire. Both happened to be directly between her and her horse. Even if she managed to slip by Robert, she doubted his men would sleep through any escape attempt.

Since she had no choice, she tried to accept her present circumstances. That his men appeared to have no interest in her personally encouraged her. Robert showing her attention, but doing so with a respect she’d only seen from her clansmen toward her father...puzzled her.

With a crackling thud, the fire-decayed logs fell, settling into the red glow below. One of the logs reignited in dancing orange flames. Weary from the eventful day, she gazed up into the dark forest canopy. Lush, green pine branches guarded their small party for the night, shielding them from a wind that swirled tiny snowflakes into the darkness beyond.

“Susanna.”

She glanced back at Robert as he lowered down a bite of cheese that he’d apparently held out to her while she’d been daydreaming.

“You’ve nothin’ to fear from us. We’re not brutes like Broc MacEalan. No harm will come to you.”

So he
does
know of my father.

The harshness of Robert’s dark features softened. His eyes held tenderness, like Mama’s. She shook her head, refusing to believe Robert’s words and actions. Men were born as selfish, hateful creatures. Mama had said so. Warnings had been drilled into Susanna for her own protection, and she’d clung to those rules and beliefs, because she’d needed them to survive with each breath pulled into her lungs.

“Aye, Susanna,” he continued. “I doona know what demons you’ve had to fight, but the nightmare ends tonight. No man will ever harm you again.”

As a rising fear took hold, she blinked and gazed deep into his eyes. He professed things that made her nervous. The calm, low tone of his voice and his serious expression frightened her in a new way, causing an unsettling flutter in her chest.

She closed her eyes and shook her head harder, shutting out the unbidden anxiety floating from her belly into her throat.

His warm hand gently curved over both of hers, and she opened her watery eyes. Angry at her uncontainable reactions, she blinked away the hot tears.

Robert lifted his other hand and caught a falling tear with a feather’s touch. “I’ll protect you, Susanna,” he vowed.

At his words and the unexpected caress, all of her thoughts clarified into a single point. She swallowed hard as a suspicion of his intentions hit her. Her voice fell to a whisper. “And who will protect me from you?”

CHAPTER THREE

Robert let the startling question hang between them—for he had no answer to give. He stared in awe at a creature more like an angry bird with a broken wing than a prowling cat in a ball gown. She bore a determination found in the best of his men, yet she harbored a past that she’d fled from at all costs.

Never in his life had he felt compelled to protect a woman beyond his role as commander. A heart that had only ever thundered for his clan suddenly stuttered, and he needed to ease the burning ache developing in his chest.

With quiet patience, he again lifted the cheese that he held between his fingers, and Susanna opened her mouth obediently. Her many darted glances toward her horse told him she would flee at the first opportunity. The fear she held was so great, she remained a danger to him, to his men, and to herself.

After Susanna chewed and swallowed the last bite of food, she quenched her thirst again with water, cradling the bottom of the pouch with her fingers while he held it to her lips.

Her gaze drifted away from him as he brushed the crumbs from her plaid, and she straightened her spine, leaning toward the dying fire. The unforgiving cold night crept in, burrowing past his cloak and through his linen shirt. Although she had his plaid wrapped around her, the dress she wore beneath had to still be damp from her fruitless battle in the snowbank. He sighed and drew her down, curling her body against his, facing away from the horses and his men. She struggled from the moment of contact, bucking against his hold.

“Shhh...I only intend to prevent your freezin’ to death in the night.” He wrapped an arm over both of hers, caging her, ensuring if she made a single move while he slept, he’d stop her before she made the second.

An exasperated sigh escaped her lips, but the muscles in her body eased, and she relaxed back into his chest. As she stilled against him, he tucked a folded arm beneath his head. The pull of exhaustion tugged at him, and he gave in to the luring fall of sleep, knowing the men at his back would alternate guard through the night. At his front, the woman in his arms had calmed, secured for the moment. The deep ravine beyond her provided all of them a natural barrier to danger in the darkness.

