Highland Hellion (Highland Weddings #3)(73)

Katherine was withdrawing from him.

It was like a raw wound that wasn’t healing. One he needed to tend to in private.

She’d be his. He refused to accept anything less.

He just wished he didn’t know firsthand how often life made him take what he didn’t want.





Eight


She needed to ask Marcus to take her home.

Katherine put it off for several more days, coming up with excuses of not wanting to spoil the camaraderie of the trip. People watched them as they passed, the news of four clans riding together making its way ahead of them.

Yes, that was it. She didn’t want to sour everyone’s disposition.

You don’t want to shame Rolfe…

That was also true. Which just made her sigh because she cared for him.

Love, you mean…

Her inner voice was being perverse.

And annoying.

Yet true…

Fine, yes, yes, and yes again. It wasn’t really fair to shame Rolfe by deserting him when he was only expecting what every man wanted from a wife.

“Marcus and Symon will be splitting off tomorrow.”

Rolfe had followed her for a change, placing himself between her and the fire. He offered her a plate with part of a roasted rabbit on it.

“Ye’re to be commended, Kat,” he said after she’d taken it. “I do nae think I’ve ever heard of a woman keeping pace with Highlanders. Yet ye have nae asked for a single break along the road.”

“You know full well that I am trained.” She offered her comment in a soft tone, realizing the time was at hand to broach the topic of leaving him. Her appetite died as she looked at him and searched for words that were not too sharp.

“I do,” he answered before he leaned down and stopped her from setting the plate aside.

She realized he hadn’t touched her in days. She felt it keenly, as if they completed each other in some strange, magical way.

He felt it too. She watched passion flicker in his eyes. “Just as ye know that no one makes ye feel like I do.”

He released her, letting her experience the parting of their flesh. It was acute, sending a little ripple of lament through her.

“I’ve had words with Marcus,” Rolfe informed her softly, but that didn’t keep her from catching the warning in his tone. “Ye will be coming home with me, Kat.”

“No.” She stood up, the plate tumbling out of her lap. “I will not.”

Rolfe stayed exactly where he was. That meant she was only a step from him once she straightened. He took instant advantage of it, hooking his arm around her body and binding her against him.

“Yes.” He captured her nape with his other hand and held her still as his breath hit her lips. “Ye will, Wife.”

She both hated and loved the sound of the word wife. He meant it as more than a legal term. Oh yes, there was a flare of possession in his eyes, right before he pressed his mouth down onto hers.

It had been too long since he’d touched her.

That realization burst on her as he kissed her hard. It was a mark of possession, a declaration of intention, and a warning to her that he wasn’t planning on being defied.

She tried to push him away in response. Oh, it wasn’t that she really thought about it. No, this was impulse, the need to prove her strength to him just as much as he needed to claim her.

His kiss was hard, yet not brutal. She twisted and he followed her, pressing her lips apart as sweet sensation went surging through her, awakening a hundred points on her body that longed for his touch. Yearnings rose up from inside her, demanding satisfaction now that she knew he could wring pleasure from her flesh. Her doubts about their compatibility dissolved as he held her still and kissed her until she ripped her mouth from his to draw in ragged breaths.

She was pressed to him from knees to chest, so aware of his hardness, wanting it inside her.

It frightened her.

She recoiled from him, struggling against him. He let out a snort before releasing her, only to have to grab her by the upper arm when she stepped on the hem of the dress and would have landed on her backside if he hadn’t caught her.

She shook off his hold the moment she had her balance. “I cannot be the wife you desire.”

“And yet desire is drawing us to each other,” he countered.

“We can find it with others, too.” She didn’t care for how hollow that made her feel, as if she were shredding her own heart.

“Ye are mine, Katherine,” he warned her. “Ye wed me of yer own will, and I will nae allow ye to take that back. Ye gave me yer promise, yer solemn vow.”

“Because I thought you accepted me as I was.” She felt as though she was floundering in a pool of water, just trying to stay afloat.

“Ye knew very well me reasons for taking ye back to McTavish land,” he said. “Ye take risks that are selfish, woman, and I will teach ye that lesson. Never will ye place yerself between me and danger.”

“So you would have had me stand idle while Morton held you?”

He nodded firmly.

“You are arrogant beyond compare,” she hissed. “I recall the vows we took as well. Among them was ‘I plight thee my troth.’”

Rolfe made a low sound of warning under his breath. He was fighting to keep his hands off her. She recognized the flash in his eyes and the way his nostrils flared.