* * *

First light filtered a glow through Robert’s eyelids. He awoke to Susanna snuggled into his side, facing him while she remained sound asleep. Her full pink lips were slightly parted, her chest rising and falling in gentle rhythm. Her fierce edge had been tamed in the comfort of his arms—even if it was because she was unconscious.

He’d never seen a more attractive woman.
Angered or pacified.

The women who’d relentlessly pursued him had always pressed into his arms, argued among their peers over who had the rights to a dance, or schemed throughout their day to bump into him.
Literally.
He’d always seen through their ruse and had grown tired of women—had quite vocally sworn off women—in an attempt to stem the tide. His clansmen had laughed, giving sometimes sarcastic, but mostly empathetic, condolences. The women only persevered, seeing an even greater challenge.

Yet, in a rare moment of serenity during a fierce winter storm in the middle of the forest, one woman who’d nearly run him down now lay peacefully in his arms. Every word she’d spoken, and each action she’d taken, indicated that within his embrace was no place she wanted to be. In the sticky web of sleep, however, her instincts had sought him out, telling him otherwise.

Susanna had no idea, but she’d already become his.

In a twist of fate, a woman who wanted nothing to do with him had suddenly become the only woman in the world who would ever do.

A clear, blue sky opened through the treetops overhead, and birds sang in the new day with joy. He heard his men rustle behind him. A freshened fire crackled, signaling they’d been up a while.

Susanna stirred quietly in his arms. Her eyelids fluttered open.

He gazed down into her widening eyes and slowly grinned.

To his shock, she screamed, nearly piercing his eardrums, and shoved away. Her sudden momentum rolled her several times until she scrambled to her feet, the hem of her dress catching beneath her boots.

The direction of her unexpected flight slammed his heart into his throat as he helplessly watched her stumble toward the ravine. He lunged forward trying to grab her, but she stepped back from him in fear. Loose rocks clattered down into the ravine, punctuating the grave danger.

“Susanna! Stop!”

His panicked shout did enough to broadcast the impending danger to her, and she froze. Her eyes went wide with panic, and her entire body shook on the unstable edge. She turned her head slightly to the side and darted a glance down, her chest heaving.

“Susanna. Doona turn your head. Look at me.”

She slowly turned her head toward him, exactly as he’d instructed.

It took a staggering amount of willpower to remain where he stood, projecting a feeling of calmness that he in no way had. “Good, lass. On your right leg, move all your weight forward. Aye. Lean a little more
...”

He stepped forward when her gaze grew unfocused while she concentrated. If that edge gave way, he would die before he let her go down with it.

With his gaze locked onto those bright blue eyes, he lifted his hands, and she instantly glanced down and grasped them. The moment they touched, he yanked her into his arms at the same time she jumped into them. As she clung to him, more decomposing granite fell loose behind her, clattering against the rock face as the shards bounced into the chasm below.

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms as she trembled. “Shhh
...’tis all right, lass. You’re safe now.”

Suddenly, she gave a hard pound to his chest with her bound fists and jerked backward. “You dinna tell me such a deadly threat was right next to us.” She wrenched out of his embrace and
stomped back toward their camp.

“I dinna think you’d run in the
opposite direction of our horses
!”

Susanna spun around and squared off with him, her entire body rigid. The scowl on her face deepened, her brows drawing lower over her eyes. “Doona think about what I will and will not do. I alone decide my actions.”

Robert laughed and shook his head. She growled and resumed her course—away from him.

He refused to tear his gaze from the intriguing woman; he didn’t want to miss a thing.

Duncan and Seamus watched the exchange with silent interest. She strode between the two men seated on the ground, as if the formidable warriors didn’t exist.

Robert strolled back as Susanna marched straight for the horses. She went right past her mare, and with clumsy determination despite her bound hands, rifled through the satchel on the next horse, which happened to belong to Seamus.

The animal nickered, swinging his head around. Robert stopped his advance and crossed his arms, a slight smile twitching at the corners of his mouth while he witnessed an inevitable scene unfold.

Seamus shot up from the ground and stalked toward her. “Och! Unhand my horse!”

Susanna ignored the warning as if she’d gone deaf in both ears.

Seamus l
aid a hand on hers to stop her.

Robert flinched. He used every tightened muscle in his body to remain where he stood as another man touched her. The sudden possessiveness surprised him.

She turned on Seamus, teeth bared. “
Unhand. Me.
You arrogant men helped yourselves to my food last night. I’m repayin’ the favor.”

From the ground where he still reclined,
Duncan roared in laughter. Robert’s smile grew wider as Seamus’s jaw dropped. Despite the fact that the angered warrior towered over the petite lass, Seamus pulled back and remained a few inches from her, his fists opening and closing in clear frustration while she ransacked his belongings.

Finding no food, Susanna moved on to the next horse,
Duncan’s. Duncan remained on his plaid, an arm over a bent knee, an amused expression on his face. Seamus calmed, his belongings no longer being violated. Robert snorted. The first woman he’d ever had the pleasure to irritate entertained him with each successive move she made.

He crossed his arms and leaned against a tree as she continued on to his horse. He knew what she would find there. After rummaging through his scant belongings, she pulled out an unremarkable, short length of shaved pine and dropped it back in.

“None of you have food?” she whined, turning back toward them.

Duncan
replied, “Aye, lass. ’Tis over here. We broke fast while you slept like a newborn bairn.”

She glared at
Duncan and stormed toward him. He shifted, looking even more relaxed, his arms held together loosely over his bent knees. Large pieces of dried meat and bread lay on the corner of the plaid.

“Whose portion is that?” she asked, nodding toward the food.

Robert answered her. “Yours.” He didn’t add that it was his portion as well. She needed her strength, and he could wait.

She narrowed her eyes, her nostrils flaring. “Aye, by all rights, ’tis mine.”

Robert laughed as she confiscated both of their shares. She whisked her meal over to a sheltered area—as far away from them as possible while still in line of sight—and devoured it.

He and the men broke camp while Susanna wandered out of view behind a thicket. He gave her all the privacy she needed, figuring it was the least he could do in light of ev
erything he couldn’t grant her.

Fifteen minutes later, she returned, stomping into the clearing. Upon seeing her deep scowl as she shook her bound hands high in the air, he had to tap into his discipline as a warrior not to break into a smile or outright laughter. She looked glorious.

He smirked. Apparently, he was unable to contain it all.

She glared at him with the heat of a thousand fires. “You’ve no idea how difficult it is to
...to do
things
tied up like this.”

“I have some idea.”

“Where are your men?” She looked around. “Where’s
my horse
?” she yelled, advancing on him.

“Ahead of us,” he replied, holding back a smile. The more frustrated and angry she became, the more he found that he liked her. And he suspected she would find great displeasure in that fact.

He pulled her cloak from the branch where he’d hung it last night. The material had completely dried and still held warmth from the morning’s fire. He spread his arms wide, holding it open for her.

She cocked her head, waited, and sighed before stepping up to him and turning around. He wrapped the cloak around her shoulders and fastened the ties at her neck. While close to her, a light floral fragrance drifted up that he hadn’t detected before, and he inha
led deeply, drawn to her scent.

With care not to startle her, he gently placed his hands on her shoulders and dropped his head down, resting his lips on the chilled shell of her ear. Her muscles tensed beneath his hands.

“You needn’t be afraid of me, Susanna,” he murmured. “I give you my word, every action I make around you will be for your protection...or pleasure.”

The lass shuddered within his arms, and her head tilted to the side, dropping slightly. She turned and looked up at him, her dark-brown, tousled hair framing a face almost painfully beautiful.

An intensifying blush deepened the pink on her cheeks. “I’ve never known either. You ask me to trust you. When you doona trust me, how can I?” She lowered her gaze to her hands.

Robert looked down between them at the red ribbon binding her wrists. She spoke the truth. After all he’d observed about her since their first explosive encounter, he doubted she would harm him or his men, as long as she didn’t feel threatened by them.

“You’re right, lass.”

He pulled a dagger from the inside of his boot. With precision, he sliced through the fragile fabric, and the long length unfurled, fluttering to the ground on the breeze.

The jerk of the blade pulled her forward, and she fell into him, bracing her weight against his chest. She glanced up, wide-eyed at the sudden contact.